In lecture we discussed the idea of women's portrayals in the media, with a focus on video games. There are several different types of women that appear in the video games, ranging from the old "crone" persona or the sex icon whose sole purpose is to provide eye candy. Most video games experience a lack of main characters that are women. We used Anita Sarkeesian as an example of what happens when the gaming culture and community is challenged by a powerful woman figure. Sarkeesian runs an online video blog in which she discusses how video games are used to portray women inaccurately and as lesser than their male counterparts. Upon releasing her web series, she received some serious backlash from the male-dominated gaming community. These gamers felt as if her video blogs were threatening to the misogynistic norms of their community. In response, people took to the internet to bash her name. There were threats of rape and violence, altered images of Sarkeesian were released to reveal fake bruising on her face, and her Twitter and Facebook accounts were hacked and tampered with. These people attempted to release her personal information that she had provided on certain accounts and her website was made unavailable to the public. I found this response to be shocking and intense. I think that the harassment Sarkeesian received was just one example of how unwilling certain CMC communities are to accept women as their equals. In this case, the gaming community made it very clear that they would not allow a woman to reveal the underlying gender prejudices that can be found in the online gaming culture.
In lab today, me and my group discussed how the unequal treatment and portrayal of women extends to different aspects of media aside from video games. The mistreatment of women seems to stretch past online interactions and into the world of advertising. Women are told that they must look a certain way in order to be considered beautiful. For example, in the tabloids, there are constantly accusations being expressed about whether or not a celebrity woman is pregnant. In reality, this person may have been wearing a baggier shirt than they are used to being seen in, walking in a breeze, or feeling a little bloated that day. Even the smallest amount of weight gain is noticed and exploited in order to create front page celebrity gossip. The expectations that are set by the advertisement industry are unrealistic for the average woman. In one of my psychology classes we discussed brand personality. This is the standard that different advertising companies set for themselves. It describes the type of traits and feelings that brands hope to portray through their advertisements. I recently read an article on Buzzfeed which analyzed the brand, Brandy Melville. In this article, 5 women of varying weights, heights, and clothing sizes were asked to try on different Brandy Melville items which are all "one size fits most." What the results found were that "the most" that is being described by the Brandy Melville brand is not a representative size of the majority of average women. Only the smallest girl was able to comfortably fit in every clothing item that was tried on. This type of study makes me wonder what type of brand personality Brandy Melville was trying to achieve with a size that excludes a vast majority of the average population of women. Another example that me and my group discussed was the supposed story that Nicki Minaj was told that in order to be signed to her record label she would need to improve her physical appearance, thus resulting in her famous butt implants. This makes it very clear that the record label was less concerned with the talent of Minaj, and more with upholding their overall image as a company.
Returning to online communication, me and my group also discussed the use of Instagram amongst certain female celebrities that can be viewed as role models. For example, we discussed how many famous women may take to Instagram in order to post pictures of themselves and their bodies. The comments that these types of pictures receive are both positive and negative. There is a large tendency for people to see these pictures in which women are exposing certain aspects of their bodies and using them as an open invitation for criticism. I have seen many instances where celebrity women take to Instagram to post pictures of their children, and all they receive are comments questioning that woman's parenting choices. People, especially on Instagram, find any possible reason to comment on a celebrities photograph, and potentially gain their attention. Most people would simply chose not to view a celebrities Instagram and other social media accounts if they were not interested in that person or a fan of their work. Instead, it appears that people use Instagram as an opportunity to express hateful, unnecessary opinions about that persons lifestyle choices, fashion sense, and even parenting styles. These celebrities are constantly receiving critical, unwanted comments about their looks and actions through social media, tabloids, and even the television industry. There is an entire network, E!, dedicated to celebrity gossip and reality television programs centering around the lives of celebrities such as the Kardashians.
Aside from these famous people that can be seen on the covers of magazines, there is a new brand of celebrity; Instagram celebrities. Instagram celebrities are people that have received their fame specifically from social media such as Instagram. These could be people that post pictures that cause them to acquire millions of followers. Similar to Youtube celebrities, they can reach their fame from a simple posting, depending on how much attention it receives. Becoming famous from Instagram is something that is seen as popular and appealing to many people because it doesn't actually require them doing anything significant or special. I think that the idea of becoming Instagram famous is mostly attached to women who are seen as desperate for attention. In many rap songs, these women are referred to as desiring to become famous via Instagram by posting something too revealing or controversial. By stating that women who chose to post bold images on Instagram are only doing so to receive some form of attention is only perpetuating the negative stereotypes that are already attached to women in CMC. Rather than acknowledging some of these women for their accomplishments, they are being judged based on how popular their images are. While there are many people in this world, both women and men, that would do anything for their fifteen minutes of fame, this does not stretch to all users. Generalizations about women desperate for social media fame hurt the overall progress that the feminism movement has been making. It is just another setback that is preventing people from seeing and treating women as their equals throughout all aspects of life; including in the online world.
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