Stereotypes Of Women In Video Games

In today’s society, having the perfect body has been a growing issue for women for a very long time but now, more than ever, women are expected to be skinny but have curves “in all the right places”. This mentality can lead to self-esteem issues as women grow up, even if they are a healthy weight. When women are larger than the size of models that they see on billboards and magazine covers, they think they aren’t pretty enough or not thin enough and this can trigger eating disorders or mental illnesses. All of this is just because most women do not fit into society’s idea of “perfection”. Recently, clothing shops like Debenhams have been introducing “plus-size” mannequins (sizes 16-18) in their advertising campaigns as opposed to the usual

As video games become more and more popular, we will inevitably see an increase in amount of video games being produced. The growth in popularity of video games is facilitated by the creation of a website known as Twitch.com. This website allows gamers and content creators to stream themselves playing video games online and interact directly with a live audience via chat. This new platform makes gaming both more accessible and more acceptable. The social stigmas that accompany video games are diminishing; in fact there has been an increase in competitive electronic sports as well. Logically, the growing interest in video games encourages programmers to make more and more games. Melinda Burgess et al presents an interesting perspective about video games. She explores the prevalence of racial stereotypes and how their effects are detrimental to society as a whole. In Burgess’s essay, “Playing with Prejudice: The Prevalence and Consequences of Racial Stereotypes in Video Games”, she provides fantastic commentary on how top selling video games show “overt racial stereotyping” (Lunsford et al 551) and negatively affect how we think. By providing statistics and data about the videogames that she is critiquing, she effectively shows that there is may be a correlation between video games and how we think and interact with the world around us.

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.

How would you feel if you studied hard for the duration of your educational life and that when you entered the work force, your future become full of rejections? And this was all due to your sex? Women today have been restricted in progressing in society due to their stereotypical ‘inabilities’ and have been struggling to climb the corporate ladder. This was due to: stereotypes, competition for jobs and their different perspectives. In result of this, women in today’s society deserve the opportunities of leadership positions that they are worthy for to give a wider spectrum to the work force.

A recent published magazine article describe a girls’ teenage years as filled with ravaging emotions. Continuously as they engage in online drama and sexual bullying ”Studies show that modern tennages self-confidence is low due to hurtful and harsh words.” (Spencer P.). Girls mainly focus on their outer beauty instead of inner beauty, meaning they care what everyone else's opinion of them is. Girls face socially awkward challenges with different chapters of development. Beauty standards can have a huge impact on modern society of girls. For instance beauty can take a toll on public bullying. Girls being socially outcasted by other females. Simply on the appearance of the female. Different altercations but can leave and or

For centuries, businesses have used advertisement as a means to market their products or services. A good advertising company can be key in a business success rate. Many hours are invested in research and development of each advertisement ad that we see in television ads, commercials, magazines, and billboards. A marketing tactic that continues in popularity is women used to grasp the attention of the viewer, which ultimately would hope to result in higher sales. Over the past 60 years, women have been shown in stereotypical gender roles that are usually portrayed as younger, actively fit women, not the typical middle aged women we see every day.

Women stereotypes have kept women from being successful in male dominated jobs. With women being housewives and care givers they do not fit the role of being a laborer. Gaining education and joining male dominated jobs have changed the trend of being house wives and care givers. Single mothers can have been working and being a care giver for many years now. Many skills that women have exceled at such as multitasking has helped women become successful in many fields of work. Regardless of the efforts women make to succeed in male dominated jobs they are passed up by other men for higher level jobs. With women starting to have interests in mathematics, mechanics, and other male dominated jobs they must conform into male dominated jobs. When women

A gamer is someone who plays video games as a hobby. Gamers are usually quite good at this hobby. Gaming has been around since 1958. It’s ancient. Few people in the United States have gone untouched by video games at some point in their lives. In fact, it is estimated that the number of gamers around the world is about 1.2 billion people. That is a good portion of Earth’s 7.2 billion population. Gaming is huge. Despite that, there are quite a few stereotypes regarding gamers. Some people seem to think that gamers are all a bunch of nerdy losers who do nothing but sit around and waste their lives behind a monitor and with a controller in their hands. No matter how many gamers are not like this, there will always be at least one individual who will fit this stereotype perfectly. But, this paper will bring to light some things that are more typically true of most gamers, regardless of what other stereotypes they may happen to fit. Believe it or not, video games can actually be

Facts and others similar to this one shed light on the fact that gender stereotyping is still evident in our society. Women in advertisements are often portrayed in a harsh light, dismantled by the media. Majority of females’ are presented specifically as sexual objects, weak; who exist primarily to serve men. Majority of the advertisements that portray women in a degrading manner, which is done through the model’s poses or clothing, immensely outnumbers those that portray women in progressive styles, progressive advertisements depict women in non-traditional roles, showing they are capable of performing a variety of social functions. There is a thin line between pornographic images and advertisements and it continues to grow smaller everyday

On the left side, is what the stereotypes of being female. I chose pictures such as the white rose and the Sports Illustrated cover to show the contrast between the expectations of being pure and the expectation of being sexual. The image with the longer shows that women are expected to have long, processed hair. The pie, a soft blanket, a diamond ring, and mother holding her child represents the expectation to be maternal and having to want to be married. The high heels, perfume and Marilyn Monroe show that women are supposed to be glamourous, while the 1950’s advertisement shows we are also supposed to be practical. I chose such images as Taylor Swift, Sex in the City and romantic-comedies to show how our culture see women as romantic object,

This is atrocious. Girls and women alike are strong individuals who do not need your ‘stereotypes’ to define who we are. Running is a sport that brings relief, happiness and fitness to many all around the world, now we are starting to stereotype that too? Apparently, boys run further because they are bigger, stronger and overall better? Is this the reason why you are limiting distances for girls? Because if so that is scandalous. Girls can be just as good or better than boys if we get the right opportunity and you aren’t giving it to us. “8km for senior boys and 6km for senior girls….” Unfortunately this act is just one shameful example of what happens all around the world in schools and higher levels. Instead of encouraging and motivating

Over the years, the entertainment industry has emerged in many different mediums, ranging from new genres of music and television shows to the very creation of the internet. The newest form of electronic entertainment that has evolved is the videogame industry, truly growing in popularity around the 1970s with the creation of the game Pong. Though originally very popular with young boys and seen as being childish to play (a view adults still had when I was a video game playing child), video games have since become an enjoyable form of amusement for people of a diverse range of ages, and for males and females. However, in spite of the fact that the videogame industry is now much more open to women

When stressing the issue of prejudice and stereotypes in gaming, the authors note that video games are highly associated with specific and caricatured negative image. The stereotyping has permeated collective consciousness as online video gamers have become regular caricatures in the media. Of much concern is the racial stereotyping where minorities both male and female are underrepresented in video game magazines. In this study, white males were found to have more ‘vivid’ roles such as in military combat and conversant with the use of technology as compared to minority males who had minor roles. Additionally, the stereotypes that minority males are associated with crime was evident with their representation of being ‘dangerous’ or overrepresentation

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.

Staying with female representation in video games Berrin Beasley and Tracy Collins researched the portrayal of woman in 47 randomly selected Nintendo 64 and Sony Playstation games. They suggests that video games “are sources of information that children and young adults may use to determine what behaviors and attitudes are considered appropriately masculine and feminine. What they found was a significant bias in how male and female characters were dressed. Out of a total of 597 characters coded 82