Sunday, 24 November 2013
Friday, 22 November 2013
The Independent Games Developers Association (TIGA)
UK VIDEO GAMES INDUSTRY
The UK video games industry is the largest in Europe and the UK is a world class location for video game development. The UK boasts a substantial and highly qualified talent pool, some of the finest video games studios globally, technical as well as creative excellence, an ongoing ability to generate products that sell well globally and to create original video games IP. The UK is home to the studios that have developed video games such as Grand Theft Auto IV (the fastest selling entertainment product of all time), Runescape, the Fable series, Broken Sword and LittleBigPlanet.
The video game sector offers opportunities for growth and high value, high technology job creation for the UK. Estimates from PWC suggest that the global market for video games will grow from $52.5 billion in 2009 to $86.8 billion in 2014. TIGA's ambition is to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business and so enable the UK games industry and the UK economy to secure a growing share of this huge market.
The UK games development sector contributes approximately £1 billion to UK Gross Domestic Product per annum.
The UK games industry employs over 9,000 highly skilled development staff, 80 per cent of whom are employed outside of London. 80 per cent of the workforce in game studios such as Climax, Jagex, Kuju Entertainment, Rebellion and Ubisoft Reflections are qualified to degree level or above.
The UK game development sector is R&D intensive. Two fifths of UK game developers have a budget dedicated to R&D. UK game developers spend on average 20 per cent of turnover on R&D.
UK game developers are export focused. 95 per cent of UK game businesses export at least some of their games/services to overseas markets.
The video games sector is also low carbon in output. Most of the work in games development involves design on computers, the packaging in games is minimal and box products are relatively light to manufacture and to transport. In the future, video games will become even more low carbon in nature as the industry moves towards digital distribution.
The Independent Games Developers Association, 2014. UK Video Games Industry. [online] Available at: <http://www.tiga.org/about-us-and-uk-games/uk-video-games-industry> [Accessed 9 January 2014]
The UK video games industry is the largest in Europe and the UK is a world class location for video game development. The UK boasts a substantial and highly qualified talent pool, some of the finest video games studios globally, technical as well as creative excellence, an ongoing ability to generate products that sell well globally and to create original video games IP. The UK is home to the studios that have developed video games such as Grand Theft Auto IV (the fastest selling entertainment product of all time), Runescape, the Fable series, Broken Sword and LittleBigPlanet.
The video game sector offers opportunities for growth and high value, high technology job creation for the UK. Estimates from PWC suggest that the global market for video games will grow from $52.5 billion in 2009 to $86.8 billion in 2014. TIGA's ambition is to make the UK the best place in the world to do games business and so enable the UK games industry and the UK economy to secure a growing share of this huge market.
The UK games development sector contributes approximately £1 billion to UK Gross Domestic Product per annum.
The UK games industry employs over 9,000 highly skilled development staff, 80 per cent of whom are employed outside of London. 80 per cent of the workforce in game studios such as Climax, Jagex, Kuju Entertainment, Rebellion and Ubisoft Reflections are qualified to degree level or above.
The UK game development sector is R&D intensive. Two fifths of UK game developers have a budget dedicated to R&D. UK game developers spend on average 20 per cent of turnover on R&D.
UK game developers are export focused. 95 per cent of UK game businesses export at least some of their games/services to overseas markets.
The video games sector is also low carbon in output. Most of the work in games development involves design on computers, the packaging in games is minimal and box products are relatively light to manufacture and to transport. In the future, video games will become even more low carbon in nature as the industry moves towards digital distribution.
The Independent Games Developers Association, 2014. UK Video Games Industry. [online] Available at: <http://www.tiga.org/about-us-and-uk-games/uk-video-games-industry> [Accessed 9 January 2014]
Wednesday, 20 November 2013
Inclusion: What Jennifer Hepler's Story is all About
Gather around, boys and girls, and let me tell you a familiar story. It’s about a person who works in the game industry, who said some things about games five years ago. Then a week ago, some gamers took screenshots of those things and photoshopped them next to a picture of that person, a nickname that drew negative attention to the person’s physical appearance, some completely unrelated quotations (made to appear attributed to the person) and added a list of descriptive words: “CANCER INFECTION BLIGHT VERMIN DISEASE SEWAGE PLAGUE WASTE.” Then they put it up on Reddit, in post calling the person “the cancer that is killing Bioware.” Upvotes and downvotes were voted, gamer rage was raged, and eventually moderators on r/gaming deleted the post entirely because that person from the game industry had started getting harassing calls on her home phone.
Shortly afterward this Jennifer Hepler launched a twitter account tied with her professional identity and was immediately accosted by requests that she commit suicide; imprecations that verbally reduced her to her genitalia and implied low intelligence and lack of subjectively appealing physical qualities; and accusations of forcing gay characters “down gamer’s [sic] throats,” moreover, accusations that she had a “fetish” for such characters and relationships.
Oh, did I not mention that this person who works in the gaming industry is female? That’s because I don’t want this post to be about gamers hating women. Do I think the fact that Hepler is female made some of the vitriol leveled at her more vitriolic than it would have been otherwise? …Possibly. Do I think that there were misogynist aspects to the specific words that were chosen to be used against her? Absolutely. But I think what this is actually about is some gamers violently reacting to a perceived scapegoat that they can blame for a trend in games towards a greater measure of inclusivity, a topic that is related in a number of ways to the acceptance of women into gaming, both as fans and creators.
First, lets take a look at what Hepler actually said, in 2006, in an interview about her job in general and also her work on the upcoming title Dragon Age: Origins, Bioware’s new tactical RPG in the fantasy genre and the first video game that Hepler had ever worked on (she’d done work in television and tabletop games before). Here’s the only quote from the original enraging image posted that can actually be found, sourced, and credited to Hepler. I’m going to display it in its original context, with the clarifying positions Hepler made that were excised from the original image. The paragraphs that were in the image will be in italics.
What is your least favorite thing about working in the industry?Playing the games. This is probably a terrible thing to admit, but it has definitely been the single most difficult thing for me. I came into the job out of a love of writing, not a love of playing games. While I enjoy the interactive aspects of gaming, if a game doesn’t have a good story, it’s very hard for me to get interested in playing it. Similarly, I’m really terrible at so many things which most games use incessantly — I have awful hand-eye coordination, I don’t like tactics, I don’t like fighting, I don’t like keeping track of inventory, and I can’t read a game map to save my life. This makes it very difficult for me to play to the myriad games I really should be keeping up on as our competition.And with a baby on the way in a few months, my minimal free time (which makes it impossible for me to finish a big RPG in less than six months already), will disappear entirely. If there was a fast-forward feature on games which would let me easily review the writing and stories and skip the features that I find more frustrating than fun, I’d find it much easier to keep abreast of what’s happening in the field.If you could tell developers of games to make sure to put one thing in games to appeal to a broader audience which includes women, what would that one thing be?A fast-forward button. Games almost always include a way to “button through” dialogue without paying attention, because they understand that some players don’t enjoy listening to dialogue and they don’t want to stop their fun. Yet they persist in practically coming into your living room and forcing you to play through the combats even if you’re a player who only enjoys the dialogue. In a game with sufficient story to be interesting without the fighting, there is no reason on earth that you can’t have a little button at the corner of the screen that you can click to skip to the end of the fighting.Companies have a lot of objections, such as how to calculate loot and experience points for a player who doesn’t actually play the combats, but these could be easily addressed by simply figuring out an average or minimum amount of experience for every fight and awarding that.The biggest objection is usually that skipping the fight scenes would make the game so much shorter, but to me, that’s the biggest perk. If you’re a woman, especially a mother, with dinner to prepare, kids’ homework to help with, and a lot of other demands on your time, you don’t need a game to be 100 hours long to hold your interest — especially if those 100 hours are primarily doing things you don’t enjoy. A fast forward button would give all players — not just women — the same options that we have with books or DVDs — to skim past the parts we don’t like and savor the ones we do. Over and over, women complain that they don’t like violence, or they don’t enjoy difficult and vertigo-inducing gameplay, yet this simple feature hasn’t been tried on any game I know of.Granted, many games would have very little left if you removed the combat, but for a game like Deus Ex or Bioware’s RPGs, you could take out every shred of combat and still have an entertainment experience that rivals anything you’d see in the theater or on TV.
