Women in Games: #GenderSwap

The entertainment industry has a real influence on how collective minds are shaped. This industry, especially the video games business, has been spreading gender stereotypes and oversexualization of women for decades. Even though some efforts have been noticed in the last years, it is too little and the road to a better representation of women is still far ahead.
Agency: BETC, Paris

NGO Women in Games, that supports better gender diversity in the video games industry, wants to show the public and gaming studios how women are often portrayed in games with the #GenderSwap experience. In 2022, one out of two gamers is a female gamer, which makes more than one and half billion female gamers across the globe. But, women only represent 22% of employees in gaming studios. Consequences ? A representation of female characters in video games that is too often over-sexualized and cliché, when compared to male characters. To illustrate this severe discrepancy and highlight these stereotypes, Women In Games introduces #GenderSwap, a video game experience that revisits gaming's biggest properties by swapping male and female character animations. Through a number of "mods" found online or created for the occasion, the organization managed to directly edit games files to assign the movements that were initially designed for female characters to their male counterparts. Ass shaking, sensual dances, suggestive postures, exaggerated sexualization : discover video games biggest heroes like you've never seen them before! To raise awareness and create a meaningful conversation on the topic, #GenderSwap will also live on Twitch. On February 15 and 16, selected streamers will play on their channel with the modded video games and will react and discuss with their audience about the different examples revealed by Women in Games. This activation will be available on the Twitch channels of Morrigh4n, Kaosvmd, Red Fanny, Adyboo, Hiuugs, Modiiie, Nimelya, and Titavion. Examples of modded video games are also listed on Women in Games website and its Discord server, to discover the whole campaign and the numerous actions created by the organization for increased diversity in the industry.