Since the humble origins of the video gaming industry, individuals used it as a challenge of their abilities. In modern day, this industry is just a popular as any other media which exists in the mainstream world. Video games reflect society’s changing views of the normalities of which individuals and/or groups must abide to. This is exemplified in the evolving representation of the queer individuals within the virtual world. As the video game industry came into focus, so did the LGBT rights movement. This illustrates that society’s views on the LGBT community were reflected in the video games made, however, it was rare that such characters existed as protagonists until the twenty first century. Due to the extreme lack of asexual and non-binary …show more content…
This is demonstrated in the fact that it has taken nearly three decades to break through heteronormative attitudes within gaming since the first homosexual video game character in 1986. Equally as important for the queer community, an entire game dedicated to LGBT individuals was made in 1988 titled Caper in the Castro which is described by the game designer as “a game that the player assumed the role of a lesbian detective investigating the disappearance of a transgender woman”. Despite this, the game was then coated with heteronormativity and reimagined with heterosexual and cisgender characters titled as Murder on Main Street, by Heizer Software. The designer’s reasoning behind this was that they “wanted to tap into the mainstream audience”. This illustrates the homophobic and transphobic views and treatment of LGBT people in 1988. This is contrasted to the transgender character that featured in game Super Mario Bros. 2, the same year by gaming company Nintendo. The character, Birdo, is a pink creature is is described in the gaming manual as a male who “thinks he is a girl” and would rather be called “Birdetta”. Despite this, her identity is disclosed by Nintendo as they are still conservative in their references to gender and sexuality. In her future appearances in the game franchise, any hint of her transsexuality was removed and her gender was left up to the player’s …show more content…
This is exemplified in another game produced by Nintendo in their instalments to the Animal Crossing series. The feminine giraffe character, Gracie is a celebrity fashion designer who occasionally communicates to the player. In the Japanese titles of the game series, Gracie is labelled as a male yet in the western version of the game, they have the same game model, yet they are labelled as a female. This illustrates how through translation, ‘deviant’ themes such as transsexuality and/or being transgender is changed to “please the western audience”. Through the preceding examples of Birdo and Gracie, it is clear to see the fact characters who identify as LGBT are being hidden by game companies to attempt to appeal to the mainstream audience, in doing so stripping away any sense of relatability queer individuals have to these characters. This is supported in a quote from my questionnaire that I conducted, a respondent stated that they “don’t see enough games with gender neutral or non-binary characters.” In addition to that, 100% of non-binary respondents to my questionnaire stated that they are not pleased with the way their genden identity is represented in video games. Due to the underrepresentation of non-binary and gender queer characters in video games, individuals
Such conventions of hetronormative gender representation can be seen in all areas of the mass media today, such as advertising and film. The representation of both male and female bodies within the medium of video games reflects understandings of gender and sexuality, and it is important that we as players are made aware of these representations and what they signify. I argue that Grand Theft Auto IV, through its framing of both female and male bodies, promotes hetronormative hierarchal distinctions between feminity and masculinity, by encouraging players to adopt and act out a hypermasculine role, and by
The two movies I chose to watch this week was “The Road to El Dorado” and “The Emperor's New Groove” as my choice of animated films to analyze. The animated film, “The Road to El Dorado” stereotypical representations of race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality are added in children’s films. I see sexuality played out most of the time in these Disney films. There is only one woman, and her name is Chel. There are many single female characters in otherwise male dominated movies who are portrayed as sexy. It is unfortunately very common and reinforces the idea of women as tokens, and the audience will not find stories interesting unless their focus is men’s issues and lives. As soon as Chel appears she is immediately characterized as an object that
Imagine for a moment, a world of death. For 200 years your family has been sealed away with a thousand other people, to protect you from the dangers outside. Now your father has disappeared, and it’s up to you to find him. After a harrowing escape from your subterranean home, you walk through a tunnel to the outside world, past dead bodies, stretched out in front of the door, as if to say “don’t leave us out here to die!” As you walk through the gate to the outside, and as your eyes slowly adjust to the sun you have never seen, a wasteland emerges before you. The world is devastated, destroyed and annihilated. Broken twisted hunks of metal lie next to a sign on the side of the mountain saying “scenic overlook” on your right, the broken remains of the interstate bridge stand as a monument to a destroyed culture. Petrified trees are all that remains of the local fauna. Off in the distance, all that remains is destruction. While you may think of this stunning visualization of a wonderful novel, this is actually one of the opening scenes from Todd Howard and Bethesda Game Studios’ “Fallout 3.”
