Saturday, 3 May 2008
I don't want to talk about Lara Croft
I just looked through my collection of games to see which had female protagonists. Discarding any games that allowed you to select from a number of characters (such as Soulcalibur or Mortal Kombat), I was left with one. It's a game that came with my PS2 called "Red Ninja: End of Honour". I've barely played it as I found even the tutorial mode frustrating. Looking through the manual, one of your options is to use your power of "seduction". Thinking practically, if I were a ninja, I wouldn't dress the way she does. I think it might be hard to concentrate on sneaking up on people when you're worried about your breasts falling out.
There are two different gender issues in gaming. The gender of characters and the gender of players. And then of course there's the third issue of how these two interact. Of course, when I say "gender", I don't just mean whether a character or player is male or female, but the entire spectrum of gender. You can take this to the extreme and you'll end up with a character like Birdo, but that's unnecessary. A character like Samus Aran, doesn't sit definitely at one end of the gender spectrum. She's a very masculine character. She runs around in a big suit, shooting a big gun at big monsters. But take that away and she's very much (physically) an attractive, athletic, woman. Who can contort into a ball.
From a player perspective, when I have a choice, I tend to choose female characters. I will admit that this is usually from an aesthetic standpoint. Extended watching of a character such as Sophitia appeals to me far more than one like Astaroth. But looking deeper into things, female characters appeal to me more as they have more depth. In a male-dominated genre (especially in things like fighting games) the female characters have to be made more appealing in some way. They can't simply be made infeasibly strong and powerful, so more inventive routes are taken, resulting in better characters. Once again looking at Soulcalibur, the appeal of a character like Ivy is not just aesthetic, but in how her weaponry works and can be utilised in interesting ways.
Playing Fahrenheit gave me the opportunity to alternate between playing a male main character and a female one. I quite often chose to play as Carla when given the choice as I enjoyed the nature of the character and the possibilities I was given when playing her. However, as well written as the character was, the narration fell down at the end. For some reason it's decided that she needed a relationship plotline. This results in her telling Lucas she loves him (and subsequently having sex with him and becoming pregnant with his child) after only knowing him for a few days. This becomes even more preposterous if you factor in various other elements of the story, such as how she was previously pursuing him as a murder suspect. Not to mention the fact that Lucas' (ex-)girlfriend recently died and that (arguably) Lucas himself is actually dead!
This isn't so much just a symptom of games though. In every form of narrative media, a female protaganist, no matter how strong, will more often than not need a male counterpart. In the Fifth Element, Corben needs to tell Leeloo he loves her before she can destroy the evil entity. Ann Veronica's rebellion is only catalysed by her attraction to Capes (and is subsequently quelled by her marriage to him). Silk Spectre is nothing without Dr. Manhattan or Nite Owl. In a world where things are designed to sell, social norms are perpetuated. Fantasies are reinforced. You'd be surprised just how often this is the case. If you're a female character, you're going to end up sleeping with a dead guy.
So what about the issue of male players playing female characters and vice versa? Is this situation a real exploration of gender roles? Is the player using it as a tool to experiences alternate facets of their personality in a "safe" virtual environment? For some, this may be the case. Games are largely simulations. They are fantasy and wish fulfilment. The opportunity to be another character and to do things you can't do yourself. Whether this goes as far as gender crossing depends on the individual. For a game like Fahrenheit, the opportunity is to be a detective (as well as a fugitive), whether the fact that you're a female detective matters, is up to you. In a game like Metroid, for much of it the character isn't even identifiably female. There's not even the aesthetic differences that male and female characters usually have.
And there you have it. Gender representation in games works just the same as it does in other media. Games are made to sell and so they will follow along with what is wanted by who they're selling to. Gender is something personal to everyone, so how they experience the representations of it in games is just as personal. Extreme representations of gender in gaming will always happen as these work best in a fantastical scenario. No one wants to save the princess who could fight her own way out. No one wants to be the little girl with reasonable fighting skills, facing a huge monster.
And I did all that without once mentioning Lara Croft. Oh, damn.
