What price do individuals pay to become perfect, and who sets these standards for individuals? The media is responsible for putting these standards amongst individuals across the United States and the world. Men and women are always being critiqued on how they act, how they look, et cetera. Over the past decade, women have recently caught the attention of the media more than men have on how they structure themselves. The media has forced women to become an ugly truth. Women in the media have become objectified in advertisements, video games, TV, entertainment, movies, magazines, and websites. These different media outlets play a major role in shaping how women compare themselves to a beauty that is unattainable, and men begin to compare women in their own lives to these images that the media provides of women. This allows men to begin to see themselves as a higher power over women, and they become blind to the true meaning of what a woman is. The media uses visual-digital culture to provide society with social representations and constructions of women and gender differences. Video games provide a prime example of how women are portrayed in a negative view. This is seen in many video game cultures, and one might argue, how do video games provide individuals with a new facet where individuals may be able to explore new windows and aspects of one’s self?
On March 7, 2012, Sony Corporation and Quantic Dream teamed to together to create a new trailer for a video game that shows the social representations and constructions of women in our society today. The video game, “Heavy Rain”, begins to show the viewer the making of an android. The android is shaped liked a woman and becomes a humanistic woman. The man creating her begins to as...
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...re with dissatisfaction with their own bodies and even their own ideas. Video games, like “Heavy Rain”, provide viewers with negative views and standards of how women should act and be treated. As a society and as individuals, we must stand up to these views and standards the media bestows upon women and begin to move towards unbiased standards for women to feel accepted and respected in our society. If society can allow these unbiased standards to shape and become the norm, then there is hope that societies across the world can improve on the way women are portrayed. With media being present on our streets, TVs, advertisements, social media sites, and technologies the battle for unbiased standards will be a long time coming. Men and women must take the responsibility to allow change in themselves before they can change the environment that surrounds them everyday.
Serder, Kasey. (2005). Female body image and the Mass Media. Perspectives on How Women Internalize the Ideal Beauty Standard. Retrieved from https://www.westminstercollege.edu/myriad/index.cfm?parent=2514&detail=4475&content=4795
Video game playing has become an increasingly popular interest for many people. Every video game is unique in its own way and how it is shaped to the audience at hand. With all the video game playing, this gives rise to possible concerns as to how the media portrays such aspects in a game. One debate about video games that is an increasingly popular subject to talk about is how gender is portrayed in video games for both men and women. In many video games, women are shown as having a passive role, while men hold a more dominant role. In the video game Tomb Raider, Lara Croft is a character this is being talked about because she is the main character and is a female. Previous video games have created the media representation that females are
The documentary raises important issues such as women having no voice in today’s society because of the constant emphasis on their body, and body parts, which constantly dehumanizes them and sends out the message that they do not matter as a whole, in their complexity. Furthermore, the effect of their constant and ubiquitous dehumanization that exists in
In our media, women are objectified, hypersexualized, or shamed, which both reflects and conditionalized the prevailing hegemony and standards of our society. It exists to be seen by men, or subordinate women, continuing the existence of a mindset which many believe, or would like to believe, has dissipated through out the years to no longer be socially relevant, but on the contrary, has become the basis of media and the perception of our society today. Various archetypes of the portrayals of females include patriarchal subordination, the deadly “female fatal”, and stereotypical ethnic representations. These portrayals have dealt a great deal of damage to both men and women in society, where today, we are faced with how to address and transcend
This paper tries to express how sexism/chauvinism ideas have infected the virtual-world of video games, and resulted in a male dominated video-gaming industry. Now, being that 49% of U.S. households own a dedicated gaming console (E.S.A. 2012), it is imperative that we address this issue. Gender disparity in the gaming business is exceedingly one-sided. Female employees constitute less than 10% of the gaming industry, and even though that shortcoming females have contributed to the video gaming franchise. A small number of females have indeed contributed to the gaming franchise as a result of the industries no-girls-allowed mentality which strongly suggest that old saying boys-only. In this paper, I will examine current research relevant to the video game industry and its representation of the female gender, provide personal accounts of sexual harassment within the video game industry and offer my opinions of what could be done to begin the steps in an extraordinarily difficult journey.
A major modern problem with the media is the sublimation of, and reaffirmation of, stereotypical female gender roles. “The media treats women like shit” (Cho). Which is a serious issue because of Marshall McLuhan’s famous words, “The Medium is the Message” (Warwick). The medium up for discussion is the media, which can be fundamentally defined as the most significant “single source of information that people have today (Katz). Therefore, in order to understand “what’s going on in our society” (Katz) it is “absolutely imperative to “understand media” (Katz). Media and technology are “shaping our politics, our national discourse and most of all, they’re shaping our children’s brains, lives and emotions” (Steyer). Caroline Heldman, PhD, and specialist in presidency, media, gender and race in the American context, stated that of seven year old boys and girls, an equal number “want to be president of the united states when they grow up” (Heldman). However, she notes that once this same question is asked at the age of fifteen, a “massive gap” (Heldman) between males and females is apparent (Heldman). Girls seem to be receiving the message from the media that their value and their worth depends on solely on how they look. Conversely, boys receive a similar message, namely, that this is what’s important about girls (Kilbourne). The purpose of this essay is to explore how the North American media’s projection of a female value system is superficial and “derogatory” (Popner), and how the media does so effectively. This exploration will focus on two different kinds of media: visual advertisement, and video games.
