Preview

Role Of Sexuality In Video Games

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
355 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Role Of Sexuality In Video Games
Video games can vary in type and objective, from first-person shooters, to sports games or fantasy games. There are games with deep background stories and there are games that have no true plot such as Madden football games. However, one thing that isn't a big theme but can be included in video games is sexuality and relationships. Sexuality has only recently been included in games for various reasons. The first being that dealing with more deep emotional subjects and romantic situations wouldn't really appeal to the video game market, which was mostly male dominated at the time. However, sexuality was introduced to appeal to the male dominated market in story games, not in a sensitive manner but sexuality was present in combat games, such

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Alex Pham addresses the deception of online gamers in gender-switching and the effects it has on the online community in the article “Boy, you fight like a girl”. Both men and women are a part of this online community consisting of thousands of gamers that face several challenges. Among them are men who play as women not being taken seriously while women who play as men might lose respect by fellow gamers if their identity is revealed. The online gaming community is increasing, therefore resulting in more gender switching. Such trends have strong impacts on the gaming community because of real-life like graphic representations of near perfect men and women. Despite being fictional, these virtual models result in real emotions being brought…

    • 262 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sexism in Gaming

    • 1629 Words
    • 7 Pages

    During GDC 2013, BioWare senior writer David Gaider gave a talk entitled “Sex in Video Games” about how sex and gender are portrayed in video games and what responsibility the industry should take for the messages they send out. (Wilde, 2012)…

    • 1629 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Dill, Karen, and Kathryn Thill. "Video Game Characters and the Socialization of Gender Roles: Young People 's Perceptions Mirror Sexist Media Depictions." Sex Roles (2007): 851-64. Print.…

    • 258 Words
    • 1 Page
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    As an article entitled “Women Are Prizes in Video Games—And That Should Bother You” by Damon Beres points out, women are often placed in the games just for the male consumers enjoyment. A common theme has come up within the games that after saving the woman or winning the game, their character gets rewarded with sex, a kiss, or the view of one of the female characters dressed in very little clothing. As Beres states, “It all reinforces the idea that men are supposed to -- even entitled to -- claim women after overcoming some challenge” (Beres). This seems to present one of the most dangerous issues with the video game industry’s lack of accurate depiction of women. It creates an idea that women’s bodies are objects and that they owe men their bodies if the men have been successful in defeating the “bad guys”. Again, women are not represented as strong or intelligent, they are rarely available as characters who can actually help win the game, instead they are there only to please or reward the success of the male…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Since the early days of the video game industry, there have been many controversies related to violence, addiction, explicit graphics, and sexual themes. The misrepresentation of women being one of the many. The Damsel in Distress has become one of the most widely used gender clichés and misrepresentations of women in the history of gaming. As a trope the Damsel in Distress is a plot device in which a female character is placed in a perilous situation from which she cannot escape on her own and must be rescued by a male character, usually providing a core incentive or motivation for the protagonist quest. This essay will examine how women portrayed as damsels in distress are seen as powerless victims and trophies to the male protagonist, this essay will also explore how the detriments of portraying women as damsels affects society.…

    • 395 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to sociologist Raewyn Connell; “Hegemonic masculinity is dominant in the hierarchy of gender and associated with the acquisition of societal powers, status and privileges”. This patriarchal gender binary therefore reinforces that femininity is devalued, thus emphasising women’s subordinate role in society, and men’s dominant role. This construction of gender is evident in gaming culture as hypermasculine male characters are the protagonists, whilst the hypersexualised female characters are the objects of desire, existing to satisfy the needs of the male protagonist. Grand Theft Auto emphasises this gender hierarchy as women are portrayed only as prostitutes or girlfriends of the main protagonists. Although there are some female protagonists in games such as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, these characters remain hypersexualised and portrayed in a way that is disempowering and objectifying to women. Notions of the patriarchal gender hierarchy also affect the decision of gamers. A study found that both male and female gamers choose the male character as their “social position of power was fun and sometimes exhilarating”. This illustrates that the gender hierarchy present in virtual worlds, serve to uphold men’s dominance, power and status in society and reinforce women’s subordinated and devalued role. This notion is further reinforced as women are also vastly…

    • 689 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sexism is the stereotyping and prejudice based on an individual’s gender; primarily sexism is directed towards women. () The idea of women not being allowed to play or getting harassed if they do involve themselves is especially an issue, because then it genders one’s ability to have a hobby or occupation in this industry. Over-sexualization is to make a person, object, or idea excessively sexual. () The attribution of female characters in video games as “being sexual” is not an issue until it becomes their only purpose in the game itself. Objectification is reducing a person to an object. () This commonly goes hand-and-hand with over-sexualization in the context of video games, because women are often over-sexualized and then used as plot devices by being killed or not characterized outside the idea of being a sexual object. The “male gaze,” refers to how the majority of visual art and media are constructed around the male viewer and how women are often structured through the eyes of men. () This applies heavily to the video game industry, because the video game industry is male dominated (Prescott 123). Although the issues I have defined are not new issues (Prescott 123-130), the rationale of Marxist and Freudian principles all while projecting them through a new medium and displays how the…

