If you haven't read GP stories about it, go [URL=http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/09/04/european-parliament-concerned-about-gender-stereotyping-games]there[/URL] and [URL=http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/09/05/female-gamer-lauds-european-action-gender-stereotyping]there[/URL].

In the EP report linked in the first article, something caught my attention : according to Sweden's Eva-Britt Svensson, EP member who authored [URL=http://www.europarl.europa.eu//sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+REPORT+A6-2008-0199+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN]the report[/URL]:

[QUOTE= Eva-Britt Svensson][EP] Draws attention to the report entitled “Con la violencia hacia las mujeres no se juega” ('Violence against women is no game'), published in 2004 by Amnesty International in Spain. The report shows how a stereotyped, sexist, and often degrading image of women is presented by the new electronic media. [B]The report concludes that [U]the majority of video games [/U]constitute one more element in the reproduction of discriminatory stereotypes against women [/B]that perpetuate and trivialise abuses against their human rights;[/QUOTE]

Well, I managed to retrieve this Amnesty International report, because the link given in the EP report was bad. You can catch it here : [URL]http://cv.uoc.edu/~amnistia/educa/videojocs/04/vid-04-12.pdf[/URL]. And if you don't read Spanish, Googletrad will allow you to understand the essential.

Well, as I've said on a comment under GP's second article, the Amnesty study [I][U]never[/U][/I] concluded that "the majority of video games constitute one more element in the reproduction of discriminatory stereotypes against women". Granted, it mentions a lot of games labeled as sexist, violent, disrespectful for human rights, etc. But it never talks about the majority of games.

And this being said, this report is terribly misguided. As I've said in my comment : [I]"the main problem of this study is that it puts on the same level commercial games such as GTA San Andreas, niche games only found in Japan, and online "games" such as Kaboom : Suicide Bomber. The result ? They find video games filled with rape, torture and racism. It's just like putting Hollywood blockbusters along with snuff movies, happy slapping videos, Daniel Pearl's execution... and concluding anything about "cinema" as a whole"[/I].

I'm not trying to minimize the problem of gender stereotyping, be it in video games or in another medium. Nor am I trying to say that Amnesty International Spain or Eva-Britt Svensson are totally wrong, or are just a bunch of paranoid control-freaks. I understand, and share, their concerns. I'm just saying that they're seriously misguided about video game medium and market.