Women and videogames

 Part 1: Reading - Is Female Representation in Video Games Finally Changing?

Read this short Medium feature on whether female representation in videogames is finally changing. Answer the following questions:

1) How have women traditionally been represented in videogames and what percentage of the video game audience is female?

Women have traditionally been represented as damsels in distress and are objectified. 42% of gamers are female according to a study "Distribution of Computer and Video Gamers in the United States from 2006 and 2017 by Gender".

2) What recent games have signalled a change in the industry and what qualities do the female protagonists offer?

Tomb Raider, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, The Last of Us, Dragon Age: Inquisition, and The Walking Dead series all have female protagonists or co-leading female stars characters.

3) Do you agree with the idea that audiences reject media products if they feel they are misrepresented within them?

I think to some extent this is true as if the producers misrepresent a certain group then the same group of these people as the audience will reject it as they feel the portrayal of them and their people is not correct. However some audiences will carry on using the product if they feel the storyline or the product is good and that the representation plays apart in the storyline.

And now read this short Protocol feature on Anita Sarkeesian's talk to the Game Developers Conference in 2022. This covered the progress in gender representation in videogames and references Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West. Answer the following questions:

1) How does Sarkeesian say things have changed in the videogames industry in the last 10 years? 

She suggests how much and how little gaming had changed over the years. She talks about how feminist voices in the gaming media and criticism has succeeded in holding companies and fans accountable for their behavior. 

2) Why is gaming still male dominated? Make sure your answer here includes the statistics quoted in the article. 

• Gaming studios have mainly male employees, female make up just 24% of staff.
• There is a a lot of harassment in the industry - 38% of respondents  said that their company reached out to speak out about sexism, discrimination and harassment. 

3) How has the conversation shifted on representation in videogames? 

That speaking up about feminism in the videogame industry. According to Sarkeesian it is important to improve representation in videogames and to combat sexism and talks about the abuse and sexism behind closed doors in industries. She says that it would be a nightmare for gamers if developers "tell stories about women as real human beings".

Part 2: Further Feminist Theory: Media Factsheet

Use our Media Factsheet archive on the M: drive Media Shared (M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets) or here using your Greenford Google login. Find Media Factsheet #169 Further Feminist Theory, read the whole of the Factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) What definitions are offered by the factsheet for ‘feminism ‘and ‘patriarchy’?

• Feminism - a movement which aims for women to be treated equally like men in term of social, economical and political situation, and is not there to show women are more superior than men and is not there for 'man hating'.
• Patriarchy - male dominance in society.

2) Why did bell hooks publish her 1984 book ‘Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center’?

She had identified a lack of diversity within the feminist movement and that diverse voices were marginalised from feminism. 

3) What aspects of feminism and oppression are the focus for a lot of bell hooks’s work?

That making women equal to men is flawed as not all men are equal to other men due to oppression, sex, and ethnicity. Gender should be looked at along with race, sex and class and encourages. 

4) What is intersectionality and what does hooks argue regarding this?

Intersectionality - overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination or discrimination. Multiple identities connect together to create an overall identity e.g. sex, race, gender, ethnicity, class and age etc.

5) What did Liesbet van Zoonen conclude regarding the relationship between gender roles and the mass media?

She suggests that there is a strong relationship between gender and communication but it is also the mass media that leads to much of the observable gender identity structures in advertising, film and TV. 

6) Liesbet van Zoonen sees gender as socially constructed. What does this mean and which other media theorist we have studied does this link to?

That it was made by the people with power to create a set of people who would be able to do certain things for society. This could be linked to Baudrillard's media-isation that the media has influence on society and culture. 

7) How do feminists view women’s lifestyle magazines in different ways? Which view do you agree with?

Feminists view lifestyle magazines as a source of oppression as is it exaggerates femininity showing them they they need to conquer their body insecurities. They suggest that magazines only tell women how to be the perfect mother, wife, housekeeper or as sex objects. I agree to this with a certain extent as I agree that there is sexualising and objectification of women in the media which shouldn't be there, however having a magazine which is telling people how to be the perfect mother or wife is not a negative thing at all and should be seen as a good thing.

8) In looking at the history of the colours pink and blue, van Zoonen suggests ideas gender ideas can evolve over time. Which other media theorist we have studied argues things evolve over time and do you agree that gender roles are in a process of constant change? Can you suggest examples to support your view?

Gauntlett also suggests things change over time. I think that gender roles are changing as many more women/mother are working and have a career than they used to and there are many fathers who are stay at home dads and work from home and also look after the house and pick their kids from school. There is also much more gender fluidity in the present day with the rise of LGBTQ+.

9) What are the five aspects van Zoonen suggests are significant in determining the influence of the media?

• Whether the institution is commercial or public.
• The platform upon which they operate (print versus digital media)
• Genre (drama versus news)
• Target audiences 
• The place the media text holds within the audiences' daily lives

10) What other media theorist can be linked to van Zoonen’s readings of the media?

Staurt Hall's encoding and decoding model/reception theory.

11) Van Zoonen discusses ‘transmission models of communication’. She suggests women are oppressed by the dominant culture and therefore take in representations that do not reflect their view of the world. What other theory and idea (that we have studied recently) can this be linked to?

This could be linked to bell hooks for oppression and also to W. E. B. Du Bois double consciousness as they are being viewed differently to what they usually are.

12) Finally, van Zoonen has built on the work of bell hooks by exploring power and feminism. She suggests that power is not a binary male/female issue but reflects the “multiplicity of relations of subordination”. How does this link to bell hooks?

This links to bell hooks as it links to intersectionality that power and feminism has to be looked at not only gender, but your class, age, sex and ethnicity, which gives an overall representation.

A/A* Extension tasks: TED talk

Finally, if you’re interested in some of these ideas, there is plenty more reading and watching you can do. For example, watch this TEDx talk by renowned Nigerian/American novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie ‘We should all be feminists’:

A/A* Extension tasks: Anita Sarkeesian Gamespot interview

If you're interested in this topic and aiming for a top grade, read this Gamespot interview with Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency and think about some of the following questions:

What reaction did Anita Sarkeesian receive when she published her videos on women in videogames? You can find more information on this on Sarkeesian’s Kickstarter fundraising page.

She received a lot of hate and violence in the backlash with misogyny, sexism and threats. Her videos were also reported as terrorism. She also received this hate and threats through her twitter, Facebook, and Kickstarter and her email and website.

How does Sarkeesian summarise feminism?

Sarkeesian defines feminism as "Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings." It is working towards the equal treatment of women socially, culturally, institutionally and economically. 

How has the videogame landscape changed with regards to the representation of women?

There are now more female characters and protagonists in videogames especially women of colour however sexualisation and objectification of women still exists. 

What is the impact of the videogames industry being male-dominated?

It impacts the narrative, characters and genres. Having more women females will allow the games to be more creative and allow producers to think outside of the boundaries. It also allows the company to be more diverse.

Finally, to find out more about the online backlash and #gamergate, this Guardian feature links the online abuse to the American alt-right movement also credited with electing Donald Trump.