Angry in Pink: Representation of Women in Video Games in the Infamous Franchise (2009-2014)

Abstract

It is still common for video games to be classified as a predominantly male pastime. Five years after #GamerGate, women and non-binary people still meet with the harassment, sexism, and aggressive behavior (Fox and Tang 2017) and in mainstream games the number of male characters still overshadows the number of female playable characters. While the non-binary and transgender characters are hardly ever present, women characters are often pigeonholed as a narrative tool, mostly as a trope of "Damsel in Distress", that is a victim whose death is to be avenged or the heterosexual love interest (Ivory 2006, Beck at al. 2012, Huntemann 2014). The parallels can be drawn between the over-sexualization of the playable action protagonists in digital games (Behm-Morawitz and Mastro 2009) and the disagreement over overt expressions of female masculinity in society (Halberstam 1998). Drawing on Halberstam's work I will offer an analysis of Fetch, a protagonist of Infamous First Light (2014)-a standalone additional content to a video game franchise developed by Sucker Punch Productions.

A Power Shrouded in Petticoats and Lace: The Representation of Gender Roles in Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation

“…Thus, they are left out of the creation of mainstream stories (Shaw, 2011). Although, as I have shown previously, female gamers are not actually a minority, they are often perceived as such (Waszkiewicz, 2019).…”

Using Video Games for Learning: Developing a Metalanguage for Digital Play

“…More specifically, in the English-language lesson on narrative genre, children can work with their peers in group work to play a segment of video games and then perform research on human cultures in the real world (e.g., Aubrecht & Ballengee-Morris, 2013) or draw on their lived or autobiographical experience (e.g., Chew & Mitchell, 2019a) to understand how to redesign the characters to go beyond the stereotypical assumptions of the representations in the game world (Waszkiewicz, 2019). Children can use sketches to redesign the characters and later implement their designs into Scratch or Unity (for advanced classes) following a collaborative game character creation process (Canheti, Andalo, & Vieira, 2019) to develop their character designs to align with a more flexible and authentic representation that is structured by a coherent narrative theme.…”

“…Games and Culture 16(5) stereotypical assumptions of the representations in the game world (Waszkiewicz, 2019). Children can use sketches to redesign the characters and later implement their designs into Scratch or Unity (for advanced classes) following a collaborative game character creation process (Canheti, Andalo, & Vieira, 2019) to develop their character designs to align with a more flexible and authentic representation that is structured by a coherent narrative theme.…”

Chuka Rompe el silencio en Argentina. una experiencia educativa contra la violencia de género desde la Universidad Nacional de Quilmes

“…Los estudios sobre contenidos de videojuegos coinciden en destacar que, en su mayoría, los juegos son protagonizados por personajes masculinos mientras que los escasos personajes femeninos poseen un rol secundario y estereotipado (Malkoski y Russworm, 2017). En este sentido, se observa que las representaciones de las mujeres en videojuegos oscilan entre dos imágenes contrapuestas: por un lado, las "damiselas en peligro" que se caracterizan por ser víctimas pasivas que deben ser protegidas por varones poderosos; por el otro, inspirados en el fenómeno "Lara Croft", se observan personajes femeninos violentos e hipersexualizados (Waszkiewicz, 2019). De acuerdo con Gil-Juárez, Feliu y Vitores González (2010), la ausencia de personajes femeninos y el hecho de no sentirse representadas por avatares victimizados y/o caracterizados sexualmente, son factores que inciden en el bajo interés de niñas y mujeres por este tipo de videojuegos.…”