@Brovo: Having read your responses I think your original post I quoted from may have suggested a less agreeable view. If I'm reading you correctly, you agree these are issues, however, believe change would be best on slowly implemented rather than quick and potentially chaotic. I can't say I'd argue with that as it's progressive, yet, for me I tend to lean for a more extreme push in this issue. Sexism in this form is unfortunately similar to racism, not in that the terms come with a ton of baggage, but because both are based on a characteristic usually very visible. If this were something a bit more subtle I would be happy to agree for a slow change. Slow in this case would mean those victimizing are left free a while longer until attitudes 'naturally' change. In my mind issues like this should be thought up broadly then given particular areas of focus. Focus areas that hit an important part of the problem, like little beacons exemplifying change, like the task force President Obama is supporting to engage with sexual assault in relation to students. If we were actively doing something like this starting with female media representation I believe we would change minds much quicker than, say, if we changed attitudes in education (which helps, but takes years to be felt). Anyway, that was indeed civil and I feel like I understand your points better now. I'm glad we agree this is a problem, even if there may be other areas to focus on before geek culture.

[quote=Genkidami]I cant really comment on the geek thing, but feminism in gaming, it really gets me, it doesnt sit well with me. Its a me-too, have our cake and eat it too attitude from a minority who want to impose their agendas on the majority. They never use or have facts, they dont take into account context like market shares, the fact the majority of people who play games with main characters are male, so male main characters are there so that players can relate to them. They use long debunked logic, like the fact sexism in games will cause sexism in real life. And you'll get people who will say "yep, thats true! Gotta stomp out these games!", but when it was fucking Jack Thompson several years ago putting practically that very same point forward, he was a crack pot with no evidence, in fact the evidence went against him.[/quote]

You should check out media studies, I think you'd sincerely enjoy it. We're not talking neo-whatever bullshit studies, I mean actually looking at the history of television, film, and interactive media. See, because when you do you start to see something sort of interesting. Did you know back when television programming was still forming in America a majority of the shows in the day were geared toward women? Since they were stereotypically housewives the belief was that they were the prime audience and consumers as they'd also view more commercials each day. Funny too, the commercials were designed to bump up the audio as it was expected these viewers would be doing household chores or cooking and those doing the selling wanted their ads heard far and wide. In this time women were a primary media focus for most of the working day and those producing the media were almost entirely men (Caucasian, heterosexual, Christian, middle class, men, to note). Moving on.

Jump about fifty to sixty years up and what's changed? Well women are more accepted in television in the US, though in a limited capacity. Many women actually go for directing jobs in film with stories to tell like any other, however, most of these people are declined. The term boys club you use is actually one they use in media studies, see, look you're already ahead of the game. Of course they don't use it in quotes. They use it because those working in the film industry know this is an issue. Because they knew that many films restrict access to women and the way they're portrayed suffers as a result. Women are socialized to think of themselves as lesser than just like men, but give a woman a leadership position to tell a story that treats men and women the same and that narrative can change. Again, let's skip forward.

The film industry makes investments to produce their work in a way I'd suggest is similar to interactive media. So if these two areas are similar, both hiring directors, concept designers, story writers, and many a marketing and communications figure, then maybe they similar issues. Well first let's just point out a fact. Both film and games are media. Many Americans consume media in large quantities, larger than ever before in our history in fact! Let's agree that shooting a car in a game or film won't make you shoot a car in reality. Let's also qualify that psychologists have tested our dichotic listening, in that we hear two things simultaneously, so that it's proven that even if an individual is hearing a series of words and numbers, is asked to repeat and focus on the numbers solely, they use the words heard only in the background far more than prior to the test (TLDR: If you hear something in the background without realizing it, you're likely to still use those words more often). Okay great, those were facts! Now hold on though, if our media is showing casts that assign strength and priority based on gender, won't we grow to expect this over time in reality? Because we're human and we can learn through conditional programming, yet we don't have to be conditioned personally, we can just witness and learn. Monkey see monkey do. That said, if this fine young gent destroys the fascist and frees the dystopian city, overshadowing, oversexualizing, and downright forcing himself onto female companions, would this example of action-reward not begin to stick after dozens, upon dozens of viewings? Would this effect perhaps not be more felt as we play in the role of the character in a game designed to be immersive? 

See, the point is that some of the biggest in games and film have already spoken about the lack of female representation. Those who've spoken, and we're talking about lovable actresses/actors, directors, and writers here, they don't scoff at the idea of a lack of strong, meaningful females as meaningless or pure market-share. There are constantly artists in these fields speaking about this as a problem. Constantly standing up because media representation has an honest effect on how our children view themselves, how they learn their roles in society, and how they should interact in relation to others. I talk about this issue as a young male who plays games, watches films, and has a young daughter because it effects me too. Not long before I was born a guy of my skin colour wouldn't be shown on television with a dark skinned father as it was believed to intimidate the average white household (this was an honest reason given in a fight regarding black sitcoms rising in the mid 80s). People of my colour or darker had to play the buffoon character type when our family members got pulled over simply for being coloured in the wrong place, you know, instead of speaking out about these issues. So not that long ago did media representation blatantly sideline a group I belong to, and while that issue is still live today, it's shrunk with time where as representation of women still has a long way to go. So I won't ask you to agree with me or to go take classes in media studies, though really I think you'd dig it, but I will say this is a problem beyond the dollar. This is a problem that changes us and molds how we think with a subtlety and yet an impact. It deserves our attention and it's ironic that actors and writers in the industries have noticed the problem while you, the consumer, still deny it.