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“Amazing.”
“My god, look at that.”

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“Good night nurse!”

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“Ooh! That’s definitely stimulating my economy.”

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In the late 90s, developer Rare wanted to replicate

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the success of their landmark 1997 shooter GoldenEye,

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but didn’t want to make another James Bond game.

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Instead, they began work on a science fiction spy thriller

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called Perfect Dark.

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For the game’s star,

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they wanted to create a striking new type of special agent

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who wouldn’t just live in James Bond’s shadow,

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so they drew inspiration from figures

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ranging from Joan of Arc to The X-Files’ Dana Scully.

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Her name was Joanna Dark.

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A few years earlier, Eidos Interactive’s Lara Croft

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had rapidly become one of the most famous

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and recognizable game characters of all time,

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so it was reasonable to think that an action game

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with a female protagonist could be a smash hit.

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Alas, Joanna Dark never reached quite the levels

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of fame occupied by Lara Croft,

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but Perfect Dark was still a big success.

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Let’s take a look at a commercial for the game:


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"Welcome to 2023.

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Big businesses now merge with alien nations.

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An ancient war is being fought under the sea.

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The president is about to be cloned

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And it’s your job to try and save the world.

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So you’ve got an important decision to make:

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What are you going to wear to work?

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From the team you brought you GoldenEye for N64,

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meet special agent Joanna Dark in Perfect Dark,

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where you’ll find out that the only person man enough

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to handle a job like this

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is a woman.”


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Can you imagine an ad exactly like this,

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only with Marcus Fenix or Master Chief,

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getting out of bed naked,

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taking a sexy slow-motion shower,

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putting on his sexy underwear,

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and the narrator saying

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that he has an important decision to make:

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what is he going to wear to work? 


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"Welcome to 2016.

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There’s a war out there...somewhere.

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You’re not sure where, exactly.

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Anyway, the important thing is,

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you’re Special Agent Jake Grimshadow.

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It’s your job to save the world.

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The only question is: What are you going to wear?

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…. WAIT... WHAT??

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A commercial like that would never happen,

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nor should it.

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But Joanna is treated differently

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than her male counterparts.

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Even though Perfect Dark is a first-person shooter

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and, as a result, you rarely see her in the game itself,

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by focusing on her getting dressed,

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this ad encouraged players to think of Joanna’s appeal

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as being rooted in her sexual desirability

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rather than her skill as a special agent. 


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A character’s clothing is one of the first things we notice.

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It’s an important part of our first impression

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of who that character is, and as such,

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it’s a way for designers

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to immediately communicate to players

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what is most important and noteworthy about them. 


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Female heroes in video games might be special agents

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or soldiers or treasure hunters by trade.

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They often find themselves in dangerous,

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physically demanding situations,

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fighting off bad guys and saving the world.

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They are typically performing activities that call for

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practical or protective clothing.

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But when we look at the types of outfits

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that female characters are made to wear,

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we can see that they are often

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both sexualized and completely absurd. 


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Ivy from the Soulcalibur games is a bold warrior

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who finds herself in battles

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where sharp, deadly weapons are being used

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and protective armor would be a must,

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but the clothing she wears--or lack thereof-

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-is not exactly intended to keep her safe.


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Cammy from the Street Fighter series

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is a British special forces operative

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whose thong leotard does a better job

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of calling attention to her butt

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than of offering any kind of protection. 


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Jessica Sherawat from Resident Evil: Revelations

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is a member of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance

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and regularly faces deadly infected mutants in combat,

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but her outfits appear to be designed for...

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yeah, I don’t even know.

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And this is just a small fraction of the vast number

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of female characters who are forced into

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impractical and objectifying clothing while in dangerous situations.

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“You’ll learn respect!”

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“You’re a fool to come back here.”

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“All right, let’s begin!

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“And instead of donning a shirt plate,

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you dash into battle, shirt open, navel and…

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whatnot exposed!”

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Because clothing can shape our first impressions of a character

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and has a tremendous influence

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on our sense of who they are

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every time they are on screen,

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sexualized outfits can contribute to what’s called

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the hyper-sexualization of female characters.

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Hyper-sexualization in the media occurs

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when a character is designed to be valued primarily

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for their sexual characteristics or behaviors.

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In hypersexualized characters, these attributes

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are highlighted above all else

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and made the center of attention,

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while everything else about the character is made secondary. 


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Games and other media often work

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to frame this sexualization as a positive thing for women.

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They blur the distinction between female sexualization

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and female power, and as a result,

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sexualized female characters are sometimes celebrated

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for being perceived as “owning” their sexuality

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in a way that is empowering.

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But it isn’t actually empowering

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because the sexuality these characters exude

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is manufactured for, and presented as existing for,

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the presumed straight male player.


