Why do gender stereotypes in video games appeal to gamers? (Summer Work)

Introduction:

Today, Video Games, as an entertainment platform, have gained insurmountable popularity with all ages, races and genders but even with this knowledge it would appear that many games are designed to appeal to a specific target audience/demographic; that being males. This is to be expected as the platform is still considered to be predominantly male dominated with many development teams consisting of a large number of male employees compared to females and the stereotypical gamer, still being considered as just a teenage boy who spends too much time in his bedroom. As of recent, many games have been criticised due to their objectifying and oversexualised outlook on women using degrading gender stereotypes and tropes such as the “Damsel In Distress”. These issues have also recently became a huge talking point in the Video Game Industry, thanks to the efforts of people such as feminist and critic; Anita Sarkeesian, who as of last year successfully ‘kickstarted’ her new web series called “Tropes vs Women in Video Games” which explores many of these issues. Not only her but columnists for newspapers such as Lucy Prebble from The Guardian’s Gaming Column who stated that games were “too male” and need to change have helped pioneer and bring attention to sexism in the industry. However, with all that said not all games promote negative stereotypes. Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix’s 2013 release; Tomb Raider is one of the exceptions, despite the series’ linage of titles where Lara is physically objectified and viewed as an object of male pleasure. This reboot paints her more as a symbol of female power, empowering women, as it focuses on the character’s evolution and her ability to overcome challenges. Steering away from Lara being pneumatic and wearing degrading short shorts, this Lara has set a new bar for protagonists of any gender to reach for. This is an perfect example which shows that institutions are finally beginning to notice these issues. On the other hand, there are still games which support these negative stereotypes, reinforcing them. Games such as GTA V and MGS 5 have been thrust into to the spotlight recently due to their misogynistic/sexist nature, and have been accused of being pure white male power fantasies.

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Essay Planning: (I have no idea)

Intro: Done

Section 1:

Discuss main issues in further detail (objectification, sexualisation etc.)

Explore reasons why it happens (Theories such as Kaplan; women constructed by male society)

Introduce Secondary Texts; Women in Fighting Games, MGS5, GTA V etc.

Feminist Theories

Section 2:

Why/How it appeals, Refer to different audiences and POVs. Links into why it happens

Compare to their male counterparts (Hegemony, Power Fantasy) Examples like FC3, Uncharted etc.

Binary Opp.

Further explore the fact that not all games promote negative stereotypes (include Games and Characters such as Mass Effect’s Fem Shep and also link back to Tomb Raider)

Section 3:

Who’s responsibility is it in creating these stereotypes

Institution’s Role & Audience’s Role

Conclusion:

The effects this has on games and the industry

Things that can be done/Future Games

Answer the question and make sure all points have been made clearly

How do gender stereotypes in video games appeal to gamers?

As the title states, my main text/platform is Video Games. Since the ever growing popularity of the platform is spanning both genders nowadays it was only obviously some controversy would arise around the subject of stereotyping among other things within games and their characters. To many the platform is considered to be a predominantly male one and as Mulvey’s Feminist Theory explores, the concept of women being used as objects for men as the subjects via male gaze is very apparent. I will be focusing on who consumes this form of media and why whilst also looking at games which have been brought forward for; e.g the objectification of women via stereotyping and those which have promoted good stereotypes and have empowered female gamers. Since the platform is considered to populated most predominately by males, Kaplan’s Feminism Theory is also relevant for my question since it looks at defining women in two different approaches – the essentialist approach  and the anti-essentialist approach which is most fitting for this since it is about women constructed by male society. Many games such as the latest Tomb Raider title and Metal Gear Solid 5 could fall under both of these theories and have been criticised because of it, whether it be due to their choice in character design or the narrative of games. Tessa Perkins expressed that stereotyping is not a simple process and the assumptions made can be challenged, Tomb Raider is one game this could be applied to due to the nature of the character’s evolution. Levi-Strauss’s Binary Oppositions also has relevance here as it allows us to compared female stereotypes and characters against male ones but also negative vs positive stereotypes of female characters.

Post Modernism in Modern Media (Epic Movie)

Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer are adored and despised for their ridiculous films which are known for their postmodern aspects; parodying a large mishmash of a wide range of different other texts spanning different genres with target audiences. These are movies such as their most popular series, Scary Movie (parodying the most popular horror movies) and Epic Movie (parodying movies from all genres and cultures).

Epic Movie is a text built upon Intertextuality making the movie truly Postmodern. Just from the opening scene we can see that this is evident due to the directors borrowing and transforming the prior texts which in this specific scene are The Da Vinci Code; borrowing the setting and characters and transforming the narrative in a comedic way in order to appeal to their target audience with a taste for this kind of humor and around the ages of 17-26. The other text parodied in this scene and also later on is Charlie and The Chocolate Factory but considering that the original text is targeted at children the way in which is parodied is in an inappropriate way, this is done because considering the age of Epic Movie’s target audience chances are they familiar with the prior text due to having been read to them at a young age so seeing parodied in a way more appropriate for their age will appeal a lot more to them.

