Women in Video Games
In the beginning, according to some, there was Adam and Eve. The story is a familiar one. It is taught to churchgoers from an early age. However, the tale of genesis and paradise bears a deeper meaning concerning the roles of its principle characters. Think of Adam. He was created in God’s image, and is the default model upon which the rest of humanity is based. Think of Eve. She was created as an after-thought, using Adam’s rib, and is of lesser importance and strength. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, it is Eve who gives in to temptation and gets the both of them thrown out of paradise. It makes sense for a patriarchal society to develop such a belief system. In fact, the mythologies and culture to which the modern world abides are both intentionally and unintentionally crafted to reinforce the patriarchy. Video games are an ever-growing presence in popular culture, fortifying the patriarchal values found throughout society. The gaming industry frequents the use of pernicious plot-devices and poor representations of women, which not only reflect patriarchal values, but contribute to sexism.
Before describing the specifics concerning patriarchal notions within video games, it would be prudent to explain what a patriarchy is. Simply put, a patriarchy is a society in which men are the socio-economic and political majority (Lindsey). Women are systematically oppressed in patriarchies, often through agents of socialization, including popular culture, which now includes video games (Maitra). More specifically, agents of socialization are what’s responsible for the ideas and beliefs that members of a society develop over time. In a patriarchy, where masculinity is praised and femininity shamed, all agents of...
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Kimmel elaborates on fantasy through gender stereotyping where he depicts men as having “biceps.upper torsos are so massive, their waists so small, and their thighs so powerfully bulging” (Kimmel 157). For the depiction of women, they are “a sort of recently sexually ravaged look—with breasts so large and a waist so small” (Kimmel 157). Kimmel is implying that how we view gender-specific ideal beauty standards influence the way we imagine a fantasy world through the use of appearance. Since most men engage in video game media, it seems that they dominate the video game world where they get to play a character that depicts what they want to look like.
Such conventions of hetronormative gender representation can be seen in all areas of the mass media today, such as advertising and film. The representation of both male and female bodies within the medium of video games reflects understandings of gender and sexuality, and it is important that we as players are made aware of these representations and what they signify. I argue that Grand Theft Auto IV, through its framing of both female and male bodies, promotes hetronormative hierarchal distinctions between feminity and masculinity, by encouraging players to adopt and act out a hypermasculine role, and by
For the past few decades, women’s positions improve significantly due to feminist movements, which can be presented through contemporary films. Instead of focusing on male-only heroes, an increasing number of filmmakers tend to create female heroines. Nevertheless, women have not yet achieved reproductive rights. In other words, different from men, who can freely express themselves, female’s actions are still limited by societal norm. Thus, female characters, as a reflection of contemporary females in society, demonstrate the fact that females are attempting to challenge gender stereotypes under societal pressures. Katniss, the heroine in Hunger Games, is presented as a role model. However, Marieme, the working class girl in Girlhood, seems
Much of the story of Adam and Eve can be explained within biblical context, and its male supremacy bias confirms to be of historical origin rather than divine; however it is perceived as comprising the “fundamental,” and essentially destructive "truths" about the nature of women. Eve has represented the fundamental character and identity of all women. No, there haven’t been other women with redeemable qualities to represent them throughout history. Even those as great as Cleopatra have not earned the title as extraordinary woman in the history books, because her dominance over men was perceived as unbecoming and disgraceful. However, Eve’s image is what has represented women.
Within the early 1990s there is a rise in queer culture that many people did not know for what it was. At first, the United States thought it was problematic because it was an invasion on the home-front and the country is trying to figure out its own identity culturally, which led to the “culture” wars. The idea of culture wars was that historically U.S. had problems defining itself culturally through popular media such as music, television, and film. Music was a popular medium that the U.S. tried to define itself culturally, but the music video of Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” where she is combining explicit sexual references with religious idols. In addition to this being gay was not accepted within the early 1990s and was problematic because it was not widely accepted by the general public. Within the early 1990s it is represented through queer culture which is similar to gay, but was different at the same time. Taken from an anthropological approach Michael Moffatt references from Kath Weston’s book about gay culture being entirely different from how we normally perceive it (Moffatt). In the state of “California gay and lesbian c...
