New study shows a severe absence of LGBT+ characters in video games
A new study from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media and Promundo-US titled ‘The Double-Edged Sword of Online Gaming’ has gone into detail on LGBT+ characters and representation in video games. They also examined gender, race, disability, age, and body size, and even analyzed the popularity of streamers on Twitch, including their use of homophobic and transphobic language. This isn’t too surprising, considering almost every LGBTQIA+ gamer out there has experienced abuse of some sort.
As first reported on by Pink News, the study stated it is the “first systematic content analysis of U.S. Representation in Video Games since 2009.” As such, the study will be examing to see how far the video game industry has come in regards to “six major marginalized groups in US society” such as women and LGBTQIA+ groups to name two of them.
The study’s data is based on 27,564 characters in 684 fifteen-minute gameplay segments from sessions with the top 20
Twitch streamers, all of which were male and only one identified as someone LGBT+. Keep this in mind when examining the data listed below, as it is highly likely that triple-A games will be the focus, leaving indie games and the strides made by indie game developers in the dark.
The study found that male characters outnumber female characters four-to-one (79.9% compared with 20.1%). With leading characters however, women make up 27.6%. Of course, female characters are also more likely to be sexually objectified (verbally and visually) than their male counterparts (3.5% compared with 0.1%).
White characters also outnumber characters of colour by three to one, (75.3% compared with 24.7%). The study notes that this is not at all representative of the US as a whole, but is a notable improvement since 2009. That said, nearly nine-in-ten video game leads are white, so there is still obvious improvement needing to be done.
As for LGBT+ characters in video games, they are virtually absent with only 0.03% of characters being identifiable as queer. The study states then that it is “little wonder, then, that 84% of LGBTQIA+ gamers think that their sexual orientation is not well represented in video games.” The report also says that it is a surprise that more top producers aren’t taking advantage of including more queer characters, given the “sizeable market” aimed at LGBTQIA+ consumers.
More damningly, the report shows that homophobic or transphobic language was used in 10.1% of segments analyzed by the study. The most common slur was a streamer using a variant of “suck my dick” in a homophobic way (4.7%). Considering that these are the top 20 streamers on Twitch, it paints a terrible, close-minded picture.
In a section labelled ‘Interventions’ the study lists different actions for video game developers and distributors. One of the actions is for video game developers to increase the number of playable LGBTQIA+ characters in video games and avoid gender, race/ethnic, LGBTQIA+, disability, age, and body size stereotypes when creating character
options for personality, appearance, etc.
While we are a gayming magazine, it is within everyone’s interest to want not just more significant LGBTQIA+ characters and representation, but for everyone to get improved representation – that includes more fat characters, non-white characters and leads not steeped in stereotypes, and so much more.
You can read the full report for yourself, here.
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