Sexism in Video Games
Video game characters are iconic in youth popular culture. Their influence goes far outside of the realm of the game, so that even youth who do not play games are exposed to video game characters. For example, it is common for products to use video game characters in their marketing campaigns when targeting young adults. Moreover, it is not unusual for there to be an overlap between video games and other forms of popular culture. Video games may be spun off into books, cartoons, films, and television shows. There is nothing inherently wrong with the presence of video game characters in so much youth-oriented popular culture. However, while video games may seem like harmless fun, it is important to understand the content of those video games and the message that content sends to young players, in order to understand the potential negative impact of these games.
Concerns about video games tend to focus on three specific areas: violence, sexism, and racism. However, it is difficult to look at any of those issues in isolation. Sexism and racism have been used, for centuries, to support the dominant white male society; violence has been a means of forcefully perpetuating racism and sexism throughout society. Therefore, it is important to consider that all three issues tend to reinforce the negatives aspects of the other two issues. For example, paper will focus on sexism, though it is important for the reader to understand that any discussion of sexism in video games must, necessarily, discuss violence given that how the characters interact will either support or fail to support claims that video games are sexist. It is one thing to show scantily clad female characters, and some people may parse language and suggest that is simply a matter of objectification. When one looks at whether those scantily clad figures are subject to violence, it becomes more difficult to suggest that objectification does not imply sexism.
Popularity of Video Games
Video games are extremely popular, particularly among teenagers and young adults. They are particularly popular among young men. It is important to understand that a significant percentage of a teenage male's free time may be spent invested in video games. It is not only the time spent playing the game, but also the time spent discussing games with friends, reading gaming magazines, and in other related, ancillary activities, which determines what percentage of an individual's time is spent on video gaming. Moreover, it is not only the people who play video games that are influenced by video game culture; it is anyone who comes into contact with people who play videogames. The time spent on videogames has improved dramatically. Even more apparent is the way that videogames have come to pervade popular culture, as a whole This is a dramatic increase since the video game first became popular, because young adults had to go to arcades to play games at that time. The availability of home gaming systems has changed the world of gaming, which has changed the world of popular culture, and, literally marked a shift in overall youth culture.
Changes from Early Video Games
Evolving graphics have also led to significant changes in video games, making them very different from the first games that became popular in the 1970s and 1980s. "In the early years, gender representations in video games were limited to graphically unsophisticated characters such as Ms. Pac-Man, the hungry yellow orb whose only indication of gender was her pixilated hair bow" (Dill and Thill, "Video Game Characters" 851). Modern video games have the graphical capability to depict much more realistic human characters. Moreover, advances in other areas of technology allow these characters to move much like humans as well, imparting a sense of realism and present-ness to the characters that simply was not there in the days of Pac-Man. Video game designers take full advantage of this technology, portraying characters that are realistic, if not real. Moreover, because of this realism, it can be hard to distinguish between the video game character and portrayals of real people. Looking backwards...
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