Market to Me: Female Protagonists
December 2007 Issue
Features
- From the Editors
- Craft Check: Gamer Cake
- Gaming in the Media: Cyber-Stupidity: Jade Raymond Edition
- Market to Me: Female Protagonists
Interviews
Articles
- Gender & Live-Action Role Play: Identity Crisis
Author: Samara Hayley Steele
- Naked and Terrified
Author: Elizabeth McDonald and Karen Healey
- “My Mom Likes Your Game”
Author: Mara Poulsen
- Speaking from Authority
Author: Richard Pilbeam
In this ongoing series, Samara shares her experiences as a female LARPer in a male-dominated LARP Organization.
Elizabeth and Karen dialogue on a set of miniatures called “Hot Chicks 3.1: Naked Distress”.
Mara looks at the casual gaming industry and what it means for female gamers.
Richard discusses the default "he" and what it says about sexism in the Warhammer 40,000 universe.
Gamer Stories
Reviews
It pains me to say this in 2007, but although female protagonists are numerous compared to the days of my childhood, it’s still relatively rare to see one. It’s even more rare to see one who isn’t The Girl or portrayed as a sex object. A woman whose character could have easily have been a man? Practically unheard of. So when I see a commercial where they didn’t go for the default male, it makes me pay attention.
Wet
Commercial: Wet - Trailer [Xbox 360]
The first thing about this commercial that caught my interest — aside from the Old West style art and cinametography — was that the first time we see the protagonist is when she’s in the bath. “Oh no!” one might cry upon hearing this, “Why is it always with the bathing scene?!” But fear not, because this scene was not done for titillation, but rather to set up the mood of an old Western (which, at least in modern versions of Westerns, often seem to have their male protagonists bathing). Indeed, the first thing you see in detail is her blood-spattered arm before it moves up to her face, only to cut directly to the action. It is probably the least exploitative bath scene that I’ve ever seen a female character in.
Which brings me to the action, which is the bulk of the trailer. It shows the protagonist kicking ass with her gun, with her sword, and with her awesome aerobatics. Though I think she should invest in a good sports bra (a problem that seems to plague most video game women is the lack of a good bra), her costume is interesting without taking the focus off of where it should be: her and her awesome abilities. This is no Lara Croft where half of the fun is staring at her while thinking things you wouldn’t want to tell your parents. This is an Action Hero, straight up, who just happens to be a woman. And if the action scene weren’t enough to convince you of that, the final scene shows her relaxing in a lawn chair and picking up a brewski with an arm covered in tattoos.
From a marketing perspective, the casual use of a female protagonist sets the game apart from the competition; instead of yet another Western shooter that has a testosterone laden man as the protagonist it has a woman in that role, and even more different the woman isn’t sexy sexy danger, but seems to fulfill the same exact role that the typical male protagonist would in her situation. From a feminist perspective I gotta say that this is the kind of thing that I’ve been talking about. Yes, games that highlight female protagonists for their gender have their place, but games that feature a female protagonist who, without any changes, could have just as easily been a man is what really says “equality” to me. It means that men are not as default of a gender as they were in the past and, if the trend continues, perhaps more characters will find themselves in roles that they previously were barred from because of their outward naughty bits.
Tabula Rasa
Commercial: Tabula Rasa CGI Trailer
Although Tabula Rasa is an MMO and therefore there is no “protagonist” as such, the character who narrates the above trailer appears to be the flagship character of the series (pictures of her are all over the website). Perhaps I’m giving it too much credit in being overjoyed that it’s a woman narrating, but since she’s more than just a faceless representation of humanity and a character in her own right, I have to say that it impressed me that she wasn’t the default man.
Something small that caught my eye was that, in the “people running for their lives” scenes there are more than a few visible women (although not any visible racial minorities that I could see). This brings me to the part that I’m not as happy about: although her costume isn’t ridiculous, it is a marked contrast to that of the male grunts, insofar as it’s skintight and obviously not armored. I was also unable to find a female model with bulky armor in any of the gameplay trailers or in the gallery on the official website. Even if there are such models, however, I have to say that the marked contrast in the trailer left a sour taste in my mouth.
From a marketing perspective, having a female flagship character who isn’t hypersexualized for a shooter-oriented MMO makes it stand out, especially since FPS-style games are notoriously bad when it comes to female representation. From a feminist perspective, despite the problem I outlined above, I feel that it’s a clear step forward in recognizing women as equal partners in the shooter genre.
Closing Thoughts
The impression that a trailer gives is not always the same as that of the game itself, but trailers are the front runners and they are the first step to getting someone interested in the product. By putting women in roles that typically default to men, these game companies (intentionally or not) are sending the message that they have confidence that doing so won’t hurt their sales. That they don’t default to the obvious sexy sexy danger trope speaks even louder that they are so confident in the quality of their product that they don’t have to take any cheap shots to sell it.
Frankly, that impresses me. It impresses me to see women taking the roles that I always wished they would in my childhood, and doing it in even greater numbers than they have in previous years. It impresses me that, despite the growing support for the “sex sells” style of marketing, some companies are deciding that they don’t need to sell out that way in order to sell their product. I just hope there will be many more advertisements like this in the future to look forward to.
Article © December 2007 by Andrea Rubenstein.
