Feminist Frequency Explores the Gaming Trope of 'Women-As-Reward'

In the latest video for her YouTube channel Feminist Frequency, cultural critic Anita Sarkeesian explores the age-old video game trope of "women as reward."

As Sarkeesian demonstrates, the practice goes back at least as far as Metroid, the game series featuring the heavily armored protagonist Samus Aran. Only after you beat Metroid was Samus' true identity as a woman revealed. The faster you finished the game, the more scantily clad she appeared.

Even Super Mario Bros. fits this trope, with the "smooch of victory" the hero gets after rescuing his princess. Some games take it further, the reward being full-on intercourse with the rescued damsel.

As Sarkeesian explains, "the result of this incentive structure is that access to women's bodies, women's affection, or women's sexuality is reduced to a simple equation that guarantees delivery as long as the correct set of inputs are entered into the system."

The existence of a link between videogames and actual real-world behavior is a touchy subject, to say the least. But the value systems of games that use this "women-as-reward" mechanism encourage a sense of male entitlement. We've all heard guys complain about being stuck in the "friend zone," implying that if they're nice and supportive and put in their time being a friend to a woman they deserve affection or sex. This is the same lie the games tell, erasing women's free will and independence, and negating the idea that every person's decision to give or receive love or sex is wholly their own.

In the absence of positive messages to the contrary, it's easy to see how boys and young men could be influenced by the sexist value systems in these games. After all, men are not born with a sense of entitlement—it's something societal norms grant them, and is so pervasive and uniform it often goes unnoticed and unexamined.