Women and videogames

Part 1: Background reading on Gamergate

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

1) What was Gamergate?

Gamergate, as this manufactured outrage became known, mutated into one of the first fronts of the modern culture wars, driven by social media, misogyny and the weaponised disaffection of young men. 

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

It is said 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?

It suggests that nobody is forcing diversity into videogames, but it is happening naturally, as players and developers themselves diversify.

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’?

Feminism: a 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’?

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 therefore, releasing her book.

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

hooks argues that feminism’s goal to make all women equal to men is flawed; 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.

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

-The term intersectionality is used to describe overlapping or intersecting social identities and related systems of oppression, domination or discrimination.

-bell hooks argues 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.'

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

the mass media?

Van Zoonen concludes that there is a strong relationship between gender 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 being socially constructed means that roles and identities are shaped by societal norms what people have normalised. This could link to Butler's theory in which she says gender is a performance. 

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

Feminists have criticised women’s magazines as commercial sites of 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”.

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?

Stuart Hall's theory also argues that things and concepts changes as society changes. An example of this can be masculinity and how it used to be associated with toughness and dominance and how it has changed over time. 

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

Van Zoonen argues that the influence of the media is dependent on:
• 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?

We can link Stuart Hall's encoding and decoding. 

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 idea (that we have studied recently) can this be linked to?

This can be linked to Gilroy's double consciousness.

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?

This links to bell hooks because it emphasizes intersectionality, where feminism and power must consider not only gender but also class, age, sex, and ethnicity.