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I love social commentary on video games. I find it especially delicious when people start out by criticizing a game or the industry and end up contradicting themselves. As I mentioned before in this post, there was the attack on a new video game that both talked about how they needed to protect minors from violence in videogames and then the article goes on to point out the game is rated Mature (17 and up). In other words there is a great hullabaloo over yet another video game that is quite clearly marked as being for older audiences. The critique would make more sense if most minors in possession of video games didn't receive them directly from their parents about 80 to 90 percent of the time.

So, in a similar vein, I found the following situation amusing as well. I was somewhat half-heartedly browsing the selection of my local game store, not particular intent on buying anything that day, and I managed to overhear a guy and his girlfriend talking. She was giving him the riot act over something he didn't even seem to be interested in. She was going on about how so many video games just have women with large breasts (I'm paraphrasing here as this young lady was actually pretty crude) and was griping about the presentation of females as being sex objects.

I couldn't help myself, I had to see this young couple. Now the guy wasn't anything extraordinary but the girlfriend wasn't bad. What was amusing was here was a young lady complaining about the image video games give women, and yet she's wearing a midriff baring-low cut tank-top that is skin tight, an orange bra that is also obviously low cut, and hip hugger jeans that I'm pretty sure she had a running start to get in. Now, I know this is the fashion these days and that is a commentary for another day. The point is, here is a young lady who has dressed in a manner that shows off her...ahem...assets complaining about how video games portray women?

Again, let me be clear. I don't take exception to how a woman chooses to dress, but there are standards here. In this case it's a double. I'm increasingly surprised at how many young women are more willing to "show off the goods" as it were these days. So which is really worse here? I can't say that the image of women in many videogames is necessarily a positive nor healthy one. At the same time, at least we're talking digital representations here. Is anyone really being exploited or objectified directly? It may produce a negative effect upon a male's overall composite of women, but there is no specific desire towards a real person in most cases. I would be much quicker to argue that the accepted manner of dress of most women in their late teens and early 20's is more exploitative than what we see in many contemporary games.

There seems to be very little difference to me than the parent who buys a Mature rated product and then complains about the content. The overall dynamics are different, but there is an instant loss of credibility in both cases. A parent who ignores ratings and thus their responsibility buys a product unsuitable for children and is then surprised it contains content that is, well, unsuitable for children. A female complaining about how videogames portray women as sex objects who herself is dressed as a sex object. It's not that their observations are untrue, but their moral outrage does ring just a bit hollow.

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