A new study titled “Examining How Sex Appeal Cues and Strength Cues Influence Impressions of Female Video Game Characters” was recently published which sought to examine how men and women reacted to sexualization in video games.
The experiment was set up using custom characters in SOULCALIBUR VI, with multiple characters being created to represent sexualization and strength in varying degrees. In this case, four characters were made to represent:
- High Sexualization and High Strength
- High Sexualization and Low Strength
- Low Sexualization and High Strength
- Low Sexualization and Low Strength
(Un)surprisingly, while women stated that they disliked characters who were “highly sexualized“, women would choose to play them when given an opportunity. Meanwhile male players chose female characters who looked strong.
When speaking with PsyPost, researcher Teresa Lynch shared her thoughts on the premise of her experiment.
“Sexism pervades gaming. For example, game content overwhelmingly features male characters to the exclusion of central female or gender minoritized characters. Games that do feature female or gender minoritized characters often unfavorably stereotype and objectify these groups. In online gaming experiences, men and boys target women, girls, and gender minoritized individuals with sexist and harassing communication.”
She went to express surprise at the results of her first experiment in a series of two, where men and women were asked to offer their opinions on the aforementioned character archetypes. Women surprisingly expressed dislike, but also preferred sexualized characters.
“I wasn’t surprised by the fact that participants in our studies disliked the sexualized female characters, I think, especially among younger generations who have grown up with social media and intuitively understand how media perpetuate impossible beauty standards, there’s increasing scrutiny and critique around sexual objectification.”
“That said, I was surprised to see that in our first study women still selected the most sexualized character when asked which character they would choose to play. It’s important to remember that this character was also rated as the most feminine, so it’s possible that women were just selecting the character they most identified with.”
A second experiment in the same study, had men and women actually play the character instead of just observing. The result here was that women tended to identify the strong characters as more “competent”, meanwhile men appeared to be more open-minded and didn’t significantly conflate a woman’s physical statue with her competence.
In recent years, international agencies and governing bodies have become increasingly concerned about the representation of women in media. Most recently, the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has criticized Japan for its depictions of women hypothetically contributing to violence against women and girls.
Businesses such as Twitch have also been applying inconsistent standards towards fictional depictions of women, whether it’s government agencies or private businesses, the fear of sexualized depictions of women invariably leads to censorship.
