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How sexist is the gaming world
Sexist video games research paper
Gender roles and video games
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Sexism in Video Gaming The video game industry, also known as the interactive entertainment, is the development, marketing, and selling of video games to millions of people worldwide. The video game industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S. economy. Today, players of all backgrounds and ages enjoy playing video games. According to Michael Gallagher’s book, there are around 155 million Americans that play video games. There is an average of two gamers in each game-playing U.S. household and the average game player age is around thirty five years old. In addition, there is 56 percent that are male and 44 percent that are female. Surprisingly, women whose age are from 18 years or older represent a significantly greater portion …show more content…
This should be the same for women; however, according to James Fletcher’ magazine article “Sexual Harassment in the World of Video Gaming,” online gamer Jenny Haniver from Wisconsin shared her story about sexual harassment. She had made recordings of herself when she goes online to Play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, a combat-based video game, where gamers can talk to each other via headsets. She said that she plays after college in the evenings and that most nights she has to deal with harassment of some kind. She mentioned some of it is just childish, but some are graphic and threatening. In this interview, Jenny Haniver shared her worst experience in online gaming. She said that while she was playing, the enemy player backed out in the middle of the match and sent her a voice message. In that voice message, he said that he hoped she would be raped and that she and her family get killed. (2) Even though this is a very disturbing kind of harassment, this kind of harassment happen every day to female gamers. I think that women should have the freedom to play games online without fear of getting harassed or getting treated …show more content…
There is obviously the fact that there is 44 percent of gamers that are females and they will keep doing what they like no matter what people say. As a result, male gamers shouldn’t harass female gamers and maybe even try to become friends. There has been a lot of stories of males meeting females through online games and actually getting married because of that one game. This could be a new way of meeting females, since a lot of gamers complain that they are single. Instead of harassing them, they should get to know them and be nice to them. The fact that female gamers is increasing also means that they will never give up, so male gamers should deal with it and treat them like any other gamers even if they don’t want to become friends. There were a lot of issues similar to that with women going to the army or running for president, but it appears that women fight their way through things no matter what. So male gamers should accept the fact the female players like to play video games and just forget about the gender and focus on the game. Overall, male gamers shouldn’t focus on who is playing the game because it doesn’t matter, and they should focus on just having
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.
Girls are told to stay indoors and play with their dolls or bake, while boys are encouraged to go outdoors, get dirty, and be adventurous. Wade and Ferree also state “sports are squarely on the masculine side of the gender binary” (Wade and Ferree, 174). Hence, we are brought up with the understanding that playing and talking about sports is a boy’s thing, which further promotes the notion that sports are a very masculine thing. Furthermore, as playing sports is competitive and is a way to show excellence, young boys are considered as “real boys” and “real men” later on. However, when boys do not talk about or play sports, they are considered feminine or “not real men.” The same rule applies for young girls. If young girls are too into sports, they are considered to be “too masculine.” This is true for me too. When I was younger, I was told to not play too much outdoors and to behave “like a girl.” The stigma that only boys should be allowed to play sports and it is not a feminine thing needs to be erased for us to welcome a more gender-equal
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.
The average person who plays video games regularly is thirty-three years old (Issitt). This topic is important because video games have been given an unfair stereotype. Video games have the stereotype of taking over the lives of teenagers and making them violent. However, the benefits of video games outweigh the negatives.
