What do you think of competitive gaming as a career? For myself, I think of it as the next major competition, on a par with football or basketball, and would gladly jump at the opportunity given the chances, but for others the thought would be considered laughable. For many male gamers, competitive gaming as a career is something that they have thought about at least once in their lives, it’s the ultimate dream of most gamers – getting paid to play video games. For female gamers, however, it is a bit harder to imagine such a career and there are plenty of good reasons why females don’t generally take up competitive gaming as a career. In A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf, Woolf invents Judith, an imaginative, and genius sister to William Shakespeare, and described how the sexist and oppressive Elizabethan Era would treat someone like her. It did not go well for Judith. Sexism today is nowhere as bad compared to the Elizabethan Era, but it is still a prominent problem in the competitive gaming scene. Sexism aside, there are many obstacles that needed to be climbed before female gamers, competitive as well as casual, are taken seriously in the eyes of the community and the general public. For female gamers to have a chance at pursuing competitive gaming as a career, the gaming community have to get rid of the notion that gaming is a male-only activity, the stereotypes surrounding female gamers, and the usage of their gender to pave their way into competitive play.
There is a huge difference in how male gamers and female gamers are seen an treated by the community. Gaming, as seen by society, is something that identifies itself with males, and with good reason, video games were originally marketed to males and has been for deca...
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...stroy the other team’s throne. Team Siren prides itself as the first all female League of Legends team, but was forced to disband just about a month after the team was created. The team disbanding was not due to sexism or lack of an opportunity, it was simply due to the team’s bad manner and poor performance. In sports, as well as competitive gaming, people watch the game to see a high level of play, males or females, it’s all about the performance. When Team Siren as well as any other female/male teams and gamers who sacrifice talent in order to have a chance at a quick cash grab, the competitive gaming community shows that their gimmicks wouldn’t last more than their allotted 15 minutes of fame. And that’s more or less the point of competitive gaming, the playing field is even, there’s no advantages or handicaps, no matter your gender, religious belief or race.
This is because it is common for males to freely express their own fantasy that they lack in reality. In addition, they play video games to be their ideal self. If they were to play a female character, it would lean more towards the fact that it depicts what they want their dream girlfriend to look like. In Video Games and Gender by Michelle Zorrilla, video games have long been known as a male-dominated media. There would mostly be male characters than there are female characters because female characters are usually depicted as the subordinate character.
Video game playing has become an increasingly popular interest for many people. Every video game is unique in its own way and how it is shaped to the audience at hand. With all the video game playing, this gives rise to possible concerns as to how the media portrays such aspects in a game. One debate about video games that is an increasingly popular subject to talk about is how gender is portrayed in video games for both men and women. In many video games, women are shown as having a passive role, while men hold a more dominant role. In the video game Tomb Raider, Lara Croft is a character this is being talked about because she is the main character and is a female. Previous video games have created the media representation that females are
The history of video games began in early 1950s, and it continued in development until today. video games gained popularity as movies and T.V shows, and like movies which producers focus on the story plot, each character role, and the way they are being represented, videogames have the same concerns, especially character 's role and, representation, because most of players will not care about the game’s story, they just want to have fun playing the game, but the player will play as a character, or meet other characters from various gender, and that what make game designers care about the gender and, characters representation. and by the way of presenting gender, it will control the number of players of both genders, because it could connect to their life. games industry made researches about what both genders want in their game,
The sun, that shines ever so brightly, wakes you from your deep slumber. It is noon. Exhilarating dreams of being a secret agent illuminates your mind, but cannot be expressed in the real world, so you close your window blinds. As you walk away from reality, a light bulb then appears above your head. You have an epiphany. You realize you can be the crime fighting, devious, secret agent you always wanted to be, but you must do one thing first—turn on the game console. You are now channeling yourself into a different world, where every fantasy you have ever had is considered normal. As you continue to dwell in your fantasy, you encounter a very submissive woman with enormous sized breasts, and other curvy features to match—features that then become expected in the real world. Although, there are others that disagree, this hypersexualization of female characters in video games is taking a toll on gamers, by portraying fantasy to be something real. Gamers are becoming more prone to objectifying, and expecting women in the real world to have unrealistic bodily features. Also, based on the negative connotation that these video games entail, females are discouraged to play such video games, because it leads to negative self-perceptions. Consequently, hypersexualizing female characters in video games should be discouraged because it teaches gamers to accept stereotypical views of women, desensitize them to interpersonal violence, and, worst of all, it causes female gamers to have negative self-perceptions.
