The Hypersexuality Of Women and Videogames: The Effects It Has on Society and The Business Industry
Abstract
The misrepresentation of females in video games has created a harmful environment due to the hypersexual nature and stereotypes. This study is a data collection based on the harmful behaviors and patterns of both developers and members of the gaming community. The gaming community carries behaviors that can be deemed harmful and are close to office harassment towards women who are more hostile while playing video games and engaging with women outside of it. Harmful community behaviors also affect women in the gaming communities especially when most female main characters are seen with unrealistic body proportions which creates body image issues (in women) and leads to higher rates of depression. These behaviors contrast with the effect the gaming community has on each other and with the developers. Developers have created a data set pattern that monitors the community and the choices fans will make within video games so that said games would sell more. The data set monitors data sets forappealing characters, game functions, as well as fan service. These findings as a whole suggest that both the developers and the community itself need to change the way that they are treating women within the gaming community. The over-sexualization and stereotypes that are made of women in video games are desensitizing younger generations to this behavior, letting those new into the gaming community think that this problem is okay.