“There’s a clear difference between replicating something and critiquing it. It’s not enough to simply present misery as miserable and exploitation as exploitative. Reproduction is not, in and of itself, a critical commentary. A critique must actually center on characters exploring, challenging, changing or struggling with oppressive social systems. But the game stories we’ve been discussing in this episode do not center on or focus on women’s struggles, women’s perseverance, or women’s survival in the face of oppression, nor are these narratives seriously interested in any sort of critical analysis or exploration of the emotional ramifications of violence against women on either a cultural or interpersonal level. The truth is that these games do not expose some kind of gritty reality of women’s lives, or sexual trauma, but instead sanitize violence against women and make it comfortably consumable." 

"The pattern of utilizing women as background decoration works to reinforce the myth that women are naturally fated to be objectified, vulnerable, and perpetually victimized by male violence. These games also tend to frame misogyny and sexual exploitation as an everlasting fact of life, as something inescapable and unchangeable. This dominant narrative surrounding the inevitability of female objectification and victimhood is so powerful that it not only defines our concepts of reality, but it even sets the parameters for how we think about entirely fictional worlds, even those taking place in the realms of fantasy and science fiction. It’s so normalized that, when these elements are critiqued, the kneejerk response I hear most often is that if these stories did not include the exploitation of women, then the game world would feel too unrealistic, or not historically accurate.

What does it say about our culture when games routinely bend or break the laws of physics and no one bats an eye, when dragons, ogres, and magic are inserted into historically influenced settings without objection? We’re perfectly willing to suspend our disbelief when it comes to multiple lives, superpowers, health regeneration, and the ability to carry dozens of weapons in a massive invisible backpack. But somehow, the idea of a world without sexual violence and exploitation is deemed too strange and too bizarre to be believable.   

The truth is that objectification and sexual violence are neither normal nor inevitable. We do not have to accept them as some kind of necessary cultural backdrop in our media stories…When we see fictional universes challenging or even transcending systemic gender oppression, it subverts the dominant paradigm within our collective consciousness, and helps make a more just society feel possible, tangible, and within reach.”

–Anita Sarkeesian, Women as Background Decoration, Part 2 - Tropes vs. Women in Video Games