Game Culture 8: Race and Sexuality

Stuart Hall

In today's lecture, a lot of attention was directed at Hall's paper The Whites in their Eyes that talks about the medias construction of ideologies on race, sexuality and gender. We are constantly being bombarded with images and ideologies through pictures, television, magazines, games etc. These ideologies teaches us about the world around us. It becomes a pre-language, a form of a common sense that we are constantly enforcing and that enforces us back. Ideologies are sets different from each other, and meaning may change from one set to another (e.g. the notion of freedom in a communistic and liberal society). We formulate our intentions within ideology. It's unconscious and seems natural to us, as the constructed positions of identification makes out conceptions "make sense".

Hall proceeds by applying his theories to the question of race and racism. He distinguishes between two kinds of racism:

• Overt racism is when people or the media openly speaks or addresses any “racist polict or view”
• Inferential racism is that factual or fictional representation embedded within the plot of and media form. This is often seen in television programs and movies where ethnic stereotypes such as the obedient/sly slave/servant, the proud/feral native and the clown/entertainer is still alive and kicking.

Inferential racism is especially relevant to his earlier theories as a great example of inferential racism is how media creates representation and "truths" about our world. If we do not have any representing e.g. a specific race, gender or sexuality in our everyday lives, the media fills the vacuum with stories about how the world works. So when a game is criticized as being racist, and the designers specify that they did not see how their content could be racist, it's a case of intention phallacy.

Case Study

Very little gay content can be found in games. Often it’s coincidental, restricted or ridiculed. Coincidental gay content is in a game because the source code does not distinguish between males and females. In the Sims games, it’s possible for the player to let their sims have a relationship with sims of both gender because they all share the same code. Restricted content seems to allow a certain amount of gay content, as long as it appeals to the average player. In Mass Effect it’s only possible for a female, gay character to have a sexual relationship with an npc. A gay male character can flirt with other male npcs, but cannot have sex with these npcs. Finally, ridiculed content uses gay content in a way that makes a situation/character/thing seem funny. In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the police officers in San Fierro will say various things one would expect from a comical homosexual. There is also both a clearly gay employee working at the counter of an athletic apparel store who makes flirty comments towards the protagonist, CJ.

Another example of homoerotic ridicule can be found in the Japanese game Cho Aniki, which translates to “shit game”. Here players can battle giant men with artificial wombs, shooting penises and sperm-like substances after the player. The game is centered on the two main characters, the cape-wearing, muscular hero Idaten and sexy, blue-haired, busty maiden Benten. They are accompanied by two brothers Adon and Samson, both huge muscle men with a hole on their head that can shoot laser beams. The game uses homoerotic content such as phallic symbolism, suggestive poses involving several men and fight moves representing sexual acts, all pictured in a bizarre and silly way. But most of the sexual ridicule and silliness happens outside of the two main characters. Here, Cho Aniki becomes an example of use of racial differences in games as well. It is the side characters Adon and Samson that with their large smiles and exaggerated bodies and behaviors take on the roles of the goofy helper, very similar to the stereotypical “slave” character. Adon and Samson distinguish themselves from the main characters by being dark skinned and “alien” (They both have a hole in their head). They are not made so that the player can project himself into them; they are there for the laughs and can be subjected to homoerotic ridicule without any problems.

 

 

While gay and black clichés, stereotypes, and stock characters are deployed by videogames with benign aims, they generally perpetuate ideologies of heteronormativity and racism. The only alternative seems worse: the absence of discussion surrounding homosexuality and race.

 
With BioWare's strongly customizable protagonist, all of a sudden a new mode of communication must be accounted for. If one wants to play Dragon Age 2, one can do so with any fictionally represented skin color, sexuality and as either male or female. In March of 2011, a self-proclaimed speaker for the "straight male gamer" chided BioWare for "Forgetting their main demographic." He explained that Anders, a male mage in DA2, openly suggested that he and the player's male avatar become romantically involved. Obviously upset at having to assert his virtual-life (and most likely real-life) sexuality in his recreational time, the poster told BioWare that because more straight men played their game, they should be catered to. Lead designer David Gaider gave him a lesson on the evils of male privilege and in his politest words told him to fuck off. While one might consider that this is progress for gay rights in games, there are other, less scandalous, but equally problematic events that result from inclusivity on a tight budget. BioWare, it would seem, codes and constructs a story for a sexy white male, and as an afterthought allows players to skin the sexy white male polygons as they please. If one choses to make their character black, one must come to terms with the fact that the story presents you with a white sister, a white uncle and a white mother, without explaining why you are obviously unrelated by blood. Besides having to deal with the cognitive dissonance produced by the fiction, its presentation is also problematic.

An example of poor lighting when playing as a dark-skinned character i Mass Effect

Simply put, the game is lit for a white character and often one will only be able to see the whites of their protagonist’s eyes. Finally, if one choses to play as a female, one must contend with the fact that during sex scenes the protagonist’s body will grow to meet the motion captured animations of a male having sex. This means suddenly becoming taller and wider, but also behaving as BioWare imagined a male would behave during sex. So while feminine gendered clichés are gone, we now have to contend with the problems of simply inserting different races and genders into the roles of white men and watching them behave as such.


