Selling Gender: Associations of Box Art Representation of Female Characters With Sales for Teen- and Mature-rated Video Games

Abstract

Content analysis of video games has consistently shown that women are portrayed much less frequently than men and in subordinate roles, often in “hypersexualized” ways. However, the relationship between portrayal of female characters and videogame sales has not previously been studied. In order to assess the cultural influence of video games on players, it is important to weight differently those games seen by the majority of players (in the millions), rather than a random sample of all games, many of which are seen by only a few thousand people. Box art adorning the front of video game boxes is a form of advertising seen by most game customers prior to purchase and should therefore predict sales if indeed particular depictions of female and male characters influence sales. Using a sample of 399 box art cases from games with ESRB ratings of Teen or Mature released in the US during the period of 2005 through 2010, this study shows that sales were positively related to sexualization of non-central female characters among cases with women present. In contrast, sales were negatively related to the presence of any central female characters (sexualized or non-sexualized) or the presence of female characters without male characters present. These findings suggest there is an economic motive for the marginalization and sexualization of women in video game box art, and that there is greater audience exposure to these stereotypical depictions than to alternative depictions because of their positive relationship to sales.

Video Games Exposure and Sexism in a Representative Sample of Adolescents

“…Video games represent one of the most popular forms of media entertainment around the world, with a global market of more than 90 billion dollars in 2015. Part of the popularity may be due to the appeal of masculinity: sales are highest in teen and mature games with box art depicting non-central sexualized female characters (Near, 2013). The depiction and value granted to women is biased in traditional forms of media such as children’s books, magazines and TV (Signorielli and Bacue, 1999; Scharrer, 2014), and there is no obvious exception with new digital media.…”

“…It has even been argued that some of the most blatantly sexist representation of women is found today in video games (Dill and Thill, 2007; Downs and Smith, 2010; Scharrer, 2014). However, while the proofs of biased depictions in video games showing women as passive beings, kidnapped princess to rescue or sex objects to win or to use are numerous and indisputably recorded (Provenzo, 1991; Beasley and Collins Standley, 2002; Burgess et al, 2007; Dill and Thill, 2007; Near, 2013), their effect on gamers’ stereotypes of women remains debated (Breuer et al, 2015) despite some preliminary experimental demonstrations (Dill et al, 2008; Behm-Morawitz and Mastro, 2009; Fox and Bailenson, 2009; Yao et al, 2010; Driesmans et al, 2015; Gabbiadini et al, 2016). …”

“…Since their origins, video games have tended to portray women as characters needing help or holding passive or instrumental roles (Downs and Smith, 2010; Near, 2013; Stermer and Burkley, 2015). In video game magazines, over 80% of female characters are portrayed according to three types: sexualized, scantily clad, or vision of beauty, and over a quarter fit in all three categories (Dill and Thill, 2007).…”

Når jentene må inn i skapet: Seksuell trakassering og kjønnsfrihet i online dataspill

“…På spillmesser markedsføres nye titler ved hjelp av bodberter, 2 og bilder av lettkledde damer er vanlig i reklamemateriale (Taylor, Jenson, & de Castell, 2009) eller på omslaget. Sexistiske framstillinger av kvinner på omslag korrelerer med høyere salgstall (Near, 2013). Selv om eksperiment har vist sammenhenger mellom sexistisk spilldesign og toleranse for sexisme og seksuell trakassering (Dill, Brown, & Collins, 2008), er årsakene til kjønnsbasert forskjellsbehandling mer komplekse.…”

Representations of Africans in Popular Video Games in the U.S

“…Studies on representation in video games have mostly focused on gender, sexual orientation, and race (Dietrich, 2013;Near, 2013). These studies reveal that representations of gender, race, and sexual orientation do not reflect reality, and that the occasional depictions of women and racial minorities are stereotypical (Poor, 2012).…”