I produced a police detective game and I created a dominant signifying image that was essentially masculine. 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 physique that I created for my main character, it was bug muscles in the arms, chest and legs which when I tested it on my target audience they recognised as “the standard for male body types!”.
Further to this I have exaggerated the muscular attributes of my character with clothes that fit perfectly, which is also clothing that was police-like and confrontational. 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 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, which mine is not. As such, if I was to create this product again, I would avoid the stereotypical representation of an over-muscular, over-physical detective and look to create a character that was more radical in representation, maybe a female or eben non-binary person. 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 and their posture. As such, I would be sending out a much more positive message (for me) about masculinity, ‘maleness’ 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)