The movie makes it a point to ridicule all the texts it is parodying to produce their desired comedic effect to appeal to it’s target audience but in doing so the representations they portray are borderline controversial and is one of the many reasons why this movie has very poor ratings. It takes different characters of different ethnics and cultures and completed disrespects them by using awful, over the top stereotypes just for a couple of laughs. The biggest example of this in the movie is within the second scene where directors have taken Nacho Libre & Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle and borrowed and transformed aspects, granted both original texts are comedy pieces, Epic Movie has used them by over exaggerating the character stereotypes already within the texts and in turn blown them way out of proportion risking the chance of offending their audience.

One thing about the intertextuality of this film that is interesting and somewhat unique is taking the aspects from what they are parodying and then transforming them by combining the different texts into creating a single narrative for their movie. A large part of this film where this is prominent is the location of the scenes, having the the biggest portion of the film being set in the Narnia setting and having the other texts live within that universe but not only this but how it transfers between that universe and what is considered to be the real world which is the Charlie and The Chocolate Factory world.

Epic Movie could be considered one of the biggest Postmodern pieces in it’s style due to the sheer amount of parodying going on within it but one of the things that makes that possible is the way they use the other texts and intertwine them together to create a single non-linear narrative. For this I feel this is a more notable Postmodern texts in Modern Media.

The Dark Knight Rises Case Study

The Dark Knight Rises is the third,final and highest grossing movie in the trilogy. In the box office, it was extremely successful grossing a enormous $1,084,439,099. Set 8 years after the events of The Dark Knight, Gotham is finally at a time of peace. This is due to Batman taking the fall for Harvey Dent’s murder. However, a new evil villain; Bane has arrived in Gotham and aims to take over the city and expose the truth behind who Harvey Dent really was. Wayne Manor having been completely rebuilt, Bruce Wayne has become almost reclusive, rarely leaving the estate. And with Bane taking over the city by force, it forces Batman to come out of retirement. But his allies are few and far apart. An elusive jewel thief by the name of Selina Kyle could be the key to stopping Bane.

With Christopher Nolan directing the audience will know to expect a darker and more gritty vision of what they know as the Batman universe. Focusing primarily on ‘Pain’ for this movie displaying clearly the physical pain inflicted on Batman as well as his mental struggle and the ever decaying society of Gotham. This could be figurative representation of the experience than many endure at different levels but Bruce’s being more physical than anything else.  Christopher also drew his inspiration from Bane’s comic book debut “Knightfall” and several other comics allowing him to emphasise what he deemed important from those storylines. This will allow the audience to link from what they known from the storylines to Nolan’s creation. This will differentiate between different members of the audience resulting in different interpretations of the meanings. Another consistant theme used for this film is ‘Fire’. Through out the different pieces of media surrounding this is used, in the movie the main villain Bane is quoted saying “The Fire Rises” this scene is also coincidentally used as part of the trailer showing it has some significance. The poster also makes use of this quote and features flames in the shape of a Batman’s logo that are edging closer to engulfing Batman. From this the audience can work out that the fire is going to be the cause of the pain mentioned earlier. In addition to all of this the marketing campaign based around their website where an encrypted audio file described by users as chanting when decrypted was revealed to be the twitter hashtag “#TheFireRises” once again following the theme but when users tweeted using the hashtag Warner Bros. removed a pixel from the webpage. This eventually revealing the first official picture of Bane, now from this when bearing in mind the trailer with the quote being said by Bane and this with the hashtag could allow the audience to work out that Bane is the creator of the Fire that causes Bruce pain. This is then reinforced upon the release of the movie.

The Dark Knight movies have a unbelievably large international fan base that consists of both the comic book fans and many other types of people among those who are fans of the institution. The movie itself can now be viewed from a large amount of services such as Netflix and Lovefilm but in terms of the 3 different platforms in media there were a large plethora of ways in which the audience could access the media. In terms of print the movie had a large range of poster that all teased or represented different things these were also put on display on buses and billboards around the globe where applicable. For broadcast, there were multiple trailers that were displayed where they unmissable during primetime TV and all over the web making extremely easy for the audience to access this media. In addition in terms of broadcast there were a large number of interviews with actors, directors and producers that were shown on major broadcasting sites like Youtube. E-media is where this movie really shines when it comes to accessibility along with all the social network connectivity with the website the movie also had a App Store game release alongside the movie this allowed the audience to access this media even more providing them a virtual version of Gotham in the palm of their hand allowing them to take on the role of Batman and considering their target audience being a primarily male youthful audience a large majority of them are likely to have access to an smartphone making this e-media extremely effective.

