Women and videogames: blog tasks

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Women and videogames: blog tasks

Work through the following blog tasks to complete our work on women in videogames and further feminist theory.

Part 1: Background reading on Gamergate

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

1) What was Gamergate? 

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? 

People beleived 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 that diversity in videogames is natural and positive. It says more varied characters and creators make games better and help the industry grow. It also states that no one is forcing diversity into games.

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 is defined as wanting equality for women. Patriarchy is defined as male dominance in society.

2) Why did bell hooks publish her 1984 book ‘Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center’?
bell hooks published the book because she felt feminism was not including diverse voices and she wanted to bring people at the margins into the centre.

3) What aspects of feminism and oppression are the focus for a lot of bell hooks’s work?
She focuses on gender, race, class and how different forms of oppression link together.

4) What is intersectionality and what does hooks argue regarding this?
Intersectionality means different parts of identity connect and shape how people face oppression. hooks says you must look at all these parts together to understand real equality.

5) What did Liesbet van Zoonen conclude regarding the relationship between gender roles and the mass media?
van Zoonen concluded that gender roles are strongly shaped by the mass media.

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 society teaches people how to act as men or women. This links to Judith Butler.

7) How do feminists view women’s lifestyle magazines in different ways? Which view do you agree with?
Some feminists think lifestyle magazines limit women and push unfair ideals. Others think magazines give women pleasure and space to explore identity. I believe in both to an extent

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?
She argues gender ideas change over time. Stuart Hall also argues things change over time. You may feel gender roles keep changing for example men showing emotions more or women in more leadership roles.

9) What are the five aspects van Zoonen suggests are significant in determining the influence of the media?
The five aspects are whether the media is commercial or public, the platform used, the genre, the target audience and the role the media text plays in daily life.

10) What other media theorist can be linked to van Zoonen’s readings of the media?
Stuart Hall links closely to van Zoonen.

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 links to Hall’s encoding and decoding idea which says people take in messages in different ways.

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 both say oppression works in many layers and not just male over female. They both focus on how different identities shape power.

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