The two step flow model also suggests that mass communication is not direct or uniform; it does not operate directly on each individual, unlike the “magic bullet” perspective (Wells, 2015a). This is further exemplified in the differing responses of the players; Alice and Benito felt displeased with the sexualisation of female characters in the game and the ‘cultural appropriation’ of some characters, while Jesús and Natasha felt that the way in which characters were portrayed in a video game was expected and understand it is not
Barbie is tall, thin, has large hips and a large chest; she is beautiful, blonde, and she loves to shop; overall, Barbie is the feminine ideal. As researchers Jacqueline Urla and Alan Swedlund acknowledge, “little girls learn, among other things, about the crucial importance of their appearance to their personal happiness and to their ability to gain in favor with their friends” (1995:281). Gender roles are both centered around behavior as well as around bodies; this poses huge problems for transgender people, as well as explanations for transphobia; society has, for so long, accepted gender and sex to be synonymous. Because of this, a person whose gender is female and whose body is (rhetorically) male is a frightening and concerning deviant to most people’s understanding of the way in which gender exists. Everything that has to do with ideals for bodies leads to problems for transgender people; whether it is, as Urla and Swedlund also commented, that “...woman’s body was understood through the lens of her reproductive functions” (1995:287), or the general idea of “norms” for body proportions. When considering women’s bodies’ main purpose to be that of reproduction, it is apparent why the concept of transgender people may be concerning; transgender women -- that is, people, assigned male at birth but who live as women -- are women whose bodies cannot reproduce in the way that women are expected to; transgender men -- people assigned female at birth but who live as men -- may still have bodies which are viewed as useful mainly for their reproductive capabilities, but which they do not intend to acknowledge or use as such. When things stray so drastically from a norm which has long been accepted with minimal thought, onlookers panic that other norms will start to change as well. Straying from this norm also
Putnam, A. (2013). Mean ladies: Transgendered villains in Disney films. In J. Cheu (Ed.), Diversity in
Reinhard, Carrie L. "Hypersexualized Females in Digital Games: Do Men Want Them, Do Women Want to Be Them?"Department of Communications. 2006. Print.
I always sensed that I was not a “girl’ and would partake activities such as sports and distancing myself from drama that is considered “girly”. I also have a niche for masculine things such as clothing and play video games, which are marketed profusely towards boys and men. At the same time, I did not feel like a “boy”. I was, during my early childhood, elementary, and pre-teen years labeling my as an “outsider” due to the perception of myself not fitting in. I went on to take on my persona as this “tomboy” while still having a distinctive identity that was not matching with the beliefs of how transgender people were in the
Gender Outlaws (Smith, 2010) breaks the laws of gender by defying gender normative rules that exclude trans, queer and other non-conforming gender expressions often oppressed by “gender-norming rules,” rules, “expected to observe” or be subject to ridicule and often times labeled as freak by those who consider themselves as normal (p. 28). A gender outlaw seeks to, redefine the notion of gender and are carving out spaces of their own” (p. 30).
When Jerry Falwell's conservative paper "outted" Tinky-Winky (the purple Teletubby) as being gay, fans of the Teletubbies television series usually fell into two camps: those who supported Tinky-Winky as a positive gay character and those who maintain Tinky-Winky has no developed sexual identity. A few unfamiliar with the BBC/PBS show asked the question, "how can you even tell if Tinky-Winky's male?" Brushed off by most fans as a naive inquiry, this concern does merit discussion. How do we, as television viewers, determine gender identities for non-human characters? How is this complicated for children's characters?
One of the most notable and prominent examples of a damsel in distress is Princess Peach (or Princess Toadstool) from the Super Mario Bros Series developed and published by Nintendo. Princess Peach is a dainty, feminine figure who is frequently kidnapped by the main antagonist of the Mario Franchise, Bowser. In fact, out of 15 games of the main Mario series, Princess Peach has been kidnapped in 13 of them often only appearing at the very beginning and end of each game. Super Mario Bros 2 for a long time was the only main series Mario game in which Peach was a playable character. However, keep in mind that Super Mario Bros 2 was just a reskin of a pre-existing game and that the only reason why Peach was included was because Nintendo needed an extra model. It would be almost 25 years before the next game Peach was a playable character in was released; Super Mario 3D World the only other main Mario Series game in which Princess Pea...
The depiction of transgender women characters in mainstream television has been offensive, insulting and derogatory. An article from GLADD called “Victims or Villains: Examining Ten Years of Transgender Images on Television”, examines 102 episodes and storylines on mainstream television that contained transgender characters since 2002. Of these, more than half were characterized as containing negative representations of transgender. In 2007 only 1% of television series had a recurring transgender character, which has slowly increased to 4% in 2013.
The 1990s saw surge of gay characters in both television and movies. From Ellen Degeneres and her character Ellen Morgan coming out under much scrutiny on the TV show ‘Ellen,’ to Julia Roberts and Rupert Everett comedically playing off each other in the motion picture ‘My Best Friend’s Wedding.’ Sure, gays and lesbians have been around forever, especially in Hollywood. But never has there been a time to be more out. With the popularity of shows like Will and Grace, which feature leading gay characters, as well as Dawson’s Creek and it’s supporting character of teenager Jack McPhee, we are slowly seeing gay and lesbian characters creeping into the mainstream media.
Whether they be first-person shooters like Call of Duty, sports games like Madden or Fifa, racing games like Forza or Mariokart, or even games and apps on your phones, there are quite a bit of gamers in here. According to the Entertainment Software Association, about 59% of American play some sort of video game, so gaming isn’t all that uncommon (Entertainment Software Association, 2014). As such, there must be some sort of effect on the audience of this growing form of entertainment.
...viant, thus marginalized even demonized. While in recent times there has undeniably been a greater sense of acceptance toward homosexuals, there are definitely generalizations that tend to hinder the overall perspective on identity. The issue of sexual identity and gender has recently been brought to the forefront of social discourse due largely to the major activism of the LGBTQ community and countless progressive institutions. Through the recognition of the gender binary one can see that there are an array of preferences for being and behaving. Rather than having to follow traditional roles people should be able to be masculine, feminine, androgynous, aggressive, vulnerable, or indifferent. The issue is not necessarily diversity, but rather openness to gender possibilities and the freedom to experiment and shamelessly explore facets of one’s individual expression.