Today's readings

• Hall, “The Whites of Their Eyes” 
• Leonard, “Virtual Gangstas, Coming to a Suburban House Near You” 
• Shaw, “Putting the Gay in Games”

Game Culture 7: Gender and Gaming II

We continue last weeks gender discussion, this time in a game-related perspective. In the 90s, the digital game market saw the first wave of gender specific games. The pink games were directed to young girls, in the hope of making them more interested in technology, but as no data existed with regards to what these girls actually liked, the resulting titles were heavily influenced by a stereotypical view of young girls. These games included titles from Purple Moon franchise and Barbie games had good sales, usually from parents or grandparents that finally could buy "proper" girl games for their kids. The games were met with a lot of critique, sparking a discussion as to whether the games were what the young girls really wanted, or if the games made the girls into what it wanted them to be.
Today, a second wave of game designing for young girls is moving away from the pink games stereotypes, to a more nuanced game design.

Nick Yee
Yee talks about how women do want to play, but they are hindered by physical and social barriers. It's e.g. hard to escape the label og being "the girlfriend of..", when women are introduced by their husbands/boyfriends.
What's interesting with this claim is that one should look at the expectations the games set up for their players for ideal gameplay. Time is of the essence, and if you don't have the time to play a game as it should, because you are responsible for a large part of labour in the home, you cannot play the game properly along with the other players.

Hollin Lin
Lin takes the point of Yee further, and discusses how the physical barriers, or the game space characteristics produce gender specified differences in gaming experience. Female's physical space simply prevents them for gaining access to a computer/console.
It doesn't matter that you might like games, if you are never introduced to them, it's quite hard to get started. As kids, few girls are introduced to gaming by their parents or older siblings. Either the home simply does not have access to a gaming device, or the girl is excluded from playing with e.g. elder brothers. As the girl gets older, the activity of playing digital games are viewed as not-fitting (Just try walking into a cyber café, if you are a girl that is. Is the reaction from the other café-goers different than if you were a boy?). A girl should get our there, be social, party and shop. Not sit in a LAN room with 30 other guys, eating cheetos and drinking mountain dew.

Case study
Three questions were discussed during the course's presentation.

Age vs. Gender! Would a game succeed more if marketed to age instead of gender?
Granted, people do have a lot in common within their age group. But there's also a bunch of people, the same age, that have nothing in common. The age normalization would be just as discriminating as the gender normalization, as age is treated differently one culture to another. People, regardless of gender, are individuals, and while there is a lot of influence from the people surrounding them, making them more inclined to like the same as their peers, I fail to see how that would make a person not like something that he/she finds amusing. Games are fun! How would you deny having fun and then refuse to seek out that sensation again?

Are you really a female! How to normalize the female gamer?
Why do we need to normalize the female gamer, when the male gamer have not been normalized? The preferences of a female gamer is, in my opinion, just as diverse as the male gamer. Looking at gender in game design seems fruitless, and I'd rather look at player's type than their gender.

Equal Playground… Is it really impossible to design a gender neutral play space?
No. I think the new generation will see a lot more female gamers as parents from a gaming generation involve both their sons and daughters to play with them. But as a female gamer I might be biased here. I think it all comes down to what you know and remember from your childhood as a parent. My father played digital games, but was unsecure about involving me and my sister, as he didn't know the working of little girls and how they should behave. My mother didn't play, and she certainly knew how a little girl functions, so she encouraged us to do what she did as a kid, which did not involve playing digital games. So when I say that the new generation of gamers will include both gender, it is because both their parents have played digital games.

Game Culture 06: Gender & Gaming I

There's a lot of research on gender in and around games. Most of it is based on a very broad theoretical framework, where the definitions of gender is not really specified. This lecture tries to introduce some gender theories, but it won't be applied to games until lecture 07.

First and foremost we distinguish between sex and gender in the way that sex is your physiological state (Do you have a vagina) and gender as an identity created by cultural influences. I'm not saying that gender is created by culture, but it is influenced by it (As conceptions of feminism and masculinity changes from one country to another). Also, I'm not going into transsexualism or the related areas of that, as that is simply way to big. For now, we will look at masculinity and femininity only.

There are different ways to look at gender:

• Gender assignment (Birth gender)
• Gender Identity (What do I feel I am)
• Gender roles (How do I need to function so society will see me as a specific gender)
• Gender attribution (The evaluation of signs and practices when we look at someone and determines the gender of that person)

In all of these, there are a myriad of signs, symbols and behavioral patterns, such as physical, behavioural, textual (names), mythos (archetypes), communication practices, sexual orientation, biological attributes, leisure choices, work choices, domestic arrangements and so on. What's important to notice is that gender is dependent on interrelations. You cannot talk about masculinity without talking about femininity.

So how is gender enforced? West & Zimmerman states that gender is something so natural and automatic, that we do not think about it in everyday life. And since it is something that is so natural to us, not displaying gender-correct behavior makes society, react and correct. You are constantly being held accountable for your gender behavior, and as we are constantly being watched, we learn to discipline ourselves so that we still act gender-accordingly when alone. You simply cannot avoid "doing gender".

Pascoe divides masculinity into different forms:

• Hegemonic masculinity (The stereotypical, dominating male)
• Complicit masculinity
• Subordinated masculinity
• Marginalized masculinity

While there are different types of masculinity, Pascoe argues that all kinds holds a benefit that he calls the patriarchal dividend. This benefit is the reason that men are in a higher position than females. This statement is countered by Connel who explains that there are benefits and costs within both genders. And that these cannot be easily compared.

Today's readings

• West & Zimmerman, “Doing Gender”
• Hargreaves, “Femininity or ‘Musculinity’: Changing Images of Female Sports”
• Connell, “Rethinking Hegemonic Masculinity”
• Pascoe, “Making Masculinity”