TOKYO: Contrary to popular opinion, a new study has found that teenage boys don’t want magically-breasted new incarnations of Street Fighter’s Chun-Li – awesomely, they want the issues around objectification and representation that they discuss in their high schools reflected in their video games.
The “exploratory” study – a survey of over 1,400 middle and high school students from throughout the US last year – was conducted by author Rosalind Wiseman and her colleagues, in an attempt to break through the gaming industry’s long-held assumptions: “that girls don’t play big action games, boys won’t play games with strong female characters, and male players like the sexual objectification of female characters,” as Wiseman explains.
