Female Gamers in the Community Final

Video games and the communities revolving around video games have become extremely social in the past decade. With the beginning of VOiP and multiplayer based games, cultures and communities have grown and developed around specific games and game types. In the past, it was a group of neighborhood or school kids getting together to have a LAN party or play on the same console. Now there are tournaments that span continents and raids with a group you met from fifteen different countries. With this rise of interconnectivity, however, there has been something that many gamers have run into that, quite frankly, shocks them. This shock comes in the form of meeting a female gamer.

When I first met a female gamer, I honestly was for a loss of words. The idea of a girl playing Battlefield 2 was so foreign I did not believe it at all. The way she played the game and knew what she did was shocking. She was on the top of the leader boards. No one in the game could believe it. People were treating her as a god. The lines for the helicopters and jets did not exist for her. She cut the lines and queues for everything worth waiting for. Everyone was in awe that someone with breasts played video games like Battlefield.

This encounter with this warrior princess was four years ago. Now she and I are good friends. We talk and Skype as well as play games together. The funny thing is; she is normal. She has become a part of our gaming group, a group of about fifteen people who like the same things in games and real life. We even have two girls in the group. This has brought me to get out of the “Awe” factor and just see them as regular gamers. This, however, is not how the rest of the gaming community sees them.

The first way female gamers are seen in the same way most of us see them, including me. They are the gamers on the pedestal and above all the Trolling and trash-talk. They get the gold in WoW and the epics in Diablo given to them by randoms. It was funny to see this happen in the first couple of games I played with the group, but after it happened for about a month, it got old. Both girls like the free stuff but they are getting sick of the pubs trying to befriend them with gifts and gold just because they are females.

The second way our two girls are met in games is by the Epic Trollers. There are always those gamers who get online just to troll others. This usually happens in a lobby of a FPS when we are talking before the game starts. When they hear female voices, the trolling starts. They talk about how women should be in the kitchen and not online. They talk about how our girls are going to be awful in the game and how there is no way we are going to win. It seems to be worse when we have clan tags on and have a fill team. These trolls eventually change to calling us Try-Hards because our clan, females including, destroy the games with crazy scores. This takes the flak away from our girls and directs it towards all of us. We have gotten use to the trolling so we just laugh it off.

The thing is, both of these ways of treating female gamers should not happen. Most girl gamers like the attention of people but these two ways are not what they want. IronTigers and BearOfManyColours, our two female gamers’ user names, want to be recognized because they are good gamers, not because of what sex they are. We as a group have had many conversations about the topics. They want the gifts in MMOs because they did something nice, not because they are girls. They know that there is trolling in games, but they are puzzled and confused about why people troll because they are females. They want gamers to treat them as equals, not above the rest and not below. They want to be recognized and talked about because of their skills and teamwork on games. IronTigers has even stopped talking in games until she has proven her skills after a few rounds in game. She likes being treated normal in the game and likes to prove herself as a good fragger. That is all our girls want from the community. Nothing more and nothing less.

Cuevas, Lizzie. "9 Things Real Female Gamers Hate About Gaming." GamesRadar. n. d. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. about-gaming/>.

GamingAngel, . "Why Games Aren't Just For Guys." Gaming Angels. 15 Sep 2010. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. just-for-guys/>.

No Continues Episode 7: Girl Gamers. Dir. Machinima. Machinima, 2011. Film. .

Actress are Victims of "Hidden Rules"

If you are one of those who frequently pay attention to stars’ lives and news, you will notice that almost all of the pictures that were taken for female stars are sexy. Almost everyday, you will hear some scandals and “hidden rules”. “Hidden rules” in the film industry is something that happens behind the screen that people are too shy to speak out about, like “casting coach”. Casting couch is a sex trade between a man who has power or control and a woman who is willing to sell her body to the man in order to get an entry into an occupation. This phenomenon reflects part of how women are usually viewed and represented in society today: women are always consumed by men, and are so weak to create their own worlds by their own power by a male dominated society. Especially in the field of film industry where beauty and talent are the two factors emphasized: when women are uncertain of their talents, they tend to accept an easier way help them reach their goals and that satisfies a man’s desire.”

