Textual Analysis of Gender and Communication

Communication

Textual Analysis

a) of the eleven topics to select from, I have chosen the topic of gendered violence.

b) Within this topic, my specific interest is the connection between gender and violence. Across popular forms of media such as gaming, films, television, music and more, violence expresses gender. Gender traits are expressed in media via the gender of the person performing and/or receiving violence, as well as the aesthetics and contexts within which the violence in the media form appears. Meaning, there are differences in the aesthetics and contexts in violence between film and gaming, for example. Games have specific contexts in which they are experienced with finite variations in the forms of violence. This is a completely different experience from viewing film.

c) I am interested in this topic for a few reasons. Violence is prevalent in the media. It is now accepted that media affects viewers. Within the context of the heavily mediated 21st century, let's revisit these topics again. They have a different meaning, different relationship, and implications than say, twenty years ago, early on in the voicing that there is excessive violence in American media.

d) This is another reason why I am interested in this topic. There are numerous examples of relevant texts to explore the ideas. A film that comes immediately to mind is Sin City, which is highly stylized and extremely violent. Much of the violence is based within the context of gender. One of the villains only harms women specifically because they are women. A group of women perform violence upon men specifically because they are men and are men that inflict violence upon women recklessly. A video game that comes to mind is Tekken. It has a long history and there a lot of popular female characters who are very skilled within a game predicated on violence.