Narrative Normativity: A Qualitative Textual Analysis of Gender and Sexuality in Two Console Games

• In Event: 328 - Regular Session. Race, Class, and Gender in Global Media Today: Representations and Associations

Abstract

While sexualization in video games is often studied, the sexuality or sexual behavior of characters in the game narrative is rarely addressed in research. This study addresses this gap by focusing on the qualitative depictions of gender and sexuality in the content of two top-selling video games, Halo: Reach (H:R), and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (AC:B). In total, 37 different characters were coded for appearance, behavior, roles and sexuality in the framework of gender difference. A visual analysis finds that in both games women characters are always smaller and thinner than men, and women are generally younger than men. Female and male characters in H:R are largely desexualized, whereas many characters in AC:B are sexualized, and women are more often sexualized than men. However, the narrative content complicates these visual analyses. In H:R, more egalitarian depictions are undermined by privileging “masculine” qualities while denigrating “feminine” ones, and with men and women falling into gender-stereotypical roles. Additionally, in AC:B, women speak less and are wholly defined by either their sexuality or relationships to men, while men and women fill gender-stereotypical roles in the narrative. When comparing these two games to one another, the author makes two arguments: that the narrative content of these games provide only traditional, male-dominant cultural scenarios as potential sexual scripts (which exclude alternative sexualities), and that qualitative research of game content is necessary to discover the complex messages about gender and sexuality which are present in game narratives.

Author

• Amanda Jacqueline Turner, Temple University