Wow, you say, that’s pretty nuts. A person who works in the game industry who doesn’t like playing games? I mean, what is there in a game besides combat? Well, in the case of titles like Bioware’s Dragon Age and Mass Effect, there’s dialogue and character interaction. A ton of it. They’re considered to be a part of the RPG genre, which means you’re playing a role… and you’re given opportunities to play that role in dense social interactions, as well as in real-time or strategy combat situations. Hepler actually talks about this elsewhere in the interview: she complains that one of the frequent responses to her work on games is skepticism, mostly from those unfamiliar with modern games, that games even need writers in the first place.
So, Hepler is one person, on a team of writers, which is partnered up with teams of developers, visual designers, and programmers and more in order to make a game. She herself downplays the effects that her thoughts have on the game she’s working on in the same interview. Her viewpoint (that of the non-hardcore gamer) is valued but not always shared by the diverse group working on the game: “I’ve been lucky that the design department here seems to appreciate that input…whether or not they end up acting on it.”
Lets take another look at something Hepler said in the interview:
I think that the biggest detriment to more varieties of games being made which appeal to women and casual gamers, is simply the fact that people who don’t love games don’t become game designers. A game company tends to be filled with people whose best memories come from the games they played, who spend all their time swapping war stories with other gamers, and it’s not too surprising that they end up wanting to make games that recapture those experiences. A lot of ground has been broken in other media when someone who is dissatisfied with his existing choices decides to try something new (Samuel Beckett comes to mind, as the self-professed playwright who hated drama).I think as games become more mainstream, more people of more varied tastes will join the field, and that will include women. I think right now, though, the biggest hurdle from the point of view of the companies is how to reach women once you have a product they would like. Most women, certainly all women who aren’t active gamers, can’t be targeted by the typical ads in game magazines or on gaming websites. It’s much, much harder to tell someone who doesn’t yet knowthat they want your product to go out and buy it, than to convince someone who is already looking for his next gaming fix that yours will be the best.Again, I really believe Bioware’s Jade Empire would be a fantastic first RPG experience for most women, but I doubt many even saw it who weren’t already fans. And because of this, Bioware is unlikely to produce any games that streamlined again, since their more hardcore audience didn’t like the lack of inventory, easy combat and other features which made it so newcomer-friendly. I really believe that there is a large group of women who enjoy other genre products (from fantasy romance novels, to anime, to the Lord of the Rings movies), who would enjoy an interactive RPG story with some of the more logistical challenges removed, but I honestly don’t know how to let them know it’s out there.
These last two paragraphs? They’re what a lot of people have been saying to the comic book industry when it shows reluctance to move out of its familiar demographic. Lets do some word swapping:
The biggest hurdle from the point of view of the companies is how to reach women once you have a product they would like. Most women, certainly all women who aren’t active comics readers, can’t be targeted by the typical ads in comics or on comics websites. It’s much, much harder to tell someone who doesn’t yet know that they want your product to go out and buy it, than to convince someone who is already looking for his next comic fix that yours will be the best.
But interesting commentary on artistic mediums that mainstream society has decided are not gender neutral aside, lets get back to the rage.
So what is this about? It’s about some gamers who are intimidated by the idea of the story told by a game being more accesible to every player, removing some of the prestige that comes with playing a game to completion. A prestige that is manufactured by gaming culture in the same way that sports culture awards prestige for, say, supporting a winning team. Which is not to denigrate such kinds of artificial prestige, but rather to say that they are made of what the culture makes them of, nothing more. The option to play in a less technically difficult way does not actually denigrate the efforts of others to play in a more technically difficult way.
And those who are intimidated by the idea that games are becoming more inclusive in their technical requirements of the player are responding to a trend. A trend that makes gaming more inclusive, which has the beneficial effect of mainstreaming gaming and makes steps towards removing its stigmatized nature. As gamer luminary Jerry Holkins said only this morning:
Most enthusiast gamers “get” Angry Birds almost immediately, and move on. For those outside our order – that is to say, the vast majority of bipedal sentients – the ubiquitous Angry Birds is one of the first opportunities to understand what their children are always on about re: vijamagames. It’s ridiculously easy to get and subsequently play, made so by the fact that even my grandparents carry around portable touchscreen computers with perpetual access to the dataverse. This is something even a life ass-deep in science fiction did not prepare me for.These games also introduce these neophytes to the concept of downloadable content, free and paid, which only feeds the demon furnace of their addiction. They don’t know they’re on something “soft,” they aren’t aware that they’re at the bottom of the roller coaster. They’re just doing something fun, at a chronojuncture where “something fun” often has a digital component.It was weird! Playing videogames used to be weird. There was a point where spending your time in this way had strictly Morlock connotations. My mom used to worry about what she called my “spirit man,” my spirit man, simply because I kept my curtains closed for weeks at a time in an effort to maintain proper monitor contrast! Maybe it was more the isolation and esoteric knowledge requirements of early gaming that brought with them the attendant subterranean cache, as opposed to the strict form. And now, with a game on a phone, you could conceivably play it anywhere. You aren’t limited exclusively to the bulbous cap of some deep mushroom.
This intimidation in regards to inclusion (of easier play modes, setting aside the inclusion of characters who are something other than the majority demographic) is the same sort of thing that Patton Oswalt was talking about when he railed on geekdom becoming mainstream. It’s the hipstery fear that if others can like what you like than you’re not as special a snowflake as before, except with the added gamer claim that you’re a special snowflake because you completed a challenge. Well, allowing others to bypass that challenge to play the parts that they like isn’t doesn’t actually make completing the challenge less enjoyable… unless what you actually enjoy is bragging rights and not the experience itself.
So, it does not actually surprise me that some people took Hepler’s five-year-old statements made while she was a single writer in a massive video game production as a threat to their idea of what the gaming industry should be like. And it would not surprise me if the fact that she was a woman exacerbated the response, thought, as I said before, not what I want this post to be about.
As for the harassment, Jim Sterling, who I admittedly have excoriated before, has something relevant to say:
This is the kind of behavior that justifies the FOX News stereotype of the basement dwelling, antisocial nerd. This is the kind of behavior that makes the Spike VGAs look like the perfect gamer show — because it’s crass, immature, and it sports the emotional depth of a wet paper towel. That’s how gamers look when something like this happens.
Inclusion! It’ll get everybody to stop believing that games are only for basement dwelling, antisocial nerds! Just as soon as we can some of the people who play them to stop acting like basement dwelling, antisocial nerds!
The Mary Sue, 2012. Inclusion: What Jennifer Hepler's Story is all About. [online] Available at: <http://www.themarysue.com/inclusion-what-jennifer-heplers-story-is-all-about/> [Accessed 9 January 2014]
When Passions Flare, Lines Are Crossed [UPDATED]
by Patrick Klepek on
One player's heated rhetoric about sexual harassment in the fighting community causes a furious debate, one that has Capcom apologizing.
UPDATE: Bakhtanians has issued a statement in the wake of today's coverage. Read it here.
--
“This is a community that’s, you know, 15 or 20-years-old and the sexual harassment is part of a culture,” said competitive fighting game player Aris "Aris" Bakhtanians on a recent live stream for Capcom's Cross Assault show, “and if you remove that from the fighting game community, it’s not the fighting game community.”
Capcom has since apologized for comments made during a conversation on sexual harassment in the fighting game community, which that quote was pulled from. It was a discussion focused on Bakhtanians, and took place during a recent episode of the company’s Cross Assault reality show. It’s part of a promotion for Street Fighter X Tekken.
Cross Assault started with 10 contestants divided into two teams, Team Tekken and Team Street Fighter. The final four contestants will be determined today, and the last matches begin March 3.
A reader initially pointed out the inflammatory commentary, which took place during day five.
Bakhtanians is the head of Team Tekken, and was engaged in a conversation that chiefly involved Twitch.tv community manager Jared Rea. Twitch.tv is hosting the daily streaming of the day-long Cross Assault episodes.
“The views and opinions expressed by cast members in the live internet program 'Cross Assault' do not reflect those of Capcom,” said a Capcom spokesperson in a statement issued to me last night. “As a company, Capcom believes that everyone should be treated with respect. This particular issue was brought to our attention and has been addressed. We sincerely apologize to anyone that was offended by any comments expressed during the show.”
You can listen to the conversation by fast forwarding to one hour and 45 minutes into the following video.A user on YouTube also collected a series of comments made by Bakhtanians on day one.
For example: "Miranda, I wanna know your bra size.
Tensions were immediately raised over Rea's suggestion the fighting game community, once insular and limited but now steadily growing year-over-year, was potentially alienating outsiders from becoming fans of fighting games or the competitive scene because of inappropriate sexual language. Bakhtanians took issue with Rea's criticism.