    • 1292 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Video Games are essential part of our families; parents as well as their kids spend hours in front of their TV’s playing their favorite games. However, their kids’ brains are still developing and at this stage their behavior is being shaped. While society believe that Video Games can cause them to act inappropriate there many other factors having greater impact on their behavior.…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Video game consoles have made their way into the households and hearts of millions of people all around the world. New games of all different genres are continually being produced and bought by consumers from every inch of the globe, only becoming more popular as time goes on. Throughout the past couple of years technology as a whole has been on a drastic up rise. With continuous breakthroughs in the technological field the video game industry has been able to flourish into its current state. Companies now days are able to produce more and more realistic like gaming experiences. These life-like graphics and visual effects put the gamer right in the action, bringing joy to many while enraging numerous others. The way in which one views and understands the game’s contents is the way in which one perceives the video game. More often than not parents, who do not play video games, tend to focus on the negative aspects of the game, namely violence. The parents who are buying the video games for their children see only the cruelty and disgusting features making up only part of the whole. Most avid gamers would agree with the above statement, arguing the blood and gore is just a small part of the many aspects of some video games that complement the other components such as graphic quality and plot. The way in which one perceives an individual video game more often than not depends on whether or not the person is a gamer. The way in which some people perceive video games angers me because it seems as though they are over looking the big picture and viewing the game with a pessimistic point of view. By doing this, those people are doing themselves and the creators of games an injustice.…

    • 1476 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sexuality and Gender

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages

    andYou have just learned how single mothers in poverty and the school uniform debate would be analyzed using the three sociological…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Women In Video Games

    • 1287 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The way women are sexually portrayed in video games is pathetic. The lack of effort to change this is disappointing, and sadly women’s portrayal in video games is an accurate representation of how this country view women. By portraying women negatively in video games, designers are adding to the normalization of certain gender roles. From early on in video games women have been over sexualized, current games have not changed the view of women, and kids are being misinformed on how women should be in the real world.…

    • 1287 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Draft1

    • 394 Words
    • 1 Page

    Todays society has multiple opinions on how video games are seen and affect society today. These video games have multiple views on them both positive and negative. Although people defend both sides there is multiple reasons why video games can be bad or good. There is questioning on wether there should be harsher age restrictions or if young ones should not be allowed to play at all. Even though people have disputes over all this video game insustries still have their way and make billions of dollars annually.…

    • 394 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Video games are actually simulated physical activity, where the player is not doing the muscles part of action but only the brain part of it. Every kind of action can be found there but, our discussion being about violence, I will refer to fighting games in particular. Titles like: Streetfighter, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, Grand Theft Auto, Doom, Blade of Darkness, Alien vs Predator are indicative of their content. In all these games the player is required to fight, outsmart, and defeat an enemy. The enemy is usually human (soldiers, spies, gangsters, knights, evil people) but there are also aliens, ghosts, creatures and other things. Every possible form of fighting is used; martial arts, gun fighting, air fighting, submarine fighting, spacecraft fighting, anything we can imagine. Yet all this mayhem has nothing to do with violence. Violence means harm, pain, suffering. There are no such elements in video games. The pain is never shown and the victim can be completely run over and then pop back up without harm. The characters do not look realistic either by technical or by artistic standards. They are not given a substantial personality and they lack real life motivations and emotions. They remind more of toys than of living creatures. The player cannot get emotionally involved (nobody cries when playing Max Payne, although the game’s story is supposed to be very tragic). The whole thing is a juggling experience rather than one of watching a movie. After all, the game is there to be played, not to be watched, and fighting is just an excuse for practicing quick response, accuracy, strategy, and other skills. But if it was to be watched, one would see in it images, colors, motion, speed, sounds, special effects and music; definitely not violence and pain. In the few instances were gore is…

    • 1259 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “The media is a driving force in shaping a nation and is no less influential in affecting the sexuality of adolescents”. (Bonin, 2012) The media will portray sex as a commodity, without actually acknowledging the dangers behind some sexual behaviors. There are several types of media that adolescents tune into which includes music, videos, movies, television shows, and video games. All of these can portray sex, risqué behavior, and violence as the normal part of our society. Adolescents are not learning about the dangers of sexual asphyxiation through the media instead they are unfortunately learning it through experience or through the loss of a friend. Sex has been put out there as “sex sells” which can pressure teens into having sex before they are ready and that casual sex is readily accepted which can make it hard on teenagers.…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In regards to how the sexuality in these two scenes is connected to social class and or ethnic/racial identity the first media clip “Its Time,” which depicts a homosexeual relationship focuses on a white, middle to upper class partnership. Sexuality is portrayed as tender and blossoming over time. The couple demonstrates flirtation and the occasional brief kiss. The viewer gets the sense that the couple’s sexual desire grows over time as the things they go through together bring them closer to each other. In this media clip sexuality is very strongly linked to the life experience of the white middle class and their “fairytale” love story. The couple’s feelings for each other develop as they ride on boats, spend time at an amusement park, go…

    • 411 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays