How far has the representation of females changed over time in the mediums of film and videogames?

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How far has the representation of females changed over time in the mediums of film and videogames?

In many ways, the changing representation of females in both film and TV, reflect the way that the rights and roles of women in society itself have changed. As women gained a more prominent role, they became better represented in the media and gained stronger, more prominent roles.

In the 1980s, when video games were beginning to become mainstream with consoles like the SNES and Atari 2600 being very popular, many videogames featured females. Despite their simplicity compared to today's blockbusters which cost millions of dollars and years to produce, they still represented women in their own way. Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros, and The Legend Of Zelda all feature damsels in distress being rescued by heroic men. Other, less innocent, representations of females also abound in early videogames. Custer's Revenge, for example, was a game in which your sole aim was to rape a native Indian woman. One notable exception to this rule is the Metroid series of games, whose protagonist, Samus Aran is female. Despite this, the overriding representation of women in early videogames is that of the helpless