This case study will be focusing on the key topic of sexism within the gaming world. It will focus on two very important aspects; sexism against women within the gaming industry and community, and sexism against women in games. 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) 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. 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. "In order to create an inclusive experience for women, it is imperative that game companies design and market games with female target audiences in mind." (Gonzalez, A., Gomez, E., Orozco, R., & Jacobs, S., 2014). Sexism within the gaming workplace and within the gaming population. Women within the gaming industry go through a lot of discrimination and... ... middle of paper ... ...IMQUISITION. (2012, October 2). Monster Boobs And Plastic Children [Video File]. Retrieved from: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/6361-Monster-Boobs-And-Plastic-Children ♀ Sterling, J, JIMQUISITION. (2013, April 30). Boob Wars and Dragon Crowns [Video File]. Retrieved from: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/7196-Boob-Wars-and-Dragon-Crowns ♀ Sterling, J, JIMQUISITION. (2013, May 14). Objectification And... Men? [Video File]. Retrieved from: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/7290-Objectification-And-Men Appendices: Graph 1: All programmers and Engineers. Graph 2: All Artists and Animators. Graph 3: All Game Designers. Graph 4: All Producers. Graph 5: All Audio Developers. Graph 6: All QA Testers. Graph 7: All Business and Legal Peoples.
Sexism is a highly talked about issue read about online, seen in the news, and experienced in the day to day lives of many. The importance of this issue can be found in many writings. Authors such as Sandra Cisneros, Linda Hasselstrom, and Judy Brady have all discussed the topic of sexism in writings and how they affected their lives. Although each writer addresses the issue of sexism, each author confronts a different type of sexism; the kind we are born into, the kind we learn growing up, and the kind that is accepted by society at the end of the day.
Sex Discrimination in the American Workplace: Still a Fact of Life. (2000, July 01). Retrieved from National Women's Law Center : www.nwlc.org
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.
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
...der stratification—unequalness of power, property, and prestige between men and women (Henslin 280)—still encounters within our society, and men are usually superior to women; women are uprising feminism. Henslin defines feminism as “the philosophy that men and women should be politically, economically, and socially equal; organized activities on behalf of this principle” (292). An example of a toy I saw showing feminism is a pink bow and arrow in the archery section of the toy store. Although the black bows and arrows dominated this aisle, there was one bow and arrow for girls showing that females have their right to be equaled with men. One last game I saw in Toys R Us that was interesting to me was a video game called Grand Theft Auto, which is a video game intended for boys. The point of this game is to join gangs and do their “dirty work”. In some parts of this
Kline, Marney. "Opinion: When It Comes to Sexism, Girls May Be More than Half of the Problem." The Urban Legend :. The Urban School of San Francisco, 27 Mar. 2013. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
Sport plays a crucial role in today’s society. It is an activity that not only maintains an individual’s physical shape, but it is also capable of teaching people imperative aspects of life such as sportsmanship and teamwork. Despite these positive influences that sport can have on athletes, the issue of sexism in sport remains to be an extremely problematic factor in our society. I agree with Joe Humphrey’s view on sports to a large extent. In order to substantiate my perspective I will explore the topic of sexism in sport and discuss how gender inequality in sports creates barriers between groups, encourages unethical and discriminatory behaviour and makes us lose perspective of the true purpose of sport.
Sexism is a major factor in the workforce.Today male and female have a hard time breaking into the opposite gender dominated fields. This has happened because of the media, it has showed us that male have certain “right” jobs, as well as female. Female still dominate traditional female professions like cosmetology jobs are 92.9 percent women working them(Wolfe). If a man were to get into cosmetology they would most likely be judged for having that job, because we stereotype that they can't have a feminine job. Women have a harder time getting into high level positions. “Women make up only 21 of the S&P’s 500 CEOs,” (Berman). This has happened because the media has set in place stereotypes that it is wrong for women to have high level positions. It is getting better, in 2013 women chief financial officers increased 35 percent at large U.S. companies from 2012 (Frier and Hymowitz). The job market for men and women is still unfair but it is starting to get equal.
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 documentary battles the belief that gamers and game developers are men. The audience is the community or the society that is stereotypical and sexists. It wishes to create awareness that would eventually advocate for fair treatment of women in the gaming world. The
Some scholars explain this shift in equality with the increase in female game developers (Lynch 2016). Though only at twenty-two percent, female developers continue to shine a light on the lack of female presence. This expanding audience and the prevalence of mobile gaming has fueled the diversity of
Gamergate, a roar from the Internet. This summer, the supposed movement started, stating that recently there was a certain lack of ethics in the revision, rating, and writing of video games. They said that some journalists were too close to their topics and easily influenced by these relationships. But under that thin layer of people who criticize video game journalism, there lies another beast: sexism.
Sexuality and identification were never a focus point in the development of video games, since as history proves, the majority of gamers in the past were white males. Minorities in the gaming world were not considered when creating characters and establishing plots, until now. In the past, there were quite a few companies that presented characters whom exhibited traits of various sexual origins, but now the modern gaming community thrives for the production of new characters. This evolution of gaming presents questions on the influential factors of media, specifically video gaming, to the minds of the youth. There is great excitement and negative reactions with the inclusion of customizable and prominent LGBTQ characters created in the modern
Because online games involve interactions with faceless human beings not in the same physical space as one another, prejudice and stereotyping is promoted due the desire for social dominance. Males think they are of greater hierarchy because of the way male characters are portrayed as the hero in games and females are generally portrayed as more of a sexual figure. These sexual figures are generally shown to have large breasts, tiny waists, perfect skin and revealing clothing. This provides a very unrealistic expectation of woman which may also turn away any prospective female players. Users have already been exposed to all of these gender discriminations and therefore when it comes to online gaming, the male audience believe they have dominance over females.
(2007) found that “males were twice as likely to appear on covers as females were” (p. 423). Many other articles research show even how characters in the video games are stereotyped. Girl characters are tiny and sexualized, and weak or subordinate to men, while male characters are manly men and heroes. Ewan Kirkland points out in his article (“Masculinity in Video Games: The Gendered Gameplay of Silent Hill,) “one can immediately see that, predominately, male characters in video games are depicted as muscular, heroic, athletic, and defined by their machismo.” Not only does this set stereotypes on how boys need to be, but also roles men play compared to women in society.