This video demonstrates a common issue present in the gaming world today. The female characters often portrayed in video games don’t always have the best protection when it comes to clothing. In this video, we see whether or not the idea of giving the female characters such revealing costumes is actual effective in the kind of situation presented in the game. If we look past the purpose of the video however, we can examine the dominant discourse present in the video games today. When we think of video games and who plays them, we assume male youth. The ideas of the appearance of the typical female are influenced by their involvement in games. Producers of these games appeal to their desires by creating these well sculpted, beautiful female characters. Because of games such as these, the male youth perceives females to be like that, when it reality they aren’t.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwXdxRuk_Dg (Click here if it doesnt work)
After watching the video, what is your opinion about the gender dominancy ain the video game industry for both consumer and producer?
How does this relate to the idea of a perfect woman that men have today? How do games such as this shape our ideas?
Also can you spot some stereotypes present in the video?
Finally, can you think of something similar that represents the same issue?
I love the video. This episode of “Immersion” opened my eyes and made me realize how they bring a video game to life from the scratch.
ReplyDeleteHere I come to the questions:
1) Talking about gender dominancy, it is quite obvious that the males are more dominant than women because of how revealing the women are portrayed in the video games. The producers of such video games are aware that youth males will be attracted to women without much protective wear. Moreover, the consumers (mostly youth males) are always interested in action and women, making the type of video games shown in the video, an extremely popular choice. It is an easy prey for the consumers to be entertained upon.
2) Games such as this and even popular celebrities give a certain image where a woman is tall, usually fair, and very beautiful. The “perfect woman” has to have a voluptuous body and a sensual look, which flattens the man.
3) One stereotype I managed to spot is near the beginning of the video where two men are seen playing a video game with the controllers in their hands. This stereotype is related to the notion
that males play video games and women do not. Another stereotype I spotted has to do with how both the females (in fact all three women) are white. This stereotype is regarding how beauty is equated with fair complexion.
4) Another scenario that is similar to this situation is the video game, Tekken Dark Resurrection. It is a martial arts based video game as well. Some female characters in the game do not have enough protective wear on and are pretty revealing.
I never would have thought about the stereotypes you have said, good observation. I thought that the martial arts instructor they have chosen to teach the females in the video was another stereotype as well because he is an Asian. Another way I could relate to this issue, besides video games, would be Lingerie Football League. Clearly the outfits they wear in the football games are made mostly for our pleasure, speaking for males, rather than their protection. There is actual concern however for their health seeing as many of the players of Lingerie Football League suffer severe injuries. See article link below. This shows that there is sexism present throughout male dominated industries. In terms of the National Football League, players are given more protection compared to the Lingerie Football League where they are not. This is similar to video games because the male characters often possess clothing which would provide much better protection than the clothing that female characters are presented. In the video however we see that for female characters protection isn’t even a concern, only how well they can keep it on. The concern is that the sexism present in video games as well as other industries dominated by males, demonstrates how males prioritize their own pleasure over the well being of females.
ReplyDeleteArticle Link: http://www.themarknews.com/articles/7176-toronto-s-lingerie-football-team-loses-20-players
1. It's clear that the producers know exactly what their audience likes and as a result of that they cater to their wants.
ReplyDelete2. This is related to mens perceptions of women because the image in the media is that females look perfect and sexy at all time in whatever it is that they are doing e.g cleaning, going out, going to bed and in this case even while fighting in video games.
3. A few sterotypes that were spoted was the fact that males are usually the ones playing these video games and like i said before females are considered more sexy once they have less clothes on.
Video games, especially combat games tend to portrayed women as wearing very little clothes. In my opinion such apparel it is not practical to combat it is however a just to watch sexy game girls fight and loose their clothing. Men’s do not have to be sexy or wear little clothing to fight so why women should should be sexy and wear a bikini in order to fight. Majority of female fighters are ALL skinny and they are ALL wearing bikinis or very little clothing showing a lot of cleavage or butt. I think this is the reason why some men put down women telling them if they look fat or ugly or if they are too weak and they can not fight. Something similar that represent this same issue is the MMA female fighter’s most of them are showing most of their body parts, majority are thin and very pretty. I think that Women fighters never catch a break. We never hear about these types of topics when it comes to male fighters…you always hear strategy and fitness, never girlie crap like “how should she look”? Its time we get serious about women fighters and stop mocking them! One of the stereotypes I spotted is how the male fighter had huge muscles. All male fighters do not have huge muscles and are not big. Some of them actually have huge bellies and are not that muscular. Another stereotype was how an Asian person was the martial artist instructor. Anyone could be a martial artist instructor it does not necessarily have to be an Asian person.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I believe that the gender dominancy in the video game industry for both consumer and producer is males. Everyone knows that most men (no offence intended for those of you who do not) like seeing women in very sexy and revealing clothes so they figure that if they somehow incorporate this into their video game, more males would be inclined to buy it.
ReplyDeleteThis relates to the idea of a perfect woman because it shows women as tall, pretty, and just overall being perfect. They were wearing as little clothes as possible, and as shown in the video, as time went on they would lose even more of their clothing.
I agree with Yaimery on one of the stereotypes that were present in the video. You always see an Asian man who is teaching martial arts. There are so many other ethnicities yet people still go along with the stereotype and choose Asian people.
After watching this video it clearly shows that when it comes to video games males are more dominant. Video game makers are always catering to what a man wants a woman to look like. Women is short clothing, that are pretty, catches a guys attention which is basically what causes some men to buy the games.
ReplyDeleteThis relates to the idea of a perfect women because this image is what most men think as 'perfect' they enjoy seeing women in short clothing. I agree with Akshay. Celebrities also play a big role in what we think of as the 'perfect women.' Most of them look a certain way. Perfect skin, skinny, and beautiful. A stereotype I see is that there are no women are playing the game. It's only the men.