Sexism in Video Games and Comic Books

We all know that there is sexism in video games and comic books. Anyone who thinks they can deny this is either blind, delusional, or really dumb. (Or a man.)

The obvious reason behind the sexism is that video games and comic books were originally meant to appeal to men. It makes sense that guy things that guys like would be in video games and comic books. It also makes sense that women are poorly represented physically. The portrayal of women in vids and comics has always catered to male sexual fantasies because, well, it's "for men"!

However, video games and comic books have spread across all genders. Sexism is still a thing because the people who design these video games and comic books just don't see how what they're doing is sexist. They blatantly deny it, even. It doesn't help that the majority of comic book artist are plain stubborn and refuse to alter their "style".

Let me just say this about "style". I'm an artist. I draw things. I have a style. But my drawings are still anatomically correct. You can't completely ignore anatomy for the sake of style. Also, when someone criticizes your work, you're supposed to listen to their suggestions, especially when people think your drawings are completely inaccurate in an offensive way. 11-year-olds on DeviantArt are better at accepting criticism than comic book artists!

I don't even

And that's what I think about style. Since I've already started on drawing style, I'll just move on to comic books in general, and the female heroins involved. Not only are many of the poses women are drawn in unrealistic and utterly agonizing just to look at, some of the characters designs are just. Yes, it's so bad that I can't finish my sentence.

Okay. Here's a makeshift female comic book character design drinking game:

• Cleavage window: take a shot
• Midriff exposed: take a shot
• Sides exposed: take a shot
• No cover on legs whatsoever: take two shots
• Long hair: take a shot
• Absurdly large boobs: take a shot
• Absurdly large butt: take a shot
• Body type that doesn't match chest and butt size: take two shots

You'd be in the hospital after flipping through one comic book, particularly one with female superheroes. Don't actually do this, you might die. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that female comic book characters tend to hyper-sexualized for the sake of it and they're designs come out impractical.

Really.

A movement against this appeared on the internet a while ago. It's called the Hawkeye Initiative. I highly suggest you click that link. You will find some funny stuff! But if you don't really feel like it, the Hawkeye Initiative takes ridiculous poses and draws Hawkeye doing the same thing. If you haven't seen The Avengers, Hawkeye is a male superhero. So it's basically drawing a male superhero the same way a female superhero/villain in a comic book would be drawn. This is to point out how ridiculous it is.

That's Hawkeye on the far left there

And here's an article with more examples of ridiculous female superhero poses. Whether you read comic books or not, the sexism is still pretty gross. There are comic books out there that actually represent women in a realistic and practical way, but they don't happen to get much mainstream success, which is very unfortunate.

And now for video games. Pretty much the same thing: designs that hyper-sexualize female characters just for the sake of it. They will sexualize anything that happens to be female. Even a damn circle!

Yes, they did that. That actually happened. And it doesn't stop there. People will also try to decide what video games are appropriate for what gender. "Girl" games are typically anything that involves pink, princesses, simulations, fashion games, you know, flaky girly nonsense. "Boy" games are typically anything that involves adventure, war, shooting, horror/sci-fi/fantasy themes, you know, cool and interesting stuff. The games that are actually fun and worth playing (IMO)!

Why is it assumed that girls don't like anything that isn't "girly"? Now, girls liking girly things isn't the problem. It's forcing femininity on girls, saying that they can only be interested in feminine things, that's the problem. I've seen parents that just won't let their children get a certain game because it's not a "girl" game or a "boy" game. Because you can assign genders to video games apparently.

Do I need to go into great depth about how some female characters in video games have totally unrealistic designs? As in absurdly voluptuous with impractical clothing? There are some video games I've seen where the female protagonist was obviously designed and made for men. Tomb Raider and Haunting Grounds, for instance. I've noticed a steady decline in this, though, so I won't dwell on it.

I think this post is ready for a closing. Eh, I've made my point. Have fun looking around for pictures of real people trying to do comic book poses!

- Carli_V