(Credit: Square Enix)
In a TED talk that's been making the rounds recently, actress Ashley Judd took a stab at the video game industry saying that “profiteering off misogyny in video games must end.”
“I’m so tired of hearing you talk to me about how deplorable #GamerGate was when you’re still making billions of dollars off games that maim and dump women for sport,” she said. “Basta! As the Italians would say. Enough.”
Misogyny in video games is vastly overblown by members of the press---both mainstream and within the video game press itself---and by celebrities and activists. I can only surmise that Judd, in this instance, is referring to Grand Theft Auto, the lowest of low-hanging fruit when it comes to criticizing video games for misogyny.
In that game franchise, players can do just about anything they want, from shooting at police or civilians to stealing cars to killing prostitutes and taking their money. That last one gets a lot of play in the media, but represents only a very tiny (and optional) activity in the open-world crime series.
To my knowledge, however, there is no video game in which you literally "maim" and then "dump" women for sport. In GTAV you kill far more men than you do women. Women are not treated as some special sub-class of human being, free from the carnage that is visited upon everyone in the game.
In general, more men than women are killed, maimed and wounded in video games. That's because games have largely been the wheelhouse of young men; only recently have video games become more diverse. Part of that diversity means that we see more female video game characters getting killed and wounded. I've seen Lara Croft die many horrible deaths in the new Tomb Raider games. I'd say that's a step toward equality and social justice, not the other way around.
Judd's main point was to highlight online abuse so it's very unsurprising that she would invoke #GamerGate, online harassment's great bogeyman. But I wish she'd at least used an example of which games she felt "profiteered" from this sort of thing. (Certainly there are games that are fairly flagrant in their use of the maxim "sex sells," but that's a far cry from maiming and dumping women.)
While many people are incredibly critical of feminist video game critic Anita Sarkeesian, at least she uses specific examples of video games to make her points, whether or not you agree with them. Here Judd is painting with a wide brush, failing to list any examples of what it is she's criticizing, and taking it for granted that her vague accusations would be accepted at face value. She (probably correctly) assumes her TED audience aren't big gamers, and will accept blithely the assertion that video game creators profit off of misogyny. Low-hanging fruit, indeed.
That's not to say there are no problems with sexism in video games. Sexism is a real issue that exists within our media, from movies to music to games, because these things reflect the real world. Sexism doesn't stem from video games; video games, like films and novels, are a statement about the world in which we live.
As to Judd's larger point---that online harassment is bad and damaging and should go away---I certainly agree, even if I find the issue depressingly Utopian. Whether it's something that can truly ever be stopped, given that it's often anonymous and hard to pin down, is an open question. I lean toward "no" given that the combination of human nature and anonymity tends to lead to unpredictable behavior.
But as someone who believes that all people should be treated with respect and dignity, I can certainly get behind efforts to make the world a more civil and decent place, just as long as free speech isn't on the chopping block.
In terms of video games, while there's certainly some distasteful stuff out there, and plenty of obnoxious people who play games (who also do other things other than play games and are probably obnoxious in those pursuits as well) I think overall video games are a good and healthy thing. They are a peaceful pastime that gives people something to do other than get into trouble.
The millions of people who purchased and played GTAV aren't out in the streets maiming and dumping women, robbing banks or stealing cars. They're pressing buttons in front of a TV screen, escaping off into some murderous fantasy land, and then they're going about their lives. The bad apples, the abusive trolls, the real jerks? They've always been with us and they always will be. Let's not judge everyone for the sins of the few.
Here's the video. Unsurprisingly, YouTube comments have been disabled:
