While Free Guy touches on the toxicity women often experience in gaming, the Ryan Reynolds’ film underplays its severity instead of educating.
Free Guy burst onto the scene in 2021 to positive reviews while quickly drawing comparisons to films like Ready Player One and The Matrix. The film follows Ryan Reynolds’ Guy — a non-playable character in the in-universe video game Free City — after becoming a rogue AI hellbent on saving his world and helping a real player, Millie Rusk (Jodie Comer), discover a source code to her original game. The film’s video game inspiration allows for fun Easter eggs, references and commentary on gaming culture. And while it touches on the toxicity women players frequently experience in online multiplayer games, Free Guy doesn’t give the issue quite the attention it deserves.
Today, sexism in gaming, particularly in online multiplayer games, remains a huge issue. According to a survey performed by Reach3 Insights, 77 percent of women gamers have experienced gender-specific discrimination, including gatekeeping, patronizing remarks and comments about skills and relationship statuses. Unfortunately, other surveys and studies have replicated these high numbers. As a result of these often toxic encounters, 59 percent of women said they masked their genders completely, while 55 percent said they use non-gendered or male-gendered identities when playing online.
To its credit, Free Guy depicts the sexism present in the gaming community in its opening minutes. Millie enters Free City as her online avatar Molotov Girl to gain information from another player. Despite holding him at gunpoint, the player makes comments about her British accent and asks her to meet up later. After Millie rebuttals with a snarky quip about «his mother’s basement,» the player responds with, «Damn, girl, you feisty,» confirming he is undeterred by her rejection. Millie’s quick response and obvious annoyance suggest — like many women gamers — this type of interaction is one she deals with regularly. While it’s nice to see Free Guy acknowledge the toxicity experienced by women, the moment is brief and never really explored again.
Free Guy is a heartfelt comedy that didn’t really need to focus on the topic more than it did. However, it would have also been nice to use its platform — catapulted by Ryan Reynolds’ star power — to shine a light on sexism in gaming. As reported by Reach3 Insights, 88 percent of the surveyed women enjoyed playing competitive games. And at the core of most online multiplayer games is teamwork. However, fear of encountering negativity often discourages women from communicating via microphone. While some games like Apex Legends are revered for their ping systems, others still make mics the ideal communication method.
On a more positive note, 80 percent of women gamers were happy with the representation of women characters in AAA titles, with an impressive 91 percent pleased with depictions of women in indie games. As many know, the sexism in gaming historically extended beyond players and to the characters themselves. However, it seems representation in that area is moving in the right direction. Tomb Raider‘s Lara Croft may be the most prominent example, receiving a huge physical and storyline overhaul in 2013’s Tomb Raider. Respawn also drew positive attention when addressing complaints made by some players that Apex Legends had «too many women characters,» with Apex Legends writer Tom Casiello responding, «If you’re the kind of person keeping track of how many male Legends there are versus how many female Legends there are, might I suggest an alternate hobby?»
While gaming companies have made huge leaps in representing all types of women, the gaming community as a whole still lags behind. Sexist remarks, assumptions and abuse can become tiresome and discouraging for women who enjoy online multiplayer games. As such, it would have been nice for Free Guy to use its platform to educate and address this issue on a deeper level. Nonetheless, women will continue to game with the hope that they will be regarded as just gamers instead of «gamer girls» one day.
Jeanette White is a writer, horror fanatic and video game enthusiast from Boston. This self-proclaimed nerd enjoys finding the next big scoop in the world of entertainment. She is currently the Movie Features Lead Editor at Comic Book Resources. Jeanette is also the author of two horror thrillers, Shattered and The Other Inside. She sporadically rambles about horror books and films on her website https://www.jmwhitefiction.com.
