Sexism in Games: Too Much, or Just Enough?

If you didn't know, GameFAQs is a popular videogaming site which offers user-created content and discussion forums. I check the Poll of the Day pretty habitually -- it's usually a simple question dealing with some aspect of gaming. When I saw today's question I rolled my eyes, since the gaming industry is notoriously sexist and gamers (that is, the target gamer audience, straight white dudes), unfortunately, are often pretty willing to go along for the ride.

It took me a while to really recognize what the question was asking -- that is, how it was phrased. So I ask you, go back, take a second look.

Yes, it's asking if the respondent thinks that video games are too sexist against women. One of the answers is "no, I don't think games are sexist at all" (predictably, as of this writing a sizable percentage had chosen this option). But the next option up is "not really, they're just as sexist as TV or movies". This was the modal choice as of this writing.

So was this just a colossal mistake, or do the majority of people who responded to the poll think that TV, movies, and games are just sexist enough? I'm guessing it's the former, especially because the first option doesn't really make sense if the question was supposed to include "too".* Still, I wonder how many gamers gave the question a second thought before jumping onto either of the last two choices.

*The first option is interesting: "Very, today's games are practically misogynistic". This looks hilarious when contrasted with "Not really, they're just as sexist as TV or movies", because clearly we are meant to infer that not only are games not actually misogynistic (only "practically") but neither are TV/movies.