"Explore the representation of women in video games, paying specific attention to 'Bayonetta' (2009), 'Lollipop Chainsaw' (2012), and 'Gone Home' (2013)"

When we think about the people that we assume play video games, images are conjured of socially-awkward white heterosexual males still living in their mother’s basement in their late-twenties. These stereotypes meant that gaming was considered a “nerdy” and “uncool” pastime and caused gamers to band together against their bullies. However, as time has gone on and gaming is seen as more socially-acceptable, many people in the gaming community still feel as protective of their hobby as they were when it wasn’t. Because of this, any minute change regarding equal representation, either in the industry or the games themselves, is perceived as a threat to the status quo. I'll be exploring how different video games handle the representation of female characters and touching briefly on its effects on the industry and the fan-base as a whole.

The first video game I'll be making reference to is Lollipop Chainsaw which was released on 2012 and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The game follows Juliet Sterling, a scantily-clad cheerleader whose high school has become infested with the undead. It's revealed that Juliet belongs to a family of zombie hunters and must defeat several "bosses" in order to stop the primary antagonist from spreading even more destruction. The game unintentionally subverts some of the common sexist tropes in video games through a male character. Nick, Juliet's boyfriend, is attacked by zombies early on in the game and Juliet is forced to decapitate him in order to stop the infection spreading to the rest of his body. Using her "zombie hunter powers" she is able to keep Nick's head alive and attaches it to her belt, where he remains for the rest of the game as a macabre sidekick.

“You took away my choice, Juliet. You’re making me no better than those zombies!”

- Nick, “Lollipop Chainsaw”

The removal of Nick's agency and individuality is a parallel to what often happens to women in games. An example of this is the character Navi from the game The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998). Her sole duty in the game is to aid the protagonist, Link, in his quest and has no backstory and a limited personality. The fact that Navi is a female wouldn’t be a problem if this wasn’t repeated heavily throughout both video games and other forms of media. This trope is turned on its head, if you’ll excuse the pun, in Lollipop Chainsaw with Nick. Nick’s identity is reduced to “dutiful boyfriend/tag-along” and even sacrifices himself at the end of the game, in a moment that’s meant to be heroic but actually only proves that his character is disposable.

Some online gaming networks, such as PlayStation Network for the PlayStation and Steam for PC gaming, allow players to gain “achievements” for specific actions taken in video games. For example, an achievement in a first-person shooter game like Call of Duty might be awarded for killing a certain amount of enemies. These are then displayed on the player’s public profile to showcase their progress towards finishing the games. Lollipop Chainsaw awards achievements for milestones reached such as defeating bosses and getting all the collectables, but there’s also one called “I Swear! I Did It By Mistake!”. This is given to players when the camera is positioned underneath the main character’s cheerleader outfit, exposing her underwear to the screen while she makes futile attempts to protect her decency. An online pop culture analysis website named Feminist Frequency did a video on the trope of “Women as Reward” within video games which included Lollipop Chainsaw as an example. Anita Sarkeesian, the video’s presenter and controversial internet personality, explains that games often treat women as a trophy to be won. The Resident Evil franchise, for instance, rewards the player for finishing the game by unlocking alternative outfits for the female characters.

“Jill Valentine is a high-ranking Special Operations Agent in the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance, and also the master of unlocking. She can be placed in sexy police woman and sexy pirate outfits.”

- Anita Sarkeesian, ‘Women as Reward’

Hyper-sexualisation occurs when a person’s worth is tied to their physical attractiveness and how willing they are to have sex. By having the ultimate achievement of finishing the game unlock the ability to see more of Jill Valentine’s skin, it emphasises that the most important thing about her is her body.

This leads onto the second game I’ll be making reference to, which is Bayonetta. Released in 2009 and published by Sega, you play as a witch named Bayonetta in search of two gemstones known as the “Eyes of the World” – fighting angels and demons alike. The most unique weapon that she possesses is her hair which, amongst other attacks, she can use as a conduit to summon demons to help her fight. Her clothes are also made up of her hair. This means that parts of her already scant outfit disappear whenever she attacks with her hair. The developers and fans of Bayonetta defend this feature of the game, saying that her choice to be both sexy and strong is empowering. However, audiences have to realise that every aspect of a piece of media is orchestrated in order to appeal to their target audiences. In the case of video games, especially ones in the fighting genre, the target audience is often heterosexual men from the ages of 18 to 30. Bayonetta did not “choose” to wear the clothes she wears because she is a fictional character created by real people with no agency in that regard. In cutscenes, the player is constantly bombarded with camera shots that caress and grope the curves of Bayonetta’s form. This is just more proof that her character was created for the male gaze. However, that isn’t to say that sexuality in video games is inherently bad. Unfortunately most game developers don’t understand the line between sexuality and sexualisation, with the latter occurring far more often than the former.

