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

           

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

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