Videogame Paper

Content Analysis: Representation of race and masculinity

Miroslava Illasova

University of Wisconsin-Parkside

            Videogames are spread around the world and are used as an entertainment outlet through which a player can interact with not only the game itself, but also other individuals or players. Videogames, just like any other media outlet or product, carry cultural messages in their content. Key messages such as the portrayal of masculinity, femininity as well as the idea of power and control are often incorporated in videogames continuously exposing the player to ideas that are part of the culture’s societal norms. We know that female characters in videogames are usually portrayed as weak, in need of men and need to be rescued. What I wanted to find out was how are men being portrayed and how does the portrayal of men connect to the societal norms of masculinity and to everyday behavior in men? In this paper I will conduct textual analysis of videogame ads in order to obtain a better understanding about the gender and racial roles in the world of video games.

            The first example is an ad for the Metal Gear Solid videogame featuring a character called “Vamp”. This ad is portraying the picture of a very dominant, powerful masculine figure. The character itself is very muscular, hairy and you can see the characters veins all over his body. This not only communicates power but also control over situation as well as sings of aggression and violence.

The character’s facial expressions are hard and focused, which cannot only be translated into the signs of dominance but also the intentions of seeming fearless. The body posture of the character also communicates dominance as well as confidence. This is a typical example of the masculine representation of white male in videogames. But how does this translate into the social norms of gender and race in our everyday lives? It is evident that the characters in videogames have some relevance to what being masculine means to our society. Men are still considered to be the breadwinners and supporters of the family. Masculine men in the society are those that are in control of their lives. The idea of masculinity is the same in real life as well as videogames. The separation between the real life and videogames in terms of masculinity is in what it means to be in control. In the world of videogames to be in control you have to be able to kill anything and anybody that threatens you. In other words violence gets you where you want to be. In real life I would argue that being in control means to have access to money, resources of any type and be the one that can make decisions with cool head. Men are supposed to be the supporters of the family. It is of course a different kind of support than that which we expect from women.

            In comparison I looked at an ad featuring a character from minority. This particular example was pulled from the “Call of Duty” videogame clearly portraying men of non-white descent in a different way. The man leaning over its victim is less muscular and although still portrays a person in control seems to be put in so-called “snitch” position.  He seems to be able to overpower his victim only by being sneaky and going behind the victim’s back instead of confronting him from the front. Even though there is an evident difference in the way men of different races and backgrounds are portrayed the idea of masculinity is still present.

The men are still trying to get what they want by being violent. The portrayal of masculinity in videogames can be seen easily through the ads I chose. The gender is playing a dominant role in the games and is depicting the perfect example of what it means to be a man. Masculinity is portrayed as the sign of control, power as well as the sign of violence and fear. Not only the body proportions in these videogames are exaggerated when it comes down to the muscle proportions, but also creates an unrealistic picture of what a man should look like in order to be respected and powerful.

The portrayal of race in the videogames is also perpetuating stereotypes and creating this idea of white men being ‘normal’ compared to the men of different race being portrayed as very ‘exotic’ creature with almost animal-like behavior. By looking at the content and analyzing the messages that it carries we can clearly see who is the person behind creating the videogames. It is the white male bringing their ideas of what it means to be a man and what it means to be a white male versus a black or Hispanic male. This is therefore not only creating a poor representation of race but also creates a fiction-like idea of what masculine behavior looks like. This can be particularly troubling, as many people believe that videogames are not influential. It is true that by playing videogames you might not start acting and doing the same thing in real life, however playing videogames is a part of our experience and the experiences we gain throughout our life create and influence who we are as a person. Therefore I wonder who is the influencer and who is getting influenced. Are we as a society influencing how masculinity is going to be portrayed in the videogames? Or are videogames also part of the media outlets that shape our society and plant ideas of masculinity into our society? I believe that it is both. I believe that we as a society out shaped by what we are exposed to, and in return we are going to be exposed to what we believe is appropriate and fitting into our societal norms.

           

References

           

Brookey, R. (2009). Sex lives in second life. In Dines, G. & Humez, J. (Eds.), Gender, Race and Class in Media (571-581). Location: Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage.

Dines, G. & Humez, J. (Eds.) (2008) Gender, Race, Class and Media (Third Edition) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage           

Huntemann, N. (Producers). (2000). Game Over: gender, race and violence in videogames [DVD]. United States: Media education Foundation.

Nakamura, L. (2009). Don’t hate the player, hate the game. In Dines, G. & Humez, J. (Eds.), Gender, Race and Class in Media (563-569). Location: Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage.

Williams, D., Martins, N., Consalvo, M., & Ivory, J. D. (2009). The virtual census: representations of gender, race and age in video games. New Media & Society, 11(5), 815-834. doi:10.1177/

Wohn, D. (2011). Gender and Race Representation in Casual Games. Sex Roles, 65(3/4), 198-207. doi:10.1007/s11199-011-0007-4

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My Pornography paper

Content Analysis: Pornography

Miroslava Illasova

University of Wisconsin-Parkside

            Pornography is the portrayal of sexual acts for the purpose of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction. Pornography and the industry of pornography have been around for hundreds of years shaping the material into different forms and portraying different ideas of ideal beauty. What is however one of the most important parts of pornography is the way it fits into the society that created it and what message it is sending to its audience. The pornographic industry has grown drastically making more profits each year. Knowing that this industry is mainly controlled and driven by men I started wondering if there is a difference in content between male and female directed pornographic material. In this paper I will look closely at how the gender of the director affects the content of the material.

