This is another study found from my research during summer which provides useful insights into my subject, and that I will hopefully be using in my extended essay. It was written by Jeroen Jansz & Raynel G. Martis.
Highlighted quotes and facts from the study
Previous research on game content has revealed that stereotypical masculine characters dominate video games and that those characters are generally white.
In our study we investigated the so called 'Lara Phenomenon,' that, the appearance of a competent female character in a dominant position.
We did a content analysis on the introductory films of 12 contemporary video games. Our results show that female characters appeared as often in leading parts as male characters did. They were portrayed with a sexualised emphasis on female features. Most game characters belonged to the dominant white race, the heroes exclusively so.
Playing electronic games on a personal computer, a game console, a handheld device, or on the internet is a relatively new, but increasingly popular kind of mediated entertainment.
The massive popularity of female protagonist Lara Croft ever since the release of the first Tomb Raider game in 1996 seems to have paved the way for a woman who contrasts the stereotype (Kennedy, 2002; Rehak, 2003).
Previous researchers from a variety of backgrounds have shown that media representations provide an important source for the construction of meaning in everyday life. People actively interpret what they have seen in the media to attribute specific meaning to, for example, their social relations or their identities. (Brown, Dykers, Steele, & White, 1994; Cohen, 2001; Gauntlett, 2002; Giles, 2002; Giles & Maltby, 2004).
Interactivity has distinct consequences for the reception of game content. First, enjoying a video game generally means that players are drawn into the represented world and become less aware of the mediated quality of the experience (Klimmt & Vorderer, 2003). The resulting feeling of 'being there' is generally referred to as a state of "presence" (Lee, 2004). Presence conceivably may intensify the gamer's reception of game content in order to construct personal meaning. Second, interactivity may also have consequences for the gamer's identification with characters represented in the game. Many video games enable their players to enact identities in the most literal sense of the word. Gamers can actually 'be' their characters in a playful virtual reality.
Overall, Dietz noted, video games were dominated by masculine themes, as, for example, action, war, violence, competition and sports. She added, parenthetically that almost all characters were white (Dietz, 1998).
In conclusion, the results of previous studies indicate that many video game titles, published over a lengthy period of time, were dominated by male characters. Female characters appeared in submissive roles.
The dominant trend should not blind us to the fact that the results of Ramirez et al. (2002) seem indicative of some change. They reported that 50% of the female characters held a dominant position, and they even found five male characters in a submissive position.
The first additional criterion for inclusion was the diversity of the cast of character with respect to gender and race. If we want to study the portrayal of men, women, and different races, these groups must obviously be present in the game. The second criterion was the narrative nature of the game: A storyline was considered necessary because we wanted to determine both the role and position of the characters.
The cover illustrations are static pictures that cannot give detailed information about the role and position of the character within the game. The random selection of material has two disadvantages. First, the selection is dependent upon the game competence of the researcher...and second, the selection may result in analysis of a sequence that is not informative.
In selecting the introductory film of the video game as our data. This short film provides a clear outline of the game, its main characters, and the dominant storyline. It is, in other words, an adequate summary of the game, its purpose, and its content.
The analysis of our selection of 12 video games resulted in a set of 22 characters. Two games did not have a second or supporting character in the introductory film: Splinter Cell focused exclusively on protagonist Sam Fisher, and Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness focussed exclusively on Lara Croft. Our analysis showed a dominance of male characters in the games. Thirteen of 22 game characters (about 60%) were men. A difference appeared between characters who had a leading part in the game and those in a supporting role. Among the leading characters there was an equal gender distribution (six men; six women) but supporting characters turned out to be seven men (70%) and three women (30%).
The majority of characters in the video games were white (15 of 22; about 70%)
It comes as no surprise that the leading roles, or protagonists, in the game held a dominant position with respect to other characters. It should be noted, though, that there was no difference in this respect between male and female leaders. The supporting roles showed an interesting contrast. First, female supporters held either a dominant or an equal position in the game. In other words, we did not observe a female character in a submissive position. Second, there were three male supporters (43%) observed in a submissive position, one held an equal position, and three were dominant. The three men in supporting roles that had a submissive position functioned as a helper, or a friend, but not as a victim. In our sample of games, the two victims turned out to be male, and they held a dominant position in the game. This seems paradoxical, but it is not. Sometimes, a dominant character is seriously injured by a monster, for example Shadowman 2; The Second Coming.
Stereotypes are often linked to social positions and roles. With respect to the roles played in the games the hero role was observed in 60% of the cases (13 of 22 characters). This was followed by the friend or helper role (18%), the villain (9%), the victim (9%), and the tough character (5%). A result counter to traditional gender stereotypes is that all women in leading roles played the part of the heroine. Leading men were generally heroes, but Tommy Vercetti from GTA Vice City embodied the exception.
