For my games cover I produced a football game, and my dominant signifying image was quite masculine. This fits with the trend created in Toril Moi’s analysis of the differences between female, feminine and feminist categories of representation, released in 1987. The only difference is that my cover has a particular focus on masculinity. This is shown in the general posture of my character, being bold and confident, along with the sports-related clothing showing professionalism. I also exaggerated muscular features, such as the arms, torso and legs, which may come across provocative to some.

My character reverses the concept and idea of “The Male Gaze” by Laura Mulvey because of the fact that the dominant signifier is not one which would usually be sexualised by the stereotypical straight male video game player. However, you could say that the character is still there to be looked at and objectified, following a quote from the article “Why diversity matters in the modern video games industry” – “If you do not see yourself on Netflix, on Instagram, in games, in forums, where are you?” (The Guardian). This implies that “otherworldly” characters with too good to be true bodies are becoming increasingly relevant as time is progressing and their influence across the world is rapidly increasing as well, particularly because of the rise in use of social media platforms.

This considered, I think that masculinity is more commonly seen as more confrontational, aggressive and violent than femininity so in this regard my product could be considered a reactionary representation of masculinity, fitting in with what most people in society would consider everyday views.

On the other hand, this representation of masculinity may not entirely be one shown in a particularly positive light. I think this because in my opinion, a confrontational, aggressive and provocative mindset is not one that males should aspire to have. Because of this, if I were to recreate this product, I would replace the dominant signifying character of a male with one of a female, with features which do not fit the idea of “The Male Gaze” in that the character would not be sexualised by their design. I would do this by re-sculpting my character, using less revealing clothes, more realistic body features and a more regular posture. I think this would paint femininity in a much more positive light, providing a countertype and challenging everyday beliefs about females.

This ties into the broad argument of whether women’s football is a “true sport” and if it is entertaining to watch as male football. I think that both genders can and should play football as much as each other, but the vast majority of football games available focus on male football, so consequently this idea of a game cover would be radical. By changing my dominant signifying character, I think that a far less negative representation of football as a whole would be presented. This links to a quote from an article being “As a girl growing up playing games I was always like, why do I have to play as a boy?” (The Guardian) in that it would promote equality and provide younger people with more role models to look up to, particularly girls, as more elite female footballers would be recognizable in the game.

I produced an Indiana Jones’s type game and I created a dominant signifying image that was essentially masculine  and stereotypical. Although the antagonist was not really a male character, even though it may appear as male. This corresponds to Toril Moi’s analysis of the distinction between female, feminine, feminist categories of representation (1987). Only in my production there is a clear focus on masculinity. This can be identified in the typical stereotype of adventure games, where the main protagonist(the adventurer) is a man and has two sidekicks(one of which typically a woman).

Further to this I have exaggerated the muscular attributes of my character with expanded arms, legs and torso. I also included clothing that would be efficient for the story and confrontational, including an antagonist – signifying combat, aggression, conflict etc – and ancient clothing. In some ways this inverts Laura Mulvey’s notion of the male gaze in that my main character is there to be objectified and looked at, in the words of Laura Mulvey he is a character “establishing ways of looking and spectacle” (Mulvey, p. 883, 1999). However, the notion of the male gaze is quite distinct as it relates to the sexualisation of the dominant signifier, which is not the case for my character.

Nevertheless, I believe that it is generally accepted in society that masculinity is seen as much more aggressive, confrontational and violent than femininity. So in this sense my product is a reactionary representation of masculinity.

However, I don’t think this is a positive representation of masculinity as I personally believe that an over-aggressive (toxic) masculinity is not healthy for males to aspire to. As such, if I was to create this product again, I would avoid the stereotypical representation of an over-muscular, over-physical man and look to create a character that was more radical in representation. Perhaps inhabiting a range of signifiers that would connote a more feminine (ie less masculine) character. I could do this by re-sculpting my character in terms of their physical appearance, their clothing, their posture and even their gender. Changing the protagonists gender to female would make the product radical but a game which has already explored this idea is the ‘Lara Croft’ game franchise, although it may sem like a positive representation initially the game art/cover oversexualises Lara which I think is the wrong approach to creating a radical game. As such, I would be sending out a much more positive message (for me) about masculinity, if I made a radical product, one that used a positive countertype to present a radical and challenging representation which could help gamers to adopt a new ways of thinking about gender representation, with more positive role models for young people to aspire to. As Keith Stuart notes ‘the power of video games [is] a reflective, empowering and emotional influence on the lives of players’. (Why diversity matters in the modern video games industry, Guardian, 18 July 2017)