Earlier this week we detailed a review paper penned by Dr. Linda Papadopoulos, which explored the Sexualization of Young People.
Who better to further explore the topic than a female gamer that revels in violent games? Julie from our sister site GameCulture offers her take on the subject here, go check it out.
Here's a little taste:
A lot of the findings in the report deal specifically with younger people and teenagers. I'm not a parent so I can't comment on what I would or wouldn't do in that situation. And perhaps I've become desensitized to the level of violence depicted in video games. In fact I enjoy games with alot of action, guns, and yes, even violence. Is it wrong that I find games with guns enjoyable to play? I like shooting at other players and killing them but I'm not about to go and grab a gun and shoot someone.
Comments
Re: Another Take on Papadopoulos Paper
Thanks for all the feedback. Much appreciated! However, I did focus on an extremely minor comment in the report that wasn't highlighted which related to a lack of strong female characters in video games. I purposefully avoided the topic of sexualisation and abuse towards women, even though these topics were highlighted as consistent themes throughout the report.
The same report also discussed various mediums in which children can be exposed to imagery deemed inappropriate including video games, magazines and movies. I touched on this topic without referencing it as I did the following:
"The link between violent content and aggression has been cited in several studies." My post was merely to point out that the 'link' may be cited in a billion reports but there are women who do enjoy playing games that are violent.
I'll be sure to reference things better next time though :) Thanks again for the feedback.
Re: Another Take on Papadopoulos Paper
in a game if its an enemy Ill fight it gender doesnt even come into it for me not unless they fight differently than the men and that just makes me adapt the same way I would if different male characters fought differently.
Re: Another Take on Papadopoulos Paper
Beat-em stereotypes:
Male characters: Slow, strong.
Female characters: Fast, weak.
Re: Another Take on Papadopoulos Paper
Only case I can think of that being null is MMOs where male and female characters are of more or less equal footing, outfit designs aside, unless it's one of those annoying MMO games where ALL warrior classes are male and ALL caster classes are female.
Re: Another Take on Papadopoulos Paper
Yeah, a lot of the Korean MMOs are bad for that. Mainstream ones usually allow you to choose your gender without any penalties.
Re: Another Take on Papadopoulos Paper
*sigh*........ media thats targeted at the youthful,IE made for the simple and naive or by the simple and naive the action and exuberance contained within it is going to be both sexually excessive and more violent than normal life. This is because a mundane life craves something more than the mundane. And the easiest way to do this is with excessive visuals.
TL:DR Its not the violent and sexually perverse that crave over the top visuals/media its normal people.
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Re: Another Take on Papadopoulos Paper
And this completely misses the point. PapaForTheLoss was on about sexualization of women, sexual abuse against women, and violence against women in video games.
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: Another Take on Papadopoulos Paper
And violence. Julie prefaces her article by saying: "I'd like to focus on the violence aspect specifically."
So no, she's not missing the point; she's discussing one particular aspect of the report.
Andrew Eisen
Re: Another Take on Papadopoulos Paper
Yeah, the most minor bit by far. And the violence aspect was STILL referring to violence against women.
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: Another Take on Papadopoulos Paper
Which she discusses in her article.
Andrew Eisen
Re: Another Take on Papadopoulos Paper
He's gonna bitch about something regardless, why even bother anymore?
Re: Another Take on Papadopoulos Paper
Well there's a cookie for you, at least.
Unless, of course, there is something I'm not going to bitch about and just discuss. So maybe no cookie after all.
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I LIKE the fence. I get 2 groups to laugh at then.
Re: Another Take on Papadopoulos Paper
I thought the point about violence in gaming from the Papdopoulos report was that it presents the image that men have to be strong and violent which then means that they become domestic abusers whilst women are portrayed as little more than sex objects meaning that, well, they become sex objects later in life. So yes I believe that the above article did miss the point somewhat.