Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Love, Joy, Feminism

Home
Nonreligious
What’s wrong with Minecraft’s new pocket edition skins?

What’s wrong with Minecraft’s new pocket edition skins?

Last updated on: June 11, 2015 at 10:17 am by Libby Anne

What’s wrong with Minecraft’s new pocket edition skins? 2015-06-11T10:17:41-04:00 Libby Anne

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I mentioned several months ago that Minecraft Pocket Edition only allowed players to play as Steve. This wasn’t a big deal if you played on your own (you wouldn’t generally actually see yourself, after all), but became more of an issue when playing with others on a shared wifi connection. Well, Minecraft has since updated its app, and users now have their pick of a variety of characters.

Yay!

Well, almost yay.

You can choose Steve or Alex (as my readers pointed out on a previous post, while Steve presents as male, Alex’s presentation is more ambiguous), or you can upload a custom skin if you have the know-how. So far so good. But as you notice at the bottom of the above image, the app also offers two skin packs for you to choose from.

It’s when you click on the skin packs that things get dicey.

Do you see the problem? Of the ten free skins offered, only three (bandit, barmaid, and baroness) present as female while the other seven present as male. You could argue that this is just one game, or that the ratio isn’t that far off, or that I’m taking games too seriously. I would have to disagree.

Note: I am only looking at the ten free skins, not the locked skins. For further discussion of the locked skins, see my addendum to the end of this post.

When I noticed this gender disparity I immediately remembered seeing a compelling article some time back by a twelve-year-old girl named Madeline Messer, who dug into this question more thoroughly. Here’s an excerpt:

For a 12-year-old girl, playing games on an iPhone is pretty regular behavior. Almost all of my friends have game apps on their phones, and we’ll spend sleepovers playing side by side. One day I noticed that my friend was playing a game as a boy character and asked why she wasn’t a girl. She said you couldn’t be a girl; a boy character was the only option.

After that, I started to pay attention to other apps my friends and I were playing. I saw that a lot of them featured boy characters, and if girl characters did exist, you were actually required to pay for them.

I wondered if this was a larger problem or just a feature of the games my friends and I play, so I started researching. My parents let me download the top 50 “Endless Running Games” apps that were listed in the iTunes Store for iPhones. Endless running games, such as “Jetpack Joyride” and the four versions of “Temple Run,” are extremely popular; they feature a character running, jumping, sliding and generally avoiding deadly obstacles in a game that does not end until the character dies.

I looked at the gender breakdown of the characters in the top 50 apps.

I found that 18 percent had characters whose gender was not identifiable (i.e., potatoes, cats or monkeys). Of the apps that did have gender-identifiable characters, 98 percent offered boy characters. What shocked me was that only 46 percent offered girl characters. Even worse, of these 50 apps, 90 percent offered boy characters for free, while only 15 percent offered girl characters for free. Considering that the players of Temple Run, which has been downloaded more than one billion times, are 60 percent female, this system seems ridiculous.

It’s 2015. It is utterly ridiculous that we’re still having this problem, in 2015.

And lest you think this sort of thing is trivial or irrelevant or not a gender equality issue, please remember that at some point the girls who play these games, like Madeline, will notice this disparity.

What message do you think they will take away when they do?

In the end, I’m happy to see Minecraft Pocket Edition offering more skin options. I just wish they’d given more thought and attention to the role gender played in their decision making. It doesn’t seem like it would be that hard for Minecraft to offer an equal gender balance (along with some ambiguous, non-binary characters) when creating skin packs. Is this really so much to ask?

*****

Note: As astute readers pointed out, the offered Minecraft skins are also lacking in racial diversity. All of the offered skins, with the possible exception of Steve, the tanned Castaway, and maybe bard, appear to be white. An African American individual would be unable to play as a character that looks like themselves short of navigating the sometimes-tricky process of creating a custom skin.

Addendum: Several readers asked about the skins not visible in the above images. Does the gender disparity continue for the remaining locked skins? To answer that question, let me offer images of the rest of the skins:

Baker and Holy Woman present as female while Butcher, Chef, Holy Man, and Jailer present as male. Carpenter is a bit more ambiguous than the others, but still reads as male to me. This leaves us with two female characters, four male characters, and one character that could possibly go either way but slants toward male.

Queen and Victorian present as female while King, Mage, Postman, Watchman, and Weapon Smith present as male. Shoemaker’s gender is more ambiguous. This leaves us with two female characters, five male characters, and one character that could be read either way.

Old Lady and Peasant present as female, Mine, Miner, Monk, and Old Man present as male, and Gardner could go either way (or even possibly be read as female). This leaves us with two female characters, four male characters, and one one ambiguous character that slants toward female.

Townswoman and Witch present as female, though Witch hardly looks human. Rogue, Strong Man, Thief, Town Crier, and Vagrant present as male. Shopkeeper is more gender ambiguous and could go either way. This leaves us with two female characters, five male characters, and one gender ambiguous character.

So, of the thirty total locked skins, eight are female, eighteen are male, and four are more ambiguous and could be read either way.

Previous Post

June 9, 2015

Josh was "Just Curious about Girls" and the Rank Hypocrisy of the Duggar Excuse Machine

Next Post

June 12, 2015 Anonymous Tip: Full Conspiracy

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Atheism Evangelicalism/Fundamentalism Family Feminism Homeschool Meta Parenting Patriarchy Politics Purity Quiverfull Social Justice Uncategorized Worthwhile reads

Select a Month February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did God use to speak to Moses in the wilderness?

Select your answer to see how you score.

A mighty wind A burning bush A pillar of fire A thunderstorm