Science (Again): Gamers Aren’t All As Horny As You Think

Let's be frank here, Ego-man to Ego-man. We all like to admire the fine female form every now and then. We can't make much of a secret of that, really; we aren't all on the Barney the Dinosaur official website forums at this very moment after all. But still. But still.

If there's a hornier bunch of horndogs anywhere, it's teenage boys. You remember all the fun of puberty: you have hair where there was no hair before, your voice can switch from chipmunk squeak to Darth Vader and back over the course of a single sentence, and you start to flex your newly-grown ogling muscles for the first time.

As such, they've gotten themselves a bad rap, as have gamers themselves. But with all this objectification business flying about the industry, let's chill the eff out and remember that there are exceptions. Like these guys right here.

Over on Time, a study was carried out to explore the issue of sexism in games. ‘We surveyed more than 1,400 middle and high school students from throughout the country last year,' the article reports. ‘We asked them to tell us what they thought about gender representation in games, what games girls play, and more. Our survey was exploratory—we didn't have the resources to conduct a thorough evaluation—but we believed it was an important issue to study and hope others will follow.'

What did they find? That high-school kids don't want sex objects, that's what. I'd have thought a sex object at that age could be anything animal, vegetable or mineral, but apparently I'm wrong.

 "If women are objectified like this it defeats the entire purpose of fighting," Theo, an eighth-grader who loves playing Mortal Kombat, told us. "I would respect the [female] character more for having some dignity."

The times they are a-changing, and fighting in your undercrackers won't cut it any more with these savvy youngsters. Or something. Either way, hit the link for more on this.