Casting couch is not a new topic any more; It is more of a world-wide around hidden rules that many women and men follow. In China, every time you open up a newspaper, there are always two or three news about some actresses’ scandals. In the link below, it tells us an event related to casting couch which caused a huge stir in China few years ago.
m.cn/china/2006-12/01/content_748377.htm>
I was angered while I was reading this real story. The main character, Zhang Yu, as shown in the image on the left, is the victim of casting couch of chinese film industry. As mentioned in the article, Zhang won all her roles through sleeping with the directors, assistant directors or men in charge of casting. She also revealed how chinese film industry really works: many actress gained roles for soap operas and movies in exchange of having sex with film makers. Obviously, Zhang is not the only one who suffers through her way of becoming famous in film industry. Being a female star is way more complicated than it seems to appear to us. Many female stars have to face tough situations in giving up pureness for popularity.

The two pictures below show two of the top actresses in chinese film industry nowadays. Instead of being graceful and elegant of what they used to appear in front of us, they both look cheap by sitting beside these old men. They have to lower herself from famous stars to being escorts. In the male dominated director field, many men have the power of both to destroy an actress’s dream or to build a perfect successful road to her. Those actresses have to sacrifice their youth and bodies to get passes on their ways of being super stars.
















Though there are some cases of reverse casting couch where men were asked to have sex with female directors in exchange of major roles in movies, many victims are still women. The reasons behind it are obvious. In our society now, men still play a dominant role. The idea that women are weaker and powerless is still planted in many generations minds. In film industry, we have casting couch; in other industries this hidden rule still exists. Therefore, to a broader extend of what casting couch indicates of how female are represented in society, females always tend to be less confident about their own abilities to succeed; women tend to rely on men to help them out because they consider men to be stronger and smarter. On the other side of the fence, men consider female as objects that they can enjoy and have control over.

Facing this problem, many women feel that they have no other alternative. However, in order to change where we have been placed in society now, we, as women, first need to believe ourselves that we can be successful and reach our goals based on our own intelligence. We have the same talent as men do. We should see ourselves with more pride and learn to refuse the men who to ask us for sex in exchange of our benefits. Because we are as intelligent as men are, we should tell the world that we are not the weak, powerless group that we were always perceived as. The future fate of women lies in the mindset of the current women in today’s society. If women continue to be submissive to men then women will forever be subjugated.

Work Cited:
Pictures:
"Pictures of Contemporary Famous Actress." New Document. North Forum, 06 May 2009. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. .

"Hidden Rules in Film Industry Is More Cruel than What It Seems To Be." 百灵网. BAI LING WEB, 25 Mar. 2009. Web. 14 Oct. 2011.

Women are affected by "hidden rules"

There is always a hidden rule in film industry, and that is “casting couch”. The victims of this hidden rule are most female. Casting couch is sex trade between a man who gets power or controls over things and a woman who is willing to sell her body to him in order to get an entry into an occupation. This phenomenon reflects part of how women are usually viewed and represented in society today: women are always consumed by men, and they are so weak to create their own worlds by their own power in this mostly men dominated society. Especially in the field of film industry where the beauty and talent are the two factors emphasized, “when women are uncertain of their talents, they tend to find an easier way to help them reach their goals and that is having a dirty relationship with the boss, the man.”

This idea is quoted in the video below where casting couch is discussed.(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXHX-vvHMpw) Casting couch is not a new topic any more, It is more of a world-wide around hidden rules that many women and men follow. In china, every time when you open up a newspaper, there are always two or three news about some actresses’ dirty relationship with directors. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-12/01/content_748377.htm This link above tells us an event related to casting couch which caused a huge stir in china few years ago. I was angered while I was reading this real story. The main character, Zhang Yu, is the victim of casting couch in film industry. As mentioned in the article, Zhang won all her roles through sleeping with the directors, assistant directors or men in charge of casting. She also revealed how chinese film industry really works: many actress gained roles for soap operas and movies in exchange of having sex with film makers.

