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Is This the Year of Girl Power in Gaming?

Is This the Year of Girl Power in Gaming?

EA recently released a new trailer for Mirror’s Edge Catalyst and it focuses primarily on Faith and her story; there isn’t a lot of new gameplay footage there. The trailer really intrigued me, though, and I’m more excited than ever for this game. I’ve also been playing an awful lot of Gravity Rush Remastered on my PS4 lately, and Kat is by far one of my favorite new video game characters. Naturally, I’m looking forward Gravity Rush 2 . You know what other game is on my radar in a big way? Rise of the Tomb Raider. Are you noticing a trend here? I realized today that almost every game I’m either loving already or greatly looking forward to features a female protagonist, and that’s really cool.

Sometimes something like this will happen, or a special game will come out, that forces me to zoom out a bit and take a look at our industry as a whole. Most of the time it’s for the better – most of the time – and for the most part I think that many of the influential developers and publishers that we support with our money are beginning to represent women in a more holistic way in video games. Now I say holistic, not just empowering, because interesting female characters don’t always need to be powerful or predominantly masculine, even when they’re the hero or main character.

Now I wouldn’t make that point at all, but I caught myself having a bit of an internal debate. Here’s Kat, a gravity defying super-hero of sorts, and she’s totally awesome. She’s powerful, helpful, cunning, and mischievous. What’s even cooler is SCE Japan Studio (are we calling it SIE Japan Studio now?) didn’t feel the need to put her in a thong or give her enormous breasts to make her more appealing. “What a fantastic and fun female protagonist,” thought I.

“But wait,” I heard the devil’s advocate rebut, “have you seen her alternate costumes? They’re definitely curve-friendly. One is a Maid’s costume that you have to do side-quests as a maid to unlock! In her main costume she’s wearing heels. Does Kat really represent any kind of progress or is she just another embodiment of female stereotypes?” I heard the same voice point out that the Mirror’s Edge trailer shines a light on Faith’s fragility. It also pointed out that Lara Croft is an established sex symbol, a fact not easily blotted out by a mere re-imagining of the character.

Is This the Year of Girl Power in Gaming?

My point is this: we don’t necessarily need men and women represented in the same way in our video games, and a mature appreciation of a woman’s mystique and figure is not always sexist. Some of the things that progressive watchdogs look for and flag as stereotypes are actually just archetypes, and they make for great stories. A bone-headed, barbaric warrior is still entertaining to command on the battlefield, and there’s something about a swooning, helpless damsel that always makes a quest more meaningful. Male and female characters do often resort to embarrassing stereotypes, yes, but male and female energies both also have a lot of useful, archetypal qualities that make for compelling heroes and heroines. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between the two, and sometimes they become indistinguishable.

I’m proud of Sony for investing in a character like Kat, even though she wears heels. Kat, Faith, and Lara are all complex, interesting, and powerful women, and they stand out to me, each in her own way, as exemplary models who show how the representation of women in video games has evolved. Girls are no longer exclusively leveraged as eye-candy or objectified, and are instead more commonly given a commanding presence and significant roles to play in the stories that we love so much. Are there still jiggling, busty, boob-babes out there? Yes, and for some reason most of them are in fighting games. But this year, let’s celebrate the games that honor and populate the pantheon of video game heroines that will go down as legends solely for thrilling the masses, and not for bearing their asses.

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