From the popular Grand Theft Auto series to fighting games like Street Fighter or action escapades like Bayonetta, sexualized representations of women are worryingly common in contemporary video games.
The most recent example of a video game’s female character’s sexualisation comes after last night’s airing of The Last of Us, HBO’s latest, terrifying post-apocalyptic TV series.
Some concerning online reactions to the casting of Ellie, include comments like she’s just “not as cute as my Ellie”, “she’s just too old to love” and worryingly, that Bella Ramsey the actor who plays the role, looks “too much like an actual child.”
According to Stylist, reactions like this suggest it’s not Ramsey’s performance that is their problem: it’s that she doesn’t look like the fetishised version of Teenage Ellie they hold in their heads.
With this in mind, online gaming site Solitaired has conducted a study to uncover the most sexualized female video game character and which series is most guilty of sexualizing its female characters.
Solitaired analyzed 100 of the top female characters using Google’s Keyword Planner, searching for key terms, which sexualized these characters. These were then added together to create a combined number of monthly sexualized searches. *
| Rank | Character | Game Series | Monthly Google Searches |
| 1 | Chun-Li | Street Fighter | 47,920 |
| 2 | Princess Peach | Super Mario | 37,660 |
| 3 | Lara Croft | Tomb Raider | 22,190 |
| 4 | Rosalina | Super Mario | 18,120 |
| 5 | Cortana | Halo | 15,000 |
| 6 | Lady Dimitrescu | Resident Evil | 10,070 |
| 7 | D.va | Overwatch | 9,510 |
| 8 | Bayonetta | Bayonetta | 8,860 |
| 9 | Widowmaker | Overwatch | 7,290 |
| 10 | Tifa Lockhart | Final Fantasy | 6,260 |
In first place is Chun-Li from Street Fighter who has 47,920 monthly Google searches related to her attractiveness and sexual characteristics.
Unlike traditional ‘sexy’ gaming characters Chun-Li has relatively reasonable proportions and, her chest is fully covered. However, her traditional Chinese attire is made potentially sexier with contemporary modifications, like side slits to show more skin.
This leads to possible voyeurism, especially as players both past and present have focused on the exposure of the character’s thighs, and in eroticizing them.
In second position is Princess Peach from Super Mario, with 37,660 monthly Google searches. The damsel-in-distress trope is common in video games and comes under fire in gaming culture for its depiction of women.
Many feel characters like Peach depict women as needy and subservient, as well as sex objects.
In third place is Tomb Raider’s Lara Croft, with 22,190 monthly Google searches. Arguably, the most important and controversial female character ever created Lara Croft was the first playable female character for a home console given the same capabilities as men.
Although Lara Croft broke the most obvious tropes of previous female characters, she is still not the perfect representation of a female character in games. Famously, the origin of her sizeable chest was actually a programming mistake, when designer Toby Gard accidentally typed in the wrong number for her chest, going from 50 to 150 percent.
According to Gordon Midwood, co-founder, and CEO of A.I. start-up Anything World, decisions to make these accidents permanent, are not uncommon in the gaming industry:
“Often a character will be chosen and developed based on the internal preferences of a gaming company. Given the makeup of video game companies and well-known lack of diversity in the sector the dominance of heavily sexualized female characters and lack of representation for non-white groups is perhaps no surprise.”
However, the look of Lara is starting to develop in a more body-positive way. Modern duplications of the character are finally becoming representative of a real human. Even the BBC noted, “the hotpants have gone, and her breasts have shrunk”.
Solitaired’s top ten, also features female characters, with characteristics that move beyond typical gender stereotypes, like Lady Dimitrescu, from Resident Evil Village. She is in position six with 10,070 monthly Google searches.
Lady Dimitrescu’s been described as “visually striking and interesting,” because she doesn’t neatly fit into either the mould of a Resident Evil foe, or most female characters in big-budget video games.
Her design was incited by 16th-century noblewoman and serial killer Elizabeth Bathory, Anjelica Huston’s depiction of Morticia Addams and Japanese urban legend Hasshaku-sama,
Interestingly, two contrasting games, Super Mario and Overwatch contain the highest number of sexualized female characters in the top ten. Princess Peach and Rosaline from Super Mario are in positions two and four. D.va and Widowmaker from Overwatch are in positions seven and nine.
Neal Taparia, CEO of Solitaired.com, commented on the study: “While the gaming industry still has a long way to go, we must not forget there is a vast body of work, that does include positive, complex, and interesting depictions of women
“Progress has been slow, but we are starting to see fewer sexualized designs and more authentic female representation. We hope this continues in the future.”
Gordan Midwood adds:
“The over-sexualization of female characters works against expanding the reach of gaming (cynically it reduces the addressable market).
“I think it serves us all better as gamers and as a society to amplify and include all groups.
“Gaming is for everyone, and everyone deserves fair representation.”
You can view the full study here.
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