In class we talked about how women are represented in video games. When you see a women in a video game, they are likely have large breast and a small waist. The games with a hot female main character are marketed to men. Does the video game industry market video games with muscular male characters to women who make up 42% of gamers? Nope, they market them to males who are looking to blow up cars and shoot enemies in the game. The males in video games are very similar to males in action movies, tall and very very muscular. Not all male video game characters are represented as over muscular, but a large portion are.
Women in video games are there for male sex appeal, even if they are the main character. The creators of the video game also add "jiggle physics" to females with large breast. Lara Croft is one of the characters. She has many masculine traits like shooting guns, and fighting enemies. Lara Croft has been redesigned to make her less sexualized. There is even a Lara Croft movie played by the beautiful Angelina Jolie. In the game Grand Theft Auto, the main player can have sex with a prostitute and then kill her to get their money back. This is a big issue with GTA because it promotes violence against women.
Males often do not worry about looks compare to females, but they do worry about their muscles. Most men would like to be fit and have some muscles. Most of the males who play video games are nothing like the characters on video games. The characters on video games are over muscular who are similar to the males in action movies. Usually the muscular characters are shooting the enemies and blowing objects up. Even if the character is not over muscular, they have some muscle definition. Muscular video games characters are not just in shooting games; in many fighting video games, the male characters are muscular never skinny.
Next time you play a video game, look to see how the characters are represented and do they resemble an average person.
With exception to GTA, sexuality isn't necessarily the only thing on a video game creators mind. While, yes, a majority of males are over muscular to the extent that it is inhuman, but the women are sporty for the most part. I mean if you REALLY think about it, a woman who is overweight isn't going to be able to accomplish atheletically what they are intended to do. I mean you don't generally see an overweight gymnast and that is what these characters are expected to do. So I feel like this arguement in our class is kind of mute.
ReplyDeleteBut, I must agree that the men are over exaggerated drastically. It is literally impossible for all men to even attempt to be this large. I mean yeah, there are the few muscle builders. But, this is not a male norm.
Obviously video games are a male industry for the most part but when women are charactirized in such video game, the gaming system takes a wide turn. Men dont seem to play a role of a women in video game because it takes away from the masculinity identity. So for the most part when you see a women character in a video game, she if most llikely to have a sexiness to her feminity. Wearing attractive clothing that are appeling to the male audience.
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