Blog 5

Evan Bossio

Blog 5: Women in CMC (Video Games)

            In lecture we discussed the female presence in computer-mediated communication and the recurring themes in video games, TV shows, and movies.  Video games are typically a space reserved for male players, male characters, and male-dominated societies. However, we learned that there is a strong female presence in video games, just not a good one to say the least.

            Currently, the more advanced and popular video games are both violent and aggressively realistic. Games like Grand Theft Auto portray women as prostitutes or worthless tagalongs to men. They are often times depicted in situations where they are dumbfounded, committing illegal acts, or being sexually assaulted.  When Professor Jackson began this lecture, I was completely blindsided. The extent to my video gaming experience and knowledge is Super Smash Bros. and Pokémon. I had no idea about the intensity of sexism and the outwardly display of crude acts towards women in video games. My brothers both play GTA, Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed, etc… all games that contain graphic scenes of physical or sexual violence against women.  It is amazing to me that these images do not at all faze them. How can you watch a realistically characterized woman being raped in a video game and still play it?

            A lot of this information we gained from Anita Sarkeesian, a feminist who runs a YouTube channel that she became quickly famous for. Her TED talk that we watched in class was about how video game companies sexualize the female characters by dressing them in close to nothing, making their breasts larger, and keeping their knowledge to a minimum.  This was the first time I watched one of her videos. In my English 15 class last year, I watched one of her YouTube videos that focused on the blatant sexism in children’s toys sold in the United States. In addition to the inappropriate sexualization of women, there is also the presence of forcing them into a specific gendered space. For example, selling toys like Barbie’s Dream House that portrays a Barbie in the kitchen make a meal for her husband. Beyond the Barbie, however, sexism can be seen in toys typically created for boys like Legos through their complete disregard for female characters in general. Both with the toys and the video games, Anita received backlash from a completely male population.  We learned from her TED talk that she received threats of murder, assault and even rape. When she said this, my jaw literally dropped. How can a group of people argue that sexism does not exist in a video game and then threat to rape a woman via Twitter? This brought a connection to another concept we have discussed in lecture, cybermobbing. Anita was electronically and continuously attacked through social media sites by a group of people- angry, aggressive men. This is an entire issue all on its own, separate from sexism in CMC, but in this case it was a result of such acts.

            I think it’s important that the video game industry dismantles the damsels in distress, the manic pixie dream girls, the crones, and the sex icons. These positions in video games are not appropriate in representing women. It is almost as if they are props and not even supposed to be human beings. The men, however, get to do the problem-solving, killing, abusing, winning. I hope, for the sake of men and women, that there is a change in this online community soon.

Here is Anita Sarkeesian’s video on sexism in children’s toys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZn_lJoN6PI&list=UU7Edgk9RxP7Fm7vjQ1d-cDA