Gender Objectification In Video Games

1300 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Objectification of women in pop culture

The media has profound things to say about the physical appearance of a woman. Studies have shown a “link between objectification and sexualization of women in media and an increase in violence against the female gender” (Everbach, 2). Additionally, “sexual objectification has a negative impact on women” (Everbach, 2). Video games are a form of media which sexualizes women. Video games are a male-dominated media (Zorrilla, 1), hence, majority of games are designed to satisfy the male gaze. These games generally support the fact “males are significantly more represented than females” (Zorrilla, 1). Gender is presented in video games is based on stereotypes associate with “male” and “female.” When focusing on outer appearance, males are “muscular,” …show more content…

Their bodies are sexualized, purely for the benefit of male viewers. Yi Mou and Wei Peng (2009) did a study where they took nineteen games (picked based on top sales along with popularity) and studied game segment and character. According to their research all leading characters were male (Mou & Peng, 927). One third of supporting characters reported female. Finally, female characters were the ones in need of rescue (Mou & Peng, 927). Therefore, video games enforce gender stereotypes and place them into two different categories: a sexualized individual or the “damsel in …show more content…

In doing this it presents a hierarchy based on gender, which is relevant in the modern world. Women must be “sexy to have power or they are a damsel in distress that is reliant on men” (Everbach, 6). Young children learn from this form of media and use these images to “undermine the power of females” (Everbach, 7). Video games depict what is currently going on in today’s patriarchal society. Game developers and companies must realize there is a need for balance. It is inevitable there will be games developed sole for males and solely for females. However, companies must market these games in a way both males and females will be interested in playing them (Kondrat, 180). To see a change, video games and all other forms of media need to empower women and remind society gender does not define you. Men and women are

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Little Girls Or Little Women: The Disney Princess Effect

    1246 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect,” Stephanie Hanes covers the sexualization of young girls and women in every aspect of the media that influences children and teens. She explains that girls see media figures, movies, and sports being sexualized, and how this is causing children to associate looking and acting a certain way to being ‘the perfect women’. Hanes believes the hypersexualized media is causing girls to obtain a negative body image and it’s killing their self-esteem. The author proposes what she believes society should do about overcoming this obstacle, and how people can crush the stereotypes about women; to her everyone is responsible and should aid in fixing these problems. She explains that the media

    Read More

  • Dreamworlds 3: The Role Of Women And The Media

    788 Words  | 2 Pages

    Instead, women are being discriminated and treated as inferior due to the stereotypes that are portrayed in the media. The media creates and reproduces ways of seeing that at a minimum reflect and shape our culture. We can look at the media to understand more about a culture’s values and norms, if we realize the limitations of looking at the media. For example, one may ask, does the news based in the United Sates represent what the American culture is like, or only what stands out from everyday American culture? The answer to that is no. Instead, the media represents what it thinks it will be able to sell and is supported by advertisements. This includes violent acts, the sensationally and inappropriate. Jhally reminds us that “it is this male, heterosexual, pornographic imagination based on the degradation and control of women that has colonized commercial culture in general, although it is more clearly articulated in music videos” (Jhally 2007). Therefore, “media content is a symbolic rather than a literal representation of society and that to be represented in the media is in itself a form of power—social groups that are powerless can be relatively easily ignored, allowing the media to focus on the social groups that ‘really matter’” (Gerbner,

    Read More

  • Proposal

    765 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... 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,

    Read More

  • The Use Of Masculinity In Michael Kimmel's Guyland

    1728 Words  | 4 Pages

    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 most 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.