Here’s a lengthy transcript of their exchange:
Rea: You know what it is, to be honest with you? We’re getting older. Do you really want to keep hanging around with a bunch of [guys in their] early 20s who don’t know how to treat one another with respect? That’s what it is.
Bakhtanians: Alright, man. The thing is...if you don’t like the scene, how it is right now, it just seems like you’re trying to create...turn it into something that it’s not, and it’s never going to be. You know what I mean?
Rea: That’s really unfortunate [inaudible]...the way it is right now, they want to enjoy fighting games, but they’re so incredibly turned off by [the language].
Bakhtanians: This doesn’t involve me, Jared, I don’t know if you can hear me--this is Aris. This doesn’t really involve me, but if you don’t like onions, you get your sandwich without onions, man. I mean, this is the fighting game community.
Rea: Can I get my Street Fighter without sexual harassment?
Bakhtanians: You can’t. You can’t because they’re one and the same thing. This is a community that’s, you know, 15 or 20 years old, and the sexual harassment is part of a culture, and if you remove that from the fighting game community, it’s not the fighting game community--it’s StarCraft. There’s nothing wrong with StarCraft if you enjoy it, and there’s nothing wrong with anything about eSports, but why would you want just one flavor of ice cream, you know? There’s eSports for people who like eSports, and there’s fighting games for people who like spicy food and like to have fun. There’s no reason to turn them into the same thing, you know?
You can’t go to the NBA and say “hey, I like basketball, but I don’t want them to play with a basketball, I want them to play with a football.” It just doesn’t...it doesn’t make sense to have that attitude, you know? These things are established for years. That would be like someone from the fighting game community going over to StarCraft and trying to say “hey, StarCraft, you guys are too soft, let’s start making sexual harassment jokes to each other on StarCraft.” That’s not cool, people wouldn’t like that. StarCraft isn’t like that. People would get defensive, and that’s what you’re trying to do the fighting game community, and it’s not right. It’s ethically wrong.
I know that you’re thinking “what do you know about ethics? You say racial stuff and sexist stuff.” But those are jokes and if you were really a member of the fighting game community, you would know that. You would know that these are jokes.
Rea: So, ensuring that we alienate any and all female viewers...that’s the ethical thing to do?
Bakhtanians: Well, you know, there are layers here, if you think about this. There are layers of ethics. There are people who are racist and commit hate crimes, right? And then there are people who are racist but they have tons of friends of all colors and they have deep love for those friends. Do you think those people are one and the same? Absolutely not.
StarCraft was brought up several times during the discussion of fighting games role in the larger eSports movement, specifically in regards to what lessons the community should and should not learn from its popularity.
I reached out to Bakhtanians to discuss his comments on Cross Assault, but he didn't respond.
When I contacted Capcom, I included a transcript of the relevant conversation. The company told me the cast and crew had been informed that “any inappropriate or disrespectful comments will not be tolerated during filming.”
Upon receiving the statement from Capcom, I forwarded it in full to Bakhtanians. No response.
And there is one very important fact about this whole story: Cross Assault is not a male-only event. There are two females: Team Street Fighter’s Sherry “Sherryjenix” Nhan and Team Tekken’s Miranda “Super_Yan” Pakozdi.
During the exchange, as matches raged in the background, Pakozdi chimed in about Bakhtanians’ explanation for the pervasiveness of inappropriate sexual language within fighting game culture.
“It hurts the community,” she said.
Everyone in the stream made reference to Keystone events at the San Jose Bar & Grill in San Jose, California, a spot that’s reportedly known for its more crass comments about during play. Pakozdi acknowledged it was an issue during Keystone events, but that it never went, from her perspective, over the line.
“You don’t know where the line is,” she declared.
“My point is is where I’m from, in our arcade, our line may be different than yours,” responded Bakhtanians, “but the point is that fighting games are never gonna be the same as StarCraft, it’s never gonna be the same. You can’t turn basketball into baseball, no matter what you do.”
Rea said sexual harassment was less of an issue in the StarCraft community, a point that others, including Bakhtanians, pushed back on. He conceded. Regardless, he argued, private matches can’t be controlled, but the actions of the participants and audience members raised the real concern.
Again, here’s a snippet:
Rea: When I go to MSL or MLG and someone blows up a ghost [Starcraft], does someone go “Yeah, rape that bitch!”?
[group laughter]
Bakhtanians: But, you know, Jared, you’re right. But if there was that much money being spent on Street Fighter, it wouldn’t be happening here, either, you know. There would be more rules, there would be security here, it’s not the same thing. It’s not the same thing.
Rea: When I go to SoCal regionals and I see a Phoenix [from Marvel vs. Capcom 3] on main stage getting blown up and there’s some dude in the audience just yelling “Bitch! Bitch!” every time she gets hit and then she killed and goes “Yeah, rape that bitch!” Yeah, that’s totally acceptable! Really? Really? You’re going to tell me that’s acceptable?
Bakhtanians: Look, man. What is unacceptable about that? There’s nothing unacceptable about that. These are people, we’re in America, man, this isn’t North Korea. We can say what we want. People get emotional.
There was some light discussion after this, but it mostly trailed off.
Pakozdi, who was assigned to work with Bakhtanians as part of Team Tekken, did not simply blow things off. Like many people, she signed onto Twitter and expressed disappointment over the day’s events. She eventually deleted much of her commentary, but it was captured by the same reader who tipped me off to this in the first place.
“I hope my mom isn’t disappointed with all of this shit,” reads one tweet.
“Capcom and the stream teams know and they don’t care. I just gotta wait 2 more days,” reads another.
“I’m not leaving because by contract I have to stay here 2 more days. If it were up to me I would have left long ago," she said.
I reached out to Pakozdi, but she did not respond.
Day six of Cross Assault took place yesterday. Pakozdi played, but if you start watching around eight hours and 32 minutes into the stream, where she's playing asBalrog, she doesn't even attack. She just pushes forward on the stick. This continues in the next matches, where she plays as Kenusing the same "strategy."
Essentially, she's given up.
Per the rules of the show, she would then have to face off against John "Dr. Sub-Zero" Rockafeller, who was already eliminated. If he beat her in three out of five matches, he would be "revived."
Instead, she forfeited. Moments after she bowed out, Rockafeller looked over and handed his prizes over to her.
“I would like to donate everything to Super_Yan for being an angel,” he said.
Bakhtanians also contributes the website Avoiding the Puddle and the site’s associated Twitter account.
“esports,” he wrote last night.
Previously, however, he did have his own personal Twitter account. What’s listed in his bio?
“Fuck you.”
Giant Bomb, 2012. When Passions Flare, Lines are Crossed [Updated] . [online] Available at: <http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/when-passions-flare-lines-are-crossed-updated/1100-4006/> [Accessed 9 January 2014].
From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Chapter 9
An Interview with Lee McEnany Caraher (sega)
'I think a good game is a good game. It's like a ride at Disneyland. A good ride is a good ride, and boys and girls and men and women can go on it.' (p194)
'As more girls are exposed to video games, more girls will be in the video game business. They will go into our business because they like it. And they'll become developers. Male or female, a talent is a talent, regardless. Another point of view is another point of view, regardless. But just because it's developed by women for girls does not mean it's good. Just because women want to do it doesn't mean they know how, doesn't mean they're going to come up with games that are going to be appealing to girls.' (p195)
'Q. Why don't you market for girls? A: It's expensive. We're not a company that has tons and tons of cash. So we don't necessarily take all the risk we should, I think. At one time, there was a girls' task force here. It's not here any more. But we made games that were specifically for girls -"Crystal's Pony Tale" (see plate 16), for example - and they sold just as well to the boys as they did to the girls.' (p197)
'Q: Would you make a distinction between girls' play and boys' play? A: The true core-girl-gamer probably does not play as much as as the true core-male-player. The true male gamer is playing three to five hours a day, which we don't necessarily advocate, but some of these guys are doing that much or more. The girl game-player is probably playing two to three hours a day. We would take the position that we have to expose more women and girls to the market.' (p197)
McEnany, L., 2000. An Interview with Lee McEnany (Sega). In: J. Cassell. H. Jenkins, ed. 2000. From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games. Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp.192-212.