Though there are cases of reverse casting couch where men were asked to have sex with female directors in exchange of major roles in movies, most victims are still women. The reasons behind it are obvious. In our society now, men still play a dominant part. The idea of women are weaker and powerless are still planted in many generations minds. In film industry, we have casting couch; in other industries, this hidden rule still exist. Therefore, to a broader extend of what casting couch indicates of how female are represented in society, females always tend to have less confident about their own abilities to succeed; they tend to rely on men to help them out because they consider men to be stronger and smarter. In other side of the point, men consider female to be more of objects what they can enjoy and have control over.

Facing this position, many women feel they can not help it. However, in order to change what we are placed in society now, we, as women, first need to believe ourselves that we can be successful and reach our goals on our own. We get the same talent as men do. We should see ourselves with more pride and learn to refuse those men who likes to ask you for sex in exchange of your benefits. Because we are as intelligent as men are, we should tell the world that we are not the weak, powerless group that we were always perceived before any more.


My audience is all young females who are on their way of pursuing their dreams and working hard on reaching their life goals.

Female Gamers in the Community

Video games and the communities revolving around video games have become extremely social in the past decade. With the beginning of VOiP and multiplayer based games, cultures and communities have grown and developed around specific games and game types. In the past, it was a group of neighborhood or school kids getting together to have a LAN party or play on the same console. Now there are tournaments that span continents and raids with a group you met from fifteen different countries. With this rise of interconnectivity, however, there has been something that many gamers have run into that, quite frankly, shocks them. This shock comes in the form of meeting a female gamer.

When I first met a female gamer, I honestly was for a loss of words. The idea of a girl playing Battlefield 2 was so foreign I did not believe it at all. The way she played the game and knew what she did was shocking. She was on the top of the leader boards. No one in the game could believe it. People were treating her as a god. The lines for the helicopters and jets did not exist for her. She cut the lines and queues for everything worth waiting for. Everyone was in awe that someone with breasts played video games like Battlefield.

This encounter with this warrior princess was four years ago. Now she and I are good friends. We talk and Skype as well as play games together. The funny thing is; she is normal. She has become a part of our gaming group, a group of about fifteen people who like the same things in games and real life. We even have two girls in the group. This has brought me to get out of the “Awe” factor and just see them as regular gamers. This, however, is not how the rest of the gaming community sees them.

The first way female gamers are seen in the same way most of us see them, including me. They are the gamers on the pedestal and above all the Trolling and trash-talk. They get the gold in WoW and the epics in Diablo given to them by randoms. It was funny to see this happen in the first couple of games I played with the group, but after it happened for about a month, it got old. Both girls like the free stuff but they are getting sick of the pubs trying to befriend them with gifts and gold just because they are females.

The second way our two girls are met in games is by the Epic Trollers. There are always those gamers who get online just to troll others. This usually happens in a lobby of a FPS when we are talking before the game starts. When they hear female voices, the trolling starts. They talk about how women should be in the kitchen and not online. They talk about how our girls are going to be awful in the game and how there is no way we are going to win. It seems to be worse when we have clan tags on and have a fill team. These trolls eventually change to calling us Try-Hards because our clan, females including, destroy the games with crazy scores. This takes the flak away from our girls and directs it towards all of us. We have gotten use to the trolling so we just laugh it off.

The thing is, both of these ways of treating female gamers should not happen. Most girl gamers like the attention of people but these two ways are not what they want. IronTigers and BearOfManyColours, our two female gamers’ user names, want to be recognized because they are good gamers, not because of what sex they are. We as a group have had many conversations about the topics. They want the gifts in MMOs because they did something nice, not because they are girls. They know that there is trolling in games, but they are puzzled and confused about why people troll because they are females. They want gamers to treat them as equals, not above the rest and not below. They want to be recognized and talked about because of their skills and teamwork on games. IronTigers has even stopped talking in games until she has proven her skills after a few rounds in game. She likes being treated normal in the game and likes to prove herself as a good fragger. That is all our girls want from the community. Nothing more and nothing less.

