As reported by Brand Republic, the European Parliament is urging its member states to address the issue of gender stereotyping.
The move follows a report by the EP's Women's Rights Committee, which suggests that big business exploits gender stereotypes for financial gain.
Video games and digital media are specifically mentioned by Sweden's Eva-Britt Svensson, author of the report. She writes:
The report shows how a stereotyped, sexist, and often degrading image of women is presented by the new electronic media. The report concludes that the majority of video games constitute one more element in the reproduction of discriminatory stereotypes against women that perpetuate and trivialise abuses against their human rights...
GP: From Lara Croft to the controversial Hitman ad pictured at left, such examples are not difficult to find in the video game space.
Comments
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
The European Parliament is nothing but a nanny state who wants to try to solve problems that do not exist. Radical feminism is an outdated belief of the 1970s. It is no longer relevant in today's society. It is based on hatred, lies, false allegations, and forged statistics. Radical feminism is actually about female supremacy under the guise of gender equality. These radical feminists have missed the point about true feminism. They are demanding laws that infringe upon freedom of speech. True feminism is about choice, not female supremacy. True feminism is not about dictating what men can or cannot do, or what people can or cannot say about women or how the media can or cannot portray women. We cannot accept laws that violate the First Amendment, especially regulation of content of video games, such as violence and gender stereotyping.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
What's next, concern over "gender stereotyping" in porn? Enough with the political correctness, it's just disturbing. If vagina'd-Americans (or Europeans or whatever it is they're hyphenating) are disturbed by the portrayal of women in games, then they should start their own game companies and make the kind of games THEY want to see. I'm personally not all that interested in playing games about genius female astrophysisists with body image issues struggling courageously against the insenstive and objectifying glass ceiling of mysogynistic male preconceptions or whatever.
The funny thing is that if you took any of these characters they're complaining about, gave her tiny boobs and bad skin, they'd suddenly be deep and meaningful character studies.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Why don't you like fantasy games?
Anyways they have commercials with naked women in europe... so why is this an issue in hte first place?
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
So strong women that are equal to or better then men being presented in pretty much every game is completly without merit because they wear sexy clothing?
riiiiight.................
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Did anyone actually read the articel? It just said that they were concerned, not that they were passing a law making it mandatory to no have big breasted women in games. So can people stop whining about the evil nanny state? I think it would be cool to have more women that are actually characters instead of just walking boobs. Of course this isn't as fun as complaining about how hard it is to be a man today's society on the internet.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Maybe you missed the point. It's becoming impossible to put a female character in a game and not have it be considered degrading to women by someone. People are making a big fuss over sexism, and asserting motives to the developers. At least ask the developers first! Lara Croft (as the prototypical example) is athletic, intelligent, and educated (note that the last two aren't the same thing). Those are points in her favor. Does having a big chest somehow completely outweigh (ahem) the rest?
I'll grant that the SoulCalibur and DOA girls are extremely fanservicey. So what? First off, they're being shown as being as competent and intelligent as the men. In real life, men's sports and women's sports are separated because of an overarching belief that there's an inequality, even where one doesn't exist. Wrestling, football, swimming - okay, those are extremely physical sports that require a significant muscle mass, and there are differences between the way male and female bodies develop (Gasp! Differences!). But even in sports where the difference is minimal, such as rifle shooting (Olympic sport) or Billiards, the genders are still segregated, for no good reason. Fighting games embrace the idea of gender equality.
Also, as others above have noted, a surprisingly large number of games in their survey were explicitly and expressly pornographic games. Why are these even being considered?
It's possible to make a case for virtually any female character to be depicted as sexist*. At some point, you just have to roll your eyes and tell these people, "Shut the hell up, you're grasping at straws."
* Case in point: Cammy White from Street Fighter. Tough-as-nails commando, clearly intelligent, even has a relatively small chest (at least, officially) - what could be sexist about that? Well, first, let's talk about going into combat wearing little more than a skin-tight leotard and a beret. Second, she was brainwashed by M. Bison / Vega (depending on which version of the game you've played), so clearly she's being depicted as a victim of male dominance... I could go on, but I think I've made my point. People who are looking for stereotypes will see them everywhere.
hmm...
I agree that there are a lot of stereotypes in gaming, although they exist in other forms of media as well. I don't see how the Laura Croft character is sexist or stereotypical though. Yes, she has huge boobs, but some women actually do have those (I know, how hard to believe!).
