Theory Of Geek Masculinity

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

Author A.B. Harris declares a call to action in his article “Average Gamers Please Step Forward” published in 2012 as he talks about the how gamers shouldn’t settle for how the Entertainment Software Association put the average gamer into a box, Harris (2017) declares that the average gamers are far more credible and intelligent than the perceived demographics suggest (pg.503). He starts to build a bond between himself and the reader by connecting himself with the audience and asserting himself as one of them who all want the same thing, to “change the mainstream” (Harris, 2012, p.506) and show non-gamers they are more than over-sexed male adolescents with a penchant for violence (Harris, 2012, p.504). Harris uses his personal values and experiences

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.

This study researches the potential effects on children by the use of gender representations and violence within popular video games. Outlined by the study of symbolic interactionism, the research questions the line between the representation of males and females, as well as how prominent violent topics are in games. These themes combined are used in order to hypothesize possible implications on young boys and girls.

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

Previous evidence has shown that video games portray females as sexual objects, but video game magazines have never been a major part of this documentation. The article “Sexy, Dangerous-and Ignored: An In-Depth Review of the Representation of Women in Select Video Game Magazines” by Howard D. Fisher provides charts, stats, lists, and theories as evidence from video game magazines to make a claim of truth that digital women are treated as irrelevant sidekicks or pinup girls which leads to disrespect towards real women. Theoretical Analysis is a form of evidence used by Fisher to support the idea of men absorbing false perceptions of women. The theory used is Hegemonic Masculinity, it’s described as “a theoretical perspective that explains how

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.

Wingfield initiates his essay by including Anita Sarkeesian’s experience to hook his readers and to get his audience to understand the intensity of this issue. Wingfield then transitions to explaining the campaign of #Gamergate and how the attacks of women stem from things that had previously happened by saying “They arise from larger changes in the video game business that have redefined the audience for its products, expanding it well beyond the traditional young, male demographic” (5). Wingfield uses this quote to provide his audience with the history of where this behavior is coming from and as a cue to his audience about his main point, which is discussed later on in his essay. Finally, Wingfield concludes his essay by including a quote by Kate Edwards, “an executive director of the Game Developers Association” referring to males in the gaming industry: “The entire world around them has changed, whether they realize it or not, they’re no longer special in that way. Everyone is playing games” (21-22).

The Brony fandom exposes some gaps that traditional understandings of masculinity cannot take into account. Connell and Messerschmidt establish through hegemonic masculinity the development of hierarchy within the constructs of gender formations. Their framework provides the negotiations regarding the desirable masculine traits for a given society, thereby creating representations of a dominant gender construct. However, it is not the sole creator of masculine identity. “The concept of hegemonic masculinity is not intended as a catchall nor as a prime cause; it is a means of grasping a certain dynamic within the social process.” Those attributes associated with traditional forms of masculinity only become powerful through negotiation and positioning against other forms of masculinity through context, but how can hegemonic masculinity rationalize masculine identities that do not place similar emphasis on those attributes?

In a male dominated demographic state, media stimuli impacts individuals setting a higher standards for hyper-masculinity in general(Scharrer, 2004). Video games will usually strengthen hypermasculine stereotypes, giving characters muscular bodies and portraying them as the hero(Dill & Thill, 2007). Most male characters in video games like Superman are brawny, demonstrating that the masculinity is all about ridiculous amounts of strength and saving the day. Masculinity is refering to normative beliefs regarding how men are expected to act(Mahalik JR, 2003). Conventionally, male characters are taken as more, aggressive, dominant, strong, and independent.

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.

The main theme of this research paper is the stereotypes that gamers are subject to; she states that gamers are widely believed to be white males, an issue that is so large within the

The previous point has delineated men’s roles as a form of hegemonic masculinity. Hegemony manifests itself in mass media in the form of rigid gender roles (Schippers, 2002). Bennett (2009) later adds that hegemonic masculinity is needed inside a community as a conformity towards cultural identity. This point will later elaborate on hegemonic masculinity becoming the identity of a group which consists of rock fans.

Since the first video games were developed in the 1950 – the gaming industry haven’t looked back since. Throughout the century video games has gone through a huge development where the entire planet spend more than 3 billion hours a week playing video games. In the speech “Online Harassment and Cyber Mobs” Anita Sarkeesian, who is a female gamer, talks about the stereotypes of gaming. The type of people who don’t think women should be a part of the gamer world. A world, which is dominated by men and where online harassment of the other gender is something we see everyday. This is the stereotype Sarkeesian talks about and this is the stereotype she tries to get rid of.