Dana, did you want to start a thread so we can discuss this topic further?

I feel like this is another thing that is a problem in games because it’s a problem in society, and that it’s not necessarily worth fighting it in video games specifically and leaving it alone everywhere else. But then, I don’t really pay attention to what is marketed for girls to play with/watch/listen to/etc., so I’m not sure how the world is on this score now. Is it worse in video games than in general?

Many fights have we had about me ’stealing her food’. Boys need health too!

Hopefully someday we’ll move away from this whole ‘games for girls’ moniker in the first place? Do girls not like good stories just like guys do? Clever writing? Well rounded and interesting characters? Are girls so different than guys in those areas? Not every ‘game for girls’ has to be gardening or dress-up does it?

We should be clear that the whole industry isn’t guilty of poor taste but it is there.

I see this as part of the bigger problem of stereotyping. It’s there in how the industry perceives their audience, how they market and how they decide on what they put in the game.

I’d like to ask is it intentional or laziness? And why would you go down that road? (ie basing a game on racial stereotypes)

We should not believe the problem is limited to the video game industry. Movies and Television have been guilty of these sins for a long time too.