Metro Last Light: 5 Points That Prove It’s Another Sexist Game

Many things have been said about Metro Last Light, some positive while some negative. We’re also still in a contentious season debating the element of sexism in games. We covered one hotly debated topic featuring Bioshock Infinite, and now we’re questioning whether Metro Last Light features sexist elements too. Having played the game, there are some notable moments that don’t show Metro Last Light in a positive light with respect to female treatment. Here are 5 reasons that prove Metro Last Light is sexist. Some of these points can be seen in this video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rndIlVBAgCw

Lack Of Female Leads

There are plenty of male characters in Metro Last Light, from faction leaders to foot soldiers, so they are given a variety of roles. Females though, aren’t that noticeable. Especially in the leads department. The only important female lead you come across is Anna, and she has her own set of sexist problems. The lack of any substantial female character in the game is thoroughly sad. That is unless you consider the monsters in the game actual relevant characters, like Big Momma. I guess even in the apocalypse women can’t catch a break and be treated respectfully.

Anna Is A Terrible Characterization Of Females

We talked about Anna briefly in the previous point, but lets get into more detail. In a nutshell, Anna is essentially a conquest for Artyom, the main character. She starts off being abrasive towards Artyom, and then turns meekly into a ‘girl’ who needs protecting and comforting during these hard times. A hell of a lot could’ve been done with her. She could have been utilised in many great ways. If you forget that she’s female for a second, you’d easily see how pathetic her development is.

Plenty Of Scantily Clad Females

While finding good female leads in Metro Last Light is nigh impossible, finding scantily clad females who shake their ass for money is much, much easier. Whether it’s in the strip club or during stage performances, the women are happily half naked while the men seem to be much more prepared for a hard life underground. Even during the stage performances, the women are mostly there simply for eye-candy while the males are the actual performers. It’s just another pathetic example of sexism in the game.

A Female Only Strip Club

I understand that Metro Last Light is ‘supposed’ to be showcasing humanity’s decline or degradation as humans. You’ve got all manner of wrongdoings going on in Metro Last Light and most of it is due to people falling prey to carnal desires. My question here though, is why there’s only a female strip club? Surely there would be male strip clubs or something similar in this world. When you’ve got such a massive contrast in how you portray the male and female characters in the game, you can tell it’s been implemented purposely. There’s no male strip club because most male gamers wouldn’t bother going to one. Obviously the developers share this mind set.

Females Need To Be Constantly Protected

Finally, another point to prove Metro Last Light is sexist is the fact that most of the females you come across in the game need some sort of protection. The most obvious example in this case would be Anna. After starting out strong, she falls to the typical female stereotype of someone who can’t handle her position and needs to be comforted and protected. There are other instances too in the game, where female characters are on the verge of being rapes and you can ‘save’ them. Fueling the male power fantasy as it is apparently called. There’s just so many of these instances in the game. Granted at least here, there are males that need to be saved too. None of them were close to being raped though if I recall right.

So, those are some of the points that prove Metro Last Light is a sexist game. Like Bioshock infinite, I don’t think game developers intentionally demean females in this manner, but they do cater to themselves (ie. male gamers) and portray females as they would prefer them. It is a shame that this is the case here, and overall Metro Last Light has plenty of flaws outside of being sexist anyway to warrant negativity. These issues shouldn’t be simply turned a blind eye to though. Hopefully more games can showcase females much better in the future.