Misogynist student pushes a female student off of her video game. Photo courtesy of freshman Irelynn Zurbach.

  Video games are primarily played by men, and that’s just a fact. San Luis Obispo High School students have varying opinions on this matter. But if you enter just any classroom, chances are that the boys would be playing anything from “Block Blast” to “Minecraft” on their computers. 

  Because of this, game creators pander to men.This is in almost every game too, “Street fighters” with giving the female characters fetishized outfits and men shorts and a tee shirt. Even games that wouldn’t normally be seen like that do it too, “Five Nights at Freddy’s” is a common example with animatronics in sexualized outfits. 

  “Oh my god. It’s ridiculous. Though I do feel like sometimes people get a little too angry about it, especially when that actually can be the point of it,” said freshman Luke Miller. 

  Having oversexualized characters like this is a hard mold to break. This is because the writing, animating and programming industries are dominated by men. Only roughly thirty percent of the industry is women. This is leaps and bounds better than the industry back in the 1980’s arcade days, but it is still an issue nonetheless.

  Another problem is that people don’t pay attention to the creative team behind video games. People could play a game their whole life and never watch the credits. That’s why people don’t really care about women creators because no one even looks at the production team.

  “Honestly? No, I don’t pay attention to the main developer,” said Miller. 

  Supporting women in tech is important since it’s not just advocating for women in video games, but supporting women as a whole. Maybe this issue doesn’t directly affect you, but all fights for equality start small. And if people ignore this, they are directly deteriorating the cause. 

  To advocate for equal representation of women in media, participate in rallies, sign petitions and boycott games with unequal representation. Most importantly, play games that are made by women. Games such as “Celeste”, “Fran Bow”, “Uncharted”, “Cult of the Lamb” and “Unpacking” all are great games that are primarily made by women. 

  It’s not difficult to support women, so play video games!

Sources: Statistica.com, Womentech.net, Nerdstreet.com