The first thing that usually happens when I comment on the sexist artwork and portrayal of women in fantasy roleplaying games is “Oh, you know that’s just how it is” – it is this complicitness in the game that I find so terribly frustrating – and also a little frightening. Whether you are being subject to catcalls or wolf whistles, sexual remarks and proposals in “real life”, in a field of live-action roleplayers, or in a game, can we not change the culture into one where all genders are treated with honour and respect?
This is a blog post from my channel over at SageWoman, where I look at the subject in the form of the artwork that portrays female characters in the game.
Down the Forest Path 
Great article. 🙂
Thank you!
Couldn’t agree more. While authors like Marion Zimmer Bradley, Mercedes Lackey and Elizabeth Moon have done and continue to do a lot to change the portayal of female characters in written fantasy fiction, the art and roleplaying end of the genre doesn’t seem to have caught up. I don’t role play anymore but I used to in my twenties and there were very few other female role players about.
Yes – there are more and more female roleplayers out there, but it’s still aimed towards men – how do they ever expect to attract women into the game community, I wonder, when the media for the systems is still so sexist? It just doesn’t make any sense… x