Also, it makes sense for many characters (male and female) in gaming to have a lean build as most of them are the adventurer types. Apparently though, you can't portray women as large either (Fat Princess...), so either way, you're kinda fucked when it comes to the downright whiney false feminist types.
I wonder though, what would these people say if men gathered round and decided that portrayals of men in gaming were stereotypical and sexist...
-Remember kids, personal responsibility is for losers! For information on games and psychology, look up: Jonathan Freedman(2002)Block & Crain(2007) Just to name a few...
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
This is the full quote:
" Draws attention to the report entitled “Con la violencia hacia las mujeres no se juega” ('Violence against women is no game'), published in 2004 by Amnesty International in Spain(5). The report shows how a stereotyped, sexist, and often degrading image of women is presented by the new electronic media. The report concludes that the majority of video games constitute one more element in the reproduction of discriminatory stereotypes against women that perpetuate and trivialise abuses against their human rights;"
First, I have not read the report (it is in spanish), but I don't know how in the world the made this conclusion. Have these people not played any Nancy Drew adventure games? or any of the Broken Sword games or the first Runaway game or Syberia, The Longest Journey or other adventure games. Apparently not. In the Monkey Island games it is Elaine who clearly wears the pants.
The only games in which I can see women portrayed in the way the report is taking about is in some rpg games and in some fps (shooter) games. However, if they had taken the trouble of playing the games made by the Infinity Engine (Baldur's Gate, PS: Torment etc) and some other games like Arcanum, Fallout and Bloodlines they would have seen that playing a women in these games made you as strong and powerfull as the men in the game. In Baldur's Gate, there are 'strumpets' (whores and prostitutes) going around in the streets at night. I have no problem with this since this just adds to the believability of the game.
I do not have a problem with Lara Croft being as big breasted as she is. She is a woman after all. And she can hold her own as much as any guy can. She also needs to work out to be fit so she can swing, jump, climb, swim and dive while she unbcovers yet another mysterious artefact.
On a more general note, I don't see any women complaining (not the Swede mentioned here either) about the male sterotyping done in games or in movies.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
I can read/speak Spanish. Skimming over the article, it says at the beginning that videogames form stereotypes and roles that discriminate against women, usually putting them in a passive role or victimizing them, while becoming the objects of aggressors, torture and raping at the mercy of the game player.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't a seedy violent pervert as bad a portrayal of a male as it is for a woman to be portrayed as a helpless rape victim?
Moving on, they sampled some videogames.
GTA San Andreas: The women prostitutes of the game become objects of aggression and murder. After the player gets his "benefits" from being with the prostitute, the player can get the liberty of shooting them.
Well, no one should deserve a murder anyways. Prostitution is also a dangerous job. Why not talk about how wrong it is to shoot the passers-by that have no business with you?
Benki Kuosuko: A game in which a Japanese woman, muzzled and crazy, is found tied to a chair with legs opened and practiclally nude. As the player you basically insert many objects into the woman's vag.
Out of all games to criticize this is not a fair sample because it is not mainstream and outside of the realm of many peoples' tastes. Sounds like they don't know that a whole lot of Japanese H-games exist and therefore see this as a one-off shocker game which hasn't been paralleled.
Sociolotron: Multiplayer game that includes in its gameplay the raping and enslaving/bondage of women with the consequences of pregnancy and STDs.
Neverland: The player takes on the role of Michael Jackson armed with a shotgun [wtf] with the intention of hunting down/rounding up kids to put in his ranch.
What's up with looking up obscure porno games? They sound very indie-made. Especially Neverland, which I bet violates the protection and likeness of a person. No way would MJ endorce the licensing of this game.
These are just a handful of the video game that were evaluated, and the only ones listed here were the published examples.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
How much you want to bet that at least halt those obscure games are either region locked to Japan or online games. In any case I doubt very much that you're average European has heard of these games or has conveneint acsses to them
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Here's some more of it. It just goes on to talk about government regulations. Remember these are not Google translations, but my own summary of it.
In the state, the only way to protect minors in the video game market is by autonomous districts. However, most of the districts do not recognize/practice the enforcement in these contexts.
Amnesty put forth the following measures:
The government needs to legislate and enforce human rights, in this case of women, according to CEDAW conventions, and protect minors from accessing video games that may promote the infringement of these human rights.