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Bayonetta is a quintessential example of such a character.

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When the camera caresses her body

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as it does in the opening scene of Bayonetta 2,

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establishing the player’s relationship with the character,

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she is frozen in time,

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the passive object of the male gaze.

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The camera is putting her and Jeanne

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on display for the player,

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breaking them down into what the game

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is communicating is most important about them:

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their sexualized parts.

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And when Bayonetta starts moving,

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it’s the player who has the power

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to control her sexuality as a weapon throughout the game,

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both literally and figuratively.

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She has an assortment of special moves

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called “torture attacks” which involve devices

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meant to suggest BDSM and that look like something

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you might expect to see

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in an exaggerated stereotype of a sex dungeon.

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But these sexualized moves

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have nothing to do with sex:

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they just obliterate her enemies.

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And a number of her attacks literally leave her naked,

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because, you see, she’s attacking the enemies

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with her hair and her hair is also her clothing

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so when she’s using her hair to attack her enemies

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it can’t be covering her body and…

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In these ways, the game deliberately links

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Bayonetta’s sexuality to power,

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selling a version of sexual objectification

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that we’re all supposed to feel good about

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and find “empowering.”

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Every aspect of Bayonetta’s existence,

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from the way the camera is magnetically drawn

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to her sexualized body parts

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to the pole dance reward for completing the game,

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is expertly designed to be sexually affirming

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and satisfying for a presumed straight male audience.

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If it seems like I’m frequently repeating the fact

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that the player is presumed to be a straight male,

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that’s because it’s vital to remember.

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This presumption influences and shapes

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so many creative decisions that are made

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in the development of many games.

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“Let’s see, target market - mostly male,

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18-24 years old, interests - senseless violence,

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high tech weaponry, pain, humiliation…

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hey! Maybe this’ll do the trick.”

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In fact, this connection between objectification

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and empowerment is extremely damaging.

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It’s harmful to women because rather than

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asserting that women have intrinsic value as people,

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it communicates that the kind of power available

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to women comes from men finding them desirable.

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And it’s damaging to men because it suggests

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that women who are liberated and empowered

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are also women whose sexuality is always available to men.

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When we conflate the sexualization of women

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with power for women,

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we internalize this harmful myth

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and begin to think sexualization is the only way

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to achieve gender equality.

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But the truth is that sexualization doesn’t actually

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bring us any closer to equality.

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In her book Enlightened Sexism,

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Susan J. Douglas sums up the issue.

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”Under the guise of escapism and pleasure,

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we are getting images of imagined power that mask,

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and even erase, how much still remains to be done

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for girls and women,

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images that make sexism seem fine, even fun,

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and insist that feminism is now utterly pointless--

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even bad for you.

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True power here has nothing to do with

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economic independence or professional achievement:

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it has to do with getting men to lust after you

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and other women to envy you.”

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Some gaming fans have come up with all sorts of

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ridiculous defenses for the sexualized costumes

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female characters are often made to wear,

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like the idea that they dress in these outfits as a tactic

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to help them distract their male opponents.

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It’s not unheard of for developers

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to sometimes rely on this harmful logic, too.

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The superintelligent AI companion Cortana

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from the Halo franchise

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has always been depicted as naked,

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and when asked about why this is,

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franchise director Frank O’Connor said,

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"One of the reasons she does it is to attract and demand attention.

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And she does it to put people off so they’re on their guard

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when they’re talking to her

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and that she has the upper hand in those conversations.

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It’s kind of almost like the opposite of that nightmare

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you have where you go to school in the nude,

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and you’re terrified and embarrassed.

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She’s kind of projecting that back out to her audience

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and winning intellectual points as a result." 


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Meanwhile, male AIs in the Halo universe do wear clothing;

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the idea of them trying to “win intellectual points”

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by walking around naked is ridiculous.

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But we rarely question

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the extremely widespread association

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of sexualization and power


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when it’s applied to female characters.

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Usually, the games themselves don’t go into much detail

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to explain or justify why

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female characters are sexualized.

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Players are simply meant to unquestioningly accept

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the impractical outfits these characters are wearing.

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Sometimes, however, as in the case of Quiet

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from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain,

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developers build convoluted and absurd tales

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about a character’s past into the game

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in an attempt to justify their blatant sexualization.

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“She, uh, refuses to wear clothes.

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The last staff member who tried to dress her -

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breathing through tubes.

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Other than that, she’s completely cooperative.

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She understands English, she never speaks, sweats, or breathes.” 


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“What?”

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“Well, not with lungs at least.

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She breathes through her skin.

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Clothing would suffocate her.

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Showers are okay, but she can’t be submerged.”

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“What’s wrong with her?”

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“She’s drinking. Through her skin.”