            Looking at the content and not knowing the director’s gender I believed there would be a significant difference in the content of the pornographic material. I started looking at the comparisons in aggression, the type of aggression and other scene variables. Once I summed up all of the information I found many shocking facts about the pornographic industry and the role that directors and their gender plays in the pornographic content. In this paper I will conduct textual analysis of pornographic materials and how it connects to the creators of the content.

 Aggression

            Aggression is the most common component in the pornographic material.  According to Chyng, Bridges, Wosnitzer, Scharrer and Liberman there are two types of aggression identified: physical and verbal (Dines & Humez, 2011). In male directed pornographic material the verbal aggression is present 49.2% of the time. Looking closely at the different types of verbal aggression we can see that name-calling is the most common taking up 49.2% of time. The threat of physical harm and coercive language are both present 1.6% of the time. Comparing this information to female directed porn I found that verbal aggression is present 50.8% of the time. Name calling being the main factor of verbal abuse as well represented by 50.8%. It is however shocking to find that the threat of physical harm is present 3.3% of the time. That is 1.7% difference between the content of male and female directed pornography (Chyng, Bridges, Scharrer, Wosnitzer & Liberman, 2008).

            Physical aggression is a little more complicated as it has multiple components within. Looking at the components presented in the pornographic material I found that the spank, gag, open hand slap and pull hair are the most common. Spanking being at the top is present 70.5% of time in male directed porn and 72.1% in female directed porn. Another fascinating factor was looking at the percentage comparison in the act of gag, which to me is one of the most violent aspects of porn. The act of gag was present 54.1% of the time in male directed pornographic material and 59.0% of the time in female directed porn. Bondage was among the variables of physical aggression, but was not that common. However it caught my attention, as female directors use this act drastically more than male directors. In female directed porn the act of bondage was present 14.8% of the time while in the male directed porn it was present 4.9% of the time. (Chyng, Bridges, Scharrer, Wosnitzer & Liberman, 2008)

            These results are not only shocking but also might explain the way women and men see the world of pornography. Looking at the comparisons in verbal aggression I could speculate that women are more verbal and therefore the presents of verbal insults was more frequent. It also showed that men directors use more physical aggression in their porn. Even though there are differences in the variables and their frequencies in the pornographic material directed by two different genders I do not find them drastically distinct or different.

Scene Categorical Variables

            According to Chyng, Bridges, Wosnitzer, Scharrer and Liberman the most common scene categorical variable is the ejaculation position. Mouth being the main target in both male and female, I found that it is present 62.3% of the time in male directed pornography and 47.5% of the time in female directed material. What is however very interesting about the ejaculation position variable is the distinct difference in content in the following sub-variables. The sub-variables are face, breasts, stomach, buttocks and internal. Male directed porn had scenes with ejaculations in one of these areas 19.6% of the time. The female directed porn did not have any such scenes.

            Looking at these differences I could not find a correlation between any of the variables and the gender of the director. I also believe that the director influences some of the content in the pornographic industry subconsciously. It is however necessary for the director to know what the consumer is looking for. I also believe that besides having the consumer in mind while creating the pornographic content, the director is aware that the consumer can adapt to what is being provided. It is after all a circle where the pornographic industry shapes the needs and wants of the consumer and the consumer influencing the content of the material by consuming certain types of porn.

            Another scene categorical variable are the sex acts. The most common sub-variable in this category is the female-to-male oral act being present 93.4% of the time in male directed porn compared to 67.2% in the female directed porn. Another common sub-variables found in this category are the following scenes: male-to-female-oral, vaginal penetration with penis, anal penetration with penis and ass-to-mouth sequence. These acts are common in both male and female directed porn. They are all present close to 50.0% of the time. There is however one sub-variable drastically different in male and female directed material. The woman-to-woman act is present 14.8% of the time in male directed porn and present 41.0% of the time in female directed porn. This significant difference could point us to the answer why the difference exists. I believe that this difference tells us about the audience that is trying to be targeted. The director knows what scenes to include for certain audience. For example the woman-to-woman oral might target the lesbian audience. (Chyng, Bridges, Scharrer, Wosnitzer & Liberman, 2008)

            The pornographic industry is mainly controlled by men and therefore there is not much space for women to be able to change drastically change the content being present almost in all of the porn material studied. In this paper I looked closely at how the gender of the director affects the content of the material. I found that the content was not dramatically different and did not indicate any dramatic shifts from one type of sexual scene to another.

