Journal of Communication ISSN 0021-9916 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Sexy, Strong, and Secondary: A Content Analysis of Female Characters in Video Games across 31 Years Teresa Lynch, Jessica E. Tompkins, Irene I. van Driel, & Niki Fritz The Media School, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA We analyzed in-game content from titles released between 1983 and 2014 (n = 571) fea- turing playable female characters. Results indicate that sexualization has diminished since an observed height in the 1990s. Traditionally male-oriented genres (e.g. ighting) have more sexualized characters than role-playing games. Games rated Teen or Mature did not difer in sexualization and featured more sexualization than Everyone games. Despite an increase in games featuring playable female characters, games still depict female charac- ters more oten in secondary roles and sexualized them more than primary characters. A positive relationship emerged between the sexualization of female characters and their physical capability. Critical success of games was unrelated to sexualization. We discuss these indings in light of social identity and objectiication theories. Keywords: Video Games, Content Analysis, Gender, Sexualization, Sex, Social Identity heory, Objectiication heory. doi:10.1111/jcom.12237 Video games are a popular source of entertainment for girls and boys; men and women (ESA, 2014). However, women comprised only 22% of employees in the video game industry in 2014 (IGDA, 2014). he dearth of female employees alongside schol- arly indings of sexist encounters in online game spaces (Fox & Tang, 2014) sup- port the popular notion that video games are a masculine activity (Selwyn, 2007). Recently, however, a number of incidents have signaled challenges to that purport- edly masculine culture. In 2010, an outcry against sexism fueled a debate about the nature of gaming culture at the Penny Arcade Expo when a video game webcomic introduced slave-raping creatures called Dickwolves (Salter & Blodgett, 2012). More recently, a social movement on Twitter emerged under #1reasonwhy that challenged industry professionals to share anecdotes of sexism encountered in the workplace (Isaacson, 2012). heir experiences suggest that studios value women’s voices less Corresponding author: Teresa Lynch; e-mail: lyncht@indiana.edu Journal of Communication (2016) © 2016 International Communication Association 1