It’s a Man’s World (Except It’s Not): The Inexcusable Underrepresentation & Discrimination of Women

by Tia Thomas

Art Direction: Aviva Michaelov and Illustration by Anna Parini

Our country is more diverse than ever, so you’d think that would be accurately reflected in the media we consume everyday right? Except it’s not. 9 out of 10 if you select a random TV show to watch or video game to play, the main character will most likely be the “status quo”: a straight cisgender white man. But how can that be? Video games, film, TV shows, are all outlets for imagination and should reflect our current society, and yet why do we still see the same tiresome roles of the sexualized woman in scantily-clad clothes whose only purpose is to serve as “the male gaze” and the “love interest”? Or the tomboyish woman who’s forced to give up that part of herself to become traditionally “feminine” in order to become desirable to the male characters (and by extension, the male audience)? This is because of the issue of not only the lack of women on screen, but the lack of women BEHIND the scenes. “Around the world, women are far less likely than men to be seen in the media. As subjects of stories, women only appear in a quarter of television, radio, and print news. In a 2015 report, women made up a mere 19% of experts featured in news stories and 37% of reporters telling stories globally. As behavioral scientists studying women’s underrepresentation in the workplace, we know that this gender-imbalanced picture of society can reinforce and perpetuate harmful gender stereotypes. It is clear that the media must change how it reflects the world – but who can change media itself?” (Rattan et al., 2019). Underrepresentation of marginalized groups has more effect on all of us than we realize. Because the need for diversity and representation isn’t as actively challenged as it should be, we fall into the trap of believing that not seeing ourselves in the media we consume as “that’s just the way things are”. “Identities are formed by watching sports, theatre, TV, and YouTube; by playing video games, dancing, and listening to music. Those are more than just forms of entertainment, they stage “visions of possibility” for what and who we can become. Because marginalized populations have fewer role models in the workplace and society in general, we need more expansive and generous visions of possibility that tell stories of people from different races, genders, sexualities, classes, abilities, cultures. Everyone should have the opportunity to be recognized as fully human” (Key, 2019).

The male and female characters available to play in the video game, Soul Calibur.

The (mostly sexualized) outfits of Juliet Starling (a high schooler), the protagonist from the game Lollipop Chainsaw (2012).

Video games are a media that have since skyrocketed in popularity and video games are now much more mainstream than they used to be and are no longer treated as something “niche” thanks to the rise of things like YouTube (with LP’s (Let’s Plays), streaming platforms like Twitch, and overall more positive attention being given to games on the same level as things like film, TV, and music. “Some video games have female protagonist characters, but they embody a paradoxical position, as they are simultaneously a source of female empowerment and an objectified sex symbol meant entirely for the male gaze. According to Grimes, female heroines adhere to the Western beauty standards: caucasian, slim, beautiful, with symmetrical facial features. While their clothes may not necessarily be revealing, female protagonists still have a voluptuous and curvaceous body. Even though female protagonists come to occupy a traditionally masculine sphere when they use weapons and engage in violence and aggression, taking on masculinist roles doesn’t decrease the threat of the male gaze” (Danylova, 2020).

It’s tragic that this a form of a paradox that has always plagued video games; the video game industry, as of 90% of industries, is male-dominated which means their only desire to ultimately appeal to the male-audience (which is a mistake in itself since the game audience like all audiences isn’t just men anymore) and therefore everything is constructed on sexist/outdated ideas and means of storytelling and character writing. “For example, in the Tomb Raider series, Lara Croft is a powerful female protagonist character. However, her body is still fetishized and posited as an object for the male gaze. In addition to exaggerated femininity and sexual attractiveness, in the newer version of the Tomb Raider, the character of Lara Croft is sexualized through the viewpoint of the game camera. The viewpoint of the camera emphasizes the exposed body parts of Lara Croft, as she performs different actions. Players can observe her body from behind or just survey her figure by manipulating the angle of the camera” (Danylova, 2020).

“Like other forms of media, film and television have a powerful influence in shaping cultural perceptions and attitudes towards gender and are key to shifting the narrative for the gender equality agenda. Yet, an analysis of popular films across 11 countries found, for example, that 31 per cent of all speaking characters were women and that only 23 per cent featured a female protagonist—a number that closely mirrored the percentage of women filmmakers (21 per cent)” (UN Women, 2020). “The gross underrepresentation of women in the film industry is also glaringly evident in critically acclaimed film awards: In the 92-year history of the Oscars, only five women have ever been nominated for the Best Director Award category; and one woman—Kathryn Bigelow—has ever won. And, Jane Campion remains the only woman director to have won the Cannes Film Festival’s top, most prestigious prize, the Palme d’Or, in its 72-year history. The only other women to have received the prize—but jointly—were actresses Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux with the movie's male director Abdellatif Kechiche. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the message is worth a million: If we are to shift stereotypical notions of gender and reflect women’s realities, we need more women in film, on-screen and off-screen” (UN Women, 2020). All in all, women need to be behind the media; as directors, heads of companies, having creative control over women’s stories without the need to fall on the “male gaze”. Women need to be represented on the screens as well as behind the media, whether it be blockbuster movies to smaller scale indie projects.

References

Danylova, A. (2020, March 30). Gender struggles: Female representation in video games. INKspire. Retrieved December 10, 2021, from https://inkspire.org/post/gender-struggles-female-representation-in-video-games/-M7d51VKbu2OSfnfQ9am.

Key, J. (2019, February 14). Why seeing marginalized communities in pop culture matters. USC Dornsife College News RSS. Retrieved December 5, 2021, from https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/2954/marginalized-communities-in-popular-culture/.

Rattan, A., Chilazi, S., Georgeac, O., & Bohnet, I. (2019, June 6). Tackling the Underrepresentation of Women in Media. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://hbr.org/2019/06/tackling-the-underrepresentation-of-women-in-media#:~:text=and%20perpetuate...-,Around%20the%20world%2C%20women%20are%20far%20less%20likely%20than%20men,of%20reporters%20telling%20stories%20globally.

Visualizing the data: Women's representation in society. UN Women. (2020, February 25). Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/multimedia/2020/2/infographic-visualizing-the-data-womens-representation.