At the peak, female players and sports has little publicity and smaller crowds. The general public has little to no desire to partake in female sports. This isn’t about equality. It’s about what people want to see and they want to see all-male teams perform at the highest level.Teams would struggle to coexist with women in the same organisation. For example, they would have to invest in private changing and shower areas. Small team organizations couldn’t maintain sufficient funds to accommodate this. Take into consideration, at the professional level where players usually earn millions every year with extensive contracts, females might have to take a leave of absence from 9 months to however long to raise and care to a new-born. Which is normally the length of a season or long enough to cause a big impact in their careers. In female sports there would be other female players to cover another for maternity leave, but if it were mixed up with male sports, over time general managers would start to sign extensive contracts to males and short ones to females due to longevity of careers. Taking in all the aspects about biology, economy, and desire into perspective there’s no validating reason why any team consisting of men and women would be better off than having separate teams. It would fulfill the much seeked out desire for equal rights, but we must not ignore the basic deviations that make women and men so
When we think of "professional athletes," the names that come to our minds are players such as Kurt Warner, Andre Agassi, Mark McGwire, Michael Jordan, Brett Hull, and Steve Austin to name a few. These male athletes are very popular in the professional sports world. But what about Dot Richardson, Rebecca Lobo, Sheryl Swoopes, Mia Hamm, and Cammi Granato to name a few more? These are female professional athletes that some might recognize, but their names are not as popular as the men's names. Their names may sound unfamiliar to most of us because women's professional sports are not recognized as much as men's. However, thanks to the passing of the 1972 Education Amendment to the Civil Rights Act, Title IX, women are participating more than ever in the sports world and funding has been increasing. Title IX states that "no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."
...participation levels and interest levels in women's sports at all levels. One big women's sport that is well known worldwide now and is a leader for Title lX is the US Women's Soccer team who has won previous World Cups Titles and has been a firm demander and supporter of what Title lX has done and will continue to do. Years ago no one even cared about women's sports and what it takes for a woman to be accepted in the sporting world and not be called a tom-boy. It takes determination and hard work, much more of say the average male athlete. Even though men are taking hits throughout the years for equality, women are taking strides towards equality and are looking towards the future or their sports and their games.
This journal article is entirely credible and written by two women who know what they’re talking about. This article discusses how video games form stereotypes about both genders and that they impact both gamers and non-gamers. Men are portrayed as aggressive and women are unsurprisingly portrayed as sex objects. A main issue with this is that video games are mostly played by the younger generation meaning these are the ideas being imbedded into the youth of the world. The...
Many video games portray women as objectified beings, purely used for sex appeal and to attract the larger male gamer population. We also see men idealised in a similar way as well – the males in video games are portrayed as muscly, brawny men. However, we rarely see a scantily clad man in a game, but there is a vast abundance of games which feature women wearing ‘sexy armour’, or a noticeable lack of substantial amount of clothing. This isn’t female-friendly as these games are made for men, causing women to feel alienated and uncomfortable.
From this, it concludes that the media and online gaming can create and reinforce gendered behaviors. These video games affect the child's identity and their perception of others. In conclusion, the video games that contain sexual themes become more graphically portrayed. And the video games that use Damsel and Distress plots reduce women to a state of victimhood. The way female characters’ dress in the videogame reinforced gender-role stereotypes.
However, video games have not always been, and even today still aren’t, a completely accepted mode of recreation. These games have caused a large amount of controversy, dating back to one of the first games to come under fire back in the mid-1970s. The problem that certain groups in society saw with video games exploded with one of the more famous cases where a video game was brought to court over its contents in the early 1990s with the introduction of Mortal Kombat, one of the first household games that included blood. Even today, games continue to be criticized for characteristics that have been labeled as violent, sexist, or immoral and are blamed for instilling these ideas into those who play the games. However, these arguments do not have any merit. While video games may display actions and properties that have been deemed as cynical and detrimental, they do not cause significant negative behavioral changes in the players. It is the exact opposite: games have a positive effect on their players and the people around them.
Bell, Chris. "Video Games: The Sport of the Future?" The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 26 June 2013. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Gaming has long been considered a male-dominated activity. There have been numerous scientific studies conducted to analyze the impact video games have on an individual and vice versa, however one of the most common discussions concerning the gaming community is sexism. With today’s growing audience and the popularity of smart phone gaming, it is a mystery as to why gaming has managed to keep its male-minded stereotypes. Most games reflect the sexist gender roles imposed upon gamers by society, however today’s response is a heated protest, some more dramatic than others. Most gamers are demanding more female protagonists, and developers are listening, but it’s a slow climb to equality in the world of pixels and fantasy. Let us discuss the surrounding influences of the video game community, some setbacks and remarkable breakthroughs in diversifying, and the ways gamers shape the games they play.
The video game market has shifted from being a predominantly male market to include the female population with games like The Sims, in which players build virtual worlds. Such games often result in online communities, where players build avatars and interact with others across the globe. My sister used to spend hours at the computer buildi...
"Interest In Gaming Grows With Focus On Competitiveness, Engagement And Critical Thinking. (Cover Story)." Electronic Education Report 14.12 (2007): 1-3.