Meraz Lecture- A "gamers" world

In Sharon Meraz’s lecture, she discusses the gendering of the internet and of the computer science field. She explains that the internet and the computer science field alike have seen a major gap in women’s participation in these areas. There has even been a decrease in women’s participation in these categories, which is truly quite astonishing.

One of the biggest areas in which we see a huge gender gap, is the video gaming world. The gaming world has seen a very low proportion of women and is affecting the ways in which women participate in gaming and create games themselves. When we think of the name “gamer” your mind goes directly to one image, no matter what the person in your image is wearing, or what their physical features may be, one aspect of the gamer that is universal is certain; they are male. They are male because the games themselves are highly “male” orientated games. We see extremely (stereotypical) masculine, male characters, that kick ass and take names or we see very intelligent, sly, and “smooth” male characters like James Bond. All the games are created by men and for men. Women, in the games themselves, are overly feminized even if the character is the lead role. Women are usually the ones that are being saved in games, or, like in grand theft auto, being murdered and raped. When women are in leading roles, like Lara Croft Tomb Raider, the character has overly large breasts and buttocks , and are of course, very, very beautiful. You never see an overly masculine/butch female character, because that isn’t what guys want to see when their character is kicking ass. They want to see a half dressed bomb shell.

Children’s games are also highly gendered. When a parent buys their daughter a game, you don’t find them buying them the Power Rangers Ninja game or really even Mario Party. The games that parents buy for their little girls are games like Barbie and Friends or the Hanna Montana sing along game. Girl related games do not test them on their gaming skills nor are they intellectually stimulating. Girl’s games are highly dumbed down because their creators apparently feel girls are not able to play games that are controller dexterity heavy or intellectually difficult. This notion that female children aren’t interested in what is normally male orientated is problematic. Game creators need to become female orientated and more females need to become game creators. I would love to see a diehard female feminist become a game creator and create a game that is total feminist. That is a game I would love to play.