Gender Stereotypes In Video Games

A more in-depth study may look at video games from a Marxist point of view, characterizing the games as a modern day “opiate of the masses” with multi-billion dollar corporations publishing the games to keep the proletariat occupied and oblivious to their plights. A feminist may cite the standard role of female video game characters as being the “damsel in distress” and even strong female characters usually being relegated to sex symbol status.

According to several sources around 42% of the American population plays video games, and around 1.2 billion people worldwide play video games today. Gaming has become an increasingly more popular hobby since its creation. As such the medium has obviously attracted a multitude of different people and groups, all consisting of diverse backgrounds, body types, sexes, races, nationalities and the like. However, contrary to the numerous demographics video games have come to attract, it is very evident the vast majority of them do not seem to be marketed toward many of them via game characters, and their importance, if any, in a game. Video games show an overwhelming amount of white male characters, despite the many demographics they reach. Of the characters that are not white, or male, that are represented, are often represented poorly. For example, many black characters represented in video games are often characterized as vulgar, and violent. Women represented in games are often characterized as support characters, or objects of sexual desire. Considering forms of sexism, racism, and other such types of prejudices are still prominent in modern society, and these representations obviously do not help how people see these marginalized groups. Ultimately, these representations, or lack thereof, affect people in society in a number of ways, by perpetuating prejudice and harmful stereotypes.

these games, men usually play aggressive roles (such as robbers and criminals) while women play sexualized ones (strippers and prostitutes) (Geneva, 5). Geneva explains that these video games present women purely as sexual objects and imply that a woman’s only purpose is to provide sexual pleasure to a man (5). These distorted views of women has various negative effects on the young boys and adolescents who normally play these games (Geneva, 5).

Given that association, this new study took a gander at whether exemplifying sexualized female symbols online changed ladies ' conduct. The Stanford scientists asked 86 ladies matured 18-40 to play utilizing either a sexualized symbol or a non-sexualized symbol (dressed provocatively or conservatively). At that point, specialists outlined some of those symbols to resemble the player encapsulating them. Those ladies who played utilizing sexualized symbols who seemed as though them were all the more tolerating of the assault myth, as indicated by the study. Subsequent to playing the diversion, ladies reacted to numerous inquiries with answers along a five-point scale (emphatically differ to firmly concur), including, "In the lion 's share or assaults, the casualty is indiscriminate or has a terrible notoriety." Those who played attractive symbols who looked like themselves will probably reply "concur" or "unequivocally concur" than those ladies who had non-hot symbols who did not seem as though them. Members were likewise requested that free compose their musings after the study. Those with sexualized symbols will probably self-generalize in their expositions after play. In spite of the fact that this is a little study and unquestionably not a conclusive response to the subject of how computer games influence female players, the outcomes do raise concerns. Upwards of 46% of gamers are ladies, and, as indicated by this examination, in a large portion of the most mainstream

” (Fisher 552) The articles were chosen using an online sales/reviews rating chart providing only the best selling games. By only choosing the most popular games a higher sense of credibility becomes apparent because gender was not an influencing factor, any women or men appearing in the data are not influenced by selecting or ignoring certain video games. One piece of data from the chart is later proven to be critical in supporting Fisher’s claim that women in video games are portrayed as pinup girls or sexual objects: “Protagonist’s interactions with non-playable characters (NPCs) and whether those NPCs are male or female and portrayed positively or negatively.” (Fisher 553) Before explaining why this piece of data is important to his claim he switches to providing some more history, this time about the gaming world’s male-centric history or favor towards men in the video game

2. Study found that males who endure traditional masculine values are more likely to be affected by violent video games.

In today’s society video games play a huge role in male’s lives, about ninety- nine percent of boys play video games. Males tend to spend numerous amounts of hours and days playing these games, so the impact these have on a male's life should come as no surprise. In the film The Mask You Live In, by Jennifer Newsom, the movie shows how on average boys spend fifteen hours a week playing video games. That's a large portion of their time. Majority of the video games the boys play show negative behavior towards women.

