Sex Sells Video Games and Insecurity

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.

Kimmel looks at both sides of the argument that video games and other media influence violence in young men in real life, but focuses on the perception that violent video games influence violent young men. In my third informal writing assignment reflecting on that chapter, I stated “I can see the side where it does have an impact of young kids, and I see it in my younger cousins when they can recite the cutscenes in the games they play, and see it when they play fight and pretend they are their favorite game heroes”, concluding with “Today’s violent games weren’t made to teach children how to kill, they’re only made for entertainment” (Brinkman-Sull). Before I took this class, and even at the beginning of the semester, I was extremely defensive of the criticism on violence in gaming, but after reading more into it, I realized just how deep in the industry the problem is– highly sexist notions in a lot of popular games. Many of them portray women as objectified beings, purely used for sex appeal and to attract the larger male gamer population. The male characters are also idealised in a similar way– typically portrayed as muscular, brawny men, with basic levels of thinking and reasoning. These brawny men are typically focused on one thing– complete the mission in whatever means possible. This kind of violent thinking is widely reflected throughout many other typically male-dominated organizations, including the

In today’s culture, people who regularly play video games have been stereotypically viewed as overweight, lazy, slobs, who can’t keep a job and never leave their homes. However, a majority of the population plays video games or owns a console. These stereotypes mostly apply to PC gamers, and MMO players in particular. While most people don’t develop such severe addictions to the game, there is a group of people who suffer. These people are usually imagined as overweight men in their parent’s basements, sporting acne and greasy hair. There are most definitely people that fit this profile, however, video game addiction can claim many different people from many different walks of life. It is most definitely a serious issue, but some people don’t see the degree to which it affects everyday life. Personally, I feel that I can elaborate on the matter with a different perspective, as I have been closeup and personal to video game addiction.

This text is published by a media company called Mic. Their target audience is young people and they cover a wide variety of subjects such as News, Arts, and Technology (Mic /about). The author of this article is Sophie Kleeman, who, according to her profile on Mic.com, covers the “intersection of tech and culture” (Mic /profiles/152573/sophie-kleeman)

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.

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

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

As male video gamers play these games the mind set toward women becomes more controlling and having sexual thoughts toward women, therefore, negative female stereotyping occurs. This subject is increasingly important to talk about considering how much it affects men’s

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.

Over the years, videos have changed because more women and diverse race characters exist in games. In the past, videos games leading roles were predominantly white male characters and supporting roles for women. In fact, most of women characters’ roles were less important because women characteristics were based on stereotypes. Because of this, the exposure of video games and I will discuss about how video games such as Grand Theft Auto, Assassin’s Creed, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider exert a media influence over the ages of 9 to 18 years affects their gender role.

The relationship between video games and masculinity is problematic because the interpretation of the male persona is typically categorized into one gigantic bubble that every male character and person should fit under. Known to everyone, this generalization includes the following traits; brooding, either mentally, emotionally, or physically wounded which causes them to be stoic to everyone, a man of action, and the most common attribute, must have the ability to shoulder all of the worlds pain and burden without showing a hint of weakness. Video games create the illusion of what the typical male should be, and when a person does not fit under this umbrella, they are labelled as either an outsider, not macho enough, or a person that behaves

Gender disparity in video games is a topic that both scholars and major gaming icons have discussed before. However, the topic recently resurfaced with the upsurging population of female gamers. The integration of females was a spectacle that caused a massive culture shock. Many members of the gaming community were unsure how to handle the change and took to discriminating females. While discrimination may seem unimportant, many scholars and icons believe it is a prominent factor of gender disparity: an environment which typically favors males, a hostile or “toxic” atmosphere, and repeated stereotypes all manifest certain behaviors of both genders that can cause a disparity to grow. Although some sources claim gender disparity is evident in gaming as a whole, others insist the novelty of female discrimination in video games is less prominent due to a more leveled percentage of male-to-females in gaming. However, both agreed that the competitive gaming community is a different story. Time and time again the competitive gaming community was mentioned for its exclusion of women due to biased and misogynistic members who sexualize and degrade females. These members believe women are inferiors that encroach on their territory with unskilled and seductive natures. Therefore, for the females in the gaming community, their actions will shape the future of women in the competitive gaming community. The change in female treatment is detrimental to gender disparity. Not only because

Lara Croft is a well-known adventurer. From rock climbing in Bolivia to shooting at vicious monkeys in a forest in India, Lara Croft has done it all. There is much more to this adventurer though. According to Helen W. Kennedy, author of the article “Lara Croft: Feminiets or Cyberbimbo?”, “[Lara] is a positive role model for young girls or just the perfect combination of eye candy and thumb candy for the boys.” From her debut in 1996 to now, Lara is also seen as an iconic female figure within the gaming community. With Lara we are able to see a strong female role who, unfortunately, is at the same time is overly sexualized. Girls in the gaming community are given a chance to be represented but at a cost. Lara Croft allows for there to be a

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.