Women and videogames: blog tasks

 Part 1: Background reading on Gamergate

Read this Guardian article on Gamergate 10 years on. Answer the following questions:

1) What was Gamergate? 

Gamergate was a conspiracy theory of a game developer’s aggrieved ex-boyfriend publishing a vindictive screed accusing her of trading sex for favourable reviews of her indie game. This was leapt upon by the least savoury corner of the 2014 internet, 4chan, and kicked off a harassment campaign that broadened to include all women working in video game development or the gaming press, as well as the industry’s LGBTQ+ community 

2) What is the recent controversy surrounding narrative design studio Sweet Baby Inc? 

The recent controversy surrounding narrative design Sweet Baby Inc is that a group with more than 200,000 followers on PC games storefront Steam, as well as thousands in a Discord chat channel, believes that Sweet Baby Inc is secretly forcing game developers to change the bodies, ethnicities and sexualities of video game characters to conform to “woke” ideology. They think that Sweet Baby has written and controlled almost every popular video game of the past five years, shutting straight white men out.

3) What does the article conclude regarding diversity in videogames?

The article concludes regarding diversity in videogames is diversity has no place in games. If you are a woman, queer or a person of colour working in this industry, you should expect the worst. The article also says nobody is forcing diversity into video games. It is happening naturally, as players and developers themselves diversify. Gamergate didn’t intimidate women out of video games 10 years ago, and we won’t be intimidated now. The games industry knows that a greater breadth of content, featuring a greater breadth of characters, made with the contributions of a greater breadth of people, is good for creativity and for business, no matter what some aggrieved gamers may think. This time, it must make its support perfectly and unequivocally clear.

Part 2: Further Feminist Theory: Media Factsheet

Use our Media Factsheet archive on the M: drive Media Shared (M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets) or here using your Greenford Google login. Find Media Factsheet #169 Further Feminist Theory, read the whole of the Factsheet and answer the following questions:

1) What definitions are offered by the factsheet for ‘feminism ‘and ‘patriarchy’?

Definitions that are offered is feminism and patriarchy. 

Feminism: movement which aims for equality for women to be treated as equal to men socially, economically, and politically.

Patriarchy: male dominance in society.

2) Why did bell hooks publish her 1984 book ‘Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center’?

bell hooks published her 1984 book 'Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center' as she had identified a lack of diversity within the feminist movement, and argued that these diverse voices had been marginalised, being put outside the main body of feminism.

3) What aspects of feminism and oppression are the focus for a lot of bell hooks’s work?

Some aspects of oppression that are focussed for a lot of bell hook's work is arguing that not all men are equal to men as a result of oppression, sexuality, ethnicity. hooks used her work to offer a more inclusive feminists theory that advocated for women within a sisterhood to acknowledging and accepting their differences. hooks challenged feminists to consider gender’s relation to sex, race, class and intersectionality. She argues that male involvement within the equality movement was important, encouraging men to do their part. Like Judith Butler, hooks questioned the approach of feminist to treat women as a single and coherent group. hooks has forcefully argued that poor black women have more in common with poor black men, than with the white middle classed feminists, and this had been ignored by white academic feminists.

4) What is intersectionality and what does hooks argue regarding this?

Intersectionality is used to describe overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination or discrimination. Its meaning is that multiple identities intersect to create a whole that is different from separate component identities. These individual identities can include gender, race, social class, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, age, mental disability, physical disability, mental illness, physical illness. hooks argues regarding this is that experiences of class, gender, sexuality etc cannot be completely understood if the influences of racialisation are not considered. hooks argues that understanding intersectionality is vital to gaining political and social equality and improving our democratic system. hook describes intersectionality as something which can create and maintain systems of oppression and class domination. “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation and oppression”.

5) What did Liesbet van Zoonen conclude regarding the relationship between gender roles and the mass media?

Liesbet van Zoonen concluded regarding the relationship between gender roles and the mass media is that there is a strong relationship between gender (stereotypes, pornography and ideology) and communication, but it is also the mass media that leads to much of the observable gender identity structures in advertising, film and TV.

6) Liesbet van Zoonen sees gender as socially constructed. What does this mean and which other media theorist we have studied does this link to?

Gender as socially constructed means how society sees things and how it has becoming socially accepted into our everyday lives. Many signs in the media are conventional and commonly known as they are culturally generated. Colours can be used to signal sex differences for example a baby wearing pink is a sign for its female sex, while boys would rather wear blue. The association of pink with femininity and blue with masculinity was made in 19th century France. This is a pure example of how gender is socially constructed. Another media theorist we have learned about that links to this is John Corner as she quotes from him “the conditions and the forms in which meaning and value are structured and articulated within a society” (Corner, 1991).

7) How do feminists view women’s lifestyle magazines in different ways? Which view do you agree with?

Feminists view women's lifestyle magazines by criticising it saying that it is exaggerated femininity which serve to pull women into a consumer culture on the promise that the products they buy will alleviate their own bodily insecurities and low self-esteem.

Van Zoonen argues that women’s magazines mediate images that tell women “how to be a perfect mother, lover, wife, homemaker, glamorous accessory, secretary – whatever suits the needs of the system”. Feminists of the 1970s saw the ‘media-created woman’ – the wife, mother, housekeeper, sex object – as a person only trying to be beautiful for men.

I disagree with these points raised in the women's lifestyle magazine as it shows they are trying to reinforce the idea of how a women needs to be instead of subverting them and changing their roles they are fully supporting the idea of women's being an object for men and for women to be stay at home people in charge of the cooking, cleaning and looking after the kids. 

8) In looking at the history of the colours pink and blue, van Zoonen suggests ideas gender ideas can evolve over time. Which other media theorist we have studied argues things evolve over time and do you agree that gender roles are in a process of constant change? Can you suggest examples to support your view?

Another media theorist we have studied talked about gender ideas changing and evolving over time is David Gauntlett's theory on masculinity and how it has changed over time. This is because he argues that masculinity has changed over time and has become more feminine and that males are starting to progress and show off more of their emotions and softer warmer sides. 

9) What are the five aspects van Zoonen suggests are significant in determining the influence of the media?

Five aspects van Zoonen suggests are significant in determining the influence of the media is:

• Whether the institution is commercial or public

• The platform upon which they operate (print versus digital media)

• Genre (drama versus news)

• Target audiences

• The place the media text holds within the audiences’ daily lives

10) What other media theorist can be linked to van Zoonen’s readings of the media?

Other media theorists can be linked to van Zoonen's readings of the media is Stuart Hall’s negotiated readings, arguing that the negotiated readings and subsequent focus on the way meanings are

encoded and decoded “implies acknowledgement of gender construction as a social process in which women and men actively engage.”  

11) Van Zoonen discusses ‘transmission models of communication’. She suggests women are oppressed by the dominant culture and therefore take in representations that do not reflect their view of the world. What other theory and ideas (that we have studied recently) can this be linked to?

This theory and idea that Van Zoonen discusses about the 'transmission models of communication' can be linked to bell hooks own ideas of oppression and how she views it and is trying to show people and make them understand as well. 

12) Finally, van Zoonen has built on the work of bell hooks by exploring power and feminism. She suggests that power is not a binary male/female issue but reflects the “multiplicity of relations of subordination”. How does this link to bell hooks?

Van Zoonen and bell hooks work on exploring power and feminism links back to each other such as how they both talk about how women are looked upon all types of classes, age and ethnicity they are from.