This seems to be the conclusion she often comes to, yet is never able to adequately show a correlation between what happens in video games and what happens in real life; specifically how mens' treatment of women is altered by depictions of women in media. She uses weasle words like "studies show", but never cites anything directly in her videos. Instead, she gives you a list of resources - most of which are articles and discussions from other feminists or links to her other videos. Seriously, she cites herself.
I don't honestly know what she does or doesn't cite, or what the scientific literature says. But it doesn't seem like a big stretch to imagine that common stereotypes and cliches in popular media (not just video games) can influence or reinforce attitudes, even if those attitudes don't always translate directly into harmful action. A single scene in a single game probably doesn't have that much impact on most people's thinking, but it might be part of a pattern, and as gamers, it's worth our time to be aware of these things when we see them so as to minimize any subconscious influence they might have on us. I'm not saying don't play the games at all or that any game company that traffics in these stereotypes and cliches is being deliberately sexist, just that we can recognize these things, and so can developers.
As for women being helpless...
In video games you don't just help women. Almost any game you play, whether the main character is male or not, there's a lot of saving the day involved. That's kind of the whole point of playing a hero. I would also say it's not that uncommon to come across a female character who has lost their family due to some kind of violence, though they're usually not the main character in a game.
Sure. But I think it's also probably true that game protagonists are disproportionately male and that the cliche of the damsel-in-distress may pop up a little more than its counterparts (i.e. females saving males, or males saving other males).
I'm not saying this to pick on Bioware at all, just as a reference point that most people here will understand - let's consider Mass Effect. A total of seven different squadmates are available at various points in the game. Consider how Shepard meets each of them, males first, then females:
- Kaidan - simply assigned to the squad as part of the Normandy crew
- Jenkins - ditto, though he dies right away (and can't be "saved" by a male or female Shepard)
- Garrus - C-Sec officer confronting criminals and trying to rescue a female hostage (Dr. Michel)
- Wrex - either blowing off the C-Sec guys, threatening Fist, or simply popping up and asking to join
- Liara - trapped in a chamber on Therum
- Tali - ambushed by Saren's mercs, later says Shepard "saved her life"
- Ashley - on the run from the geth and clearly seemed to think she might not have held out on her own
Let me clarify that there are two things I am definitely NOT saying here. I am NOT saying (1) that the Bioware writers responsible for these scenes are sexists or misogynists, or (2) that this makes the male characters more likeable or admirable (Wrex is easily the most morally ambiguous of the group and the one I'd least want anywhere near me if they were real people as opposed to characters in a game, and being the victim of violence should never be seen as diminishing anyone's value as a living being). But there is a bit of an imbalance there in terms of the females being portrayed as more in need of assistance from Shepard (who, if stats are to be believed, is most frequently played as a male character) compared to the males.
Perhaps more to the point, I hadn't explicitly thought of it in these terms until just now when I sat down to reply to this thread. I suppose you could argue that that's because it's simply an irrelevant accident of the story and I should just pat myself on the back for being immune to sexist interpretations, but I'm not sure I want to give myself quite that much credit. I don't think anyone reasonable is going to argue that this means we should all boycott Bioware and burn our copies of Mass Effect in effigy, just that we can recognize that there may be some subtle stereotypes being invoked and that we can do more to avoid and counteract them in the future. (And I tend to agree that Bioware is generally pretty good in terms of depicting gender in an even-handed manner.)
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