Male Gaze in Food Commercial (Final)

Nowadays, the concept of “male gaze” is more and more commonly used in many commercials intentionally. It is not only limited in female mainly targeted products, such as perfumes or make ups. It is also prevalent in food industry. In many food commercials, women always are depicted more delicious and more alluring than the food itself to make the product more appealing to audiences. It is a very common strategy that used in food industry because company leaders believe sexy female figures are always objects to easily draw men’s attention. Though it is a good tactic for the company itself. it can twist how people view female figures in a more biased way and bring danger to women. There are many examples of food advertisements involve elements of “male gaze”. They try to attract men’s attention toward the food by first evoking their desire on the female figure.
Many times, advertisements of food would show a hot female eating the food, such as burger, cheesecake, etc. In this “sexy burger” poster shown above, this woman is almost totally naked with only bikini on. When I look at this poster, I naturally put myself on men’s position, feel like I am also on the beach and am peeping at this woman. She seems to be portrayed very vulnerable in this poster: while she is eating a burger, a man might be waiting for eating her. She, and the burger are both objects that are selling to audiences. This is one way of how female are usually presented in food advertisements. However, sometimes, “male gaze” still plays big part in food commercial even though there is no actual female figure presented. Shown in the picture below, this dish of chicken wing and potato is very sexy because it is intentionally shaped like a woman who is lying on bed and waiting to be taken. This picture is likely to form a stereotype that women with seductive body shape are willing to give themselves to men.

I also found two opposite videos in youtube shown in the link below that I thought are interesting. “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J11qUjHiGhs” It is a chicken salad advertisement from Carl’s Jr. The scenery that first appears to us is a woman, with a sexy long pajama, walking gracefully to her bed. And on her bed, there is a bowl of the “cranberry apple walnut chicken salad”. It is very interesting to me because the woman is not eating this salad either on her kitchen table or in a restaurant, instead she is eating it on her bed and lying down in a curly body shape. The company seems to want to send us the message that the salad is as tasty as her, or jump to the bed, enjoy the salad and her together. The commercial ends by a man’s voice, saying “who said salad can’t be hot?” There are so many scenes that shown in this TV commercial are not necessary for advertising the chicken salad at all. They are there because directors of Carl’s Jr want audiences, especially male audiences, to be attracted and can think of the sexy woman when they are eating the chicken salad so it might taste better to them.
There is also another version of the same commercial. “http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx-X2Wu_XbI” The sexy woman is not involved any more, instead it shows a young boy doing exactly the same thing that was depicted in the woman-version commercial. Without the presence of the woman, the salad just seems really normal and not hot at all. It is very interesting to see how ineffective this commercial will be if every scene is the same, but only the sex of the main character changes. That is how “male gaze” works in food commercial. Women always are used in commercials by showing their sexy, tasty bodies because they are prejudiced to be vulnerable and weak.

The way of how all food advertisements discussed above have rarely relationship with products themselves. Instead, no matter whether it is a bowl of chicken salad or a burger the company wants to sell, a sexy female figure can make the food looks more delicious because of the power of “male gaze”. In most of these commercials, women are always presented as vulnerable objects, just like the food being advertised. The way they are shown in commercials are always being alluring to men and trying to evoke men’s desire towards them and therefore towards the food along with them. I don’t think “male gaze” should be encouraged in food commercial. It is not only because it has nothing to do with the food itself, but also it can deepen people’s stereotype about characteristics of female today. It can also, in some sense, increases women’s risk of being attacked by men since too many sexy figures shown in food commercials may make men think of sexy things when they see the food which is advertised with a alluring female figure together.