            Overall I believe that gender of the director creating the pornographic material does not play such a big role in the content of porn. I believe that my expectations of female-directed porn being distinctively different were not met for couple of reasons. Men largely dominate the business of pornography and therefore there is a lot of pressure for anybody creating pornographic material to conform to the norms that were established prior to their entrance of the business. It would therefore be very hard for women to shift away from what is being viewed as standard content for a pornographic material. Even if the women wanted to change the world of pornography the political economic structure is restraining them from doing so. It is the profit and the proven way to profit that must not be broken and you as a director should conform to that in order to be successful and profitable. I also believe that the audience’s needs and wants as well as target groups are the main concern of the director. Besides slight differences in the content between the male and female directed pornography, I could not find a distinct example that would indicate the gender of director to be a powerful variable in the content of the material.

It is the fact that a change in the content would be a hard one without the support of the audience and it is the fact that a change in the needs of audience are to appear without the change in the pornographic content. The political economic production is one of the variables that would have to contribute to the change, as it is the profit that runs this business.

References

           

Attwood, F. (2007). No money shot?. In Dines, G. & Humez, J. (Eds.), Gender, Race and Class in Media (283-292). Location: Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage.

Caputi, J. (2004). The pornography of everyday life. In Dines, G. & Humez, J. (Eds.), Gender, Race and Class in Media (307-320). Location: Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage.

Chyng, S., Bridges, A., Wosnitzer, R., Scharrer, E., & Liberman, R. (2008). A comparison of male and female directors in popular pornography: What happens when women are at the helm?. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 32(3), 312-325. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 15, 2011.

Dines, G. & Humez, J. (Eds.) (2008) Gender, Race, Class and Media (Third Edition) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage           

Peter, J., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2010). Adolescents' use of sexually explicit Internet material and sexual uncertainty: The role of involvement and gender. Communication Monographs, 77(3), 357-375. Available from: Academic Search Premier, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 15, 2011.

FInal wrap-up

    As it is getting closer to the end of the semester I would like to sum up everything that I have learn in this course. I believe that this course was not only relevant to what is going on in today's society but also helped me understand the world of media on a different level. 

    The essential role of gender, race and class in the media not only shapes the environment we live in but also often perpetuates old stereotypes. Throughout the course of this semester we were supposed to relate each and every topic to three different aspects. According to Kellner, in order to understand the culture and the way certain ideas affect us we need to look at them from the political economy perspective, text analysis as well as audience reception. All of these play a role in how we perceive and understand a certain message. 

    The issue of gender in the media touches not only at the presence of femininity and masculinity but also at the LGBTQ community in the media. All of these shape the way we think about others as well as us. They show us what we are as an individual of a certain group within the society. I not only learned that women are often viewed as subjects and sexual objects but also that the unrealistic looks of women are present. This ultimately creates pressure on young girls trying to fit the picture that they see on the screen. 

     When it comes down to race and its representation in the media it has a lot in common with the representation of gender in the media. The presence of race in the media is still till this day slanted and perpetuates stereotypes in one way or another. The members of minorities are mostly pictured unrealistically and often de-humanized by being presented as a clown or a criminal.

     Class plays also a very important role in the way people relate to the media. Everybody sees themselves as a part of certain class and therefore looks at the television and tries to find an answer of what it actually means to be a part of a certain class. Not only the television pictures unrealistic ideas of what people can afford being members of a certain class but also represents an unrealistic lifestyle in general. 

     Overall I have learned that gender, race, class and many other factors shape who we are. The environment around us shapes who we are as well as we influence people around us based on who we perceive ourselves to be. Each culture has certain ideas or ideology about what it means to belong to a certain gender, class or race and by this we adapt to our environments and create our own view of the world around us.

References

Dines, G. & Humez, J. (Eds.) (2008) Gender, Race, Class and Media (Third Edition) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage            

Sexual Orientation in the Media

  
     I really enjoyed our discussion in class and really appreaciated the input from our guests. When listening what the guests speakers had to say I realized that I have heard many of the things before as I have many friends that belong to the LGBTQ association.
  
 Looking at the media and the portrayal of gay or lesbian characters I see that the representation of them has not only changed dramatically but became a part of our everyday television experience. While watching the movie called "Further off the straight and narrow" one statement really caught my attention. It said that "You are not real unless you are on TV" and therefore not a long time ago the absence of gay people created this feeling that they in fact do not exist. It therefore would have been harder for the members of the LGBTQ community to realize that they are not alone and that there is people like them.
  
It was in fact the introduction of gay and lesbian people on TV that made the "idea" of gay people real. Although this might be true the representation of gay and lesbian people on TV presented them in light that was trying to create acceptance rather then breaking the taboo. In other words the characters needed to conform to the social and sexual norms in order to be perceived as "a good queer". The "good queer" was a person that conformed to the middle class norms of respectability.

The problem with this is that you never see the "less acceptable" gays, such as working class gays.
I feel like the representation of gays on television is a huge step forward in the sense of including them and not ignoring them, but the representation of gays is still not as free as it seems. They still need to conform to the social norms. I wonder what kind of a reaction would people give if they were represented in a different way. What do you think would be a true and the best way to represent the LGBTQ community members on television?

References

Farrell, K. (2006). HIV on TV. In Dines, G. & Humez, J. (Eds.), Gender, Race and Class in Media (399-407). Location: Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage.