Videogames: Women in videogames & 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? 

A harassment campaign to spread misogynistic views against feminism and diversity in the video games industry

2) What is the recent controversy surrounding narrative design studio Sweet Baby Inc? 
A strong prevalence of 'wokery' -secretly forcing game developers to change the bodies, ethnicities and sexualities of video game characters

3) What does the article conclude regarding diversity in videogames?
Diversity is happening in videogames 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’?

Patriarchy- male dominance in society

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

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.

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

“Women in lower class and poor groups, particularly those that are non- white"

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 (feminism cannot be discussed without considering race, sexuality, ethnicity and class)

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 (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?

She believes gender has been constructed by normalisation and is not natural. Judith Butler also agrees with this and that identity is fluid and has been ingrained into us by societal norms and the patriarchy.

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

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.

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?

David Gauntlett also argues that identity is fluid and can evolve over time. Moreover I do believe that gender roles are constantly changing as in the 50's and 60's the role of women was to be housewives and mothers. Now, women are encouraged to go to school and study well to become successful in their careers. Many women are also having children much later because they are focussing on establishing strong careers before they settle down.

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

• 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?

Staurt Hall- encoding and decoding  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 idea (that we have studied recently) can this be linked to?

Stuart Hall's shared conceptual map- reflective view, intentional view and constructionist view

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's builds onto bell hook's theory by discussing the link betwween bpower and feminsim by stating that Van Zoonen cites the experience of black feminists, such as bell hooks, where the individual can be both the subordinate in relation (woman vs. man) and dominant in another (white woman vs. black woman).