Male characters in supporting roles were mostly friend or helper. The three supporting women played a diversity of roles: heroine, friend or helper, and villain.
The characters' clothing and physical features are important markers of gender and race. Sexy attire was mainly, though not exclusively, observed worn by female characters. The male figure Dante (Devil May Cry 2), for example, was presented in an explicit, sexy and seductive outfit. The clothing of Lucia from Devil May Cry 2 and Jennifer from Primal confirmed the common stereotype about women's sexy attire. The game characters generally had well shaped bodies: a heavy body was the exception; most characters were depicted with normal, or thin bodies.
A majority of the male characters (8 of 13; 60%) were portrayed with emphasised musculature, often in an extreme form. Our observations confirmed the importance that is generally attributed to breasts in a game context, especially in games designed for a 'mature' audience (Beasley and Standley, 2002). Most female characters had large breasts (seven of nine; 77%) as illustrated by Lara Croft and Jennifer (from Primal). Buttocks also were difficult to ignore. They were particularly emphasised among female characters (seven of nine; 77%) but about 25% of the male characters also appeared with eye catching behinds.
Our content analysis of 12 introductory films or video games confirms the trend observed by earlier researchers; games are dominated by male characters (Beasley & Standley, 2002; Children Now, 2001; Dietz, 1998; Downs & Smith, 2005; Haninger & Thompson, 2004; Provenzo, 1991).
Also, our results seem to indicate that the number of female characters in recent games is far larger than it was in earlier games. However, drawing this conclusion could be premature, because our sample may have been biased toward a higher prevalence of female characters: we did not draw a random sample but deliberately selected popular games with a diverse cast of characters. The sample we analysed warrants though conclusions about changes in the position of male and female characters. Women and men were distributed equally in the class of leading characters (six women and six men) and women occupied a dominant position as often as men did. This is altogether different from the exclusively male leading characters in the studies by Provenzo (1991) and the Children Now (2001) team and quite different from the tiny percentage (15%) of female heroes found by Dietz (1998). In addition, we found no submissive female characters at all. Women in our set of 12 games were equal to men, or they dominated them. This contrasts with the presence of submissive female characters in all other studies.
Our results underline a tendency toward a different portrayal of female characters that was already observed in earlier research (Ramirez et al. 2002) We labelled this tendency the 'Lara Phenomenon' that is, the appearance of a strong, and competent female character in a dominant position.
The actual roles observed in video games were very limited. Three of them corresponded with Propp's (1968) characters: hero, villain, and helper. In addition, we found depictions of victims and tough characters.
One would expect more diversity in the roles portrayed. The physical features of male and female characters in our study was stereotypical, as found in four earlier studies (Beasley & Standley, 2002; Children Now, 2001; Downs & Smith, 2005; Haninger & Thompson, 2004). The majority of male characters were depicted with extreme musculature. Female characters were generally portrayed with am emphasis on their buttocks and large breasts, scantily clad in hyper-sexualised dress.
The set of studies about game content in the past dozen years, including the project reported here, allows us to conclude that white characters predominately populate video games. They are generally male. The roles men and women play in video games have changed in recent years. As leading characters, women hold a position they have never held before. It seems that representation of men has been less subject to change, although some of the male characters have recently held non-dominant positions. Gender stereotypes are particularly robust with respect to physical features. Men are still represented as hyper-muscular characters and women as hyper-sexualised characters. In other words, quite a few women became leaders in the games, but they continue to be presented in a sexualised way. As a result, these powerful women are depicted as sex objects as much as their powerless predecessors were (Labre & Duke, 2004).
The cast of many games enables male adolescents to enact extreme forms of masculinity that are unattainable in their daily lives (Jansz, 2005). These young men may also enjoy the objectification of women in video games: The virtual women may come to function as 'eye candy' for them. The situation is different for women. The gender stereotypes in video games probably are an important reason why (young) women play less than men do (Williams, 2006). Women who do play video games may experience contrasting consequences. On the one hand, they generally play disproportionately thin characters with exaggerated female characteristics that may teach them ideals about femininity and beauty that are possibly damaging to their health (Botta, 1999; Labre and Duke, 2004; Smith, 2006). On the other hand, the Lara phenomenon may be empowering for female gamers. The female characters they are playing may look odd, but they are competent and occupy a powerful position in the virtual world of the video game.
Jansz, J. Martis, R.G. 2007. The Lara Phenomenon: Powerful Female Characters in Video Games [online] Available at: http://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs11199-006-9158-0.pdf
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