I produced a Car Racing game and I created a dominant signifying image that would appeal more to the male audience. This is because a majority of people who would play my game would be male. This corresponds to Toril Moi’s analysis of the distinction between female, feminine, feminist categories of representation.

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 seen as manly and reactionary, including a leather jacket, plain white shirt, casual trousers and some casual sunglasses. 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”. However, the notion of the male gaze is quite distinct as it relates to the sexualisation of the dominant signifier, which is not what I have done with 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.

I believe that this is a positive representation of masculinity as that an over-aggressive 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 zombie and look to create a character that was more radical in representation. Perhaps inhabiting a range of signifiers that would connote a more feminine character. I could do this by re-sculpting my character in terms of their physical appearance and their clothing. As such, I would be sending out a much more positive message to the audience about masculinity, 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.