Work Cited:
Evelyne. Cheap Ethnic Eatz. 2nd Oct, 2009
http://www.cheapethniceatz.com/2009/10/02/sexy-food/

Luisa Amanda Gomes. “Soft-Core Fast Food Ads.” Trend Hunter’s Magazine. 18th Feb. 2010
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/kim-kardashian-carls-jr-commercial1

"Very Demotivational." Very Demotivational - The Demotivational Posters Blog. Web. 21 Sept. 2011. http://verydemotivational.memebase.com/?id=a.

"Kim Kardashian Carl's Jr Sexy Ad - YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 21 Sept. 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J11qUjHiGhs.

"Kim Kardashian Carls Jr Commercial 2 - YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 21 Sept. 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx-X2Wu_XbI.

House/Electronic "Male Gaze" Final

I am a huge fan of music and the whole culture that revolves around the creation and appreciation of music. Lately, I have been into house and electronic music. It is a great culture and environment but it is still a culture with the “male gaze”. This can be seen in the song lyrics, Artist names, and the music video’s/ covers. I was looking up more house music over the weekend and the “male gaze” was everywhere. This got me thinking of how much of this is out there and what type of music it is most prominent in.

I started with just the house and electronic music for this weekend. By simply going through my iPod I was able to find names that were from the “male gaze”. The first one that stuck out like a sore thumb was PANTyRAiD. The songs that I have from PANTyRAiD are electronic/house contain one line repeated or no words at all. It is just the name itself that caught my attention. The name is just there to catch people’s attention and has nothing to do with the music. While I love the music the name is funny and completely unnecessary. The artist PANTyRAiD should rely on his talent and music to get followers instead of such a name. Another artist I found was SOFI. SOFI stands for Some Other Female Interest and is featured on a lot of other house/electronic artists. The interesting thing I remembered about this artist is that SOFI is female. She is sticking to the “Male Gaze” with her name and her lyrics are about getting used for entertainment of men. The songs are good but they fit the “Male Gaze” almost perfectly.

I also found that the covers for the house music mixes almost always have a half-naked girl on the cover of the mix that has nothing to do with the track lists. The models are most likely strung around a expensive car or on the beach. There is no reason for them on the cover other than having people check out the mixes because of the girls. Its complete “male gaze” marketing for the songs and it seems to work because most comments on the mixes are about the girls and not much about the songs in the mixes. It is sad because the music itself is great but it seems to be degraded to just background music for the girls on the convers.

The interesting thing that I found going through all this music and all the covers is that it seems that the artists have to stick to this formula of fitting the “Male Gaze”. Some artists fit this formula through their names alone. This seems to bring in people who are just sifting through music and draws them to the songs of the artist just because of the name. If the name is not fitting in with the “Male Gaze” then the lyrics of the song can be found within the scope of a male audience. Even if the lyrics or artist name do not have an overly obvious male scope to them, music video’s or performances do. There were two that I remember that fit into this last part.

The song “Destination Calabria” by Alex Gaudino is a great song that I heard at a club in Europe. The song was so good that I went and looked up the music video. The video actually made me laugh the first time I looked at it. The song itself has a heavy use of saxophones. The director used this to make the video about an overly-sexual marching band. The uniforms are practically non-existent. The formations are there to get the women in sexual positions. Even the instruments are used in a way that over sexualizes everything. It honestly was hilarious to see how the song and the video could ever be linked.

The other “Male Gaze” that sticks with me is a concert I went to last year in Athens. The concert was for a new house/electronic group called “The Glitch Mob”. The concert was amazing as the group plays songs with a heavy synth/computer influence with little to no words. Never before have I seen any of the group’s songs or performances with a clearly defined male viewpoint. Half way through the concert, however, a dancer was brought up into the air on a rope almost like a pole dancer. It added the “Male Gaze” to a songs and a group that has never used the male scope before. I thought it was interesting but it was talked about after the concert. That seems to be all the artists care about now. If it helps them get themselves and their music out their then some boundaries may be pushed to gain those fans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGtLJDP1BIk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDndZn0YPdI&ob=av3e

For the “SOFI needs a ladder” song, the top rated comment is “SOFI needs to get back in the kitchen”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APtj3EvhfWA&feature=fvst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMYjWzg8tYU

Video

Get the Money. Perf. PANTyRAiD, . 2009. Web. 21 Sep 2011. .

