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Sexism in the gaming community
Sexism in video games essay
Gender roles and video games
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Recommended: Sexism in the gaming community
I am a gamer, I have always been one, and any gamer knows that there are many controversies revolving around the gaming community. The largest in recent years being the GamerGate controversy. The controversy revolves around the fact that the gaming community is supposedly sexist and misogynistic. The question is, are gamers really sexist?
Although Gamergate was a recent happening, the controversy, or well the information around it has been around for much longer, really since video games became a popular thing. That is that gamers, and boys and men who support gaming are misogynistic, and push out or refuse to let woman have any say in the gaming community and world. This is highly stereotypical in my opinion, there are some in the
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Although, I can say I do not agree with the views and actions of the Gamergaters, but I do not believe that gamers are misogynistic. The myth that gamers are sexist, I believe, is fake and wrong. The stereotype that the gaming industry is sexist has always been a thing due to the fact that in the early days of gaming, although it tended to be advertised as a family thing, the consumer base was almost entirely male. All gamers know the facts and reasons why we are believed to be misogynistic, these being that many games depict females in a sort of peril and a male hero is the one to save them, as well as the ever prominent argument that many largely popular games depict females in a sort of sexist way.The most prominent on these subject is the ever prominent “Grand Theft Auto V.”(infobase.com) I believe the gaming community has proven itself to not be sexist, or misogynistic, over the last 10 years the average female player base in gaming community has increased drastically, women are taking their own larger role in the gaming industry. As well as from my point of view at least, let alone many friends and fellow gamers, we widely accept female players. If not known to the public, it is well known to gamers, that we tend to be more solitary than others, this leads us to be highly acceptable to new players, including the ever growing female player
The article I have chosen for my rhetorical analysis is #Gamergate Trolls Aren’t Ethics Crusaders; They’re a hate group because it seemed interesting. The reason I was drawn to this article was because of the title, I was interested to know what it meant. This article, written by Jennifer Allaway, is about gamergate, an online gaming community, and the hate they show towards others. Jennifer does research on sexism in videogames and how it correlates to the gamers that play these games. She was collecting data from different organizations by using a questionnaire that gathered information on diversity in the videogame community. When some gamergate members
Sports, Violence and Alcohol - Three things considered to be in line with masculinity, Along with alot of things considered to be primal instinct. In america the prevalence and Sports, Violence and Beer exceeds most others leading to the general conclusion that America’s men are overall muscle bound meatheads who enjoy nothing but their primal urges. Clearly this is false but still an assumption made by those who only know these three things. As technology advances a new element of entertainment emerges, containing violence, sports and entertainment, Its videogames. Video Games muster together Guns, Violence, Sex, Alcohol, Sports and more Violence. From this description its easy to see why this would be a male oriented activity. At the time girls were still expected to be relatively lady-like. Yet as the years pass by, girls begin to play the video games which guys have been playing for years this causes a disparity between male and female gamers in the upcoming years.
The world of gaming is expanding with endless possibilities of ways to play. Gaming has advanced greatly over the years by expanding over many different platforms. Smartphones, tablets, and next generation consoles are just a few of the many possibilities to play. This expansion has broadened the demographic of players and changed the way we play today. Although the demographic has widened and the games have become more advanced, there seems to be a reoccurring theme in gaming. White males make up the majority of video game protagonists, while minorities and women are stereotyped and degraded. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) recently released its 2013 sales, demographic and usage report for the computer and video game industry. “Numbers show that 58% of Americans play video games. Fifty-five percent of gamers are male while 45% of gamers are female.” These numbers should suggest a change in the look of gaming to support its wide range of gamers. Yet and still nothing is being done. I feel this is due to a lack of women and minorities in the video game development field. If more knowledge of the field were to be presented to the African American youth, I feel there would be more interest and an increase in the number of minority game developers.
Many people are sexist in today 's society, but not as bad as it once was. But then
Most societies have been patriarchal historically, and the feminist movement has only occurred relatively recently. There cannot be ideological equality while there is still a stigma to being born differently, or of the “inferior sex.” People make assumptions on others based entirely on their sex, such as females are supposed to be nurturing and weak while males are supposed to be dominant and strong. The vernacular language use implies a sexist attitude that is prevalent in society. There are several solutions to reduce the apparent sexist lexicon.
The discrimination of a person based on their sex has always been prevalent in society, and even though both genders can be affected by sexism, it is typically associated with females. Throughout history, women have been expected to avoid competing with men in regards to education, employment, politics, and the media.
Men and women are always going to compared and contrasted against each other. Many different sources show and portray gender roles like media, advertisement and words or phrases. They all specify toward one gender and are mastered techniques used through marketing and entertainment to benefit their product and production.