'I think a good game is a good game. It's like a ride at Disneyland. A good ride is a good ride, and boys and girls and men and women can go on it.' (p194)
'As more girls are exposed to video games, more girls will be in the video game business. They will go into our business because they like it. And they'll become developers. Male or female, a talent is a talent, regardless. Another point of view is another point of view, regardless. But just because it's developed by women for girls does not mean it's good. Just because women want to do it doesn't mean they know how, doesn't mean they're going to come up with games that are going to be appealing to girls.' (p195)
'Q. Why don't you market for girls? A: It's expensive. We're not a company that has tons and tons of cash. So we don't necessarily take all the risk we should, I think. At one time, there was a girls' task force here. It's not here any more. But we made games that were specifically for girls -"Crystal's Pony Tale" (see plate 16), for example - and they sold just as well to the boys as they did to the girls.' (p197)
'Q: Would you make a distinction between girls' play and boys' play? A: The true core-girl-gamer probably does not play as much as as the true core-male-player. The true male gamer is playing three to five hours a day, which we don't necessarily advocate, but some of these guys are doing that much or more. The girl game-player is probably playing two to three hours a day. We would take the position that we have to expose more women and girls to the market.' (p197)
McEnany, L., 2000. An Interview with Lee McEnany (Sega). In: J. Cassell. H. Jenkins, ed. 2000. From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games. Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp.192-212.
From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Chapter 2
Computer Games for Girls: What Makes Them Play? by Kaveri Subrahmanyam and Patricia M. Greenfield
'Not only did young boys play video games more often than girls both at home and in arcades (Dominick 1984; Lin and Lepper 1987; Rushbrook 1986).' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p46)
'Kindergartners of both genders viewed video games as more appropriate to boys (Wilder, Mackie and Cooper 1985)' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p46)
'We also found that very soon into the training session, the boys figured out the intricacies of the games, such as different levels and the strategies appropriate to each' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p47)
'Although anecdotal, our observations were in line with other findings that females are not as interested in video games as males are. In the years since, despite efforts by software developers to attract girls to video games, they have remained largely a male province.' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p47)
'In one survey, Kubey and Larson (1990) found that 80 percent of fame playing among nine to fifteen years olds was done by boys.' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p47)
'Not only did young boys play video games more often than girls both at home and in arcades (Dominick 1984; Lin and Lepper 1987; Rushbrook 1986).' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p46)
'Kindergartners of both genders viewed video games as more appropriate to boys (Wilder, Mackie and Cooper 1985)' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p46)
'We also found that very soon into the training session, the boys figured out the intricacies of the games, such as different levels and the strategies appropriate to each' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p47)
'Although anecdotal, our observations were in line with other findings that females are not as interested in video games as males are. In the years since, despite efforts by software developers to attract girls to video games, they have remained largely a male province.' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p47)
'In one survey, Kubey and Larson (1990) found that 80 percent of fame playing among nine to fifteen years olds was done by boys.' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p47)
The early attempts to make video games appealing to girls have largely consisted of having female protagonists and making the content nonviolent. The gendering of games was furthered by the advertising, promotion and packaging of the games in the ubiquitous pink and purple boxes (Kinder, 1996).' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p48)
About Kafai: 'Her work revealed consistent gender differences in the kinds of games boys and girls create - not only do girls prefer less violence, but they also prefer different kinds of games, game characters and game worlds.' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p48)
'It is widely believed that the violent content of much video game activity is a major factor in turning girls off video games (Malone 1981; Greenfield 1996). While there is considerable awareness that aggressive themes are not appealing to girls, we revisit the issue of aggressive content as a starting point for our analysis.' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p50)
Aggression started in the second generation with "Breakout", which involved destrtuction but no human aggression...The next generation of games, such as "The Empire Strikes Back," involved human aggression, which took on a more fantastic form with "Super Mario Brothers." It became more personal, with hand to hand combat, in games such as Mortal "Kombat."' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p50)
'Research suggests that girls do not find this violence appealing. For instance, Malone (1981) found that girls did not like a video game when an aggressive fantasy theme was added to it compared to the same game without aggression. Other (Kafai 1996; Nancy Deyo, quoted in De Witt 1997) suggest that girls find the violent content of computer games boring. The empirical evidence confirms that boys are more likely to play games requiring aggressive competition (Heller 1982, cited in Morlock et al. 1986; Kiesler et al. 1985; Lin and Lepper 1987). In line with these tastes, Kafai (1996) found gender differences in the games designed by children regarding feedback resulting from a player's action during the game. She reported that the feedback in boys' games was overwhelmingly violent, whereas the feedback in the firls' games was overwhelmingly nonviolent.' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p51)
'We cannot escape the fact that these differences do exist in boys' and girls' play activities and appear relatively early (Goldstein, 1994)' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p52)
Another relevant aspect of game structure is the characters. Commercially available games rarely cast females in the main role, and even when females are present, they rarely take on an active role (Kinder 1996; Provenzo 1991; Rushbrook 1986).' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p59)
'Although the big game manufacturers have always claimed to design games without regard to gender (Frank Evers, personal communication, August 31, 1997) researchers, parents and other groups soon recognised that most commercially available games were "modeled on only one half of the population, at most, reflect the values and views of only one gender" (Cocking and Greenfield 1996, p.5).' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p59)
'They are aggressive and have the physical attributes of a male-defined sex symbol. This is true of the protagonist of "Tomb Raider,"a game that was released in early 1997 and has a mainly male audience.' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p59)
The ultimate challenge facing software developers is to design games that appeal to any gamer, regardless of gender.' (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, p66)
Greenfield, P.M, Subrahmanyam, K., 2000. Computer Games for Girls: What Makes Them Play?. In: J. Cassell. H. Jenkins, ed. 2000. From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games. Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp.46-71.
Tuesday, 19 November 2013
Gender and Video Games: The Political Valency of Lara Croft
Mikula, M. 2003. Gender and Video Games: the political valency of Lara Croft. [Online PDF] Sydney: University of Technology. Available at:<http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/cathlena/enc1131/laracroft.pdf> [19 November 2013]
Monday, 18 November 2013
Female Characters In 2012's Bestselling Games
This is a list of female characters, primary and secondary, who have featured in the USA's top selling games of 2012. It came as no surprise to me that the sports games have no female characters, as they are obviously based on male only/male only versions of sports. It also came as no surprise that most of the games had very few female characters, the exceptions being Borderlands 2 and Mass Effect 3. I want to research further into these games and explore the representations of these characters in more depth.
