Over the past 30 years, video games have become an important medium of narrative storytelling. They are unique from movies and books in that they allow the players to take an active role in the narrative. Nowadays, women are playing video games in “greater numbers” (Behm and Mastro 808). Despite this, video games still have a great lack of female characters, and many female characters tend to be hyper-sexualized. Video game producers should produce more video games with strong female protagonists in order to portray women in a positive light and to entice more women to give gaming a try.

Female characters in video games throughout the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s often played inferior roles to their male counterparts. An article called Sexy, Strong, and Secondary: A Content Analysis of Female Characters in Video Games Across 31 Years states that, “Only a small number of female characters appeared in 1980s video games and these characters primarily assumed gender-serotyped roles” (Lynch et al. 567). A few notable examples of female characters in gender-serotyped roles in the 1980s comes from Sharon Sherman in her article Perils of the Princess: Gender and Genre in Video Games.  For one, Sherman mentions how in Super Mario Brothers, “Mario and his brother Luigi (…) journey to save a princess” (246). For two, Sherman also mentions how “in the Original Donkey Kong Mario must save a girl named Pauline amidst construction gliders, ladders, and elevators” (246). The article Big Breasts and Bad Guys: Depiction of Gender and Race in Video Games further explains the role of princess/damsel in distress by describing her character as being “helpless, incapable of violence, and often wearing tightly fitting or otherwise revealing  clothing that fails to contain her impossibly  proportioned body,” (Dickerman et al. 22). Female characters do not commonly appear in video games of this era, and when they do they have roles that hold little significance. 

In addition to having inferior roles when compared to the male characters, female video game characters throughout the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s were often very sexualized. A study done in 2002 by Berrin Beasley and Tracy Collins Standley examines the amount and type of clothing that various video game characters wear as an indicator of gender role stereotyping. In their study, they examine 48 various video games from the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 consoles. They conclude that, “The majority of female characters are dressed in such as way to bring attention to their bodies, particularly their breasts, which carry strong sexual meaning for the young boys who predominantly play these games” (289). Even though “games aimed at children are less likely to sexualize female characters” (Near 254), Princess Peach from the Mario series of games on the Nintendo 64 looks similar to a thin-waisted, large-busted Barbie doll.

One of the highlights of this time period in gaming is the introduction of the Tomb Raider series, which has a playable female protagonist named Lara Croft. Many people argue that Lara Croft, is the ideal female video game protagonist. She is the central character, she is very active,  and her video game series is a success. In fact, Lara Croft is such an icon of video gaming that in 2018 she will have a second movie made about her. However, upon further examination, one can see that Lara Croft is very far from being the ideal female video-game protagonist. An article called Characterization of Female Protagonists in Video Games: A Focus on Lara Croft does a very thorough job pointing out the many aspects of Lara Croft’s character that hold her back from being an ideal protagonist. It states that, “Following the initial appearance of Lara Croft and public acclaim of the character, some scholars criticized her as a simplistic sex symbol. The bearer of an exaggerated body size, Lara Croft is presented in a manner that explicitly emphasizes her sexual physicality” (Hye-Won et al. 35). This sexualization makes her comparable to many of the other female video game characters of the 1980s- early 2000s, such as Princess Peach. While her being a playable female protagonist helps her to stand out, the sexualization of her character keeps her from achieving ideal female video game protagonist status.  

Today, the trend of female characters having inferior roles when compared to their male counterparts continues to exist. The two biggest games released by Nintendo this year, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, have male protagonists, Link and Mario respectively, each journeying to save their damsel in distress. Even Lara Croft, who is the protagonist of the 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider, has her role diminished when “despite the fact that she is smart and strong enough to solve all the puzzles and rescue many crews in the game play by herself, she cries: ‘I’m here’ in an isolated island and requires a man to rescue her” (Hye-Won et al. 40). If game developers want their games to appeal to a wide audience, they may want to consider giving female characters bigger roles to attract more female customers to gaming. 