    Read More

  • Exploiting Stereotypes and Gender Roles in Gaming

    2447 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Hegemonic Masculinity in Sports Media

    1903 Words  | 4 Pages

    From the individual level to a national and global scale, certain tasks and activities legitimize the gender and define the identity of men and women. Traditionally, the culturally specific behaviors of men comprise masculinity while those of women constitute femininity (Connell, Masculinities 68-69). In many cultures, masculinity and femininity exist in a hierarchy, with masculinity being superior to femininity. The terms can be even further stratified, as some forms of masculinity and femininity are preferable to others (Moss 2). Sociologists often consider the most lauded masculinity in a particular culture to be hegemonic, or dominant, and this image of maleness becomes the ideal for men in that society (Moss 2). Although the concept of masculinity is constantly evolving, one activity that is often intertwined with the hegemonic form is the practice of sport (Brandt and Carsens 233). Similar to the evolution of masculinity, athletic events have changed greatly over the years. Originally, only males participated in sports, but today a diverse group of individuals can part in a variety of sports from the local to a professional level. However, despite the growing involvement of women in sports, sports media perpetuates a hegemonic masculinity by selectively covering male sports and by emphasizing the bodily performance and sexuality of male athletes.

    Read More

  • Video Games Gender Roles Essay

    1274 Words  | 3 Pages

    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,

    Read More

  • Social Media's Impact on Gender Roles: An Annotated Bibliography

    926 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Gender And Gender Roles In The Hunger Games

    2039 Words  | 5 Pages

    Gender roles refer to theoretical construction about how people who belong to different genders should speak, think, dress, act and interact within the context of community they live in. Moreover gender roles divided into two main elements, which are dependent on the cultural context as well as the personal preferences or tendency of someone. Gender representations in “The Hunger Games” represents classical shifts away from mainstream gender roles with some elements and reinforces established gender roles in others. Girls are presented as the fairer gender, with an inclination towards being emotional and kind and rarely have characteristics of toughness and strength as is characterized by boys. On the other hand,

    Read More

  • The Impact Of Sexualization And Objectification Of Women In Society

    1471 Words  | 3 Pages

    A common trend in the entertainment industry today is the objectification of women in society. Sexualizing women are seen in media such as; movies, advertisement, television show and music video, where their main focus is providing the audience with an image of women as sexual objects rather than a human. This is detrimental to society since the media is producing social stereotypes for both genders, which can further result in corrupted social habits. Objectification in media are more focused on females than male, these false images of women leave individuals with the wrong idea of the opposite sex. As media continuously use sexual contents regarding women, the audience starts underestimating women. Specifically movies, it allows media to shape the culture’s idea of romance, sex and what seems

    Read More

  • The Sexism Within The Gaming World

    2265 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Values of Miss America Pageant

    2474 Words  | 5 Pages

    It is shocking to see the digression in humanity’s morals and values over the past decade. As cliché as it sounds, the media is the center of it all. The way women are being represented, from our television sets, the radio, pornography and even art has pushed beauty to the top of the list of controversial and widely debated topics around the globe. “Whenever we walk down the street, watch TV, open a magazine or enter an art gallery, we are faced with images of femininity,” (Watson and Martin).

    Read More

  • The Effects Of Video Games On Women 's Experience Of Self Objectification

    1313 Words  | 3 Pages

    In conclusion, the video games that contain sexual themes becomes more graphically portrayed. And the video games that use Damsel and Distress plot reduce women to a state of victimhood. The way female characters’ dress in the videogame reinforced gender-role stereotypes. As most of those games show female character wearing revealing clothes, which reduce their identity to mere sex objects. However, developer put emphasis on the masculinity and physical power in male character. They way those games portray female and male character it reinforces gender-role stereotype. This can negatively affect the identity and the perception of the person playing those games,

    Read More

  • Sexism In Video Games Essay

    1039 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Sexual Objectification of Women in Media

    1750 Words  | 4 Pages

    Since, the 1960s’ women in the United States have made significant progress in many diverse fields. Today, women can be found having significant positions in business, politics, sports, etc. The ability for women to choose which position they would like and in what field, was an option not always available to them, this right was won through much struggle. The fight for equality is not over however, because women still trail men in the amount each gender gets paid, with women being paid on average less than men. Another issue with gender in this country is the way women are portrayed in the media. I had an opportunity to read five different articles and each article was able to show that differences still exist between men and women with regards to the media and how each gender is portrayed.

    Read More

More about Gender Objectification In Video Games

Open Document