From Barbie to Mortal Kombat - Chapter 1
Violent games without positive representations of women, on the other hand, continued to dominate the field. Parents and critics began to suggest that if video games are a primary means of socialisation for young boys in our culture, then feminist mothers and fathers needed to be concerned about their content. Some argued that games reaffirmed or reinscribed dominant and patriarchal conceptions of gender roles through their frequent dependence upon rescue plot structures with male heroes and female victims, or more frighteningly, that they foster a culture which sees violence, especially violence directed against women, as acceptable. And given the link between early use of technology and later facility with technology, parents and educators also needed to be concerned about the lack of computer games appealing to girls. (p10)
The problem in the differential attraction to computer games stems from the fact that here, as is often the case, the cultural constructions of gender are not separate from those of power. It is not just that girls seem to like today's computer games less than boys do, but that these differential preferences are associated with differential access to technological fields as the children grow older, and this differential access threatens to worsen as technological literacy increasingly becomes a general precondition for employment. (p10)
Feminism has struggled to break down univocal conceptions of gender and open a space for many ways of being masculine and feminine. The development of girls' games needs to be careful to reflect the diversity of women's lives and to foster acceptance of a range of different feminine styles and identities. Industry insiders, however, note that to do so would necessitate fragmenting an already small, marginalised, and developing market, insisting that such specialisation of interests will be possible only when the girls game industry is more firmly established. (p27)
We might wish to question the very essentialist binary opposition between boys and girls. That is, we might ask in what contexts their play styles with computers differently than boys do, and in what contexts their play styles are similar? How do race and class intersect with gender in explaining differences in play styles? (p27)
Recent feminist inquiry suggests that the behaviour of men and women is often explained in terms of gender differences, regardless of its content, and despite the fact that the same behaviour might be explained in terms of any one of a number of other analytic constructs...That is, when one looks for differences between the sexes, and does not take into account other crosscutting variables, one is likely to find those differences. An alternative position might posit that we "do" gender, and that we do it differently in different contexts. This performative view of gender (in the sense that perform particular gender roles, as described by Butler, 1990) is discussed further...in terms of the issues discussed here, we might analyse computer games in terms of their reproduction of static forms of gender identities, noting that certain computer games allow girls to feel comfortable in their girlhood. Those games fit comfortably into what a girl believes (consciously or unconsciously) is expected of her in order to merit the label "girl". For example, Martin's analysis of how girls play with Barbie (this volume) suggests remarkable similarities in the way that all girls play with Barbie, and the remarkable constancy between how different generations of girls have played with Barbie, as well as remarkable loyalty to ensuring that if one has a Barbie doll, one's daughter should have one too. Such a description leads to the conclusion that Barbie play is a central part of the construction of girlhood. These meanings do not so much arise from the Barbie doll itself as from social norms about the appropriate way to play with Barbie. Martin's analysis of "universal" Barbie play contrasts with Rand's account (1995), which sees the Barbie doll as an object that lends itself particularly well to appropriation, and to a variety of self identifications and types of gendered behaviours. Such an analysis does not deny that there may be empirically observable associations between certain kinds of behaviours and children of a particular gender. We simply question the "single-genderedness" of these associations by asking what other variables are present (race, class, sexual orientation). (p28)
Thus, we might understand the kinds of activities that have been described as "what girls really do" not as neutral or isolated acts but instead as involving the person becoming and acting in the world as part of the construction of a complex identity. (p28)
"Tomb Raider" creator Toby Gard told The Face (as quoted in Whitta 1997): "Lara was designed to be a tough, self-reliant, intelligent woman. She confounds all the sexist cliches apart from the fact that she's got an unbelievable figure. Strong, independent women are the perfect fantasy girls - the untouchable is always the most desirable." Gard sought to balance traits that would make Croft an attractive role model for game-playing girls and a sexually attractive figure for their core male market, a balance not that radically different from the formula that made Xena such a cult success on television. Female gamers have objected, however, to many of the company's efforts to promote the game to male players, including the hiring of a scantily clad female model to impersonate Croft at computer trade shows, or the development of an ad campaign based on the theme "where the boys are" and showing lusty boys abandoning strip clubs in search of Lara (Brown 1997a; Jones 1997; Game Girlz 1997). An underground industry in home developed nude shots of Lara Croft, include a Nude Raider (1997) website, and rumours that someone has developed a hack which allows one to play the game with a totally naked protagonist suggest the dangers in linking female empowerment to images couched in terms of traditional sex appeal (Whitta 1997). (p30)
Arguments explaining male gamers close trans-gender identification with Lara Croft closely parallel Carol Clover's discussions of the "final girl" convention in 1980's slasher films (1992). In both cases, male identification with a female figure allowed a heightened sense of vulnerability or risk that did not endanger conventional conceptions of masculine potency and courage. The result was, in films like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Scream, and in video games like "Tomb Raider", a more thrilling experience for male players. In other words, Clover's analysis might suggest that Lara Croft (the digital equivalent of the "final girl") exists not to empower women but to allow men to experiment with the experience of disempowerment. Interestingly, Clover argued that the androgynous personae of the 1980's slasher heroines (including tomboy traits and gender neutral names in many cases) were a key factor in enabling male fans to overcome their resistance to transgender identification, while the success of "Tomb Raiders" has been linked to the exaggeration of Lara Croft's feminine characteristics. Clover's attempts to explain the appeal of such figures for male horror-film fans, however, may foreclose too quickly the possibility that women may also find such figures sources of indentification (however compromised by male interests and fantasies) within scenarios of empowerment. Increasingly, research into the horror audience suggests strong female participation, and the recent success of the Scream films has been ascribed in part to their popularity with teenage girls. When Jenkins teaches a class in "Horror and the Supernatural" at MIT, female students consistently outnumber men. (p31)
The most powerful challenge to the separatist logic behind the girls' game movement has come from an unlikely corner - organisations of female gamers who have embraced traditional fighting games, especially 'Quake', as a space where they can confront men on their own terrain and literally beat them at their own game...embracing an ethos of empowerment through head on competition, celebrating their pleasure in "fragging" men, these women have formed all-female clans, such as Die Valkyrie, Clan PMS (psycho men slayers) and Crack Whores, to do battle in online 'Quake' tournaments.
In some cases, these groups see themselves as loosely linked to the Riot Grrls, a post feminist, post punk movement that has stressed female empowerment through participation in traditional male spheres ranging from motorcycle racing to punk rock and computer games. (p32)
The Riot Grrls have overtly criticised the victimisation approach taken by many "second wave" feminists, an approach they see as destroying female confidence and fostering the ghettoisation of women. (p33)
Such play with overtly sexualised identities reflects the Riot Grrls' political stance as pro-sex feminists who urge women to claim control over their bodies and who sharply criticise what they see as the repressive morality of anti-porn activists. Other groups embrace amazonian imagery, drawing on a whole tradition of images of women warriors and mythological goddesses. The Crack Whores' website plays with this tradition, running a contest for the best digital transformation of "Quake'"s beefy protagonist into a warrior princess. Although their all female membership might suggest some forms of separitism, these Game Grrls proudly report on their victories over male clans as well as acknowledge their partnerships with the male gamers. (p33)
The "Quake Grrls" movement gives these women, who range in age from their mid teens to their late thirties, a chance to "play with power," to compete aggressively with men and to refuse to accept traditional limitations on female accomplishments. Their unconventional rhetoric playfully flaunts their militarism, yet their ties to traditional feminism remain firm. (p34)
The "Quake Grrls" represent a radically different conception of the girls' market than proffered by girls' game industry insiders, refusing a separatist culture based on feminine interests and fantasies, insisting that women can hold their own in the realm of traditional fighting games and that they may take pleasures precisely in doing things that are not prescribed for women in our culture. The "Quake Grrls" are, on the whole, older than the girls being targeted by the girls' game movement, more self confident, more comfortable with technology, and more mature in their tastes and interests. (p34)
Cassell, J. and Jenkins, H eds., 2000. From Barbie to Mortal Kombat. Massachusetts: MIT Press
The problem in the differential attraction to computer games stems from the fact that here, as is often the case, the cultural constructions of gender are not separate from those of power. It is not just that girls seem to like today's computer games less than boys do, but that these differential preferences are associated with differential access to technological fields as the children grow older, and this differential access threatens to worsen as technological literacy increasingly becomes a general precondition for employment. (p10)
Feminism has struggled to break down univocal conceptions of gender and open a space for many ways of being masculine and feminine. The development of girls' games needs to be careful to reflect the diversity of women's lives and to foster acceptance of a range of different feminine styles and identities. Industry insiders, however, note that to do so would necessitate fragmenting an already small, marginalised, and developing market, insisting that such specialisation of interests will be possible only when the girls game industry is more firmly established. (p27)
We might wish to question the very essentialist binary opposition between boys and girls. That is, we might ask in what contexts their play styles with computers differently than boys do, and in what contexts their play styles are similar? How do race and class intersect with gender in explaining differences in play styles? (p27)
