Women heroes in video games

Abstract

Though they have often been marginal, female video game characters have been present, even playable, from the early days of the industry. From Metroid’s Samus Aran (1986) to Lara Croft (1996) to Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn (2017), this entry tracks the history of women heroes in video games, with a focus on titles where the player character is female. Broadly speaking, the representation of women in video games tends to reflect the gender politics and assumptions of the gaming industry as a whole. Early games regularly hypersexualize their female protagonists, for the benefit of an assumed male, heterosexual audience. From the 2000s, as identity politics go mainstream and the gaming industry itself becomes bigger and more diversified, we see a rise in customization: the player is able to choose their gender, race, body type, and—on rarer occasions—sexuality. And in more recent years, with the rise of the indie games industry, complex and powerful women are more frequently represented, both on screen and off, as capable of carrying a successful franchise. Despite the increasingly nuanced and visible depiction of women heroes in video games, however, there is still much to be done in terms of the frequency, intersectionality, and paratextual framing of these portrayals.

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ORCID for Megen de Bruin-Molé: orcid.org/0000-0003-4243-1995

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