Or would she?
Uncomfortable as the question may be, it needs to be asked: Can there be such a thing as a completely non-sexualized little girl? Real life aside, young girls have never fared so well (or at least so platonically) in the arts. The surrealists lusted after les femme-enfants, and we all know how things turned out for auburn-haired preteen Dolores Haze.
An example perhaps more pertinent to the videogame industry is Lewis Carroll's Alice. She is, in many ways, the quintessential child: her blond ringlets, her troublesome curiosity, her forthright nature. To be sure, a careful reader will find hints at her sexualization in Carroll's original text, but for the most part, her tale has been accepted as a classic for fellow children - a safe, if not wholly sterile, read.
But Alice in Wonderland fans may (or may not) be surprised to hear that Carroll himself is believed to have been a pedophile. The small girls on whom he based Alice were also the subjects of his nude photography. The quintessential child was simultaneously the quintessential object of sexual desire.
Whether or not it was intentional, American McGee's Alice picked up on that sentiment perfectly. Outgrowing her shirt frills and Mary Janes girl-child image, she became a darkly sexy teen. By recreating Alice and avoiding the issue of a sexualized little girl, McGee reasserted the unspoken sexual associations we already bear.
Slipping on Those Mary Janes
Let's say, for argument's sake, that we could remove sex from the picture - that the designers of our groundbreaking game would avoid curvy hips and in-game romance and everything else that draw our minds straight to the sack. Given all that, what would it mean to play as a little girl?
It would mean, first of all, overcoming some of our stereotypes about masculinity and gaming. For many male gamers, playing as a woman is justifiable because it entails watching a buxomly female behind. Playing a little girl ... well, things would be different. It would never be macho - not in a traditional sense. Not only would you be identifying with a girl, but a child at that.
Beyond our cultural hang-ups about gender, the larger question remains: What does it mean for an adult to play as a child? For us, children represent many things - naivete, openness, a sense of adventure - and they bring all these traits to the table each time they walk on screen. Stepping into a child's shoes also means stepping into these attributes; it alters the experience.
Perhaps the most important characteristic of childhood is a sense of exploration. And that is exactly what it seems to me a little girl character could do best: explore. Dropped into the scenery of an interactive world, she herself might be unique enough to stir things up and break other molds, like expectations for game logic and linear storytelling. The gamer, the game, the act of gaming: All might be changed with her help.
Bonnie Ruberg is a sex and games writer, a MMOG researcher and an all around fun-loving dork. Check her out at Heroine Sheik.