In a structured society, as one we’ve continued to create today, has raised concerns over the way society uses the term queer. Queer was a term used to describe “odd” “peculiar” or “strange” beings or things alike, but over the centuries societies began to adapt and incorporate the term into their vocabulary. Many authors such as Natalie Kouri-Towe, Siobhan B. Somerville, and Nikki Sullivan have distinct ways of describing the way the word queer has been shaped over the years and how society has viewed it as a whole. In effect, to talk about the term queer one must understand the hardship and struggle someone from the community faces in their everyday lives. My goal in this paper is to bring attention to the history of the term queer, how different
Men are looked at as brave, selfless people and are perceived as heroes all throughout society. Johnson addresses this point saying, “The idea of heroism, for example, has been appropriated almost entirely by patriarchal manhood. From movies and television to literature to the nightly news, our ideas of who and what is heroic focus almost entirely on men and what they do” (548). Since men have power in this world, they have generated a society that pleases them. Superhero movies are a huge money maker in today’s world. But, the most popular superheroes are exclusively men such as Batman, Superman, Captain America, The Flash and The Hulk. This media only feeds into the ideology that men are the heroes in the world and they are the ones making sacrifices for others. They see a world that appeals to them and do not see a reason to mess with the system. Kilbourne writes, “When power is unequal, when one group is oppressed and discriminated against as a group, when there is a context of systematic and historical oppression, stereotypes and prejudice have different weight and meaning” (499). Men now see patriarchy as natural and how life should be. They can look back at previous generations and see that they succeeded with patriarchy and feel they should do the same. Men see absolutely no reason as to why they should relinquish their position of
Elizabeth A. Johnson draws attention to how, despite being considered equal in Genesis, women had their worth ignored “Consistently subordinated and demeaned in the theories, symbols, rituals,
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This journal article is entirely credible and written by two women who know what they’re talking about. This article discusses how video games form stereotypes about both genders and that they impact both gamers and non-gamers. Men are portrayed as aggressive and women are unsurprisingly portrayed as sex objects. A main issue with this is that video games are mostly played by the younger generation meaning these are the ideas being imbedded into the youth of the world. The...
In our present era, there is no doubt that the evolution of women's rights has come a long way. It is in the Western Culture that these values for which women have fought for generations, are in conflict with Genesis 1-3. The events that occur in this "creation story" are crucial in that it begins when God creates man in his own likeness and man is given domination over all living things. The significance is the prominence given to men; God is male and his most important creation is male. The biblical account underlines the supremacy of man while making it clear that women play an inferior role. Furthermore, the biblical account also describes how woman are disobedient and yield to temptation, the result of which is the expulsion of both Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. In the poem "How Cruel is the Story of Eve", Stevie Smith's castigation towards the biblical story of Eve demonstrates how women have been victims of despair and suffering since the beginning of time. She holds it responsible for cruelty towards women in history, she implies that the values derived from the story of Eve were forced upon women without choice, and finally, she challenges the authenticity of the religious tale on a whole. Without a doubt, women have fallen victim to an untrue, religious tale from the beginning of time, and the poem is an outcry representing the suffering of women throughout history.
The depreciation of women and their overall inferior position in society can be attributed to the androcentric interpretations of the Hebrew Bible, especially the story of Adam and Eve. Throughout history, the story of Adam and Eve has been used by men to point out the inherent evil in women by pinning the eventual expulsion of Adam and Eve from Heaven on the neck of Eve. Eve has long been blamed for the expulsion from Heaven and in effect, women, even up until today, are portrayed as the “gateway to sin.”
Unlike popular belief, the first violent video game was not Mortal Kombat. The killing started with a game called Death Race 2000 released in 1976 by Exidy Software. It was based on a B movie by the same title and features the main theme of the movie in the game: to run people over. You control the car to run over people, and the people you have killed become a cross. Needless to say, the game was quick to draw attentions towards it. The criticism from Americans all over the nation eventually got the game pulled off the market. One would think that the game must have been pretty intense and gruesome if it attracted such a response. Nope…not a bit…in fact, this is how the game looks:
The issue of sexism in video games has been going on for a long time. Similarly, Fox talks about how “Research has indicated that many video games and virtual worlds are populated by hypersexualized and unrealistic representations of women.” This shows how women have been sexualized in media which represent women as self-objective. Jess explained in his research that, “as a result of hypersexualization of women in videogames, it would lead to an increase in rape myth acceptance.” In one of Jess’ experiments, he focused on the effects of avatar features on women’s experience of self-objectification.
Ancient literature often is used as a lesson for future behaviors as it is filled with moral lessons. The Bible has been a source for definitions of gender and morality for centuries. In the Holy Bible: New International Version, the book of Genesis does a good job of showing how history told by men writing history ca...