I'm not sure I quite grasp what's at stake here. I read the article, but then I read the comments, and I feel like somewhere along the line the point I got from the article disappeared and people started to respond to something completely different. So anything I say might be totally off base.
I own a fully functioning penis, so my vote might count for naught, and that's perfectly alright, but I'll offer up my opinion on this article.
I think you're on the money (if this what I think is correct). The message being sent is largely "Learn to cook and be attractive, and do nothing else." This isn't videogames fault in general, this is pretty much a group effort by all of society. It's been that way for years, then there was brief period where people fought against it, and then the Equal Rights Amendment failed, and now we claim to have fixed the problem, along with racism, but we also tell people "feminist" is a dirty word.
I also feel that videogames do have some effect on shaping people's behavior, or at least, their dispensation towards certain behavior. This includes violence. I'm not saying videogames make us killers, but, like action movies, they do glorify violence and as viewers, we glorify in return, in large part because there don't exist games that come at it from any other angle. So I do postulate that these games may have some detrimental effect on some women's self-esteem in a few years down the line. I recognize that I may be in the minority on this, but look how many people claim Ayn Rand changed their world outlook. And that's a book. Why can't a game do something similar?
The trouble, though, it really seems to me, is not solely that these games have set a narrow range of standards for women. The trouble is that they also suck. Barbie Horse Adventures has been called the worst game of all time. I think a lot of these ideas would dissipate and we would see a healthier range of character if developers spent some time making these games and creating some sort of story behind it, one where their characters might have to emote beyond the old "I exude sex (and I can cook)." But instead, game developers have cranked these suckers out in order to make them quick and cost effective. Imagine if they'd spent Blizzard-esque time developing BHA. I'll bet it'd be a great game. I'll bet Barbie would look a lot different, and have better lines. But instead, we got crap that perpetuates more crap.
