Introduction
“Sugar and spice, and all things nice, that's what little girls are made of.” Way back to the Victorian times, this is what nursery rhymes have been telling their readers (Bury, n.d.). Women are not expected to be involved in activities and fields that are perceived to be masculine and one of which is the video games industry. The question “Why are there so few lady game creators?” was asked on Twitter by Luke Crane, a game developer. A lot of answers were provided by netizens and one of which was “Because conventions, where designers are celebrated, are unsafe places for me. Really. I've been groped.” Another anonymous female answered that she was asked by a co-worker if she has been sleeping with their boss after she got promoted
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One of the causes of underrepresentation of women in the industry is their exposure to computers and technology since they were children. Male children in middle school are more exposed than female children to computers and technology. Female children's less exposure is caused by them not being comfortable in dealing with educational softwares with violence while males are not comfortable with softwares that deals with “verbal agility and cooperation” and does not contain violence (Cooper, Hall, & Huff, 1990). Since females dislike violence in educational softwares, they do the same towards other digital games such as computer games and video games. And because males, which compose 98% of the computer consumers, are the target of the advertisements of computer companies, it brings computing to be dominated by males (Linn, 1983). In addition, in a study where game designers were tasked to create a program for students, they perceived their audience as males (Huff & Cooper, 1987) and these are some of the reasons why most video games are played by males and not by females. Moreover, parents tend to see computers and game consoles as a male child's toy; therefore, they buy and give them as a gift to their sons. Furthermore, both male and female children perceive computers and computer games as toys for male children (Cassell & Jenkins, 1998) and male children often discriminate female children who what …show more content…
Another cause of women's underrepresentation is gender stereotypes. Gender stereotypes discourage women to be entirely involved in the gaming industry (Newbery, 1994) and it is often felt by women in this field. This adds to the causes as to why less women are entering the industry. Most of the stereotypes come from the images of females in game designs. According to Weststar and Legault (2012), women find it difficult to enter the video games industry because of the contents of video games with negative female stereotypes and the social constructs in the video game play. Most of the time, female characters are women wearing less clothes and exposing more skin with large breasts and usually submissive roles, and how they were design reflects that women are being sexualized in games (Maisonave, n.d.). Another source of stereotypes of women comes from social constructs. The society often see women fulfilling communal goals such as helping others. In contrast, the fields science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are often followed by the image of a “lone scientist” (Diekman, Brown, Johnston, & Clark, 2010). Also, perception of math-related fields, physics for example, being connected to war and destruction (Jones, Howe, & Rua, 2000) affects how women wanted to enter those
... never concretely relates to video games it is only normally assumed. many believe that video games only impact male players through these violent outburst yet a lot of research suggest that the misconceptions regarding video games such as decrease in academics, increased aggression, and a decrease in respect for women is often situation based and rare at that. it has been shown however the video games increase an individual's spatial performance. As is said in the article Gender Disparity in Video Game Usage: A Third-Person Perception-Based Explanation,
Kimmel elaborates on fantasy through gender stereotyping where he depicts men as having “biceps…upper torsos are so massive, their waists so small, and their thighs so powerfully bulging” (Kimmel 157). For the depiction of women they are “a sort of recently sexually ravaged look—with breasts so large and a waist so small” (Kimmel 157). Kimmel is implying that how we view gender-specific ideal beauty standards influence the way we imagine a fantasy world through the use of appearance. Since mostly men engage in video game media it seems that they dominate the video game world where they get to play a character that depicts what they want to look like. 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. Statistically “there were still more male characters (60%) than female characters (40%) on the Web site” (qtd in Zorrilla) in games such as Guild
Cyberspace as a frontier is open to all comers, but currently the majority of explorers and accomplished users appear to be mostly white males. Deborah Tannen, in her article "Gender Gap in Cyberspace," discusses some of her experiences and conclusions regarding this difference in usage of computers by males and females.(The full name of the author and of the article need to appear in the first couple of sentences. . .) She sums up her main point (main claim)when she asserts, "Men want to force computers to submit. Women just want computers to work" (141). (Claim is locked to a concrete piece of text to help show how the analyst is working. . .)This claim of fact is blunt and simplistic but works very well to attract the attention of her audience.(Names the claim and transistions in to the next paragraph about audience.)
And after many researches, it been found that men are more addicted to video games, because most of games reflects their actions and behavior, and the type of games they play are usually contains violence and, action. And the male characters are always represented as a muscled and tough men. Unlike females they are less addicted to video games, because when they found most of games contains violence, and their naturality is usually calm and soft, they stayed away, so they turned to adventure, and puzzle games. But what made arguments is the representation of females, they were often shown as a sex object, and that because game designers tend to please male players, more than females because their percentage is higher. Games industries are willing to change the representation of each character from different gender in next the generation of games. but will it be more successful than the way genders are being represented now
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.
