Sexism and Videogames

Most of the (predominantly male) commenters on here should feel a little ashamed. I see this time and time and again; the labelling of “feminist nazis”, the complete disregarding of arguments. Time and time again it is ALWAYS the men who have a problem with arguments that videogames are too sexist.

Does that not suggest, actually, that we do have a huge problem with gender in video games?

Probably my only qualm is the polarising nature and occasional dig at males can put me off supporting what is being done and trying to prove not all men believe in the objectification of women.

But where do we go from here? It can be so difficult to navigate the tides of what I find acceptable. For example, I find the humour/violence of GTA5 acceptable. Not because of how it degrades women, but because of how it is a caricature of American society. A GTA game that tried to be politically correct (and to all members of society) just wouldn’t work, as its entire basis is the underworld. In contrast, I strongly dislike Saint’s Row; its purpose really is purely to out-do anything else, in my opinion quite poorly.

Then you get a game like the upcoming Metal Gear Solid 5 (which, I confess, I am virtually a fanboy of). There is a character that goes by the name of Quiet who, in my opinion, sets this otherwise ground-breaking series back a decade at least wearing virtually nothing. Despite how much I love this series, and despite there being rather questionable content in the past of this series, it is at the point I am finding it out of place in the increasingly mature video game market. However, there are rumours that she may actually be a transgender character who suffered a trauma in a previous game. I really hope this is the case; as my heart would shift to disappointment to being very supporting of this character, as it would turn all our expectations on their heads.

How do we move on from here? Although it is hard to police game content in this regard really besides the classification system we already have, maybe we should head towards punishing those who think it’s acceptable to harass, intimidate and threaten women in video games? We’re also seeing a change of the tide with Twitter prosecutions against men who make these disgusting threats.

On behalf of all men, I apologise.