The Effects Of Video Games On Gender Socialization And Aggressive Behavior By Tracy L. Dietz

Video Game Violence has been a big controversial topic for many years, going back to the most simple classic video games like Ms. Pac-Man, Centipede and Space Invaders,which eventually turned into more modern games like Destiny and Grand theft Auto. This research expands and analyzes the idea of how video game violence is always accused and put to blame for aggressive events and how the research of this is faulty . The way most people look at video games and how people try to connect them to violence could needs to be corrected. Within this research we will be looking very closely at how these studies and tests were done on violent video

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

Student Carmen Tieu, in her opinionated article, “Why Violent Video Games are good for Girls” expounds upon the idea that violent video games are good for girls. Tieu explains that violent video games boost confidence in women. She goes further on to say that it makes aware of the different socialization processes of men and women.

Dietz, Tracy L. (1998). An examination of violence and gender role portrayals in video games: Implications for gender socialization and aggressive behavior. Sex Roles, 38(5/6), 425-442).

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).

Video games are a form of entertainment which have violence in them. Some violent video games are “Call of Duty” and “Star Wars Galaxies.” The younger audience love to play these games and quickly become addicted to them. A news education correspondent stated, “"Violent" games were defined as those where players acted out the killing, maiming, decapitating or mutilating of other human characters” (Coughlan). Usually, the goal of a violent video game is that humans are targeted to be killed. A science reporter from the “New York Times” states, “The issue is especially relevant today, because the games are more realistic and bloodier than ever, and because most American boys play them at some point. Girls play at lower rates and are significantly less likely to play violent games” (Carey). In society, boys will play more video games and play more violent ones rather than girls. On the other hand, girls will play videogames lesser and play less violent games too. In addition, the video games are horrific and traumatic. Carey also

The video game industry thrives on its consumers, and creators are always trying to please their targeted audience. Because of this, audiences for many games are established and categorized by gender. Game creators then do whatever it takes to please their intended audience. This can lead to gender stereotyping, and often results in the sexual objectification of women. Many games portray female characters as highly sexualized objects, most likely to attract the attention of their intended male consumers. In order to decrease the ways women are objectified through such video games, the gaming industry needs to stop perpetuating gender stereotypes.

Unfortunately, many are only aware of the negative stereotypes associated with gaming. Gender inequality is one such topic. Historically, gaming has mostly been marketed toward the male demographic. It makes less sense for this to still be the case today when females play video games at roughly the same rate males do. Many see gaming as a male dominated hobby despite such statistics. Kowert et al (2015) finds that, in general, male children are socially enforced to engage in gaming while females are more discouraged. As a result, females taking part of the hobby are less likely to feel the same level of inclusion as males. Furthermore, portrayal of females in video games is often criticized due to a disproportionate amount of female protagonists and over-sexualization of female characters. Another negative perspective of gaming on society involves media portrayal of violent video games. For decades, video games have continued to be a scapegoat for deviant behavior of a violent nature. Overall, studies persist on the potentially adverse effects of video games to find conclusive

Through our advancement of society, technology itself has been a big contributor to the continuation of hegemonic masculinity way of thinking. One of the ways technology enforces this ideology is through themes presented in videogames. As stated by Nina Huntemann in her 2000 film, Game Over: Gender, Race, & Violence in Video Games, video games are often filled with violence and

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

Video games have their early history based on military and defense systems, dating to the 1950s (Laird, 2005), an era dominated by recovering from a war that focused on service of men in aid of war, with women, many being house wives, based at home. Over time, video games developed from these systems, such as Space Invaders and Sheriff, with an emphasis on violence and designs for men, which, as a by-product, resulted in stereotypes being developed, favouring men. Especially, the gaming industry's stereotypical portrayal of women results in women trying to meet or refrain from these portrayals, by trying to be as attractive as they have been portrayed, or fight these stereotypes by equating themselves to their male counterparts, arguing that they are not different from men and do not have to be

Some people think that video games are harmless, but some researchers would disagree. Melinda Burgess et al. writes in “Playing with Prejudice: The Prevalence and Consequences of Racial Stereotypes in Video Games,” that women are gender stereotyped and treated as sexual objects in video games today, which affects how male video gamers and society treat women. There are many ways video games use women to attract video gamers, sexuality being a big one. I will argue that Burgess’ claim is true because often male video gamers who play sexually-oriented video games are rewarded for objectifying women and have been shown to treat women as objects and harass them in real life.

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.