Stereotypes are beliefs that associate a whole group of people with certain traits, as stated in the book. Specifically, gender stereotypes is when there is a generalized view about roles that are considered to be possessed and performed by only men or women. Gender stereotypes can have a harmful impact on women’s achievements in their occupations. Currently, there has been an increase in women dominating work fields in which males were traditionally dominating. However, women still encounter many obstacles when achieving success in these fields because majority view female-dominated jobs such as nursing, teaching, and as secretaries that require more female physical and personality traits. Occupations such as being doctors, lawyers, and business executives are seen as male-dominated jobs and ones that require personality traits of men. It’s due to these stereotypical roles that have been set that both males and females show a bias towards male applicants in occupations of higher-reputation. So when it comes to who will be hired, males are preferred over females due to their masculine qualities, even though they have the same qualifications. In cases where females have been hired for these high positions, women are faced with other obstacles, such as having less authority, recognition, and salary compared to men. A study that was conducted of both male and female managers in 500 corporations showed that women still didn’t make as much money as men did, even though they were both equal when it came to their education, experience in similar fields, and had the same commitment. This relates to the dental health field, because according to the bureau of labor statistics, female dentist make less money compared to men and are seen as being less in charge. According to The Implications of Gender Stereotypes for the Dentist-Patient
So many little girls dream of being a princess when they grow up, but not a superhero. Boys dream of being a hero, not a prince. This is because many of the movies and television shows usually have a tendency to target one specific gender audience. Videogames are another specific example of gender stereotyping. Many of the videogames are targeted to boys. These videogames feature violence, crime, and car chases. Advertisements play a big role is stereotyping as well. It is uncommon to see girls playing with toy cars in an advertisement. Usually, girls featured in advertisements are promoting dolls, makeup, or kitchen sets. These forms of stereotyping can affect children in a variety of
Dill, Karen E., and Kathryn P. Thill. "Video Game Characters and the Socialization of Gender Roles: Young People’s Perceptions Mirror Sexist Media Depictions." Sex Roles 57.11-12 (2007): 851-64. Print.
Within the gaming industry, whether it is within the PC gaming industry network or the general gaming industry network, sexism exists. This is supported by the findings discussed within this case study. One such example is: “60% of women in the game industry have experienced sexism... Almost 77% of women and about 55% of men have female friends in the game industry that have experienced sexism.” (Allaway, 2014)
Dill further explains how women in video games are under-represented and games rarely depict female heroes. This shows that female characters have rarely been shown in video games, and if so those female characters didn’t reflect a realistic female identity for any women to identify with. Similarly, Carinci explains in his article Examining gender and classroom teaching practices “how in 33 popular Nintendo and Sega video games, 30% of those games had no human character and when there were characters, more than 40% of the games had no females” (pp.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The gaming community is a constantly growing organism and it’s simply the more the merrier in terms of players. The claim that women are shamed or treated poorly simply because of who they are is pure folly. The player-base in all games welcomes women. One blogger decided to prove this claim by performing his own rudimentary study within a small-scale, massively-multiplayer online game; MMO for short. In playing as both a female and a male character his findings were “girls are not out rightly shunned using misogyny or sexism” based on the fact that as a female character he was able to make simple alliances and survive to the top of the leaderboard whereas a male character would be decimated indiscriminately (Dutt).
The average adolescent spends a major part of the normal week watching or interacting with some form of the media’s products. Video games are one of these media based mediums and have become increasingly popular since the 1980’s. According to a report in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, "Female gamers spent an average of 44 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and four minutes playing on the weekends, and male gamers spent an average of 58 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and 37 minutes playing on the weekends" ("Video Game Play Among Adolescents"). What can we understand from this evidence? The fact is that adolescents, male or female, are spending tremendous amounts of time each day sitting in front of a screen with a controller in hand.
Some scholars explain this shift in equality with the increase in female game developers (Lynch 2016). Though only at twenty-two percent, female developers continue to shine a light on the lack of female presence. This expanding audience and the prevalence of mobile gaming has fueled the diversity of
With technology rapidly changing as fast as we blink our eyes, it is important for people to learn as much as possible about the computer world if they want to maintain a decent lifestyle because the world we live in revolving around those technologies. As McKee points out, “most jobs now require intelligence and technical skill” (1). Each year, there is something either added or modified to computers, which forces people to learn computer literacy at a steady pace. While some love computers, others despise them. When comparing people’s attitudes towards computers, statistics show a gender gap that proves most females’ attitudes are drastically different from the attitudes of males. Several studies prove that women not only lack an interest in technology, but they also chose not to enroll in computer classes. Since computers and technology play an enormous role in the world today, more technology professionals are needed. It is extremely important for more women to become knowledgeable in these areas. Swain and Harvey argue, “This technology gender gap is affecting half our population and causing it to be unprepared to contribute to the demands of a high-tech twenty-first century” (17). While this may not seem like a serious issue to some, it is an issue that will ultimately lead to a bigger problem if not handled immediately. So why are there so few women in the technology field? To answer that question, I must first find out why are there so few women in the technology and computer classes, considering that this atmosphere is the most common place where the interest for computers is born.
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...