Frugiaro's Argumentative Analysis

For years, many people have been attacking the video gaming industry for the depiction of female characters. According to Jamie Ferrugiaro, however, people often skip over the other gender’s depiction. She argues men are also victims of stereotypes; even in the same games which stereotype women. Her argument of both genders being equally molded to a certain image shows both sexes are put to a certain standard in video games.

Ferrugiaro’s argument is put together with a lot of logic based on the physical appearance of various main characters in popular video games. She backs up her claims by not only providing images of male protagonists, such as comparing Splinter Cell’s protagonist Sam Fisher with Fuse’s Dalton Brooks, saying, “ These

Showing an image of Halo’s Master Chief, she points out how he seems to be “Strong, slim, and fitting in well with the rest of his fellow ass kicking soldiers.” She also uses a little bit of her opinion by stating, “It seems somewhat impossible to me that a guy can be that tin while wearing what I only assume is at least slightly thick armor.”

Ferrugiaro continues to present evidence of “the formula of upside down triangle, add some huge hands, and stick it on two legs” by showing images of Enslaved’s Monkey and Gears of War’s Marcus Fenix. She makes the claim how Monkey could fit right into Gears of War due to the extreme physique of both characters.

Though Ferrugiaro seemingly attacks the video game industry for these cookie-cutter forms used in male characters, she also defends them by stating how gamers “want to play good looking characters so long as it’s done right.” She also adds a little more of her own thoughts by stating her belief of people playing games to experience extraordinary events. By comparing how people look into the past at heroes such as Hercules, she states people sometimes admire the characters they play in video