Females make up a large portion of the gaming community, but an overwhelming majority of games cater to men. Games that star female protagonists are few and far between. Those that do tend to feature sexually charged protagonists. Bayonetta is a good example of this — her body is thoroughly stunning and her finishing attacks involve her removing all of her “clothes”.
NPR (National Public Radio) recently did a feature on this issue that examines a teenage girl gamer’s views on the over sexualization of female protagonists, as well as the lack of respect girl gamers receive from the gaming community as a whole. Naturally, Bayonetta is a subject of discussion. This feature can be listened to here.
This is a really interesting issue and one that I think needs to be addressed at some point. It’s not difficult to notice things like the disturbing lack of a female presence on gaming sites. This feature claims that 40% of gamers are females, which is a stat that seems accurate, but gaming communities are certainly not reflective of it. I have a lot of strong feelings on this issue, so it’s good to see it addressed by someone, especially a third-party news outlet in a relatively unbiased, constructive way.
[Sources: Destructoid, NPR]
The oversexualization of females is pretty sickening to me. At least for the most part. Bayonetta doesn’t bother me because she’s not faking. She’s just a scantily clad sexy lady and that’s it. But when you’re given a character who’s supposed to be some epic heroine, but she’s wearing centimeter-thick bra and panties, it gets ridiculous. That’s why I fell in love with characters like Alyx Vance (Half-Life 2) and Zoe (Left 4 Dead) because they’re both badass and “actual females”.
I work on character creation a lot, so when I do I always make it a point to match the garb with the female. If she’s a skimpy-clothed slut, then I’ll make her a skimpy-clothed slut. XD If she’s a level-headed female, then I’ll give her clothing that a level-headed female would wear. Common fucking sense.