Women and videogames: a response to BBC's Woman's Hour.
It was unfortunate that Woman's Hour (27/01/11) seemed to have guests that seemed to have very little understanding of the modern games industry and / or had difficulty expressing themselves. The reasons behind women's position in videogames and the industry is simple: Like any other 'interest' that is largely based around technology, it began as a hobby largely undertaken by men (like science, radio, television, the internet etc.- this phenomenon is another discussion). As it was mainly men designing fictional games for other men, most female characters were of a fictional / fantasy character, which is also true of other media- film and T.V. most notably. This is also true of the male characters, who tend to be muscly, brave, hero types. This general male fantasy notion of women is never going to change- it is a fantasy that has existed since the beginning of human nature. This doesn't of course mean that it is the right way to depict women, but alot...