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Perception of media representation of women
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Perception of media representation of women
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Lara Croft, the idealized woman figure, with a man’s touch. In the movies, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and the sequel Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life, the main roll of Lara Croft is played by actress Angelina Jolie. She has the typical idealized look for such a role, small waist, large breasts, and overall “fit” demeanor. Angelina Jolie fits all the necessary criteria for the starring role, she is viewed by many people as a sex object, an image of their desire that they can fantasize about, but will never really be able to attain. In Hollywood, she is valued for her “to-be-looked-at-ness”, and in the normal female roles of today’s Hollywood movies, she would do just fine at that.
However in the Tomb Raider series she does not play the typical female part. In the Tomb Raider movies they go above and beyond what is known as “Gender Representation Divide.” This is basically where the man plays the butch role of getting dirty while trying to save the girl from some mess she has gotten herself into. In turn, the girl plays the princess in a distress role where she sits there and waits for her knight in shining armor to come to her rescue and sweep her off her feet. Angelina Jolie, while playing the part of Lara Croft, however does things a little differently. She tends to skew the line between what we have come to accept as the normal gender roles. The character of Lara Croft takes on a more masculine ass kicking role. Angelina portrays the role with a more masculine confidence and power. She projects the image some people would expect to see from a man, who isn’t going to take grief from anyone and if you don’t like it, well that’s just too bad. Lara Croft is arguably one of the most rugged female characters the media has ever ...
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...e it. Lara Croft while being criticized for helping to empower women, showing that anything a man can do, women can do just as well.
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Did you know all women have super powers? Most women are usually underestimated, but they are actually stronger and more courageous than most men. Women have demonstrated their strengths multiple times throughout the past. For example Rosa parks did not fall under the pressure of the man who told her to move to the back of the in order for someone to take her seat. There are two women in particular who stood up to their issues regardless of their setbacks. Antigone and Erin Brockovich were both women who took a stand against the different stereotypes that people have placed on them. They showed how they do not care for the consequences, instead they continued to fight harder to gain respect. Antigone and Erin Brockovich faced adversity but still demonstrated their levels of strength even though the outcome may not be what they expected.
Grand Theft Auto IV promotes hetronormative hierarchical distinctions between feminity and masculinity through its framing of female and male bodies, its presentation of females as objects of the male gaze and its encouragement of players to adopt and act out a hypermasculine role. It is of vital importance that we do not exclude race, gender or sexuality from discussions of videogames, because as Leonard (2006, pp. 84) asserts, doing so ‘contributes to problematic, if not faulty, understandings of video games and their significant role in contemporary social, political, economic, and cultural organization.’ Instead as players we must engage in discussion regarding videogames and, as Jenkins writes, we must ‘find a way to move beyond our existing categories and to once again invent new kinds of virtual play spaces’ (1999, pp.
portrayed as the “femme fatale” and also “mother,” the “seductress” and at the same time
Diana is an excellent illustration of the many struggles of women to find a place for themselves in sports. On an individual level, defying societal stereotypes is extremely difficult. The buriers that the first person must overcome are often extreme. However once the first person breaks down those buriers, it becomes increasingly easier for others to follow in their footsteps. Diana's struggle demonstrates both how far women have come and how far women still have to go.
Mists of Avalon she is the epitome of feminist ideals, and while she is portrayed in a very
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
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.
Throughout the world of writing, including short fiction, women are portrayed as good, evil, funny, dry, smart, stupid, almost any adjective you can think of. Kate Chopin, a primarily short story writer, does not fall short of this statement. Through her stories, “The Storm,” and “The Story of an Hour,” the women seem to be trapped in confining gender roles. By the conclusion of each story all the women find a way to challenge their everyday roles and overthrow them in some matter. Although these stories are dissimilar from each other, both show the struggle that women have against one or several antagonists in their lives. Chopin shows hardships through internal and external struggle within and family environment and within a personal environment. Whether the women depicted are escaping from their horrid lifestyle, or just plain escape from life, she is able to embody the hardships women face.
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.
Women have been seen as weak and submissive throughout history in society and that is reflected in many films and movies. These are the feminine qualities that have often been associated with being a woman, which results in the role of women being overlooked and seen as weak or sexualized. They are either in the scene to look pretty or as the one in need of a savior. It is rare for them to fall out of their feminine categories of being motherly or sexual. However, there are more recent films that challenge the singular role women seem to always have. Examples of these are the films, The Matrix (Lana and Lily Wachowski, 1999) and Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015). The films bring rise to a more progressive view of women that are reflecting
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 ... ...
3. “Video Games” by Chris Jozefowics. Published by Gareth Stevens Publishing 2010. Pleasantville, NY 10570-70000 USA. Produced by Editorials Directions Inc.
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 demand for strong female characters in action films grew to a new high when Angelina Jolie starred in ‘Tomb Raider’ in 2001 and then in the sequel, ‘Tomb Raider II: The Cradle of Life’ in 2003 as Lara Croft. Her strong female character was not only masculine, but was also portrayed as a sex object. Most often, strong women in these types of films tend to fight without even gaining a mark. At the end of each fight, her hair and makeup would always be perfect. The female characters in these action films, whether their role was as the lead character or a supporting character, had similar aspects.... ...