Recent feminist inquiry suggests that the behaviour of men and women is often explained in terms of gender differences, regardless of its content, and despite the fact that the same behaviour might be explained in terms of any one of a number of other analytic constructs...That is, when one looks for differences between the sexes, and does not take into account other crosscutting variables, one is likely to find those differences. An alternative position might posit that we "do" gender, and that we do it differently in different contexts. This performative view of gender (in the sense that perform particular gender roles, as described by Butler, 1990) is discussed further...in terms of the issues discussed here, we might analyse computer games in terms of their reproduction of static forms of gender identities, noting that certain computer games allow girls to feel comfortable in their girlhood. Those games fit comfortably into what a girl believes (consciously or unconsciously) is expected of her in order to merit the label "girl". For example, Martin's analysis of how girls play with Barbie (this volume) suggests remarkable similarities in the way that all girls play with Barbie, and the remarkable constancy between how different generations of girls have played with Barbie, as well as remarkable loyalty to ensuring that if one has a Barbie doll, one's daughter should have one too. Such a description leads to the conclusion that Barbie play is a central part of the construction of girlhood. These meanings do not so much arise from the Barbie doll itself as from social norms about the appropriate way to play with Barbie. Martin's analysis of "universal" Barbie play contrasts with Rand's account (1995), which sees the Barbie doll as an object that lends itself particularly well to appropriation, and to a variety of self identifications and types of gendered behaviours. Such an analysis does not deny that there may be empirically observable associations between certain kinds of behaviours and children of a particular gender. We simply question the "single-genderedness" of these associations by asking what other variables are present (race, class, sexual orientation). (p28)
Thus, we might understand the kinds of activities that have been described as "what girls really do" not as neutral or isolated acts but instead as involving the person becoming and acting in the world as part of the construction of a complex identity. (p28)
"Tomb Raider" creator Toby Gard told The Face (as quoted in Whitta 1997): "Lara was designed to be a tough, self-reliant, intelligent woman. She confounds all the sexist cliches apart from the fact that she's got an unbelievable figure. Strong, independent women are the perfect fantasy girls - the untouchable is always the most desirable." Gard sought to balance traits that would make Croft an attractive role model for game-playing girls and a sexually attractive figure for their core male market, a balance not that radically different from the formula that made Xena such a cult success on television. Female gamers have objected, however, to many of the company's efforts to promote the game to male players, including the hiring of a scantily clad female model to impersonate Croft at computer trade shows, or the development of an ad campaign based on the theme "where the boys are" and showing lusty boys abandoning strip clubs in search of Lara (Brown 1997a; Jones 1997; Game Girlz 1997). An underground industry in home developed nude shots of Lara Croft, include a Nude Raider (1997) website, and rumours that someone has developed a hack which allows one to play the game with a totally naked protagonist suggest the dangers in linking female empowerment to images couched in terms of traditional sex appeal (Whitta 1997). (p30)
Arguments explaining male gamers close trans-gender identification with Lara Croft closely parallel Carol Clover's discussions of the "final girl" convention in 1980's slasher films (1992). In both cases, male identification with a female figure allowed a heightened sense of vulnerability or risk that did not endanger conventional conceptions of masculine potency and courage. The result was, in films like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Scream, and in video games like "Tomb Raider", a more thrilling experience for male players. In other words, Clover's analysis might suggest that Lara Croft (the digital equivalent of the "final girl") exists not to empower women but to allow men to experiment with the experience of disempowerment. Interestingly, Clover argued that the androgynous personae of the 1980's slasher heroines (including tomboy traits and gender neutral names in many cases) were a key factor in enabling male fans to overcome their resistance to transgender identification, while the success of "Tomb Raiders" has been linked to the exaggeration of Lara Croft's feminine characteristics. Clover's attempts to explain the appeal of such figures for male horror-film fans, however, may foreclose too quickly the possibility that women may also find such figures sources of indentification (however compromised by male interests and fantasies) within scenarios of empowerment. Increasingly, research into the horror audience suggests strong female participation, and the recent success of the Scream films has been ascribed in part to their popularity with teenage girls. When Jenkins teaches a class in "Horror and the Supernatural" at MIT, female students consistently outnumber men. (p31)
The most powerful challenge to the separatist logic behind the girls' game movement has come from an unlikely corner - organisations of female gamers who have embraced traditional fighting games, especially 'Quake', as a space where they can confront men on their own terrain and literally beat them at their own game...embracing an ethos of empowerment through head on competition, celebrating their pleasure in "fragging" men, these women have formed all-female clans, such as Die Valkyrie, Clan PMS (psycho men slayers) and Crack Whores, to do battle in online 'Quake' tournaments.
In some cases, these groups see themselves as loosely linked to the Riot Grrls, a post feminist, post punk movement that has stressed female empowerment through participation in traditional male spheres ranging from motorcycle racing to punk rock and computer games. (p32)
The Riot Grrls have overtly criticised the victimisation approach taken by many "second wave" feminists, an approach they see as destroying female confidence and fostering the ghettoisation of women. (p33)
Such play with overtly sexualised identities reflects the Riot Grrls' political stance as pro-sex feminists who urge women to claim control over their bodies and who sharply criticise what they see as the repressive morality of anti-porn activists. Other groups embrace amazonian imagery, drawing on a whole tradition of images of women warriors and mythological goddesses. The Crack Whores' website plays with this tradition, running a contest for the best digital transformation of "Quake'"s beefy protagonist into a warrior princess. Although their all female membership might suggest some forms of separitism, these Game Grrls proudly report on their victories over male clans as well as acknowledge their partnerships with the male gamers. (p33)
The "Quake Grrls" movement gives these women, who range in age from their mid teens to their late thirties, a chance to "play with power," to compete aggressively with men and to refuse to accept traditional limitations on female accomplishments. Their unconventional rhetoric playfully flaunts their militarism, yet their ties to traditional feminism remain firm. (p34)
The "Quake Grrls" represent a radically different conception of the girls' market than proffered by girls' game industry insiders, refusing a separatist culture based on feminine interests and fantasies, insisting that women can hold their own in the realm of traditional fighting games and that they may take pleasures precisely in doing things that are not prescribed for women in our culture. The "Quake Grrls" are, on the whole, older than the girls being targeted by the girls' game movement, more self confident, more comfortable with technology, and more mature in their tastes and interests. (p34)
Cassell, J. and Jenkins, H eds., 2000. From Barbie to Mortal Kombat. Massachusetts: MIT Press
The New Feminism
We have seen that interrogating cultural and sexual behaviour has not led to a thoroughgoing change in the balance of power. Feminism has enunciated many, too many, critiques of dress and pornography, of poetry and filmmaking, of language and physical behaviour. It has sought to direct our personal lives on every level. And yet women have still not achieved fundamental equality; they are still poorer and less powerful than men. Rather than concentrating its energy on the ways women dress and talk and make love, feminism must now attack the material basis of economic and social and political inequality. (Walter, 2010; p4)
It must not be trammelled by a rigid ideology that alienates and divides women who are working for the same end: increased power and equality for women. Feminism is a social movement, like environmental or civil rights movements, that relies on a spreading consensus among diverse people. It is not a self-help or religious movement that relies on good behaviour from its disciples and correct attitudes at all times. (Walter, 2010; p5)
The old myth that about feminists, that they all wear dungarees and are lesbians and socialists, must be buried for good. (Walter, 2010; p5)
However young women dress, however they make love, however they flirt, they can be feminists. (Walter, 2010; p5)
In working for an equal society, men must be women's allies, because unless they take on an equal part of the caring work women cannot hope to go on and on moving into employment and public life. (Walter, 2010; p5)
Walter, N., 2010. The New Feminism. 4th ed. St Ivers: Little, Brown.
It must not be trammelled by a rigid ideology that alienates and divides women who are working for the same end: increased power and equality for women. Feminism is a social movement, like environmental or civil rights movements, that relies on a spreading consensus among diverse people. It is not a self-help or religious movement that relies on good behaviour from its disciples and correct attitudes at all times. (Walter, 2010; p5)
The old myth that about feminists, that they all wear dungarees and are lesbians and socialists, must be buried for good. (Walter, 2010; p5)
However young women dress, however they make love, however they flirt, they can be feminists. (Walter, 2010; p5)
In working for an equal society, men must be women's allies, because unless they take on an equal part of the caring work women cannot hope to go on and on moving into employment and public life. (Walter, 2010; p5)
Walter, N., 2010. The New Feminism. 4th ed. St Ivers: Little, Brown.
Feminist Theory The Intellectual Traditions
Radical Feminism
Radical feminist theory was developed by a group of ex-'movement women' in the late 1960s and early 1970s, primarily in New York and Boston. "Movement women" were those who had participated in the political activities of the civil rights and antiwar campaigns of the 1960s. Much as nineteenth century feminists became aware of their own oppression through the treatment they received from their male cohorts in the abolition movement, so twentieth century radical feminists came to their consciousness in reaction to the contemptuous treatment they received from male radicals in the "New Left". (Donovan, 2012; p139)
Much of the radical feminist theory was therefore forged in reaction against the theories, organisational structures, and personal styles of the male "new Left". (Donovan, 2012; p139)
Radical feminists came to believe that all these issues were interrelated, and that male supremacy and the subjugation of women was indeed the root and model oppression in society and that feminism had to be the basis for any truly revolutionary change. (Donovan, 2012; p139)
Included the idea that the personal is political ; that patriarchy, or male-domination - not capitalism - is at the root of women's oppression; that women should identify themselves as a subjugated class or caste and put their primary energies in a movement with other women to combat their oppressors - men; that men and women are fundamentally different, have different styles and cultures, and that the women's mode must be the basis of any future society. (Donovan, 2012; p140)
"Independence from the Sexual Revolution" (1971) made the important point that women's liberation and sexual liberation were not synonymous. Densmore urges that women not consider sexual freedom the be-all and end-all of liberation. "Spiritual freedom, intellectual freedom, freedom from invasions of privacy and the insults of degrading stereotypes" - these are more important. In fact, so-called sexual liberation is another ploy to keep women subjugated. Sex (and, as other radical feminists urged, love) is sold as a magical experience that is supposed to justify otherwise dreary lives. Instead it functions, as an opiate keeping women from thinking about their overall condition. (Donovan, 2003; p140)
Another important early radical feminist essay was "The Fourth World Manifesto" (1971) by Barbara Burris and others. Burris argues that around the world women form a caste that is "colonized" by male "imperialism". As with all colonized peoples, women's culture has been suppressed. However, Burris insists, women cannot ally themselves with other anti-imperialist movements because they are male dominated. (Donovan, 2003; p142)
Women must therefore organise, as women, in order that their own culture be liberated. Women must "raise the banner of the female principle:. "We are proud of the female culture of emotion, intuition, love, personal relationships, etc." It is only by asserting the long suppressed and ridiculed female principle that a truly human society will come about." We identify with women of all races, classes, and countries all over the world. The female culture is the fourth world." (Donovan, 2003; 142)
Donovan, J., 2012. Feminist Theory: The Intellectual Traditions . 4th ed. London: Continuum.
