Sexism and the portrayal of female characters in gaming has been a hot topic lately, but are games really that sexist? Or has the whole issue been blown out of proportion. Gamesradar delves into the history of sexist portrayals of both women and men in video games...

Lara Croft. Kazumi. Ruby. Ivy. All female video game protagonists, all festering adolescent wank-fantasies. Yup, games are crap when it comes to depicting women. If they’re not trying to save the world using only the power of their tits, they’re simpering in a tower somewhere waiting for a big strong man to come and save them. Yup, games are sexist in the extreme.

Except that perhaps they’re not. We’re in no way saying that the examples listed above are in any way a justifiable, realistic, or healthy way to portray women. They’re nothing but the opposite, and things need to change. But there’s more at play here than old fashioned, lug-headed misogyny on the part of game devs. The reasons for video games’ insulting female characters go much deeper than that. In fact they start way back in the early mists of both game design and narrative structure. All primed and ready? Well here we go...

Miss Razz via gamesradar.com »