Lingerie is not Armor - Tropes vs Women in Video Games

“Amazing.”
“My god, look at that.”

“Good night nurse!”

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

In the late 90s, developer Rare wanted to replicate

the success of their landmark 1997 shooter GoldenEye,

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

Instead, they began work on a science fiction spy thriller

called Perfect Dark.

For the game’s star,

they wanted to create a striking new type of special agent

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

so they drew inspiration from figures

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

Her name was Joanna Dark.

A few years earlier, Eidos Interactive’s Lara Croft

had rapidly become one of the most famous

and recognizable game characters of all time,

so it was reasonable to think that an action game

with a female protagonist could be a smash hit.

Alas, Joanna Dark never reached quite the levels

of fame occupied by Lara Croft,

but Perfect Dark was still a big success.

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

"Welcome to 2023.

Big businesses now merge with alien nations.

An ancient war is being fought under the sea.

The president is about to be cloned

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

So you’ve got an important decision to make:

What are you going to wear to work?

From the team you brought you GoldenEye for N64,

meet special agent Joanna Dark in Perfect Dark,

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

to handle a job like this

is a woman.”

Can you imagine an ad exactly like this,

only with Marcus Fenix or Master Chief,

getting out of bed naked,

taking a sexy slow-motion shower,

putting on his sexy underwear,

and the narrator saying

that he has an important decision to make:

what is he going to wear to work?

"Welcome to 2016.

There’s a war out there...somewhere.

You’re not sure where, exactly.

Anyway, the important thing is,

you’re Special Agent Jake Grimshadow.

It’s your job to save the world.

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

…. WAIT... WHAT??

A commercial like that would never happen,

nor should it.

But Joanna is treated differently

than her male counterparts.

Even though Perfect Dark is a first-person shooter

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

by focusing on her getting dressed,

this ad encouraged players to think of Joanna’s appeal

as being rooted in her sexual desirability

rather than her skill as a special agent.

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

It’s an important part of our first impression

of who that character is, and as such,

it’s a way for designers

to immediately communicate to players

what is most important and noteworthy about them.

Female heroes in video games might be special agents

or soldiers or treasure hunters by trade.

They often find themselves in dangerous,

physically demanding situations,

fighting off bad guys and saving the world.

They are typically performing activities that call for

practical or protective clothing.

But when we look at the types of outfits

that female characters are made to wear,

we can see that they are often

both sexualized and completely absurd.

Ivy from the Soulcalibur games is a bold warrior

who finds herself in battles

where sharp, deadly weapons are being used

and protective armor would be a must,

but the clothing she wears--or lack thereof-

-is not exactly intended to keep her safe.

Cammy from the Street Fighter series

is a British special forces operative

whose thong leotard does a better job

of calling attention to her butt

than of offering any kind of protection.

Jessica Sherawat from Resident Evil: Revelations

is a member of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance

and regularly faces deadly infected mutants in combat,

but her outfits appear to be designed for...

yeah, I don’t even know.

And this is just a small fraction of the vast number

of female characters who are forced into

impractical and objectifying clothing while in dangerous situations.

“You’ll learn respect!”

“You’re a fool to come back here.”

“All right, let’s begin!

“And instead of donning a shirt plate,

you dash into battle, shirt open, navel and…

whatnot exposed!”

Because clothing can shape our first impressions of a character

and has a tremendous influence

on our sense of who they are

every time they are on screen,

sexualized outfits can contribute to what’s called

the hyper-sexualization of female characters.