Radical feminist theory was developed by a group of ex-'movement women' in the late 1960s and early 1970s, primarily in New York and Boston. "Movement women" were those who had participated in the political activities of the civil rights and antiwar campaigns of the 1960s. Much as nineteenth century feminists became aware of their own oppression through the treatment they received from their male cohorts in the abolition movement, so twentieth century radical feminists came to their consciousness in reaction to the contemptuous treatment they received from male radicals in the "New Left". (Donovan, 2012; p139)
Much of the radical feminist theory was therefore forged in reaction against the theories, organisational structures, and personal styles of the male "new Left". (Donovan, 2012; p139)
Radical feminists came to believe that all these issues were interrelated, and that male supremacy and the subjugation of women was indeed the root and model oppression in society and that feminism had to be the basis for any truly revolutionary change. (Donovan, 2012; p139)
Included the idea that the personal is political ; that patriarchy, or male-domination - not capitalism - is at the root of women's oppression; that women should identify themselves as a subjugated class or caste and put their primary energies in a movement with other women to combat their oppressors - men; that men and women are fundamentally different, have different styles and cultures, and that the women's mode must be the basis of any future society. (Donovan, 2012; p140)
"Independence from the Sexual Revolution" (1971) made the important point that women's liberation and sexual liberation were not synonymous. Densmore urges that women not consider sexual freedom the be-all and end-all of liberation. "Spiritual freedom, intellectual freedom, freedom from invasions of privacy and the insults of degrading stereotypes" - these are more important. In fact, so-called sexual liberation is another ploy to keep women subjugated. Sex (and, as other radical feminists urged, love) is sold as a magical experience that is supposed to justify otherwise dreary lives. Instead it functions, as an opiate keeping women from thinking about their overall condition. (Donovan, 2003; p140)
Another important early radical feminist essay was "The Fourth World Manifesto" (1971) by Barbara Burris and others. Burris argues that around the world women form a caste that is "colonized" by male "imperialism". As with all colonized peoples, women's culture has been suppressed. However, Burris insists, women cannot ally themselves with other anti-imperialist movements because they are male dominated. (Donovan, 2003; p142)
Women must therefore organise, as women, in order that their own culture be liberated. Women must "raise the banner of the female principle:. "We are proud of the female culture of emotion, intuition, love, personal relationships, etc." It is only by asserting the long suppressed and ridiculed female principle that a truly human society will come about." We identify with women of all races, classes, and countries all over the world. The female culture is the fourth world." (Donovan, 2003; 142)
Donovan, J., 2012. Feminist Theory: The Intellectual Traditions . 4th ed. London: Continuum.
Representing Women: Myths of Femininity
'Why do out of date myths of femininity still continue to exert a magnetic pull over us, and why is it easier to criticise those media that target us than to explain their fascination?' (Mcdonald, 2003; p11)
'Female students, too, often find it easier to say what is wrong with women's magazines than to explain why they enjoy buying and reading them.' (Mcdonald, 2003; p11)
Second, we need to recognize the part we all play in keeping mythologies and ideologies alive. This gets obliterated in conspiracy theory accounts that see the media as bastions of male privilege, spurred on by the mission of keeping feminism at bay. This tendency dominates in some recent American writing, such as Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth (1991) and Susan Faludi's Backlash (1992). Although producers indisputably have primary power in deciding what images we see, and (equally significant) what images we do not see, arguments that cast us (or, more usually, some other lesser category of viewer or reader) as passive dupes in the process have been rightly been increasingly challenged. At the same time, John Fiske's (1989) utopian vision of a democracy of active readers and viewers is equally unconvincing. In relation to myths of femininity, in particular, with their long cultural history, traditions of seeing and responding cannot be so magically overturned. (Mcdonald, 2003; p12)
'Mainstream sociology, tackling the issue of gender, focuses on the unequal position of men and women within the social structure. Key areas investigated include the family, work and pay, and sexuality. The devaluation of women's role, whether as mothers, wives, or workers has been a central concern. For the sociologist, femininity is acquired and reproduced through socialisation and the development of self concept. Real life role models, the exposure in childhood to forms of activity and play that naturalise gender divisions, and the influence of the media and other cultural forms, encourage men and women in adult life both to adopt behaviour that reinforces gender specific roles, and to internalise the appropriateness of this as part of their own sense of identity.' (Mcdonald, 2003; p13)
For the sociologist investigating gender, the media play an important part in setting stereotypes and promoting a limited number of role models....sociologists concentrate on adult influences. (Mcdonald, 2003; p13)
The concept of the stereotype is used to criticise the reduction of the three dimensional quality of the real to as one dimensional and distorted form. Particularly when the group being stereotyped is already in a disadvantaged position, the stereotype intensifies the offence. From bra burning feminists to house proud housewives, from sex crazed seductresses to neurotic career women, the media regularly serve a menu of female stereotypes that stimulates misogynistic taste buds.
Yet, as Tessa Perkins pointed out (1979) stereotypes survive by undergoing change, and by convincing us that they are not entirely false, but contain a 'kernel of truth'. LIke ideology, the stereotype works by being plausible, and by masking its own value system. Those who criticise the limitations of the stereotype often also demand a wider range of positive role models, especially for groups that are denigrated or marginalised. The relative lack, for example, of professional women in soap operas, or of fat, disabled or Asian women in women's magazines, attracts frequent censure.
There are, however, a number of problems in relying on stereotypes as a critical tool. First, this approach suggests that the ideal would be for the media to re-present reality as truthfully and accurately as possible...whose version of reality is to be given priority, and what happens in those instances, such as advertising or film, where the producers' stated intention is not represent reality but to conjure up an appealing fantasy world? Hunting stereotypes can be an entertaining but ultimately unrewarding pastime. It can also be dangerous, if we fail to take account of the play on stereotypes that is increasingly common in the media. (Mcdonald, 2003; p14)
This distinction in terms of narrative role has more impact on our responses than our understanding of the character's social role. Listing the media stage entrances of, for example, the 1980's stereotype of the 'superwoman', effortlessly combining career, children, sexual pleasure and leisure pursuits, tells us nothing about how we are invited to respond to her.' (Mcdonald, 2003; p14)
Tracing dominant stereotypes historically is more helpful in revealing changing ideologies. Why the 'vamp' should have been popular in the early decades of the century, the 'dumb blond' in the middle, and the 'superwoman' in the last quarter, are issues worth exploring in the quest to understand how myths of femininity have changed. Equally revealing is the continuing imbalance in both the extent and quality of male and female stereotyping in media constructions. Stereotypes of men (e.g 'macho man') may elicit negative emotions but they do little to dent male authority. (Mcdonald, 2003; p14)
Psychological approaches agree that the acquisition of gender identity is a developmental process that is virtually complete by the time we reach adulthood. As a result, psychological research into the media has concentrated on the impact of media representations on children and young people. Where the sociologist is interested in the relationship between representation and reality, the psychologist is particularly concerned with psychological effect. (Mcdonald, 2003; p16)
The first, which is often referred to as 'biological determinism', argues that femininity and masculinity follow inevitably from our physical differences as males and females. Biological factors act as programmes which circumscribe our ability to move outside a pre-set range of behaviour and attributes. The second, known as social learning theory, claims that we acquire the relevant masculine or feminine skills by imitating others, and adapting our own maintains that masculinity and femininity develop through a process of interaction between our experience of the world and our emerging, but pre-structured, capacity for conceptual thinking. (Mcdonald, 2003; p16)
Biological determinists' view of sexual difference has been labelled 'essentialist'. Essentialism is a philosophical position that believes in intrinsic, material differences between entities. It makes sense on the physical sciences, where elements can be distinguished clearly from each other, but applied to humans its suggestion that innate qualities have a more determining influence than social or cultural factors sparks repeated controversy. (Mcdonald, 2003; p16)
The biological determinist argues that the imprints of masculinity and femininity are contained within genes and hormones. Male aggression and female nurturing capacity are seen as innate tendencies, although most biological determinists (e.g Maccoby and Jacklin, 1974) do accept that biological predisposition may be affected to varying degrees by social factors.
