A Digital Glass Ceiling: Women in Video Games

In a previous post, I discussed how the iconic character of Jennifer Hale's performance as the voice of the female Commander Shepard was both amazing for its brilliance and directly inspiring to me personally. This does, of course, come with a significant caveat: Shepard is a character that was written as a man. This, above all else, is what essentially established Commander Shepard's character, as, for all plot purposes, Shepard had to perform the same actions, or else drastically alter the plot, as well as greatly increase the amount of voice over recording needed. It is all dependent on that personality, for which it was Jennifer Hale's job to interpret into a voice that was believable and likable, which she does stunningly.

Few people in the game industry, or indeed the greater entertainment industry, even think about this simple failure: women in fiction are women first and everything else second. This isn't true for the real world, but in a society so dominated by male privilege, women are, ourselves, seen as a sort of commodity. We are treated as though being a woman is the defining trait in our lives, and thus find ourselves repeatedly being shown in fiction having features that are almost entirely exclusive to women.

I look at the Batman universe to draw examples from, primarily because Batman has such a wide cast of characters with clear psychological profiles that, while unrealistically over-the-top, serve as excellent and fairly well-known character archetypes. When asked to name some of Batman's nemeses, usually the first names that come to mind are the Joker, the Penguin, and Two-Face. These are three characters whose identities are simple to identify, but also complex in detail. The Joker is a psychotic, disfigured man who portrays himself as a clown and enjoys causing mayhem and destruction. The Penguin is a wealthy and sophisticated mobster with a thing for birds. Two-Face is a disturbed former District Attorney, obsessed with a twisted perversion of "justice" based entirely on chance, whose formerly hidden dark side exploded to the surface after half his face was horribly scarred by a criminal he had sought to prosecute.

All of those are spectacular character profiles; all extreme and overblown, but easily identifiable. But what do you think of when you are asked to think of female villains in the Batman universe? Well, you will almost always hear Catwoman first, followed by Poison Ivy. If the person you are talking to is particularly knowledgeable, they may mention Harley Quinn or Talia Al'ghul. Let's examine these characters individually.

Catwoman: First up is the self proclaimed "Greatest Thief in Gotham." In most continuities, Catwoman is basically an expert cat burglar who has a thing for cats and wearing skin-tight leather clothing. What makes Catwoman a particularly dangerous foe to Batman is her potential as a love interest. She teases him, and even occasionally helps him, and in return Batman has a kind of respect and admiration for her that he wouldn't afford to most thieves. Essentially, this is a role that can ONLY be filled by a woman.

Poison Ivy: Poison Ivy is a botanist mutated by an accident that gave her control of plants as well as the ability to poison people with a kiss. She is essentially a superpowered eco-terrorist, but it's the latter ability that defines her role in fiction. She is a seductress, dangerous and attractive, but almost entirely defined by her sex appeal. Again, a role that could ONLY be filled by a woman.

Talia Al'ghul: Now we're getting into territory that fewer people are familiar with, thus showing that, after only two entries, we're already somewhat scraping the barrel for examples. Talia Al'ghul is the daughter of R'as Al'ghul, a man who has survived hundreds of years using a mystical well he calls "the Lazarus Pit" and has established the League of Assassins, a group of extremist vigilante ninjas who see it as their duty to execute any and all criminals without trial. R'as serves as a sort of corrupt father figure to Bruce Wayne, which makes him one of the very few enemies that knows Batman's identity. This also establishes Talia as a particularly deadly love interest, as she knows Bruce Wayne and has been intimate with him as well as knowing his identity as Batman. Again, since her particular role establishes her as a love interest, this is again a role that could ONLY be filled by a woman.

Harley Quinn: Harley Quinn is a character first introduced in Batman: The Animated Series in the 90's and quickly became a fan favorite. She is the Joker's girlfriend and most loyal henchwoman, and adores "Mr. J" more than anything in the world. The Joker, of course, treats her like dirt, but she's so madly in love with him that she doesn't even realize it. This is a particularly degrading example, as it depicts a woman in an abusive relationship who simply accepts "her place," even relishing in it, while actually being a DOCTOR as well. That's right, Harley Quinn, aka Dr. Harleen Quinzel, had managed to earn a Ph. D. before having a series of psych eval sessions with the Joker that drover completely bonkers. On top of that, she's also an expert martial artist and acrobat. In other words, not only is it a role that could ONLY be filled by a woman, but it's also a particularly offensive one when looked at in detail.

Clearly, all these examples fail the simple test of finding a female character whose role in the story would be possible to replace with a man, but it's not just in the Batman universe. If you look around in films, video games, comic books, and even most novels, it is hard to find any female characters for whom the narrative either specifically required to be female or fills a role traditional to a woman. This is something that needs to change if we are ever to encourage more women to play games.

With the example of FemShep, I am hoping that door is finally beginning to open. We still, five years on, have yet to see very many female characters that don't fit into traditional female roles in video games, but there has been a crack made in the glass ceiling. Even with statistics saying that only about 18% of people who play Mass Effect play with a female Shepard, most of the fans that do have become some of BioWare's most loyal fans, even the men. There is hope for a more diverse field of women in video games.