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How the media portrays body image
How is body image portrayed in the media
How is body image portrayed in the media
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Women in video games are often represented very negatively. Female characters within games are either represented as a sexual object or as a typical damsel in distress. This is demonstrated according to what game you play. Female characters who are represented as damsels in distress often have unimportant roles and are reflected as a secondary character, they do not participate in the game itself besides being locked or lulled. On top of that they are presented in a sexually objectified manner by being dressed in tight provocative attire, which shows their long legs and large breasts. Dietz states that “this representation is harmful to children of both sexes since they will internalize these expectations and accept the idea that women are
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.
When asking the question, “What are the differences between men and women?” what things come into mind? When asking friends what their thoughts were they stated things such as men are stronger, women are weaker, men are bigger, women are smaller, men make more money, etc. Due to the obvious assumptions that people have been making for centuries it is thought by some Americans that males are the dominant sex. Before watching Miss Representation I had always gotten so upset at certain men for the way they treated women or the things they would say to them. After this film I realized that their actions might have stemmed from “rules” that they were taught an early age; those rules being the rules of masculinity. After reviewing the rules it finally clicked to me why
In 1865 the beginning of the end of the Civil War was in effect called “Reconstruction”. The purpose of Reconstruction was to make the United States a unified nation once again. Reconstruction was a success in the sense of the southern states ratified the constitution and chose not to secede. The southern states also agreed to pledge loyalty to the union and ratify the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments. On the other hand, with the election of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1876, by pulling the troops out of the South white slave owners regained power and the south slowly went back to the ways of the “old south”. The end of Reconstruction was influenced by specific causes such as: the northerners exhaustion with fighting the south and trying to punish the Klu Klux Klan, Radical Republicans being struck down by the Supreme Court, and white unionists, carpetbaggers, and scalawags being pushed out of the South by the Klu Klux Klan (Reconstruction (1865-1877)).
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.
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
Unlike popular belief, the first violent video game was not Mortal Kombat. The killing started with a game called Death Race 2000 released in 1976 by Exidy Software. It was based on a B movie by the same title and features the main theme of the movie in the game: to run people over. You control the car to run over people, and the people you have killed become a cross. Needless to say, the game was quick to draw attentions towards it. The criticism from Americans all over the nation eventually got the game pulled off the market. One would think that the game must have been pretty intense and gruesome if it attracted such a response. Nope…not a bit…in fact, this is how the game looks:
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.
We also see female characters wearing clothes that are inappropriate for courtrooms, female lawyers wearing tight suits or skirts that showcase their legs, wearing huge bracelets and diamond earrings, which is a sign that no matter what position a female occupies she will still have those silly feminine trait. Other female characters also use their bodies to gain advantage of men. We see in The Good Wife as I stated above Kalinda using her breasts to gain illegal evidence, and the assistant Sonya first appearance on the screen was a close up shot on her bottom while she walks away from a male friend. Nancy Botwin is a female character form the TV show Weeds, after the death of her husband she turns into selling marijuana to support her family and maintain her high class lifestyle( this implies to that women care about their social status and materialistic things). In order for her to maintain the market she has created, she sleeps with her rivals, which also another sign of sexualization, women use their bodies to gain what they want, instead of being hard workers, they chose the easy thing to do, and that is to climb the social rankings by using their
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)
are now taking. A prime example of this can be seen in T & T2 in
I for one think that this representation of women is harmless, partly because it is only a fictional character. It is a representation to be regarded only in entertainment.
Video game industry have been representing female character as sexually objectified or shown as a victim who is in desperate need of help through male protagonist, this portrayal has negative effect on the mind of our generation and the gender roles they identify with.
Women have made progress in the film industry in terms of the type of role they play in action films, although they are still portrayed as sex objects. The beginning of “a new type of female character” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 41-47) in the world of action films began in 1976 with Sigourney Weaver, who played the leading role in the blockbuster film ‘Aliens’ as Lt. Ellen Ripley. She was the captain of her own spaceship, plus she was the one who gave out all the orders. Until then, men had always been the ones giving the orders; to see a woman in that type of role was outlandish. This was an astonishing change for the American industry of film. Sometime later, in 1984, Linda Hamilton starred in ‘The Terminator’, a film where she was not the leading character, but a strong female character as Sarah Connor. She had a combination of masculine and feminine qualities as “an androgynous superwoman, resourceful, competent and courageous, while at the same time caring, sensitive and intuitive” (Hirschman, 1993, pg. 41-47). These changes made in action films for female’s roles stirred up a lot of excitement in the “Western society” (Starlet, 2007). 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. I...
Portrayal of Women in the Media Gender is the psychological characteristics and social categories that are created by human culture. Gender is the concept that humans express their gender when they interact with one another. Messages about how a male or female is supposed to act come from many different places. Schools, parents, and friends can influence a person.