Teresa Lynch, a professor at Ohio State University, has completed and published a study that examines how elements of sexualisation and strength impact our view of female video game characters. In a two-pronged study that put 677 participants to the test, Lynch and her team assembled a series of female characters and had users study and play as them for a set time.
These female characters were created with four categories in mind, all of which were centred around various levels of sexualisation and strength – for instance, a highly sexualised but weak character versus a low sexualised but very strong character.
The results of the study were intriguing.
The Mommy Theory
Think of all the users who fell in love with Resident Evil Village’s Alcina Dimitrescu despite her towering size and imposing, terrifying presence, and you’ll effectively arrive at the outcome of this study help by the Ohio State University.
Teresa Lynch’s team created four characters on Soulcalibur VI, focusing on their breast size, hip-to-waist ratio, clothing, weapons, and musculation. They were created to specifically fulfil four roles. Speaking on the reasons behind the study in the first place, Lynch said:
It’s important to understand how gender socialisation and prejudice like sexism inform video game development and player experiences.
Sexism pervades gaming. For example, game content overwhelmingly features male characters to the exclusion of central female or gender minoritised characters. Games that do feature female or gender minoritised characters often unfavorably stereotype and objectify these groups.
I want to know more about why, when, and how these kinds of outcomes happen.
To that end, a two-pronged experiment was produced. First, the team had 239 students view and rate these four characters, indicating which they preferred based on appearance alone. Per expectations, users accurately rated the characters based on their level of sexualisation, while noting that the ‘tougher-looking’ characters appeared more formidable.
Simple.
That’s where things took a turn, though. The participants in the study, most of whom were female, determined that a character with high sexualisation and high strength was more sexualised than characters just designed as ‘eye candy’. It was concluded that strength in a sexualised female character only serves to accentuate their attractiveness, rather than degrading it.
The study also showed that female participants were less favourable to the strictly sexualised characters and preferred those with a combination of good looks and a strong build.
Mommy? Sorry.
Part Two
In the second part of the study (which was picked up first by PsyPost), 438 students were put to the test, playing as one of the four characters for ten minutes on Soulcalibur VI.
The participants fed back that playing as a strong female lead aligned them less with ‘stereotypical femininity’, and it also made them feel as though the character was more competent. In the gender split, female participants gravitated more towards the sexualised characters, while male participants leant more into the ‘strong but less sexualised’ creations.
One of the most damning findings from the study was that while females bagged on sexy female characters, they were more likely to prefer playing as them when it came down to the live test session.
In a parting statement, Lynch said:
We’re also very interested in understanding the positive impact of female characters on players, not just the drawbacks or negative side. People play video games because they like them and find the experiences entertaining, but also because they have meaningful experiences. We’re exploring that side of things because it’s all part of the same question.
What do you think? Do you lean more towards sexualised female characters like Stellar Blade’s Project Eve, or are you more inclined to pick a physically imposing female character like The Last of Us Part II’s Abby?
Let us know on the Insider Gaming forum.
For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that Netflix is leaning heavily into GenAI for gaming
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