In modern society, stereotyping others is a common action that most people do to show what they know about a specific group. To stereotype an individual demonstrates the society’s lack of knowledge. Stereotyping within the society is closely related to an individual’s gender and the traditional roles that comes with the gender. Although the traditional roles were never verified as the proper roles, they continue to play a part within the modern society. Nevertheless, stereotyping gender roles should be reduce as it inflicts harm to people’s self-esteem and their individuality. In order to reduce stereotyping gender roles, the society should allowed better understanding of gender in child’s development, encouraging women into joining men-like
It is shocking to see the digression in humanity’s morals and values over the past decade. As cliché as it sounds, the media is the center of it all. The way women are being represented, from our television sets, the radio, pornography and even art has pushed beauty to the top of the list of controversial and widely debated topics around the globe. “Whenever we walk down the street, watch TV, open a magazine or enter an art gallery, we are faced with images of femininity,” (Watson and Martin).
The media, through its many outlets, has a lasting effect on the values and social structure evident in modern day society. Television, in particular, has the ability to influence the social structure of society with its subjective content. As Dwight E. Brooks and Lisa P. Hébert write in their article, “GENDER, RACE, AND MEDIA REPRESENTATION”, the basis of our accepted social identities is heavily controlled by the media we consume. One of the social identities that is heavily influenced is gender: Brooks and Hébert conclude, “While sex differences are rooted in biology, how we come to understand and perform gender is based on culture” (Brooks, Hébert 297). With gender being shaped so profusely by our culture, it is important to be aware of how social identities, such as gender, are being constructed in the media.
In 2006, Videogames became the most dominate media source in America. They are a great source of entertainment, but gender differences exist in video games and it is important to consider stereotypes because of how society demotes one gender over another. Videogames were once considered “boys only” and is the most male dominated entertainment, in terms of players, audience, and character representation in games (Zorrilla). Many things make up gender studies on videogames such as the option to play as ether a male or female, the physical appearance of the character, the role of the characters, the mechanics of the game, and playing the game itself. The research gathered represents both “corporate display” and an “interior colonization” of Gender in videogames (Connell 69, Millet 25). Key figures and games have strong effects on shaping people’s perspectives on gender roles. Iconic figures such as Lara Croft are used to determine if gender roles exist in videogames. Her identity in pop-culture is viewed as both a sexist dream, and a feminist icon. The role of her character takes human to character interaction to a new level. Before Lara Croft, the common stereotype for females was ether the “Damsel in Distress” or the object of desire for the male hero. Females are constantly underrepresented and not much has been done to solve this problem. Feminist and Patriarchy theories will be bricolage to deconstruct videogames and to view apparent gender in and outside electronic entertainment.
As more people are claiming their rights and being accepted by society, the media is forced to reach the obedience in a modern way. Women are fighting for they equal right and starting to play leading role in movie and TV shows. For example, not so long ago, I watched “She’s the Man” a movie played in 2006 by Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum. Byrne’s character, Viola been playing soccer in place of his brother who didn’t want anything to do with soccer or any other sports for that matter. Bynes is really good at soccer and loves sport. She didn’t let herself brake by the tough guys in her team who think she was a man. She subsequently shows the absurdity of gender biases by being the best at what she loves. This type of movie prove there is nothing abnormal to our behavior and it do not make us less of a person when do not conform to norm of
Socialization of people has been occurring through family, public education and peer groups. However in recent years, the mass-media has become the biggest contributor to the socialization process, especially in the ‘gender’ sector. The mass-media culture, as influential as it has become, plays the most significant role in the reproduction process of gender role stereotypes and patriarchal values. It is true that a family model of nowadays is based rather on equality than on patriarchal values and women have more rights and possibilities on the labor market. However, mass-media still reflect, maintain, or even ‘create’ gender stereotypes in order to promote themselves.
Gaming has long been considered a male-dominated activity. There have been numerous scientific studies conducted to analyze the impact video games have on an individual and vice versa, however one of the most common discussions concerning the gaming community is sexism. With today’s growing audience and the popularity of smart phone gaming, it is a mystery as to why gaming has managed to keep its male-minded stereotypes. Most games reflect the sexist gender roles imposed upon gamers by society, however today’s response is a heated protest, some more dramatic than others. Most gamers are demanding more female protagonists, and developers are listening, but it’s a slow climb to equality in the world of pixels and fantasy. Let us discuss the surrounding influences of the video game community, some setbacks and remarkable breakthroughs in diversifying, and the ways gamers shape the games they play.
The mass media over the years has had such a profound role in creating an image on how women should be viewed. From their appearance to what their duties are in everyday life, the media has made sure to depict unrealistic images of women. These images have caused not only the male public but women themselves to believe that they must attain a certain kind of body or occupation to fit into society. Women often feel obligated and pressured to comply to this praised image of perfection.
Portrayal of Women in the Media Gender is the psychological characteristics and social categories that are created by human culture. Gender is the concept that humans express their gender when they interact with one another. Messages about how a male or female is supposed to act come from many different places. Schools, parents, and friends can influence a person.