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So you see, she can’t wear clothing

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because she breathes through her skin!

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These ludicrous narrative justifications don’t “make it okay.”

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Regardless of whatever absurd explanation

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a game might provide,

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it should go without saying that

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the only real functionality of outfits like this is to

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titillate the presumed young straight male player base.


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Out of all the arguments that are tossed out

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to defend the impractical and objectifying

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clothing that women are made to wear in games,

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there is one in particular that I hear the most often

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and that is perhaps the most pernicious.

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That argument is:

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“Maybe that’s what she wants to wear!”

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Which is ridiculous.

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These women are fictional constructs.

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That means that they don’t dress themselves

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or pick out their own clothing.

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I can’t believe I have to say this.

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All these visual designs are deliberate choices

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made by the developers,

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and they serve a specific purpose:

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they communicate to straight male players

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that these characters exist primarily as sex objects

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to be consumed.

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In doing so, they also reinforce the larger notion

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in our culture that the value of real human women

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is determined largely by their sexual desirability to men.

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It’s not hard to imagine

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what more practical clothing options

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might look like for some of these characters.

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But if you’re having a hard time envisioning that,

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I will let you in on a little secret:

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For those of you who aren’t familiar,

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there is this thing called a sports bra.

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Sports bras are designed to keep breasts held in place

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to better facilitate athletic activities.

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In other words, they are used

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to prevent “jiggle physics” in real life.

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In the real world, there are many female

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martial artists, athletes, and women in combat roles

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that developers could use as inspiration

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when designing and dressing their female characters.

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It’s important to note that the amount of skin shown

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is not the crux of the problem.

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Many female athletes wear minimal form-fitting clothing

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because it’s more conducive to their activities.

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However, their outfits are not designed

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with the primary goal of sexualizing the athletes

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for the benefit of spectators.

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The problem of female characters wearing impractical,

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sexualized and objectifying attire and being

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put on display for players is not a difficult one to solve,

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and developers already know how to do it.

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Even many fighting games that have

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several sexualized female characters on the roster

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often have one female option who is in more practical attire.

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The Dark Souls games are generally pretty good

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about not making armor appear significantly different

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on female characters than it does on male characters.

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Natural Selection 2 and XCOM also have

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examples of women in practical armor.

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And Assassin’s Creed Syndicate put female

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gang members in outfits very similar

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to those worn by the male gang members.

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None of this is to say that characters in games

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should never be sexual; far from it.

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Sexuality and sexualization are very different things. 


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The sexualization of female characters is about

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designing them, dressing them or framing them

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in ways that are specifically intended to be

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sexually appealing to presumed male viewers or players.

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Women’s sexuality, on the other hand,

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exists for themselves, and for those

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they care to consensually share it with.

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And sexuality can be expressed or experienced

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in any kind of attire.

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“Come here lover boy!”

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Unfortunately, examples in games of female characters

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expressing sexual desire in ways that aren’t sexualized

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are exceedingly rare.

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These next few examples aren’t great depictions

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of what we’re talking about.

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They’re just some of the only examples that exist at all,

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which serves to illustrate how rare it is

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for female sexuality in games to be presented in ways

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that are humanizing rather than sexualizing.


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The Last of Us: Left Behind features female characters

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who express romantic feelings for each other,

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rather than exuding a sexualized energy

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that is directed outward at the player.

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“What do we do now?

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“We’ll figure it out.”

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And in Firewatch, though it’s only heard and not seen

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Delilah expresses sexual desire for the player character, Henry. 



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“I wish I was over there.”

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“I wish you were too.”

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“We could sit outside, we could talk,

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without these radios. We could, um, you know.”

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These moments aren’t presented

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as titillating morsels of sexuality for players.

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Rather, they function as expressions

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of the characters’ sexuality that deepen our investment

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in the characters and their relationships to each other. 


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To clarify, the act of sex isn’t the problem,

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but rather how its presented.

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I’d love to see great representations

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of healthy, consensual sex in games.

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But sadly, when consensual sex does occur,

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it’s often presented as a transaction

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or as a reward for player accomplishment.

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Whether that accomplishment is completing quests

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or just choosing all the right dialogue options

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to get the sex cutscene to play.


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When fictional female characters in games are dressed

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in impractical armor or clothing,

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it encourages players to view them as sex objects,

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and reinforces the already pervasive and harmful notion

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in our culture that sexualization is the most viable

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or only real route to power for women.

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By contrast, when those characters are dressed

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in clothing that is truly practical and functional

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for the work that they are doing,

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and when they express sexuality and sexual desire

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in ways that aren’t served up as sexualized treats

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designed primarily for straight male players

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to consume and enjoy,

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it encourages players of all genders

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not to view those characters as sexual objects

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but to be invested in them as people.