Media messages have a major influence on someone’s attitudes, beliefs, or sense of themselves. Video games are a cultural phenomenon in our society within the last two decades. More than 174 million Americans are gamers, and the average young person in the U.S. will spend ten thousand hours gaming by the age of twenty-one (McGonigal, 2011). This is a significant amount of time being spent gaming and gaming isn’t just a mindless activity. There is a lot going on in the brain during this time. Studies have found that playing video games can improve children’s visual attention skills, their spatial skills, their iconic skills and their computer literacy skills (Children Now, 2002). These are all skills that are very necessary to a person’s development but can also be learned through other activities with less negative effects. These problems range from violence, isolation or even altered views on gender, race, class and violence. Video games and their messages have a big influence on the people who play them. Stereotypes being a reoccurring problem within these games can really affect how a person, mainly children, forms or transforms their view of others and themselves. “Video games are not children’s toys or insignificant forms of entertainment. Rather, they are a powerful medium of education, propaganda, and therapy” (Leonard, 2003).
Gender politics and female-based stereotypes are one of the most dominant issues in video games today (Berger, 2002). Most importantly, women are extremely underrepresented in most games accounting for only 17 percent (Leonard, 2003). The basic stereotypes exist where the male engages in physical violence while the females are either in trouble, sex objects or just “participants”. “Participants” basically means that they obey commands of the player, but do not necessarily have personalities or abilities of their own (Children Now, 2002). The females are hyper-sexualized and the males are hyper-muscularized meaning the women are normally dressed very provocatively with bigger than average features. Men are shown as very tall and extremely muscular (Hunteman, 2001). This is a body type which would be near impossible to achieve without the help of supplements of some sort. These types of images can cause young males to have self-image issues as well as affect their expectations of and attitudes towards females. These are the values being shown which are influencing a young man’s thoughts on what a man really is and looks like.
Females are rarely heroines in these games but only an adjunct to the plot. Normally are put into the sex object role or damsel in distress. The fact of the matter is females are no real use to the games at all. It gives off the message that men are in control while women sit back and look pretty. This is not how the real world works. Women are now running for president and have high-ranking jobs with all the same responsibilities as a man in the same position. With the exception of Lara Croft, girls are not any significant part to the games. Although Lara Croft is an independent woman who has all of these masculine qualities, those qualities are being overshadowed by her revealing clothing and obnoxiously sized breasts. These are some of the unhealthy effects that harm someone’s behavior, relationships with others and send strong negative messages about violence, gender and race.
Racial stereotypes are found in all forms of media; i.e. television, movies, music, books, video games. The diversity of race in most video games is lacking significantly. There are plenty of studies based directly on racial stereotypes within the video game industry because it’s that obvious. According to a study done by Children Now, over half of the characters are white. It showed that 52% of characters are white while 37% are African-American, 5% are Latino and 3% were other. There are certain racial groups who are not represented at all. These results reflect the stereotype we have as a culture saying that white is normal and black or other races are exotic. Most times in these games the minorities are victims of abuse or criminals. Children playing these types of games are the most vulnerable consumer group and make up a relatively large part of the consumers. This is dangerous because they are the next generation of adults and it ends up becoming a vicious cycle that no one can get out of. One example of racial stereotyping is in the Resident Evil 5 trailer. The trailer showed a white soldier shooting black zombies which caused a lot of controversy within the minority crowd. It represented African-Americans as inhumane
The African-American character comes second in terms of how often they are in the games. “The relationship between the black community and the video game industry is one of exploitation. Companies and players benefit through the consumption of inner-city communities, while poverty, unemployment, and police brutality run rampant” (Leonard, 2003). This statement really shows the lack of compassion we as a culture have for minority groups. Most times African-Americans are portrayed as angry, aggressive, homeless, etc… These traits are shown in the sports games for example. According to a study done by Children Now, over 80% of black characters are competitors within sports-oriented games and are more likely to display aggressive behavior during the game. This is a common stereotype of African-Americans saying that they are more aggressive than another race.
Video games are a powerful tool of hegemony, surfacing ideological approval through a variety of white supremacist projects (Leonard, 2003).These classic stereotypes are a good example of how hegemony is so dominant in our culture. Things are the way they are and can’t be changed because that’s just how things are. Children playing these games are being influenced early on and it tends to be hard to change those stereotypes and thoughts. Our ideologies of gender, race, and class make inequalities appear natural when they are not at all (Dines & Humez, 2008).
References
Berger, Arthur. (2002). Video games: A popular culture phenomenon. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers
Children Now. (2002). Fair play? Violence, gender and race in video games. Retrieved November 18, 2011 from www.childrennow.org/media/video-games/2001
Dines, G. & Humez, J.M. (Eds.) (2008). Gender, race and class in media (Third Edition) Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage
Entertainment Software Association. (2011). Sales, demographic and usage data: Essential facts about the computer and video game industry. Retrieved November 18, 2011 from http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2011.pdf
Hunteman, N. (Producer & Director). (2000). Game over: Gender, race and violence in video games [Motion Picture]. United States: Media Education Foundation
Leonard, D. (2003). Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education. Live in your world, play in ours: Race, video games and consuming the other, 3, 1-9.
McGonigal, Jane. (2011). Reality is broken: Why games make us better and how they can change the world. Penguin Press.
University of Southern California (2009). Video Game Minority Report: Lots Of Players, Few Characters. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 20, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090729140931.htm