SOFI Needs a Ladder. Perf. DeadMau5, SOFI. Ultra Records, 2010. Web. 21 Sep 2011. .

Destination Calabria. Perf. Alex Guadino, . 2009. Web. 21 Sep 2011. .

The Glitch Mob In for the Kill with awesome dancer: New Years Athens GA. Perf. Glitch Mob, . 2011. Web. .

Images

"Gotta Love House Music." Photograph. Chubby Beavers Fat Music. First Last. 2011. Web. 21 Sep 2011. .

"Artist Spotlight:PANTyRAiD." Photograph. Rage!Chill.. First Last. Web. 21 Sep 2011. .

"Passion Pit Sleepyhead Borgore Remix." Photograph. Hypster.com. First Last. 2010. Web. 21 Sep 2011. .

Male Gaze in commercial 2

Kim Kardashian Carl's Jr Commercial 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J11qUjHiGhs
Kim Kardashian Carls Jr Commercial 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx-X2Wu_XbI

Hardee's Padma
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvz63nkDcMM

Nowadays, the concept of “male gaze” is commonly used in many commercials intentionally to attract more customers, especially commercials in food industry. In many of these commercials, women always are depicted more delicious and more alluring than the food itself to make the product more appealing to audiences. It is a very common strategy that used by many food companies. It is also understandable why “male gaze” is very popular in food or restaurants commercials. There is one saying “love me, love my dog”. In the case of food advertisements, “me” is the delicious female figures presented in the show, and “my dog” is the food she is eating. When we watch these advertisements, we all intend to put ourselves in men’s perspectives and enjoy the flirting movements of actress shown in the commercials. When we enjoy seeing the actress, we then naturally feel that we also enjoy the food that she is eating. There are two examples of food advertisements that both show great examples of how the “male gaze” serves the advertisement in a good way and successfully makes the food look more tasty and attractive.

In the Carl’s Jr commercial, the scenery that first appears to us is a woman, with a sexy long pajama, walking gracefully to her bed. And on her bed, there is a bowl of the “cranberry apple walnut chicken salad”. It is very interesting to me because the woman is not eating this salad either on her kitchen table or in a restaurant, instead she is eating it on her bed and lying down in a curly body shape. The company seems to want to send us the message that the salad is as tasty as her, or jump to the bed, enjoy the salad and her together. The commercial ends by a man’s voice, saying “who said salad can’t be hot?”
I also found another version of the same commercial. The sexy woman is not involved any more, instead it shows a young a boy doing exactly the same thing that was depicted in the other woman-version commercial. Without the presence of the woman, the salad just seems really normal and not hot at all. That is how “male gaze” works in the commercial. Women always are depicted sexy, tasty and waiting to be taken in commercials.

There is another burger advertisement shown in the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvz63nkDcMM
When I look at this advertisement, I was surprised by how similar this commercial is compare to the Carl’s Jr commercial, even though one is selling burger, the other is selling salad. Two companies use the same tactic which is presenting a extremely beautiful female figure. There are even many similar captured scenes in both two commercials. For example, there are both close scenes of actresses’ sexy lips while they are eating. And while they are eating, there are both salad sauces or burger sauces been dropped off from their mouths, went pass through their chests or landed near their butts.

The way of how both advertisements present their products have rarely relationship with products themselves. Instead, no matter whether it is a bowl of chicken salad or a burger the company wants to sell, a sexy female figure can make the food looks more delicious because of the power of “male gaze”. In most of these commercials, women are always presented as vulnerable objects, just like the salad/burger being advertised. The way they are shown in commercials are always being alluring to men and trying to evoke men’s desires toward them and therefore toward the product along with them.