During the lecture on Thursday about gender and sexuality I had
a few issues with some of the content and ideas expressed, from the point of
view that I did not agree with some of what was said. Sure I agree that women
in most forms of media, especially video games are sexualised and used to sell
products. However I do not agree with the section on violence towards women in
video games.
The clip that was shown in class about the Hitman trailer where the
nuns turn into stripper like killers and are then slaughtered was one that
jumped out at me in particular. I believe Kevin said that it was purposefully
and deliberately expressing violence toward women in a negative way (not
verbatim). They were using slow motion and high graphics to display hateful
behaviour toward women. I also took away from the lecture that clips like this
are something that should offend women in particular. However I strongly
disagree with this.
Sure the women in the trailer are being sexualised and that
is why they are there. The fact that the hitman kills them is just because that
is part of the game. I don’t think that women should be offended by this. Would
we expect men to get offended if he was killing a whole group of males in the
same fashion? (which is often the case). If anything this video is placing them
on the same level as males because they are deemed worthy enough to be in the
game. Now I am no sexist or misogynist however I do think sometime we do take
it a bit too far which it comes to analyzing elements sometimes. As I said before I do believe they are being
used as sex symbols (that is a given) however it just happens to be that their
role in the add was to get killed, and the killings themselves or way they were
killed had nothing to do with them being females. I know that I would not have
gotten offended if they had sexualised males and killed them in the same style,
yet for some reason women should be? It is almost like we are trying to tell
women how they should think and feel, which is something I am sure most would object
to.
Yeah, I kind of agree with you on that one. I mean, there was definitely deep thought put into the ad, it's not like the people being killed 'just so happened' to be female strippers, but at the same time, is there really so much of a need to take everything so personally? You can't be PC with everyone 100% of the time. That's just boring. And players will always find ways of being racist, sexist or whatever they want to be. Games can always strive to be more inclusive and absolutely should do so. But we can't keep bashing games for every minimal reference to something that may or may not be taken as sexist, racist, homophobic or what have you. How do we expect to ever stop being victims, if we don't stop acting like them ourselves?
ReplyDelete*end of rant* :p
I think this is the type of mindset that is troubling. Maybe, on its own, the slow motion shots were not a problem. But paired with the sexist representation of women DOES become a problem. If there is a big majority of people finding this offensive then I don't think you can dismiss this as people being "PC".
ReplyDeleteThis type of representation of women isn't new. It's a recurring thing so I can understand if women continue to feel victomised by this sort of representation in games.
I would personally love to see a game that frames men in a sexualised way, and maybe men won't have a problem with this representation... but thats the point, we don't know, because it's never been the case.
I see where you guys are coming from but are men sexually exploited in the same way? I would say no not at all. I agree with the comment above, I wonder if there would be a huge outcry from men if they were represented in the same way consistently through all different media forms, the way that women are.
ReplyDeleteGreat point here. The key problem tying together pretty much all the examples from the Thursday lect. is that essentially women aren't afforded the same chances to create their own varied and balanced set of representations in videogames at large. So we're left with the world mediated through a limited set of eyes so to speak..
DeleteYou've actually hit on the reason why the trailer is problematic without even realising it. 'Sure the women in the trailer are being sexualised and that is why they are there'-- the women in the trailer did not have to be sexualised to 'be there'. The PVC outfits were unnecessary, and didn't have to be shown. We could've simply had a group of female assassins in normal dress come after Agent 47; it would have made a lot more sense as well. Why did they have to put on those clothes to fight him? They were dressed perfectly sensibly as nuns before arriving.
ReplyDeleteBut, then they strip down to their PVC outfits, apparently for no reason other than to show off. While it might be titillating and provide visual interest for gamers there was no obvious in-universe reason for it. And then they open fire on Agent 47-- our hero-- with a rocket launcher?
It's not a problem that they're dressed in catsuits and tiny dresses, it's a problem that they change into catsuits and tiny dresses for the sole purpose of shooting someone. It sets up a link between the violence they're committing and them being 'sluts' or 'whores'-- terms usually used for women dressed in such a manner. 'Good girls' don't shoot men, according to the trailer. But 'sluts' do!
It says to people that women who dress 'sluttily' are violent and evil... and doesn't stop there. Agent 47 bursts out of the motel, and over the course of a minute strangles, shoots and stabs his way through the crowd of women. 47 is the player character-- if we follow on from this trailer and play the game, he will be our avatar. And he's following through with the 'slutty girl' logic-- slutty girls are violent and evil, and so he can kill them without thinking.
It's not about the trailer telling people that violence against hookers and sluts is okay, though that's an extreme conclusion this set-up could come to. It's saying that women who dress in a certain way are 'evil', and we can treat them with that expectation. And women who dress in skimpy outfits aren't evil, funnily enough, so this is where it becomes a problem. It's reinforcing a negative stereotype, where you have bad, slutty girls, and then good, wholesome women.
We're unlikely to go out into the world to shoot hookers after watching this trailer, but we are likely to go out into the world with the association 'skimpy outfit = bad, immoral girl' reinforced in our mind.
Or, in other words: 'sure the women in the trailer are being sexualised and that is why they are there'-- no. The women are there because they are 'bad', and a woman does not have to dress skimpily to be bad. Vice-versa, a woman does not 'become' bad if she does dress skimpily.
But that's what the trailer implies, in a way.
And that's why some of us have issues with it.
I am not in disagreement about women being sexualized in video games. I just think that we are maybe reading into the killing part to much. The women stripped down to have sex appeal not to be murdered half naked. I don't think the intention of the video was to express the game creators hatred towards strippers or women in general. Just think the wanted some sex appeal in the game. Also I doubt many men would have a problem if the roles were reversed. They would probably think it was baddass a chick killing a bunch of dudes.
ReplyDeleteContext is key and in the video sexist representations of women and violence are dished up here on one revolting plate.
ReplyDeleteNun's are symbolic of female virginal innocence (They even arrive on a school bus... was that down to chance?). I imagine one does not have to go too far in dark side of the "adult entertainment" industry to find representations of Nuns being subjugated by males. Notice they remain in their Habits even after they have disrobed for the main act complete with blood spraying over breasts.
It all reads of the sadistic male gratification through dominating one female after another to he is the last one standing. That is why it is offensive.
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ReplyDeleteImagine a different situation.
ReplyDeleteThere is a woman getting dressed up in a suit.
Meanwhile a whole bunch of male priests are approaching the house.
She fixes her tie.
The priests strip down to glittery g strings and in slow motion pull out guns. We get slow mo shots of their chests, asses and wobbly bits.
They stand outside the house, guns ready.
The suit-wearing woman (no high heels like usual) sneaks up behind them and kills them all with ease (while we continue to get sexuallised imagery of the men falling on their knees etc.)
If Kevin had played this clip instead, think about how we would have reacted.
We'd probably be very weirded out having not been exposed to this kind of thing in the media, especially in video games.
Isn't it strange that we are not equally weirded out with seeing it done to women?
not that anyone is probably still viewing this post but i just showed the hitman video to my mum and sister (without any context or background about this thread) and neither of them felt offended as woman, or discriminated against. They also did not feel that it promoted violence towards women
ReplyDelete