Autonomous districts should follow the legislations in including arcades and recreational facilities, and prohibit the use of games that portray images violating these human rights.
The makers of the video games should comply with the standards and codes of regulating themselves in regards to correctly classify content appropriate for each age group.
Here, the point is they justified their whistleblower status by using some of the most obscure, graphic games on the free market. And it's also preaching to the choir since major game developers are too smart to risk their reputation making games with tentacle-rape or pedophilic plots.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Ugh, thats like watching a couple porno flicks and saying they represent the way the movie industry portrays women. The stupid thing is they look for these obscur games to support their cause but don't look at more mainstream games that totally discount their theory.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Suggesting there some kind of bias in the way a majority of women are portrayed in games is offensive when the gender of the main character can often be choosen.
.
(If the industry (gaming) wants a hand up and a step above the ordinary).
A truth is the media chases a pedophilic image of women because after 20, it's down hill for most as far as appearances go. This is offensive to publicly say but is ok to publicly perpetuate. Demographically representative in games is easy. First and foremost is content, content, content.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
The game industry is male-dominated, even in the more artistic jobs such as concept drawing. They tend to make characters that also appeal to them as well as their audience.
But sometimes the trend is reversed, because Nariko from Heavenly Sword, a wet dream for some nerds and possible counterpart to Kratos from God of War, was designed by a woman. How about that?
I don't see how any game/movie/TV show is explicitly declaring "this is the staple male/female" in their characters. Fanservice does not imply that all women should be seen as provocative sex objects. ONLY THE FANSERVICE CHARACTERS IN QUESTION. And sometimes it's for both sexes.
As an example, Soul Calibur 4 really toned up the boobs in some females. But it's not just the men that benefit. There's fanservice for women as well. Many of the guys in the game are clean shaven and young-looking.
But I think portrayal of men just have more leeway since men don't get in a fit as much as women do on fictional characters that don't relate do them. Men don't cry out "We're not all fat idiots and muscleheads" at sitcoms. But so-called "feminists" are more like pessimists and have a knack of attacking innocent material. Whether it's Tomb Raider or Fat Princess, they had a go at it.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
" because Nariko from Heavenly Sword, a wet dream for some nerds and possible counterpart to Kratos from God of War, was designed by a woman. How about that?"
Interesting, Jaffe said that when he made Kratos and his previous creation Sweet Tooth he subconciously added elements of himself into both of them which is why their character shares some similarities. Perhaps it was the same with this chick.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
As a 26-year-old male gamer, why is it that I don't feel particularly offended about the male stereotyping in games?
Well, I guess if a female gamer had a crush on the stereotypical tall, muscular, brave and gallant male game character and expected the same of IRL men, I'd probably shrug and shake my head at her for being, y'know, stupid...
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
I, for one, am very offended by the unrealistic portrayal of males in Final Fantasy games. They are pretty, much more pretty than any (non-japanese) man has ever been. EVER.
In conclusion, we should ban video games. ALL OF THEM.
Gamers should also be sent to some of our patented "re-education camps"
Of course, by "re-education", I mean "castration and a lobotomy"
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Clever name... really... but I know you aren't Wacky Jacky, you are actually coherent.
I do agree though that most Japanese games have male characters who are very feminine looking. I've come to the conclusion that they is cross pollination between Yaoi and the whole of Japanese society, as it's seen in everything from games, manga, anime and everyday society. It's their culture though, and we have no right to force them to change it.
"The Good, the Bad, and Videogame"
Reviews on the best, worst, and controversial issues of Videogames.
gryphonosiris.blogspot.com/
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
well this is just sad. come on there is always stong women in games, movies, books. The problem is that groups like this look for the stuff that will get them on tv or a news page. I think most of the stong women in all fourms of media get overshadow by these little incendents. So while most of us who do play videos games know better they just find one thing and go on it not even looking at the other types of girl charcters.
Zaruka
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Why does no one ever seem to care about or notice the rampant male stereotyping in video games?
Andrew Eisen
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Err because men don't complain about it?
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Does this mean European parliament is finally pro-Transvestite?
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
I don't even know where to begin - nothing I've read in the media has enraged me so much as to actually comment about it before! Please bear with my inarticulate ramble.
