With so many options for gaming, from first person shooters to story based games, even single player life simulation games, there’s a game for everyone. As a woman, it’s disheartening to see how women are portrayed in most video games. Typically, women in games are portrayed as the damsel in distress, with a huge example being Princess Peach in the Mario franchise. Nintendo has put forth efforts to make Princess Peach a main character with the release of Princess Peach: Showtime! earlier this year. However, the game fell short and seemed to lack the depth and challenges that come alongside other games in the Mario franchise. However, this may not be because of the fact that she is a woman but rather the result of Nintendo attempting to create a type of gameplay different from the familiarity of the Mario franchise.
On the flip side, other video game franchises have created strong female protagonists that have become iconic in video game culture as well as pop culture. A great example of this is Ellie Williams from The Last of Us. Although The Last of Us franchise has been around since 2013, it recently rose to fame again after HBO created a TV adaptation of the game in 2023 starring Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie. Ellie has enveloped the strong female protagonist role especially in The Last of Us Part II, with that game following primarily herself and another female character, Abby Anderson. I personally think Ellie is an excellent example of a strong female character because she is not dressed provocatively or overly sexualized like many other female characters in games and she doesn’t rely on a male character for her survival. It’s important to consider that the developers possibly chose not to dress her provocatively because she is a minor in the first game, though she is obviously much older in the second game but still dresses reasonably.
Another strong female protagonist in video games that immediately comes to mind is Lara Croft, from the Tomb Raider franchise. The Tomb Raider franchise has been around since 1996, with Lara Croft being the main character in the games. She differs strongly from Ellie Williams, especially in the way that she is dressed. Lara Croft is dressed in short shorts, a blueish green tank top, and leg straps to holster weapons. Her cleavage is prominent and very noticeable, causing many people to thirst over her. Even when she had cleavage that was blocky in the earlier games, people still thought she was hot with what has been coined as “triangle tits”. There was even a discussion about whether or not her physique was the result of a bug in the game files, but that has since been debunked. However, she still is a strong female character in the way that she doesn’t rely on a male character for her survival.
There are countless women in video games that are overly sexualized, including Chun-Li and Cammy from Street Fighter, Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy, and Jill Valentine and Ada Wong from Resident Evil. It’s common for women in games to have overly exaggerated curves, skimpy and revealing clothing, tight clothing, and cleavage or curves that are highlighted. For example, it’s common for women in zombie shooters to wear a bikini top with tight short shorts, despite the fact that in a zombie apocalypse, anyone would likely wear the most clothing possible in case of a bite.
Despite the push for better female representation in games, the typical audience being male somewhat limits what will be seen from franchises in the future. When will we see proper female representation in video games instead of overly sexualized women made for the male gaze?
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