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From Dictionary.com:
"Sexism: discrimination or devaluation based on a person's sex, as in restricted job opportunities; esp., such discrimination directed against women."
As a (male) gamer, I honestly can't see how videogames are discriminatory against women. Many big game series - Metroid, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil, Final Fantasy - feature strong female protagonists, while others still feature strong women as supporting characters. Traditionally, videogames were more likely to feature male characters, but this was due to wanting to appeal to both male and female gamers (the idea being, flawed or otherwise, that boys wouldn't want to play a game with a female lead), and down to the game's setting or genre - a first-person shooter like Call of Duty, especially the games set during World War II, are obviously going to feature an almost entirely-male cast by their very nature. Accepting that males and females may have differing interests, in general, is not sexist - traditionally, boys are more interested in videogames than girls, but this is down to their own personal tastes, rather than videogames not catering for girl gamers. It's business sense - games sell more among males than females (though the split is only about 65/35%), so in regards to advertising, most games will be marketed at men. Among the videogamer community, it's accepted that the vast majority of girl gamers would rather play "real games" such as Uncharted or Call of Duty, regardless of whether they feature a male protagonist or not, than play a dumbed-down and patronising "girl's game". If anything, it's these games designed for females which are the only sexist games, because their very existence implies that women should be kept away from the "real games" and instead be lumbered with stuff like Nintendogs and horse-riding sims. Lastly, within the videogame industry there are many skilled and talented women game designers and writers - the female creators of Uncharted and Assassin's Creed spring to mind. If you're going to call videogames sexist, then just about every genre of media is too - this can't help but feel like another attempt to pin videogames down as the cause of all of society's problems with very little evidence to back it up.

I'm a female gamer but I probably fit your stereotype of being more of a DS & Wii player! I love my DS and I play things like Zelda, Sonic & Mario, Puzzle Bobble, Donkey Kong and so on. I don't really like beat 'em ups or shoot 'em ups though I used to play Street Fighter with my brothers when we were younger and that was fun. It's nothing to do with the fighting side of things - I'm a black belt in TaeKwon-do so I like a good bout! Just not in computer games :(

I'm not a fan of war games at all, just not my bag - my younger bro loves them though. You wouldn't see him playing Sonic & Mario at the Olympics though! I guess those games just appeal to guys more - not deliberately sexist!

By the way - LOVE you guys. Friday Old School Rush Hour is the highlight of the 1xtra week ;) x

Listener text sent in the show today at 11:49.

" Its all bout gals on cod we show u boys how 2 Play the game!!" Luv sophie xx

Listener text sent in the show today at 11:29am

"I don't think gaming is sexist. My brother is glued too cod mw2 so I had a go and I wasn't very good but I still enjoyed playin it. Each to their own. Th e vast majority of the game buyin population is male but there are always exceptions to every rule". Kyla from Notts