Many feminists psychologists (e.g Rohrbaugh, 1981; Lott, 1990) reject the prescriptiveness of biological determinism and argue that it has been used, despite its scientific credentials, in a value-loaded way to excuse antiscoial male behaviour and devalue women's capacities (as when rapists are seen as 'naturally' requiring sexual release, or women are thought to have 'natural' manual dexterity that makes them good at sewing but not as surgery). (Mcdonald, 2003; p17)
Lynda Birke (1986) takes a different stance. While distancing herself from biological determinsm, she views a wholesale feminist antagonism to biological accounts to biological accounts of gender development are misguided. (Mcdonald, 2003; p17)
More conventionally, both cognitive-developmental and social learning theories concentrate on childhood and adolescence as the periods responsible for forming our adult sense of masculinity and femininity. (Mcdonald, 2003; p17)
For the social learning theorist, femininity and masculinity are first recognised, and then imitated in the child's own behaviour. Factors such as schooling, play, family life, and the media are seen as significant influences. Where the theory is weak is in explaining why the child should be motivated to imitate some forms of behaviour and attitude rather than others. (Mcdonald, 2003; p17)
Mcdonald, M., 2003. Representing Women: Myths of Femininity in the Popular Media. 2nd ed????. London: Hodder Arnold
'Female students, too, often find it easier to say what is wrong with women's magazines than to explain why they enjoy buying and reading them.' (Mcdonald, 2003; p11)
Second, we need to recognize the part we all play in keeping mythologies and ideologies alive. This gets obliterated in conspiracy theory accounts that see the media as bastions of male privilege, spurred on by the mission of keeping feminism at bay. This tendency dominates in some recent American writing, such as Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth (1991) and Susan Faludi's Backlash (1992). Although producers indisputably have primary power in deciding what images we see, and (equally significant) what images we do not see, arguments that cast us (or, more usually, some other lesser category of viewer or reader) as passive dupes in the process have been rightly been increasingly challenged. At the same time, John Fiske's (1989) utopian vision of a democracy of active readers and viewers is equally unconvincing. In relation to myths of femininity, in particular, with their long cultural history, traditions of seeing and responding cannot be so magically overturned. (Mcdonald, 2003; p12)
'Mainstream sociology, tackling the issue of gender, focuses on the unequal position of men and women within the social structure. Key areas investigated include the family, work and pay, and sexuality. The devaluation of women's role, whether as mothers, wives, or workers has been a central concern. For the sociologist, femininity is acquired and reproduced through socialisation and the development of self concept. Real life role models, the exposure in childhood to forms of activity and play that naturalise gender divisions, and the influence of the media and other cultural forms, encourage men and women in adult life both to adopt behaviour that reinforces gender specific roles, and to internalise the appropriateness of this as part of their own sense of identity.' (Mcdonald, 2003; p13)
For the sociologist investigating gender, the media play an important part in setting stereotypes and promoting a limited number of role models....sociologists concentrate on adult influences. (Mcdonald, 2003; p13)
The concept of the stereotype is used to criticise the reduction of the three dimensional quality of the real to as one dimensional and distorted form. Particularly when the group being stereotyped is already in a disadvantaged position, the stereotype intensifies the offence. From bra burning feminists to house proud housewives, from sex crazed seductresses to neurotic career women, the media regularly serve a menu of female stereotypes that stimulates misogynistic taste buds.
Yet, as Tessa Perkins pointed out (1979) stereotypes survive by undergoing change, and by convincing us that they are not entirely false, but contain a 'kernel of truth'. LIke ideology, the stereotype works by being plausible, and by masking its own value system. Those who criticise the limitations of the stereotype often also demand a wider range of positive role models, especially for groups that are denigrated or marginalised. The relative lack, for example, of professional women in soap operas, or of fat, disabled or Asian women in women's magazines, attracts frequent censure.
There are, however, a number of problems in relying on stereotypes as a critical tool. First, this approach suggests that the ideal would be for the media to re-present reality as truthfully and accurately as possible...whose version of reality is to be given priority, and what happens in those instances, such as advertising or film, where the producers' stated intention is not represent reality but to conjure up an appealing fantasy world? Hunting stereotypes can be an entertaining but ultimately unrewarding pastime. It can also be dangerous, if we fail to take account of the play on stereotypes that is increasingly common in the media. (Mcdonald, 2003; p14)
This distinction in terms of narrative role has more impact on our responses than our understanding of the character's social role. Listing the media stage entrances of, for example, the 1980's stereotype of the 'superwoman', effortlessly combining career, children, sexual pleasure and leisure pursuits, tells us nothing about how we are invited to respond to her.' (Mcdonald, 2003; p14)
Tracing dominant stereotypes historically is more helpful in revealing changing ideologies. Why the 'vamp' should have been popular in the early decades of the century, the 'dumb blond' in the middle, and the 'superwoman' in the last quarter, are issues worth exploring in the quest to understand how myths of femininity have changed. Equally revealing is the continuing imbalance in both the extent and quality of male and female stereotyping in media constructions. Stereotypes of men (e.g 'macho man') may elicit negative emotions but they do little to dent male authority. (Mcdonald, 2003; p14)
Psychological approaches agree that the acquisition of gender identity is a developmental process that is virtually complete by the time we reach adulthood. As a result, psychological research into the media has concentrated on the impact of media representations on children and young people. Where the sociologist is interested in the relationship between representation and reality, the psychologist is particularly concerned with psychological effect. (Mcdonald, 2003; p16)
The first, which is often referred to as 'biological determinism', argues that femininity and masculinity follow inevitably from our physical differences as males and females. Biological factors act as programmes which circumscribe our ability to move outside a pre-set range of behaviour and attributes. The second, known as social learning theory, claims that we acquire the relevant masculine or feminine skills by imitating others, and adapting our own maintains that masculinity and femininity develop through a process of interaction between our experience of the world and our emerging, but pre-structured, capacity for conceptual thinking. (Mcdonald, 2003; p16)
Biological determinists' view of sexual difference has been labelled 'essentialist'. Essentialism is a philosophical position that believes in intrinsic, material differences between entities. It makes sense on the physical sciences, where elements can be distinguished clearly from each other, but applied to humans its suggestion that innate qualities have a more determining influence than social or cultural factors sparks repeated controversy. (Mcdonald, 2003; p16)
The biological determinist argues that the imprints of masculinity and femininity are contained within genes and hormones. Male aggression and female nurturing capacity are seen as innate tendencies, although most biological determinists (e.g Maccoby and Jacklin, 1974) do accept that biological predisposition may be affected to varying degrees by social factors.
Many feminists psychologists (e.g Rohrbaugh, 1981; Lott, 1990) reject the prescriptiveness of biological determinism and argue that it has been used, despite its scientific credentials, in a value-loaded way to excuse antiscoial male behaviour and devalue women's capacities (as when rapists are seen as 'naturally' requiring sexual release, or women are thought to have 'natural' manual dexterity that makes them good at sewing but not as surgery). (Mcdonald, 2003; p17)
Lynda Birke (1986) takes a different stance. While distancing herself from biological determinsm, she views a wholesale feminist antagonism to biological accounts to biological accounts of gender development are misguided. (Mcdonald, 2003; p17)
More conventionally, both cognitive-developmental and social learning theories concentrate on childhood and adolescence as the periods responsible for forming our adult sense of masculinity and femininity. (Mcdonald, 2003; p17)
For the social learning theorist, femininity and masculinity are first recognised, and then imitated in the child's own behaviour. Factors such as schooling, play, family life, and the media are seen as significant influences. Where the theory is weak is in explaining why the child should be motivated to imitate some forms of behaviour and attitude rather than others. (Mcdonald, 2003; p17)
Text about Laura Mulvey (too much to quote all at once).
Mcdonald, M., 2003. Representing Women: Myths of Femininity in the Popular Media. 2nd ed????. London: Hodder Arnold
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