Women are usually targeted because they are seen as the inferior gender in society. They are often displayed as sexual objects in the media, such as in porn and video games. Because of the way women are portrayed in society, they do not have the same opportunities as men. Many people may think that sexism is not an important issue anymore because women are making their way to the top. For instance, Mary Berara, the CEO of General Motors says “There are more women in more senior roles than in 1980 when I started. But from my career perspective, I don 't go into a room and take count. I want to be recognized for my contribution and for what I do” (nymag). Women are pushing themselves to work in higher positions, to prove that they have the same ability as men. Although women are becoming more and more powerful, sexism is still a huge issue today. Women may have higher positions, but they are paid less than men. According to a news article, “In 2012, the median earnings of American women working full time year-round were $37,791. American men earned a median income of $49,398. The gender wage gap has hovered at about 77 cents on the dollar since 2007” (huffington). This proves that sexism is present today since women working in the same jobs as men are paid a lower
Sexism also occurs within the actual gaming population where a large, if not whole part of the female gamer population encounters sexist and indecent remarks at least once from the male gaming population.
"Women should stay at home taking care of children." "Women should never disrespect a man." "Women who dress in skimpy outfits are asking to be harassed and cat called." These previous statements demonstrate misogyny. Misogyny is the hatred of women who do not conform to certain beliefs or practices on how woman should behave. These beliefs are centered on the idea that women are inferior to men. Now, not all misogynists hate all women. Misogyny is the hatred of specific women who do not conform to misogynist beliefs. For example, a misogynist can have the upmost respect for housewives, while one the other hand hating women who have a desire to better their career rather than have a family. Misogyny can have detrimental effects on anyone acting
The issue of sexism in video games have been going on for a long time. Similarly, Fox talks about how “Research has indicated that many video games and virtual worlds are populated by hypersexualized and unrealistic representation of women.” This shows how women have been sexualized in media which represent women as self-objectified. Jess explain in his research that, “as a result of hypersexualization of women in videogames it would lead to increase in rape myth acceptance.” In one of jess experiment he focus on the effects of avatar features on women’s experience of self-objectification. He finds out that college women who are exposed to over sexualized avatar in videogames experienced higher level of self-objectification than those who are exposed to non-sexualized avatar. In addition, Jess explains how “self-objectification mediated the relationship between controlling a sexualizes avatar and subsequent level of RMA.”
Secondly, the stereotype will probably stick around longer than it should because it actually has some basis in reality. It is true that younger gamers are in an earlier stage of development than older gamers. Younger gamers have not had as much time to learn what is and is not socially appropriate. This does mean that a younger gamer is likely to be less experienced and less skilled than an older gamer. However, it is still entirely possible for those positions to be flipped.
Women – beautiful, strong matriarchal forces that drive and define a portion of the society in which we live – are poised and confident individuals who embody the essence of determination, ambition, beauty, and character. Incomprehensible and extraordinary, women are persons who possess an immense amount of depth, culture, and sophistication. Society’s incapability of understanding the frame of mind and diversity that exists within the female population has created a need to condemn the method in which women think and feel, therefore causing the rise of “male-over-female” domination – sexism. Sexism is society’s most common form of discrimination; the need to have gender based separation reveals our culture’s reluctance to embrace new ideas, people, and concepts. This is common in various aspects of human life – jobs, households, sports, and the most widespread – the media. In the media, sexism is revealed through the various submissive, sometimes foolish, and powerless roles played by female models; because of these roles women have become overlooked, ignored, disregarded – easy to look at, but so hard to see.
The first video games didn’t call for much attention to gender as there weren’t really any humans present. Games such as Snake or Asteroids were really just a revolution in technology. As time progressed, gaming consisted of male-dominated industry whose
According to Neculaesei (2015), “Being physically or mentality different does not mean to be superior or inferior; that’s exactly what feminism is trying to explain” (p. 34). Sexism is ingrained in the American culture starting with children at a young age. The sayings ‘You throw like a girl, or you run like a girl,” is sexism at an elementary level, it states that the child performing that action is inferior. The discrimination materializes when these children choose the female last or do not include her in the activity. Discriminatory television series and commercials portray women as beautiful, sexy and weak, while most of their male counterparts are ordinary, chubby and strong. Female discrimination is ignored and accepted as customary. While the people of America continue to insist, there is not an issue with equality or discrimination today, “Women earn 77 cents on the dollar compared to men, and the wage gap has barely narrowed since the mid-1990s” (Stevens, 2016, p. 63). This is true even when women are performing the same job as men. The majority of woman and men return home after work at the same time and women continue to work throughout the evening preparing a meal and cleaning, while the male appears to relax, watch television or play games. This is accepted, and there appears to be no disinclination between the two