Video Game Sexism
Dr. Mehnaaz Momen
Political Class and Gender Roles
27 March 2011
Gender Roles in the Video Game Industry
We often reflect on our lives and realize that not everything in our worlds outlines life as fair game. I see many facets of life that benefit one gender role better than the other. I also see parts of our lives where one gender role isn’t treated as equally as others. Me being part of the video game community for so long never opened my eyes to these realizations. I never wanted to believe that in a community that has been dear to many for many years of my life had dealt any of these crimes. But when you open you’re mind to the possibilities that even something remotely unequally exists in our lives you cannot ignore what has been seen. The only thing that remains is what can be done about the matter? What is conceivable is not what you limit yourself to but rather what you do with the time that is given to you.
In order to understand the injustices I speak of; I must first reflect upon the basic history of the video game, and my involvement that love. When video games were first created creators never knew that it would be such a popular product. Think about one of the first games created. The concept was something simple, and that was virtual pong. Atari released one of its first creations and it focused on the mechanics of simply hitting back the ball back and forth. It became so mind blowing that the video game expanded massively within years. However, when looking back into the first video game libraries I began to see a trend. The trend was that no games had been created where a female protagonist was the lead in. The first visual existence of a female character was in the largely commercial success of the video game Mario who stared in Donkey Kong. The main objective of the video game was easy; it was rescue the princess from Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong 2). It was the first mention of a female, and guess what? She was the one who needed
Political Class and Gender Roles
27 March 2011
Gender Roles in the Video Game Industry
We often reflect on our lives and realize that not everything in our worlds outlines life as fair game. I see many facets of life that benefit one gender role better than the other. I also see parts of our lives where one gender role isn’t treated as equally as others. Me being part of the video game community for so long never opened my eyes to these realizations. I never wanted to believe that in a community that has been dear to many for many years of my life had dealt any of these crimes. But when you open you’re mind to the possibilities that even something remotely unequally exists in our lives you cannot ignore what has been seen. The only thing that remains is what can be done about the matter? What is conceivable is not what you limit yourself to but rather what you do with the time that is given to you.
In order to understand the injustices I speak of; I must first reflect upon the basic history of the video game, and my involvement that love. When video games were first created creators never knew that it would be such a popular product. Think about one of the first games created. The concept was something simple, and that was virtual pong. Atari released one of its first creations and it focused on the mechanics of simply hitting back the ball back and forth. It became so mind blowing that the video game expanded massively within years. However, when looking back into the first video game libraries I began to see a trend. The trend was that no games had been created where a female protagonist was the lead in. The first visual existence of a female character was in the largely commercial success of the video game Mario who stared in Donkey Kong. The main objective of the video game was easy; it was rescue the princess from Donkey Kong (Donkey Kong 2). It was the first mention of a female, and guess what? She was the one who needed
Cited: Dietz, Tracy L. "An Examination of Violence and Gender Role Portrayals in Video Games: Implications for Gender Socialization and Aggressive Behavior." Sex Roles 38.5-6 (1998): 425-442 Dockrill, Peter. "Metroid Prime 3: Corruption." APC 28.2 (2008): 114. Internet and Personal Computing Abstracts "Donkey Kong in Little Bear Country”. The Elementary School Journal 101.4 (2001): 417 Ogletree, Shirley, and Ryan Drake. "College Students’ Video Game Participation and Perceptions: Gender Differences and Implications." Sex Roles 56.7-8 (2007): 537-542. E-Journals. EBSCO. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.