I am a woman - I'm 23 years old and I love gaming. Oh yes, and I'm from Europe too. A lot of my friends are "girl-gamers" too (and we don't just play WoW, before anyone comments, we play real games too :P) - and not one of us finds the portrayal of women in games offensive. In fact, most girls who you talk to, and who have actually tried a game other than Wii fit or Dance Dance Revolution, will agree with me.
Women are, on the whole, a minority group within the gaming culture, and as with any media, games designers have to market things for the majority. The majority of gamers are men, men like boobies, ergo designers give women in games large breasts. Frankly, I think men should be offended that they're given so little credit - I wouldn't ever buy a game based on the bulge in the main character's pants and I don't think that any man buys a game according to how a women looks in it.
These so-called "Feminists" have clearly missed the point of feminism. It's not about dictating to others what they can and can not say about women. It's about choice. If these images offend these women then they can choose to look away and leave the rest of us to enjoy our hobby without the creative content being infringed upon.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
"Frankly, I think men should be offended that they're given so little credit."
Yeah we don't care about the size of their busts all we care about is the amount of blood that sprays from them right guys...
On a serious note do tell me what you think the point of feminism is as I have gotten probably around 20 or so contradicting opinions on what exactly it is.
Here's my opinion on how to be a feminist based on the stuff I heard from people claiming to be feminists.
Step 1: Draw a political position out of a hat
Step 2: Find a way to connect that issue with women (discard the issue and repeat step one if you cannot).
Step 3: Devise an argument that claims your position will somehow help women.
Step 4: Repeat Steps 1-3 two or three more times making sure the positions you pick do not contradict each other.
Congratulations you're a feminist or at least a new branch of feminist views. Now strut up and down claiming to be real feminists and claim that other women who disagree with you are female chauvinist pigs or something to that effect (sad to say I didn't invent female chauvinist pigs, it came from a particular 'femi' website that I can't remember (or care to)). Also remember to claim that other 'imposter feminist' sites make you look bad and hurt women and that men who disagree, do so purely for selfish sexist reasons.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
If you look at the original feminist movement you find that the women who took part in it didn't just try and forward the cause of women, they also fought to get the vote for the working man, who, until that time was banned from the ballot boxes (so was the case in Britain, anyways). It was about the choice and equality of all citizens. These women today, who call themselves feminists don't seem to want that anymore - if they did they'd be off in Asia and Africa fighting against child labour - they seem to want female supremecy since there's bugger-all else to fight about in Europe. The way things are at the moment are pretty much geared in favour of women anyway - they get paid leave after childbirth, their husbands come home after working full time and are expected to do their "fair share" of childcare and housework and rarely, if ever get paternity leave... now, I don't know about anyone else but that sounds a little one-sided to me (not to belittle stay-at-home Mum's - they do work really hard). These modern "feminists" don't care that, as a lot of people on this forum have pointed out, men are unfairly portrayed, or that (and I didn't know this) some women have designed these apparently "degrading" characters.
I admit that in some instances, women in Europe are still being unfairly treated - particularly in Eastern Countries (And please don't think I'm pointing my finger and saying, "Your countries suck!" because I'm really not - I haven't experienced this first hand but a couple of friends of mine from Poland have told me some pretty interesting stories!) but if this new wave of feminists want to make a difference in the lives of people who need it then they should stop fighting irrelevant issues like this one and actually concentrate on real problems that endanger lives such as domestic abuse, prostitution and rape. How on earth do they expect to be taken seriously in these situations when they kick up a fuss about nothing?
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
On a semi-related note, how do you feel about the movement to legalize prostitution?
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
I'm for the legalisation - taxing the income would mean good revenue and if prostitution was made legal then the girls involved would be given a far greater degree of rights and some police protection.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Girl gamers...on the interwebs?
Shenanigans! SHENANIGANS!!!
BTW....please post any pics, videos, email addresses and phone numbers of yourself and/or girl gamer friends...
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
What, having a pillow fight in our underwear with Mario Kart in the background? :P
I'll mention that to the ladies next Ann Summers slumber party I have! J/K
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
You tease you.
But seriously, I'm happy you posted your thoughts on this forum.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Yeah, you have to watch out for Fran, she can be wicked evil sometimes. I think that maybe it was a bad idea to introduce her to this site,
"The Good, the Bad, and Videogame"
Reviews on the best, worst, and controversial issues of Videogames.
gryphonosiris.blogspot.com/
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
I say, we need more women on this site!!
This forum/blog has been too much of a sausage fest recently
Yes...more women with pics....
