Female Characters In The Odyssey

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Video games have become a very popular medium in the past forty years since the first home game console, the Odyssey, was made in 1972. More people every year are playing video games, including females. With the increase of female gamers, however, there have been a number of issues that have caused problems for females, which extends from something minor such as males being astonished that they are even playing video games, to even some males constantly telling them what to do and even insulting them for their actions. The short story, “Select Character”, gives a precedent on how male gamers can cause problems for females and why they end up doing that. “Select character” tells the story of a woman who plays his husband’s video game, and in …show more content…

He eagerly wants to watch her play this game and practically begs her to play it as if this is an important moment of his life and nothing like this would ever happen anywhere else. This is true in the real world as well as there is this strange notion that a female playing a videogame is a quite significant when it shouldn’t be. Approximately 40% of all gamers are in fact females and there are several games that are aimed more towards a female audience. The husband pressures her to play the game, which in turn, makes her feel guilty that she was playing the video game. This kind of behavior that not only the husband, but male gamers in general, enacts on female gamers, leads to the females to feel very uncomfortable by the insistent pressuring of them to play the game. Male gamers additionally throughout the game also may constantly hover over them intently while they are trying indulge in the video game, which further irritates them and discourages them to venture on with the game. In conjunction with what was previously mentioned, there is a minute but prevalent crowd of male gamers who have this belief that a female’s hobby consists only of what society deems as an established norm. If they were to do anything that does not fit the societal model, it would come across as abnormal. The husband assumes that his wife doesn’t enjoy …show more content…

A modest number of males presume females are simple minded and slow when it comes to playing video games, and need to be continually reminded about what they should be doing and where they should be heading. This idea parallels with the character Gaston from the Disney Movie, The Beauty and the Beast. Gaston believes himself to be what he considers a perfect man and he thinks that the woman he loves should love him back because of this. He treats the main character Belle more like an object than an actual human being and tries to manipulate her into being with him. This kind of behavior makes Belle want nothing to do with him and she rejects him throughout the movie. Similarly, if a male gamer treats a female gamer this way, she’ll want nothing to do with him and will find other people to game with. In the story, the husband constantly instructs the woman on what she should and should not be doing. This makes it seem as though there is only one way to play the game even though in the story, she has a better understanding of what course of action she should be taking than he does. The woman attempts to explain why she is performing each specific action and insists that she understands what she is trying to accomplish, but the husband ignores

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