Women and videogames

Part 1: Background reading on Gamergate

Read this Guardian article on Gamergate 10 years on. Answer the following questions:

1) What was Gamergate? 

It is an online harassment campaign that is against female diversity and their progression into the video game industry.

2) What is the recent controversy surrounding narrative design studio Sweet Baby Inc? 

It is believed that Sweet Baby Inc is secretly forcing game developers to change the bodies, ethnicities and sexualities of video game characters to conform to “woke” ideology leading people to believe they control every mainstream game.

3) What does the article conclude regarding diversity in videogames?

It writes about how nobody is forcing diversity into videogames as it is naturally placed by players and developers themselves.

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 equality for women – to be treated as equal to men socially, economically, and politically. It is a movement that is focused not on ‘hating’ men, or suggesting that women are superior.

Patriarchy=male dominance in society.

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

As she had identified a lack of diversity within the feminist movement, and argued that these diverse voices had been marginalised, being put outside the main body of feminism.

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

Her work focused  lot on including many different feminist theories and argued how the male involvement in the movement was important in order for them to do their part.

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

Intersectionality is describe overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination or discrimination. Hooks states that experiences of class, gender, sexuality etc cannot be completely understood if the influences of racialisation are not considered.

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

She concluded that there was 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?

It means how social and culture influence has led people to believe these constructed sterotypical behaviours for genders. These are constantly normalised and followed by a majority of people, this can link to Judith Butlers theory of gender performativity where Identity is a performance, and it is constructed through a series of acts and expressions that we perform every day.

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

Feminists view these women lifestyle magazines as a way to tell them how to be a perfect mother, lover, wife, homemaker, glamorous accessory, secretary – whatever suits the needs of the system. Its a way to present themselves the way men want to see them. I believe that magazines do continue to use this aspect to shape women for men however nowadays we can see the introductions of magazines that reinforce these strong identities of women.

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?

George Gerbner cultivation theory talks about how patterns of representation over long periods of time can shape and influence the way the audience perceives the world. Gender roles are in a process of change as everyone has access to construct their own identity through the influence of technology and various media platforms. They are no longer a passive audience and now can interact with many types of media through different ways to express their own opinions breaking out of this socially constructed bubble. Examples can be see through the character from the game Leagues of Legend, Vi who was seen through the male gaze with over exaggerated body parts and revealing clothes. However, through the adaptation of the series she was re designed by the fans suggestions, created to be seen through female gaze and subverting typical stereotypes for a women.

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?

We can link Stuart Hall’s negotiated readings, who states that they are subsequent focus on the way meanings are encoded and decoded “implies acknowledgement of gender construction as a social process in which women and men actively engage.”

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?

Bell Hooks intersectionality can be linked to how intersections of gender, race, class and sexuality to create a white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, and these ideologies dominate media representations.