What Are The Stereotypes Of Women 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.

Not only can video games support existing social and cultural positions, but they can also disrupt and change those positions, leading to

As stated earlier, video games have transitioned into an art form. Art is an extension of the artist and their creativity. Their heart, soul, and being is present in the pieces they create. In the same way, video games are just an extension of those who create them. With this reasoning, we can assume that cultural attitudes will be present in various digital content they provide. Most game developers are males. (This highlights another issue which highlights the lack of gender diversity in certain career paths.) Therefore, the notion that many video games will be layered with attitudes that are geared toward the "stereotypical" male desires is not farfetched. Some of these desires include sexually clad women, minimal clothing, and robust body figures. (Salter & Blodgett, 2012) Now, this perpetuates a real-life narrative that reveals certain hegemonic ideologies concerning masculinity in the US. "According to Wood, masculinity themes are: don't be female; be successful; be aggressive; be sexual; and be self-reliant." (Allen, 2004) The problem is that video games do not create these themes; they are created within a cultural context and applied to different platforms to perpetuate them throughout society. In the world of Infinite, a few of these themes were clearly placed to fuel the male libido in a virtual

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

The Malcolm Baldrige Award was created by congress in 1987 and signed by President Reagan to recognize U.S organizations in healthcare, education, business, and nonprofit organizations for performance excellence. During this time companies were striving to be the best, trying to top one another in price, business, and quantity. Congress saw this increase and they wanted to set a standard for the companies and award the ones that go above and beyond for their customers not only in quality but also in customer service. The reason for this was many American companies did not know about quality, nor implemented quality into their products. The award was named after Malcolm Baldrige who was the 26th Secretary of Commerce. He was

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.

After an hour of frustration and an inability to find a topic for this qualitative gender portrayal, I gave up and decided to play video games to relax. All of a sudden, I sat staring at my TV screen completely dumbfounded as a nearly nude woman popped up on the loading screen of Grand Theft Auto V. For very obvious reasons, I was inspired to qualitatively analyze Grand Theft Auto V focusing specifically on gender stereotypes and sexualization present in the game. In order to accurately depict the video game’s portrayal of gender I studied both the story mode and online mode looking closely at the actions and speech, physical appearance, and prevalence of females within the game.

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).

“Home Alone 2: Lost in New York”, was a comedy film written and produced by John Hughes and directed by Chris Columbus in 1992. It was the sequel to “Home Alone” and the second film in the series. The movie featured Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister, and Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern played the roles of the Wet Bandits. The movie also featured John Heard, Catherine O'Hara, and Tim Curry. The movie is about Kevin and with his family choosing to take a vacation to Florida.

Over the past few decades, video games have rapidly evolved from simple games like Pac-Man and Tetris to complex interactive media platforms popular with people of all ages. As video games skyrocketed in popularity, so have public attention and research studies alongside them. The controversial issue of video games promoting violence or sexual aggression is currently still being hotly debated by educated people from both sides of the argument. However, there is compelling evidence which proves that themes of violence in video games do indeed affect violent tendencies in the real-world, including but not limited to forms of sexual aggression towards women due to the objectification of female characters in video games.

Video games have long been known as a male dominated media, when it comes to the market audience, player base, and character representation in game. Research concerning gender representation in video games often focuses on a few key points of how men and women are viewed differently, things like physical abilities, role in the game, and physical attributes are just a few to point out (Zorrilla, 2011). Something that is used a lot in video games is the sexualized depiction of female characters, the overwhelming masculinity of the implied game player, and the recurring structure of male heroes or characters

Through the usage of the sample of popular video games, it has been concluded that female characters in the video-games were portrayed as a negative image. The author states that, “In

The way Grand Theft Auto and other games as that portrays women versus men is degrading. Women are portrayed as sexual objects and are very much sexualized. They are usually pictured as having big breast, little clothing on, and I am pretty sure they are prostitutes. On most of these games, girls are usually the sexual objects. They aren’t normally viewed as “superheroes” and if they are anything in the games, they still normally have little clothing on and they’re breast are normally almost out. This is good for society and especially not good for our children to be playing and seeing. Our younger generations need to understand women are their equal and that they aren’t superior. Most of the media now such as music videos and tv are portraying

Overall, it was found from my research that even with the emergence of next-generation systems and shifting landscapes in gaming, there is still a cultural perception of the gamer as white male. There are exceptions to this, which can be seen in many commercials that challenge our expectations of what a gamer might look like and how he or she might behave. Certainly, as time goes on, it’s been found that there is an increased inclusivity in terms of who might actually appear in these commercials. Some commercials have begun to play with and tease out these representations: the commercials of Call of Duty: Ghosts, for example, that featured a wide variety of players. While representations of the gamer have mostly stayed consistent, these examples pre-empt the beginnings of a shift, as the video game industry continues to diversify.

The high school I attended in Hawaii was largely underfunded and did not have the materials necessary to help prepare me for college. In fact, my old high school holds a college readiness index score of 8.7 out of 100 on US News & World Report. Once I recognized that I was in a poor learning environment, I seized an opportunity to transfer from Konawaena High School to Garfield High School (Seattle) in order to better position myself for college. Subsequent to transferring, I enrolled in Running Start courses at Seattle Central College and sought out help to plot my next steps. In addition to applying to several Colleges I was compelled to apply for scholarships, which paid off because I am now a recipient of the Gates Millennium Scholarship.