Sep 29, 2022
62 percent of women feel misrepresented in video games.
It’s no secret the gaming industry could be more welcoming towards women and femmes. Female avatars often look the same, perpetuating unrealistic beauty stereotypes for many of its players. A whopping 60 percent of girls and 62 percent of women do not feel represented by video game characters.
Thankfully, Dove has just launched Real Virtual Beauty to dismantle gaming’s harmful standards. Real Virtual Beauty includes a one-of-a-kind training course developed in partnership with industry experts to better equip and train game creators to avoid design biases and more accurately reflect the beautiful diversity present in our everyday lives. Those who complete the course are able to showcase their final digital works on Real Virtual Beauty’s online character gallery, which will be curated by Dove and available to view on Epic Games’ Art Station.
“At Dove we believe that beauty should be a source of confidence, not anxiety, in every aspect of life, both real and virtual. Through our work with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine education team, Women in Games and alongside the launch of SuperU Story on Roblox we hope to make a real impact on the millions of women and girls who are spending their free time playing games, ” shares Leandro Barreto, Dove’s Global Vice President.
Out in the real world, the Dove Self-Esteem Project will educate new creators and players on self-esteem and body image through the launch of SuperU, the world’s first Roblox experience, in partnership with Toya.
