Leonie Quicker: The representation of the female body in comics, movies and video games [PDF]

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies – Other, grade: 2, 3, University of Paderborn, language: English, abstract: This research paper is concerned with the depiction of the female body in video games, comics and other genres. In order to gather research and information, this paper will look at three different popular media types – comics, movies and video games, and analyse how two women in each category are depicted and represented.

This paper does not intend to criticize depicting women in a ― ‘sexy’ way or overanalyze every little thing that might be interpreted as sexist. Moreover, it simply wants to clarify that over sexualizing women in popular culture, more often than not, can lead to misperceptions of the female body for women and men alike.

While women feel the need to present their bodies in a sexualized way all the time, men may accept this depiction as a norm and personal entertainment, leading to deviations from these norms to be met with hate and confusion. Additionally, it would manifest old beliefs of women only playing a passive accessory. Thus, this topic is still very important these days, as a large portion of women in the world are still prohibited to have power over their own bodies and rights or are still represented as overly sexualized or ―not good enough‖ within popular culture.