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
i love you.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Heh - maybe I should post stuff more often if this is the response I get :P
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
You've opened Pandora's Box Fran, ;-). Just watch out for the Thompson Troll that crawls out from under the bridge once and awhile.
"The Good, the Bad, and Videogame"
Reviews on the best, worst, and controversial issues of Videogames.
gryphonosiris.blogspot.com/
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Of course the European Parliament is right, we can't wait to play feminist games.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
if gamemakers stop using women in games will they be happy?
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
If you don't use women, you're not fairly representing everyone.
If you use realistic women, you're making them too boring.
If you stylize or idealize women in any way, you're encouraging negative stereotypes or promoting unrealistic images of beauty that are impossible to emulate.
If you show any women as having anything wrong with her as far as character flaws, overweight/underweight, drug use, etc. you're a sexist pig.
This is one of those "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situations, as the people that make these claims often make their whole career consist of being offended.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
I've never heard anyone complain that a realistic woman in particular was too boring.
Althoguh I can see that happening not from feminists but from critics (same with a realistic male).
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
How odd for Europe to care so much about human dignity to defend women against false stereotypes, yet care so little about humanity itself that they would propose states take action against the creation of certain kinds of expressive works. I guess the United States isn't the world's only government with an undeserved hard-on over its superior attitudes toward human rights.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Perhaps they want a Janet Reno game.... ::::shudders::::
"The Good, the Bad, and Videogame"
Reviews on the best, worst, and controversial issues of Videogames.
gryphonosiris.blogspot.com/
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Apologies, that was meant to read ‘Can any of you name more then three lead female protagonists in computer games, excluding Lara Croft, that are in any way positive role models for women?’ I got a bit lost in the edit there, so I made myself look like a bit of an idiot (and, ironically, like I had never played a computer game before).
There are examples, like the guy who posted the list and proved me wrong said, but wouldn’t you agree they tend to be in the minority? That was the point I was trying to make, even if I garbled it up quite a bit.
To the guy comparing me to j**k t******n: Please don’t. I love computer games, like gamers, aren’t religious, know nothing about law and like to think I don’t sound like a baying retard. I’m not trying to criticise games purely, as I said movies and books do it as bad, and I’m not saying women are victims, God, men are badly stereotyped in these things as well. I’m just pointing out that these people have raised an issue that many seem to want to ignore and pigeonhole as anti games, or ‘nanny state’, which it’s not.
Another thing: My grammar sucks. If sixteen years of education couldn’t cure this, then there’s no way some sarcy comment on a message board is going to.
Oh, and on the last sentence that should have read ‘Your expert use of grammar (you used an adjective when the noun form was needed, I think) doesn't help much either. But I’m not very good at using grammar myself, so I might be wrong.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
*ahem* Alyx vance anyone?
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Modestly dressed, realisticly proportioned, super cute (as far as video game characters go), intelligent, capable of defending herself... She's the anti-stereotype.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
They'll probably say she is because Alex doesn't wear birkenstock and wasn't beaten by the ugly tree.
"The Good, the Bad, and Videogame"
Reviews on the best, worst, and controversial issues of Videogames.
gryphonosiris.blogspot.com/
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
I guess, emancipation has come pretty far, if women's rights committees have nothing better to complain about. Speaking of trivialisation of the real problems...
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Have you seen the newest 2 Lara Croft games? She dropped from a WTF size to a humanly possible and easily expectable size. They just wanted to prove that women could be main characters at the point in time Tomb Raider 1 came out.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
You sir, need to get a grip. Your comment sounds like something good ol' Jack Thompson would write. First off, you're using one protagonist that has been around since the 90's, and the fact that you insult us at the end of it doesn't bode well for you either. Your expert grammatical doesn't help much either. Seriously, get a grip and read the comment above this one.
Re: European Parliament Concerned About Gender Stereotyping in
Samus Aran from Metroid, Kate Archer from No One Lives Forever series, Joanna Dark from Perfect Dark, Terra/Tina and Celes from Final Fantasty VI, Quistis Trepe from Final Fantasty VIII, Bastila Shan from Knights of the Old Republic, Alyx Vance from Half Life 2, Sophia Hapgood (Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis), Claire Redfield from Resident Evil II and Code Veronica, Jade from Beyond Good And Evil, April Ryan from The Longest Journey etc etc....
There are some good examples.
==============
James Fletcher, member of ECA Canada