Games such as Gone Home (2013, Fullbright Company) are sometimes criticised for being a glorified “walking simulator”, which means that there is little to no interaction with the environment. The focus of Gone Home is on the narrative experience which follows the first-person perspective of a girl named Katie returning home from a year abroad only to find her family home empty. In order to uncover the story of what happened while she was gone, Katie and the player must explore the house to find audio-narrated journal entries and documents – the majority left by her sister, Samantha. Alongside discovering her parents’ crumbling marriage and her mother’s affair, Sam tells Katie about her newfound friendship with a girl named Lonnie. Representation of female relationships is depressingly rare in modern culture, which inspired the creation of the Bechdel test. Alison Bechdel first suggested it in her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For (1985), but the idea was originally conceived by Bechdel’s friend Liz Wallace. It states that two named women must talk to each other about anything that doesn’t concern a man to pass the test. Although this might seem like easy criteria to meet, many popular movies like the original Star Wars trilogy, The Avengers, and the final instalment of the Harry Potter franchise do not pass the test.

As the game progresses and more information is revealed to Katie, Sam begins a romantic relationship with Lonnie. Healthy same-sex relationships are rare in video games. I emphasise the “healthy” part since most romantic and/or sexual relationships between women in games are for the titillation of the presumed straight male player. However, when a healthy same-sex relationship is represented, one or both of the couple are often killed off to serve as a plot device. This trope occurs so often in modern media that it has been granted its own name – “Bury Your Gays”. The game Life Is Strange (2015, Square Enix) does offer a potential female same-sex relationship to the protagonist, but at a price. The climax of the game presents the player with a choice between your girlfriend and your town. Whichever one is chosen, the other will perish. That isn’t to say that LGBT women in media should never die, but it does follow an unsettling trend of people being punished and killed for their sexuality in the past. Nevertheless, Life Is Strange gives amazing representation for healthy female same-sex relationships, the ending notwithstanding.

(Probably will cut this section down) Gamers worldwide have been pushing for video games to be recognised as an art form instead of mindless, idiotic, and brain-damaging technology. What most of them don’t realise is that makes games open to be analysed and criticised, just like a painting or a sculpture might. Developers have begun to challenge the status quo by striving to provide good representation for women, people of colour, the LGBT community, and other marginalised groups. Some gamers who aren’t a member of these groups argue that this is unnecessary, and that there is no need to include politics in video games. What they fail to realise is that the “politics” they refer to are actually just real people who don’t want to be treated as the villains every time. Like it or not, all media creates a ripple effect in the culture of the people who consume it. Unfortunately, some people disagree with this notion so violently that they’re willing to go to drastic measures in order to protest it. When Anita Sarkeesian originally came into the limelight regarding her video series about women in gaming, death and rape threats were made against her. A free-to-play game was created where players could punch a digital depiction of Sarkeesian’s face until she was beaten and bloody. Even more disturbing than this is the mass shooting that was threatened at one of her talks at Utah State University. [……]

Bibliography

Anita Sarkeesian. (2016). Lingerie is not Armor. Available: https://feministfrequency.com/video/lingerie-is-not-armor/. Last accessed 25th Aug 2017.

Anita Sarkeesian. (2015). Women as Reward. Available: https://feministfrequency.com/video/women-as-reward/. Last accessed 25th Aug 2017.

Charles Herold. (2016). Is Bayonetta 2 Sexist, and Should You Care?.Available: https://www.lifewire.com/is-bayonetta-2-sexist-and-should-you-care-2498689. Last accessed 27th Aug 2017.

Jessica Valenti. (2015). Anita Sarkeesian interview: 'The word "troll" feels too childish. This is abuse'. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/aug/29/anita-sarkeesian-gamergate-interview-jessica-valenti. Last accessed 27th Aug 2017.

Jim Sterling. (2012). Objectification and Lollipop Chainsaw. Available: https://www.destructoid.com/objectification-and-lollipop-chainsaw-229700.phtml. Last accessed 25th Aug 2017.

Khee Hoon Chan. (2017). Why I’m afraid video games will continue to 'bury its gays'. Available: https://www.polygon.com/2017/8/4/16090980/life-is-strange-death-lgbtq-characters. Last accessed 27th Aug 2017.

M. Asher Cantrell. (2013). 10 Famous Films That Surprisingly Fail The Bechdel Test. Available: https://filmschoolrejects.com/10-famous-films-that-surprisingly-fail-the-bechdel-test-e54ce002bcfc/. Last accessed 27th Aug 2017.