Production Issues

Reception Issues
The movie was shown in a large amount of cinemas and for good reasons, it is what is believed to be the ‘correct’ way to see the movie. With the large speakers and explosive scenes adding much more depth and meaning to them. It is also is consumed by the audience with friends as going to the cinema is a social experience and is meant to be enjoyed with friends and the multiple meanings from what is said and done by characters. This then taking away from the individual experience making less appealing to re watch.

Newspaper Analysis

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2444469/TGI-Fridays-staff-tricked-devout-Muslim-woman-tasting-PORK-cramming-bits-drink-straw.html

Being an article from the Daily Mail, a tabloid newspaper providing up to date gossip, it’s target audience is likely to be middle-class people in their twenties or thirties. In addition they tend to target a female audience. Straight away the article attempts to attract this audience with it’s headline, ‘Instead of tea I got a mouth of bacon!’: TGI Friday’s staff ‘tricked devout Muslim woman into tasting PORK after cramming bits of it in her drink straw’ this is a juicy headline which will likely interest the audience to read on due to consonance. In addition to this the negativity surrounding the subject is also likely to catch attention causing more people to read it.The use of the word ‘tricked’ (associated with wrong doing) shows that it will most likely be representing TGI Friday’s in a bad light and considering they are along the same lines as a elite nation/person being a big company it is likely that the Daily Mail would target them. This is then reinforced telling you how by saying ‘devout Muslim woman into tasting PORK’ and as many of us know the consumption of pork is considered taboo for them thus the capitalized letters in the word pork to show how bad the situation is. Now that we’re on the subject of religion I believe that this article may also appeal to those of the community that follow a religion as they can relate to the woman in the article or those who have an interest in the subject. Through out the article pictures of Nicole Queen (the woman ‘tricked’) are shown of her smiling which could represent her innocence and that we should feel bad for her and be disgusted by what TGI Fridays has done. The article appeals to the audience because they want to read gossip so they can interact and talk about it with others but there is another way this article appeals and it is the controversy surrounding the subject, this will bring another layer of reason to read to article so that people can form an opinion on the topic to add something more to that interaction. As for how meaningfulness this article would be or meaningful to someone in Texas considering that’s where it’s based and because of Cultural Proximity. Stuff similar to this happens frequently as well which could possibly have an effect on whether or not the audience will read the article due to the fact that the topic is growing stale. The story is unambiguous meaning that it is easy to understand and possibly more enjoyable to read further opening up to more audiences than it’s target. I feel as if this story hasn’t past it’s threshold to become newsworthy as the subject as not escalated enough thus one of the reasons why this is soft news and because it is gossip.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

Language:

The poster features very little in the form of text but at the top they have used a very brief synopsis/tag line which could potentially spike a viewer’s interest in the movie and it also gives them an insight about what they should expect from the film. They have also used very recognizable feats related to the director to attract fans of those films and show that the film has a potential to be as good because of the director. In addition, like many posters this one features both the protagonist and antagonists which fans of comics will be able to recognize and those unfamiliar with them will be able to; one, make opinions on them based on their representations and two, have an idea of what the protagonist is up against. Also for those people, they maybe wondering why one of the Exes is female which could be incentive to see the movie to find out.

Institution:

‘Scott Pilgrim’ already has a very successful series of comics which are very well known in their form of content. So a film adaptation could be very appealing to those who are fans of the comics. The Director, Edgar Wright, is most famous for what we know now as the ‘Cornetto Trilogy’ but when this poster was made there was only 2 of those 3 movies around. Those being ‘Shaun of the Dead’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’ which are featured at the bottom of the poster and most people recognize.

Representation:

Many different interpretations could be made about what the poster is trying to represent but from a personal stand point I feel that it is try represent a message about love although the film doesn’t appear to be that of one of a serious nature. I feel that the message is that sometimes to make a relationship work you have to make a defiant stand (referring to Scott’s stance in the poster) and overcome the obstacles that get in your way and in Scott’s case the obstacles come in the form of 7 Evil Exes. There is also an implication that women could be viewed as a prize for completing such feats.

Target Audience:

Obviously, part of the target audience is the fans of the original comics who they are trying to intrigue with possibility of a good film adaptation of the comics. As for the other part, I feel they are trying to make it appealing for both genders and for a wide range of age groups but I would say they are primarily targeting the teenage to young adult male demographic because of these things; one, the words/phrases used, for example ‘Get the Hot Girl’ that means a part of the film if not all of it will be about winning her affection which makes the film more relatable to that audience. Two, they made the protagonist male and of a similar age so that audience could better relate to him unlike other audiences.