However, while the before mentioned title, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, puts it’s princess, Zelda, in a waiting-to-be-rescued role, she does have amazing and empowering moments within the storyline of the game. It is revealed through cut scenes, not actual gameplay, that Zelda is a strong leader. One hundred years ago she organized an effort to stop the rise of Calamity Gannon by resurrecting ancient technology and appointing champions to help defend her kingdom of Hyrule from it’s impending doom. However, when her plan fails in ways she could not imagine, it is she who saves the protagonist of the game, Link, by taking him to the Shrine of Resurrection. She then goes to fight Calamity Gannon all by herself, and ends up getting caught in this fight for the next 100 years. After 100 years she remotely resurrects Link to come free her of her engagement in the 100 year battle. This is where the game, in which you play exclusively as Link, starts. In the end it is Zelda who ultimately defeats Calamity Gannon and restores her kingdom to its former glory. Imagine what a great example of a female video game protagonist Zelda would have been if she wouldn’t have required Link’s help to save herself/defeat Gannon. She could have been a protagonist who tried her best, failed, rose again, and eventually triumphed. If the game would have been about Zelda and removed Link from the position of hero, Zelda may have given Lara Croft a run for her money. She could have been a great example of what a female video game protagonist should be. Instead, she was given the role of damsel in distress, and Link was given the role of hero as he raced against time to come to the aid of Princess Zelda.

In addition to female characters still having lesser roles than their male counterparts, many sources agree that female characters in video games still have very sexualized appearances. In A Content Analysis of Female Body Imagery in Video Games ,published in 2009, looks at the measurements of female video game characters of the 150 top-selling video games. They determine that “female video game characters at the highest level of photorealism and in games related for children feature thinner female characters,” (Martins et al. 824). They continue to conclude that “less realistic games and games rated of adults feature larger female characters in general” (Martins et al. 824). Sexualizing female characters can make women think negatively about themselves, especially when the sexualized character is playable. In the study The Effects of Sexualization of Female Video Game Characters on Gender Stereotyping and Female Self Concept Elizabeth Behm-Morawitz and Dana Mastro discuss the results of a study in which they had people play with a sexualized female video game character and then play with a non sexualized female characters. This was do to see if the sexualization of the character influenced people’s thoughts on women. They concluded that, “playing a sexualized female video game character negatively affected feelings of self-efficacy in women, compared to playing no video game character.” While this shows that it is not a good idea to have an over sexualized playable  female character, it might be even worse to have an over sexualized secondary female character. As Sexy, Strong, and Secondary points out, “The sexualization of non primary characters underscores their secondary role by reducing their importance to their physical appearance,” (Lynch et al. 577). While it is obvious that having sexualized female characters is bad, many games continue to include these types of characters. 

However, there may be an economical reason as to why there is a lack of not sexualized female video game protagonists. A study was done by Christopher Near in which he examined the box art of various video games to determine in the presence of female characters had an effect on sales. In this study he states that “sales were positively related to sexualization of non-central female characters” (252). He further concludes that “findings suggest there is an economic movie of the marginalization and sexualization of women in video games box art” (252). While an economical motive is a good explanation for this trend, the number of female gamers has continued to rise. An article called The Effects of Sexualization of Female Video Game Characters on Gender Stereotyping and Female Self Concept reinforces this when they state that, “women and adults are playing video games in greater numbers,” (Behm-Morawitz and Mastro 808). It continues to say how “an industry survey indicates that 40% of all game players in the U.S. are female,” (Behm-Morawitz and Mastro 808). Since female involvement in gaming is increasing, it would only make sense for game developers to develop more games with strong female protagonists. If game developers create “female characters who are strong, capable, and attractive without overt sexualization may be an important factor for encouraging women to become interested in gaming,” (Lynch et al. 580). By making more games that appeal to women, game developers could expand their customer base, which could eventually earn them more profits. 

Video game developers should develop more strong female protagonists that are not sexualized. By doing this they could increase their customers base, all while getting more women involved in game and promoting a more positive women. Also, if there was a wider range of people interested in gaming (men and women), the stereotypical image of a gamer being an “‘isolated, pale-skinned teenage boy [sitting] on a sofa in some dark basement space, obsessively pressing buttons”’(Paaßen et al. 421) would change.  In addition, having more female protagonists could allow for more originality in the storyline of the game, since the typical damsel in distress plot would no longer be applicable. If video game developers created more games with good female protagonists, they could change the image of who a gamer is and promote positive messages about women.
