One of the issues that I have with modern popular culture is the lack of representation of females on the 'bad' or villainous side. Our society balks at the lack of women in action movies and video games and many a time I hear/read a video game reviewer make this comment, "Finally! A strong female character in a video game."
As usual, the complaints only occur with regards to
positive representation; the heroine, the kick-ass fighter, more female main characters. No one complains about the lack of women as cannon fodder, the lack of female body count in games or movies in which enemies are mowed down like wheat or the lack of female characters that are underhanded, sneaky, conniving and traitorous. In a game like Borderlands, for example, 100% of the human enemies are males; no complaints about gender equality there.
However, the times they are a-changing. Take a fairly recent game like Skyrim, a sword and sorcery, magic and dragons type of game that has a huge game world to explore. When making a character to play, there is no difference between the genders other than looks; males are not any more strong or enduring than females are. You will find gender equality here in the respect that even women are guards, blacksmiths, soldiers, bodyguards, merchants, innkeepers, magic users, bards and rulers.
However, you will also find women that are bandits, bandit leaders, evil necromancers and witches, enemy soldiers, vampires and assassins. Women are portrayed as being strong and capable enough to be side by side with men, both in the heroic
and the despicable aspects of society. It frequently annoyed me in popular culture to see the 'good' side represented by both men
and women, while only men (or the vast majority) represented the 'bad' side.
To this extent I found the following evolution of commentary to be quite telling. I was watching a series of Youtube videos in which the player recorded the in-game footage of himself playing Skyrim and did a commentary as he went along. Early in the video series when his character killed a female bandit, he made the white knight comment, "Oh, no! Why did it have to be a woman?!"
Later, when a female game character challenged him to a brawl, his commented, "Normally I wouldn't hit a woman....." As he progressed through the game, he encountered more female enemies that he needed to dispatch, because they had no complaints with attacking his character. A few videos later and he was killing and looting bandits, regardless of gender with no commentary. Still, several videos later, during the midst of a combat with several enemies, he said, "This one's a girl! Take out the legs and crunch the skull!"
I just found it rather amusing to see a player begin with the white knight attitude of not hitting a woman, changing to the point where gender did not matter when it came to survival.
Even in the midst of equal gender representation, there is still a female character in one of he main cities that makes the comment to the player's character, "Can't stand the sight of a strong woman?" Well, obviously not, because we are surrounded by "strong women"!