It is very common for several TV shows or movies to reflect real life society, depending on what genre. Game of Thrones, a TV adaptation of George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series depicts our society very well; despite the fact that it takes place in a fantasy medieval-like land, called Westeros. This show puts an emphasis on both gender and sexuality, with men being dominant in that society while women are often referred to as the inferior. It also includes several double standards for men and women and comprises compulsory heterosexuality. The show also heavily focuses on class and social stratification: the differences between two of the main classes in the
Video games can be seen in both a positive and negative light. Video gaming has become a popular activity for people of all ages, yet many fear the aftermath they can ensue. Many children and adolescents expend large amounts of time playing them. Video gaming is a multibillion-dollar industry – bringing in more money than movies and DVDs. In fact, the PlayStation 2 was the first video game system to integrate DVD mechanics. It was originally intended to exist as a CD add-on to complement the Super Nintendo, but due to licensing difficulties Sony chose to develop the PlayStation as its own distinctive system. Video games have become very sophisticated. Some games connect to the internet, which can allow children and adolescents to play online with unknown adults and peers. The
Most of the current social work clients and workers are women. This gender is also over-represented among women, which implies that women continue to face considerable issues in the modern society despite the changes in the traditional role of men and women in the society. Social welfare policy are usually developed and implemented to confront various issues in the society including the plight of women. However, recent statistics demonstrate that social welfare policy does not always meet women’s needs effectively. This is regardless of the fact that sexism and heterosexism play a crucial role is shaping social welfare policy. Therefore, it is important to develop effective social welfare policy
“In particular, not only are rates of IPV expected to be higher in a capitalist economy than a socialist one, but rates of IPV, are also expected to be higher during periods of economic downturn and recession than during periods of relative prosperity” (Hattery and Smith 211). Relationships that undergo financial hardships through economic slumps are likely to create problems because doubts are raised towards the ability of the man to provide for his relationship, which trigger outbursts because men see that as an attack on their manhood. But through recessions and lean employment periods, women see the importance in which there are advantages in having an additional income to supplement their living conditions. “Thus, marriage—or long-term
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...
A feminist movement in its own right has begun in the gaming community. Women are generally believed to be understand by members in many geeky, gamer or nerdy parts of today’s society. In the gaming industry women are statistical and cultural outliers. Gender stereotypes about girl gamers or ‘Gamer Girls’, the latter of which has begun to receive a negative meaning, keep many women from fully participating in the rich game industry culture. Female workers in the gaming industry get mixed signals from an industry that on the outside appears to desire gender diversity in order to attract the growing ranks of female gamers but on the inside it is resistant to change its sexist and discriminatory practices that make women feel singled out and alone. Females of the gaming community not only receive sexist and vulgar remarks from their male counterparts of the community but the very companies, making the games they love to play, single them out more than anyone else. Being that game development is a very male dominated job in the gaming industry it is understandable that women would feel a little advised not to pursue a career in gaming but the few women that do brave the doubts are met with criticism and dominating remarks. They are paid less than their male counterparts and are given less chances at promotions.
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.
The average adolescent spends a major part of the normal week watching or interacting with some form of the media’s products. Video games are one of these media based mediums and have become increasingly popular since the 1980’s. According to a report in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, "Female gamers spent an average of 44 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and four minutes playing on the weekends, and male gamers spent an average of 58 minutes playing on the weekdays and one hour and 37 minutes playing on the weekends" ("Video Game Play Among Adolescents"). What can we understand from this evidence? The fact is that adolescents, male or female, are spending tremendous amounts of time each day sitting in front of a screen with a controller in hand.
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.
Video games have been around about 50 years and they contribute a big part of the U.S. economy. People interact with video games every day throughout different ways, such as cell phone devices, computers, consoles or whatever which has a screen on it. In fact, it has always affected people’s lives. However, not so many people understand the benefits of video games. With video games, people can not only relieve themselves from stress and suffering, but it also improves people’s social experiences while they are exchanging and absorbing knowledge with other people; more than that, people can learn many other things from video games which can help them to achieve great things in lives.
Social scientists have been examining the effect that video games have on behavior. From the introduction of video games in the 1980s, there have been numerous research studies to this effect (Andersen & Taylor, 2008). The issue has become even more significant in the modern context because these video games have become bloodier and more realistic than ever before. Even though boys play these games more than girls in America, the consumption of video games has generally been high. Carey (2013) indicates that 32% of these gamers are below the age of 18. Therefore, it would be crucial to evaluate the effects that these video games have on the behavior of such children.