Subjects:
a popular home video game system. I thought they could share it and when asked if this was OK
with them, they replied, “Sure mom, that would be great.” So, we planned on installing the little
goody onto the TV in the family room, so that both kids would have an equal chance to play. So,
“What then?” you may be asking is the problem. The problem arose when we went to shop for
games for the system. They weren’t hard to find. They were in all the local toy stores and
Walmart and Kmart too! But, there weren’t any for girls! I looked high and low and came up
Why was this happening? Surely, girls must want to play video games as much as boys
do! Why then, aren’t game manufacturers producing any video games that feature girls as the
main character? On a recent trip to our local Walmart store, I found over two hundred video
game titles, yes I counted, for our game system, but of these only two had female main
characters. One of them was, you guessed it, Barbie! The other one was a female warrior
dressed in a scantily clad leather outfit. I’m pretty sure the latter was
. . .
opened my eyes as a consumer! I am interested on my next trip to the toy store , to find out if
other areas of the store are as biased as the video game department. Girl Tech is one such group, in hopes of reaching 3.
Surely, a big retailer, like Toys-R-Us would have more of a selection. Girls currently represent only about 20
percent of the market, having been pretty much written off by important manufacturers like,
Hasbro, Sony, and Sega ( 3 ). So, off I went on
my merry way only to be once again disappointed.
I ended up purchasing 4 games for my kids to play.
I believe this is largely so, due to the male dominance in the whole computer and
technological industry. From ages, 6 to 10, girls play
video games as much and as often as boys in that same age bracket, and one survey reports that
if there were more games out there that they enjoyed, 85 percent of girls surveyed would use
their gaming systems more ( 1 ).
Girls have extensive buying power though, nearly 84 billion dollars annually, and over 6
million of them live in households with gaming systems ( 3 ). That is, the media has traditionally ignored women.
What is important here is that, I am at least aware of the problem now. Mostly,
these games are being sold to boys and young men. designed for young men,
and not for young girls. I wonder how many
other mothers with daughters are aware of what is available to their daughters as consumers.
Instead of the violent, time-limited games boys go for, the girls like games that offer strong
narratives, interaction, and creativity.
Essay's Topics
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