Scribd
Upload
60 views4 pages

Paperwithheadings

The document discusses stereotypes of women and minorities that are prevalent in many popular video games. Women are often depicted as sex objects, victims to be rescued, or in restricted feminine roles. Studies have shown they appear less frequently than male characters and engage in fewer important behaviors. Minorities, especially African American males, tend to be portrayed in negative or criminal roles more often than whites. Research also found that playing as a black avatar in a violent video game can increase negative attitudes towards black people compared to playing as a white avatar. The document argues exposure to these common stereotypes through video games can influence and perpetuate real-world prejudice.

Uploaded by

api-338236440
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
60 views4 pages

Paperwithheadings

The document discusses stereotypes of women and minorities that are prevalent in many popular video games. Women are often depicted as sex objects, victims to be rescued, or in restricted feminine roles. Studies have shown they appear less frequently than male characters and engage in fewer important behaviors. Minorities, especially African American males, tend to be portrayed in negative or criminal roles more often than whites. Research also found that playing as a black avatar in a violent video game can increase negative attitudes towards black people compared to playing as a white avatar. The document argues exposure to these common stereotypes through video games can influence and perpetuate real-world prejudice.

Uploaded by

api-338236440
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

How to play

There are many things that people say that videogames do to people. But some of the
things that people dont realize is that there is more than just the argument that video games
make people more violent. There is also the argument that some video games make people more
racist and sexist here are a few examples that have been found.
Women in Video Games
In a paper by Yi Mou and Wei Peng from Michigan State University stated that In mass
media compared to female characters, male characters appear more frequently, talk significantly
more, and engage in noted behaviors more such as achieving and showing leadership. Which
shows that even in the real world women are not in the spotlight and are usually seen as
supporters of the man, and in video games it is not much different. For example when researched
the most popular games from Nintendo and Sega Genesis it was found that women fell into one
of four categories either the sex object, the victim, the hero or in some other feminine roles.
The Categories of Women in Video Games
Some examples of the first category are in games like
GTA V campaign and single player where either women are
either prostitutes or they strippers in a club, in the online
version when people pick the female character to play they
generally by the skimpiest clothing to show skin and to
sexualize the character. Another way that women are place in
one of these categories is in the second category which is the
classic Damsel in distress like Princess Peach in Mario,
Princess Zelda in Legend of Zelda and Pauline A.K.A Lady from Donkey Kong just to name a

few. All of these and more make women seem more likely to get captured or always need
assistance. The third category is the one of women in the role of the hero for instance Rebecca
Chambers the protagonist from Resident Evil Zero. Finally the fourth category where women are
placed in feminine or supporting roles like a nurse, teacher, housekeeper and receptionist just to
name a few. The other issues that are brought up is the issue of how in video games womens
clothes are either really revealing or tight fitting an example of this is Mileena from Mortal
Kombat II where her costume is a small shirt that barely covers her chest. Another is Cammy
from the Super Street Fighter games in her tight and sometime slightly revealing leotard.

Men in Video Games


To switch perspectives for a moment, Women are not the only ones stereotyped, men are
stereotyped almost as much as women.when people think about a male video game stereotype
they think of a couple of things. One is the stereotype of an african american male having a
negative role in the game whether that be a drug dealer, a criminal or a murder, video games
create this stereotype and prejudice among not just children but also adults.
Male Roles in Video Games
When people look at the difference how men and women you can
see this through how men are seen as the more muscular and the stronger
characters in games and the fact that men are usually the ones in power,
and in this there is even more discrimination between minorities and
Whites,in particular the distribution between Minorities and white in parts
of the game like the trailer where Whites that are in leading positions are
heros 13 times and the villain only once while Minorities in the same position are the hero only 9
times and the villain once. Whites are opponents 16 and those are as villains and Minorities are

opponents 4 times as villains and these are just in the trailer alone not including the intro
sequence and the actual game.
In the study by Yang, Gibson, Lueke, Huesmann, and Bushman a test was performed to
see how people reacted to Blacks and Whites after playing violent and nonviolent games playing
both as a white and black character. After playing the games as a white character the difference
between the negativity towards black was shocking. In the nonviolent games played as both the
White and Black character was slight. After playing the violent videogame as the White
Character people thought that Black characters were not as violent as the white character, But
after playing the violent videogame as the Black Character the statistics were very different.
People thought that the Black character was more violent than the White avatars.

Stereotypes in Video Games


There have been many studies that show how these racist and sexist stereotypes have
affected people outside of videogames. This is true when thought about, the slightest racist or
sexist idea that people see in video games can affect them, whether or not they think so or not.
Negative stereotypes in video games. According to Deskins (2013) these stereotypes
are created from two distinct areas, culture and Beliefs.
Positive stereotypes in video games. Some examples that are given are a person who
thinks Hispanics migrate illegally does not like Hispanic waiters. Negative stereotypes like this
can lead to negative prejudice. An example of Positive stereotypes leading to a positive prejudice
is where a person who thinks that Asians are good at math likes to work with Asians on
engineering tasks. These are just a few ways the positive or negative stereotypes can lead to
positive or negative prejudices.

Reference
Deskins,T (2013, September 30). Stereotypes in video games and how they perpetuate prejudice
McNair Scholars Research Journal Retrieved from
http://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1062&context=mcnair

Mou,Y & Peng, W . Gender and racial stereotypes in popular video games Michigan State
University Retrieved from https://msu.edu/~pengwei/Mou%20Peng.pdf

Yang, G; Gibson, B; Lueke, A; Huesman, L; Bushman, B (2014 March 20). Effect of avatar race in
violent video games on racial attitudes and aggression Sage Publications Retrieved from
http://www.rcgd.isr.umich.edu/aggr/articles/Huesmann/2014.YangEtAl..EffectsOfAvatarRace.So
cial%20Psychological%20and%20Personality%20Science.pdf

You might also like