The dying-a-slow-death aggregator of women/comics sex issues, When Fangirls Attack, pointed me today to an interesting article evaluating the position that female protagonists enjoy under the male gaze as instigated by contemporary videogame developers. Here's the summary of the part that I found interesting, if only because I disagreed.
Using Tomb Raider as a test case, the author decides that one of the primary features game developers build into games of this sort centers around the concept of control. And particularly, control of and—most importantly—over the female avatar.* As games are often built upon the proposition of virtually-realized fantasy, the author extends this to include the persona of control—as evidence of gamers' and developers' previously internalized desire to control women. If the author had recently read Bolaño, he might attribute this desire to the conscious/unconscious fear men hold for women.
In Tomb Raider, instead of becoming another—you can control another. The prospect of controlling another, as is made possible by video-games, acts as a form of interactive voyeurism as the male gamer may not feel as if they themselves are implemented within the game which may change the way they react to different situations.
The author believes that the way male gamers play a game in which the avatar is a clearly sexualized characterization differs markedly from playing with alternative representation, positing among other actions, that male gamers will intentionally bring about character deaths in particular ways that might (and this could just be my read on what he's saying) draw upon or even help exorcise male fear of the female. He additionally makes the point that when these avatars are presented in-game from the first person camera-view, players feel less of this desire to control a third party and are more likely to inhabit the avatar to the point of creating a vaguely intimate bond with the character's plight.
Speaking again of third person avatar control and specifically citing Tomb Raider's protagonist as example, the author continues:
This level of control could also act as a means for the male audience to self-assert an attitude of dominance over the opposite sex both directly and indirectly. Directly, it would satisfy the male gamers’ satisfaction of control and leadership by directly having control over the female character, and the actions she performs, to the extent where you can choose whether she survives or not.
The author sees control of the female avatar as speaking overtly of the male desire for patriarchy, the male dismissal of the female as full-fledged person, and the male desire to dominate the feminine Other that he fears. He sees this as a conscious-or-not assertion of patriarchal hegemony.
The thing is, I think he's right that a character like Lara Croft is an outright participation in the common patriarchy despite the fact that I find his theory of male dominance here overstated simply on the basis that it is stated at all. Rather than citing awkward psychological needs arising from the male cultural distinctive (i.e. the dominance/control scheme), there seems a much simpler answer to the dilemma. There is a straightforward reason for the main of male gamers who enjoy playing through female avatars that concerns neither the desire to dominate a female nor the desire to engage a feminine view of the world (something which videogames rarely capture).
The simplest answer, I think, is this: if given the option of spending twenty-plus hours watching the backside of a strapping young man, chiseled to perfection, or that of a cutish, physically desirable young woman, a large number of heterosexual males will choose the latter. (There are still a number who will associate the avatar closely with their own persona, breaking down the cipher aspect of the representative, and will feel uncomfortable choosing a female avatar when given the opportunity.) My own theory is that many heterosexual males will find it more comfortable to dwell on the appearance of a female avatar than to do the same with a male avatar, well-endowed with strength, speed, and cool, good looks. This reaction, I believe, stems from the same psychology that made the light homophobia that ruled my high school pretty much the status quo.
So rather than an overt bid for control, I think the use and popularity of female avatars such as Lara Croft speaks of the sexual preferences and appreciation of the female form intimate to the heterosexual male. I believe this principle may be comparable to the male proclivity for the use of female pornography. The desire is not so much for control as it is for sexual expression (though the difference between playing Tomb Raider and using pornography is stark enough).
I could, I suppose, argue that pornography too imposes a patriarchal psychology of male-over-female dominance and that even the theory I forward speaks to shades of similar desire to control the female (if only her form). I think those could make for fair discussions, but they seem to be some distance from the direction our author proposes.
In any case, from examples such as Tomb Raider and a host of other videogames, the male gaze is relentlessly supported and the origin is unquestionably an institutionalized sexism that rides on the back of our long history of patriarchal hegemony. There are changes that ought to be made within the industry and without—and recognition of the flaws these changes should address is an important initial step.
Notes:
* For those unfamiliar with avatar terminology, the character one controls is referred to as one's avatar. One's onscreen representation is the cipher through which the players is masked and interacts with the game environment. In Super Mario Bros., one's avatar is a squat plumber with unspeakably large moustache. In Tomb Raider, one's avatar is an ill-proportioned** young woman in hot pants and hiking boots.
** For the movie version of Tomb Raider, Angelina Jolie had to wear artificial boobs to fill out protagonist Lara Croft's prospectus. That's on top of Jolie's already artificial assets.
Extra: sorry to reference a Tony Danza film in my title. I realize that was in unquestionably poor taste.
Labels: sexism, videogames