Gender in video games

This topic gets me fired up anytime it is discussed and I was happy to see that it was covered in Chapter 7 of Nielsen.

Females in video games (from what I have observed) are the following:
- usually not the lead character
- are very weak
- sex symbols like you wouldn't believe
- pretty stupid
- is the person trying to be saved in the end of the game

Females are usually either the sex object or victim in the game, unless of course you are playing a Barbie game on your Nintendo DS where she has to save her horse, then of course that is another story. It is sad to say that I have to think hard of a game where the female was fully clothed and battling in the game. Jenkins argues that since males devote more time to game play, the gaming industry designs games more for the male audience. I still do not see why the female must be exploited over and over again simply for the pleasure of the men playing the game. Are the graphics, game plot, interaction, difficulty level, and music and sounds not interesting enough?

There is a game, Tomb Raider, in which Lara Croft is a main character of the game. Hellen Kennedy briefly talks about in her article, Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo? On the Limits of Textual Analysis, show Lara is both a female with an active role and a sex object. She argues that playing Lara is not the same as watching Lara. This all trails back to the reason why Lara was created this way was so that the people playing this game (mostly men) can have a fulfill their guilty pleasures.

The video below shows female characters in games such as Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft, and Death Note. These female characters are wearing very provocative clothing, and some you can debate if they are even wearing clothes at all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7U89hUqbvw

Do you think that this element of a video game is necessary? Why are there no ripped men with their clothes off walking and talking sexy for the pleasure of women playing the game?