In most video games, you will see that most female characters, if there are any in the game, are animated to be big breasted voluptuous women. A content analysis of images of video game characters from top-selling American gaming magazines showed that female characters are more likely than male characters to be portrayed as sexualized at a ratio of 60:1 (Dill 2). Games such as Soul Caliber and Tomb Raider are known for their display of female characters. Their female characters are on the top 10 list of the most ridiculous female bodies in video games. Common stereotypes of women include that they are whiney, wimpy, and needy.

In the mini-series of three twenty-three to twenty-six minute episodes, Anita Sarkeesian explains in full, attentive detailing, the tropes embedded in video games since the very beginning of the Video Game era. The mini-series uses a systemic, big picture outlook to ultimately examine the plots and designs in video games to explain why women have always been objectified in video games. The most well-known way the female character is objectified is through a video game is by placing her in a Damsel in Distress position, woman in the refrigerator position, or any other position that creates a trope. In the mini-series description, Sarkeesian also states that even though critical analysis of the video games will be done, it is certainly probable

A stereotype is an inference that a person has certain traits that all members of the group have. It is a mindset that is based on assumptions. These structures affect how people process information and perceive others. The innate need for order leads humans to sort people into groups based on certain traits. This type of categorization is not only socially acceptable but encouraged as a way to simplify daily social interactions. While stereotyping reduces the amount of processing required during social interaction, it often leads to prejudice and misguided assumptions. Stereotypes can be based on numerous characteristics, including race, religious affiliation, and even gender. Gender stereotypes are especially prevalent and often used. Gender stereotyping includes automatically assigning certain attributes to a person based on their gender. This mentality has been prevalent in almost every era, including the 16th and 21st century. In both the 16th and 21st century, society has a huge impact on the individual by creating stereotypical gender roles and then applying pressure to conform to them.

Video games have been a way to express the ideas and creativity of video game developers’ for year now. Recently they have taken a turn for the worst by incorporating racial, sexual and violent metaphors or scenarios. Two articles that talk about this important issues “Sex, violence and video games” by Mitch Krpata and “Not a Hater, Just Keepin' It Real: The Importance of Race- and Gender-Based Game Studies” by David J. Leonard. Leonard makes a crucial argument about the importance of balck, Hispanic and latino’s stereotypes in video games that are primarly played by white gamers. On the other hand, Krpata defends the critiques made about racism, violence and sex portrayed in video games by stanting that it is just fantasy. While both, Leonard

Throughout the world women are depicted to be oversexualized among forms of media such as video games and comic books. The idea of oversexualization towards female characters is that they have been often drawn and animated in hypersexual ways. Even going as far as viewing them as a sex object, their revealing body images are eye candy through the eyes of men. Hence women found in comic books and video games are frequently emphasized by their excessive physical appearances, objectification, portrayal, and character role.

It only takes a second to attach a strong feeling or idea to a character in a movie, advertisement, or video game. Many characterization used are based on the assumed stereotypes, and are usually one-dimensional characters. Typically, these characterizations usually come from inherited family values, education, and the media. While stereotypes existed long before mass media, the media machine certainly helped to accelerate the cultural growth of all kinds of stereotypes. It is beyond this paper to answer why magazines employ these gender stereotypes, instead this research is designed to analyze

The portrayal of men and women in video games, as in other media, is a subject of research in gender studies. This topics is discuss in terms of sexism in video gaming. Especially, women are underrepresented or use as objectification in mainstream games. Women in video games are generally, as a rule of thumb, killed, raped, abused or rescued by the male heroes. This is extremely sad to see because the role of women in society is changing compare to ten years ago. Women has been proven themselves to be stronger and tough in different fields such as sports, politics, education but the representation hasn’t change.

A large gap exists between the public's perception of video games and what the research actually shows. The following is an attempt to separate fact from fiction.