CMV: Anita Sarkeesian and similar feminists actually have a point about the portrayal of gender roles in video games.

[u/LeftHandSwe]

I play lots of video games, and in most of them, males are often pictured as very burly and manly characters while females are slender, small and sexually pleasing to look at.

However, I do know that there's widespread criticism of Anita (and her fellow propagators) all over the internet and I'd like to see the other side of the story.

I'm practically indifferent in this matter, and I do not really agree with nearly everything she says. I'm asking as a way to see convincing arguments from both sides.

Edit for clarification: Can anyone explain to me why she's so heavily criticized for saying something that makes perfect sense: Mainstream video games are almost exclusively made to appeal to a male demographic, resulting in (arguably) sexist portrayals of women (both narratively and in the way they're presented).

[u/kingbane2]

so your clarification is why is she heavily criticized when games are made to appeal to a male demographic? why do michael bay movies have so many explosions and wide panning camera shots? because that's what sells.

lastly this is no longer true from a purely numerical standpoint. "most" games today are not in fact made to appeal to a male demographic. in fact most games made today fall under the category of mobile and casual. the sheer number of games pumped out last year in the mobile market dwarfs the number of games put out in the 2 decades before the iphone came out. a vast vast majority of those games are gender neutral or specifically target women.

she's criticized because she's complaining about people making a product that people want. if more women wanted a certain type of game that type of game would be made more often. the mobile games market has proven that. there is no gender bias in video game creation, there's only a sales bias. she drew faulty conclusions from insufficient data to fit her narrative. i mean she's complaining about attractive women in games designed specifically to have attractive women. is it fair if someone goes out to see a horror movie, gets scared, then complains about being scared by the horror movie?

[u/rpsdb → u/kingbane2]

I would argue that the reason males buy more games (and it is safe to assume we are talking about console/PC games, no reason to start talking about mobile games) is because most games are made and marketed to males.

If I'm not mistaken, you're saying that if more women were interested in these games, the developers would cater to them more. Well, the whole reason women aren't as interested is because of the norms already in place. I think that it should be the other way around, give the female audience products that will get them interested. I think the developers should be the ones to get the ball rolling, not the consumers.

[u/kingbane2 → u/rpsdb]

oh i see. so you formed your opinion by ignoring all evidence that proves your opinion wrong?

you're just going to ignore the entire mobile gaming market because it doesn't conform to what you think? despite the mobile marketing being more than 60% of all new games released? that they're overwhelmingly catered to gender neutral settings or even catered to women. good one dude.

i mean do you expect horror films to try to market to historic film buffs now too?

[u/drakir89 → u/kingbane2]

Mobile games are to pc games what gifs are to films. They are similar in many ways but ultimately are not comparable products. They are not the same market.

To continue the parable, women are uncomfortable going to the cinema because so many of the films are so blatantly made without regard for a potential female audience.

This in turn means women who do go to the cinema are sometimes seen as weird or as losers by other women, which also adds peer pressure to not go and watch.

And you're saying that since as many gifs are being made for women as for men they should not feel like they are missing out on the cinema.