The Problem of Oversexualize Woman in Video Games

For many years video games of been a way to entertain one’s self by relaxing and just having fun, but many other people see the opposite, they say that video games oversexualize females and, that the violence is extreme and can make a child violent. Video games tend to appeal to people so they can sell more games, so they would try anything to sell more copies of the game to gain more money and traction, and the easier way to do it is by appealing to the male or female mind by added almost nude females in the cover of the game, or in the game in which you play, but the oversexualizing of the female character does not only affect a males person mind, but it also affects a female also by having an unreachable standard of beauty.

Video games can change how a person feels, As stated by Paige she says, “A recent study published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine found that men who play video games for an hour a day reported fewer instances of premature ejaculation.

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But before you rev up the console and strap on your headset in the name of your libido, there’s — of course — a caveat. (You didn’t think it would be that simple, did you?) The study also found that gamers reported lower levels of sexual satisfaction and that one explanation for lower rates of premature ejaculation could be due to gaming’s ability to alter the brain’s reward system.

” (Paige Brettingen). The study shows that video games lowered the overall sexual satisfaction that could be contributed due to a video game. Video games release high levels of dopamine which is also released during sexual pleasure, which can possibly lower a person's sex drive.

Female gamers who play games that hyper-sexualize female characters also have an effect on the mind. A Stanford study revealed that “ over-sexualization of women has a negative impact on the female psyche: one experiment asked women to try on either a bikini or a sweater; those who tried on a bikini reported feeling shame about their bodies and performed more poorly on a math test than their sweater-wearing counterparts. And studies have shown that sexualization of women in the media can negatively impact young girls’ body image. It’s for that very reason that moms worry about their daughters watching the Video Music Awards”( Eliana Dockterman). Video games can make a female feel ashamed of their body because they can't be like the video game counterpart, they feel that if they can't look beautiful l like their in-game character, then they look ugly or fat. Also found is, “playing Lara Croft — the wasp-waisted, impossibly large-breasted protagonist in the Tomb Raider video-game series who fights bad guys in an ever-so-practical tight tank top and short shorts — might be worse than watching Miley Cyrus twerking in a bikini. Researchers have demonstrated that embodying characters in virtual worlds has a stronger effect on gamers than just passively watching a character; gameplay can influence off-line beliefs, attitudes, and action thanks to a phenomenon called the Proteus effect in which an individual’s behavior conforms to their digital identity”(Eliana Dockterman). For example, a female character which is depicted with a small waist big breast, and perfect face is played by a female gamer, they can think that because they don't look the same as the character, that means they are ugly or fat. It sets an unreachable standard for the females by oversexualizing the video game characters.

Female characters also affect male players as well. They play these characters and see these females looking how they do in the video games, and they expect other females to match the character or look like them. They want another woman to look perfect, with a small waist and big breast, and it can make a female feel insecure. Games like Grand theft auto, Dead or Alive, is just the beginning to the huge amount of games that abuse the fact that oversexualized games have a higher chance to sell better, ”Because developers don't try to move outside of this narrow demographic, most people don't take video games seriously. In terms of the ongoing 'games as art' debate, such practices tarnish the medium. A story isn't worthy of consideration if its creators use flashy window dressing to disguise poor writing.’(Bitmob)Instead of the developer focusing on the gameplay, they might just add some oversexualized character just so they can have the person playing to throw more money to see more stuff like that. “The gaming industry has faced a lot of scrutinies,” Teresa Lynch, media communications researcher at Indiana University, said. “It’s realizing it’s marginalizing half its audience [by] making women characters pander to the male gaze.” (Teresa Lynch). The developers cater to the men by making the female's skin-tight clothing that appeals to the male's fantasy. ‘These depictions could be cutting into industry profits. 47 percent of gamers are reportedly female, but they tend to avoid games that feature overly sexualized female characters.”(Joe Otterson). Many female gamers find it objectifying, and it may just turn some of the female gamers away from gaming in general.

Lora Croft is the main character of a game called tomb raider, and she is a great example of the hypersexualization, ‘In addition, it found that hypersexualization of female characters has declined since 1995, but women in games are still objectified more than male characters and are often seen as secondary characters.

The study specifically cites Lara Croft, who started off as a very busty woman wearing short shorts. However, the character has been updated in recent years with Croft now wearing pants and having a more realistic figure.”(Joe Otterson). Over the course of many years, her body type has changed quite a bit, she started with a very small waist big breast female, but slowly she started to represent a more possible/realistic body type.

The gaming industry has many problems still to this day, and many people try to change it to better all the gamers as a whole. Video games want to make money, and some games do it by objectifying females with no purpose other to sell better and appeal to the male fantasy. Games like that can affect males and females alike by showing an unrealistic standard that would be impossible to achieve normally by any means necessary. Although that is the case, some games have tried to make it more realistic without objectifying the female characters, there are games that still do it for money.