9. The Problem Is Subversive
When we think of how female characters are portrayed in video games, our minds often jump to titular images of big breasted women. Scantily dressed women are hardly foreign to our medium, but I think there is a problem inherent in that perception. By putting such a cartoony face to the problem, the imagery becomes easy to dismiss as just ridiculous character designs, glossing over the fact that the problem is much more complex. The real problem, I find, is a social one. The problem comes when people fail to see the deeper side of the argument. The fact is that women are not equal to men in some cases. We like to think that we live in a progressive society and for the most part we do, but women earn less, get muscled out of jobs and are represented much less then men in media. Most of the time when women are represented in games, it is at the service of the male character. A female character may hopelessly fall in love with the protagonist simply because he is the protagonist or they may be killed off to make a male protagonist more interesting. These are the kinds of instances that are noticed less and where I think the real progressive change can happen. The problem isn't always just about ridiculous boobs.