Quantitative – Number based approach eg. counting sales, audience stats…
Qualitive – an individual interpretative approach considering why audiences consume or engage.
Quantitative: this product is targeted towards men with a high disposable income (established middle class and up), as it is an expensive and exclusive product.
Qualitative: The aspirer. – motivated by esteem or status. n
| Calvin Klein fragrance | TAGHeuer watch | Superdrug blossom body spray | |
| understanding self | makes you smell nice/ makes you more attractive | makes you look more wealthy, sophisticated. handsome | makes you smell young and floral |
| enjoyment | gets you attention/ attracted to. Smell nice | you smell nice, product lasts long so you don’t need to be paranoid of smelling bad | |
| escapism | hides smelling bad | shows your wealth | hides smelling bad |
| knowledge about the world | model is confident and attractive, persuading you that you too will be attractive and persuasive. | people are driven/ attracted by money/ showy things. | |
| self confidence | you can feel more confident/ gain compliments | make you feel more attractive, exclusive, proud. | gain compliments on your smell, |
| strengthen connections with family/friends | can be given as a gift, makes people enjoy being around you | ||
| any other category or theme | shows hierarchy |
Hypodermic model (passive consumption)
Propaganda Technique in the World War which highlighted the brew of ‘subtle poison, which industrious men injected into the veins of a staggering people until the smashing powers . . . knocked them into submission’
At the same time Paul Lazarfeld recognised that a simple, linear model may not be sufficiently complex to understanding the relationship between message sent > message received. As such, in 1948 he developed the Two Step Flow model of communication, which took account of the way in which mediated messages are not directly injected into the audience, but while also subject to noise, error, feedback etc, they are also filtered through opinion leaders, those who interpret media messages first and then relay them back to a bigger audience.
In this essay I am going to apply a semiotic analysis to both Tomb Raider and Metroid video game covers. I will argue that the tomb raider and Metroid are both sexist and degrading to women, and create unrealistic views of males, which I feel does not represent positive views of gender to players of the games.
Tomb Raider, a popular video game of the 2000’s, presents the dominant signifier, Lara Croft, through the view of the male gaze. The male gaze was first theorised by Laura Mulvey, it is the act of depicting women and the world through the view of a white hetero-sexual male viewer, often being degrading and sexualising towards women. Lara Croft is portrayed as a woman who conforms to all of society’s gender expectations and standards for how she looks, very little clothing, small waist, large chest, who’s bottom can be seen from nearly every angle and ultimately the expectations set by white cis males, this is not only feeding to the theory of the male gaze, but also profiting off of the sexualisation of women through the game industry.
Similarly to Tomb Raider, Metroid also creates unrealistic sexualised views of men which fit under the ‘cool man’ expectations, huge muscles, weapons, anger and destruction and ultimately large features, which is an indexical signifier to danger and strength, the opposite to those of how women are presented. This also creates unhealthy expectations for men that they must be violent, physically and mentally strong and that both genders are displayed in a way to suit the voyeuristic needs of the gaming industry.
However, these two games, tomb raider and Metroid, become a clear guideline to how much the male gaze has affected not just the gaming industry, but also movies, television and magazines. Firstly, Tomb Raiders dominant signifier, a female character named Lara Croft, is presented as small and almost weak looking (skinny, small muscles, short) this could signify, although she is the main character, she is still seen as the ‘damsel in distress’. Whereas, Metroid’s dominant signifier is a male bounty hunter who is presented with: impossibly large muscles, huge legs, arms and feet. Although this is a negative stereotype towards men, this highlights that women are naturally seen as weaker than males even though they are both committing to hard, strength consuming tasks.
I believe very unhealthy stereotypes are placed into games that are targeted towards young people, these games somewhat justify the way men, women, other groups such as, black, Hispanic and Asian are stereotyped and generalized through video games “stereotypes were not limited to African Americans; Latinx characters have often been portrayed as gangbangers and drug dealers”. I believe these stereotypes of identity within the industry are so important as peoples lives are based around their identity and the way they portray themselves. David Gauntlet, a media studies professor talks about these subjects within identity in his book Media, Gender and Identity. Gauntlet states that identity is complicated and that peoples identity’s form and exist when around people similar to them… Unrealistic looking characters can also lead to mind sets which both make young people gain low self esteem and also unrealistic outlooks of themselves or others. “Video gaming is one of the most popular forms of media entertainment, with around 25% of European citizens playing at least once a week”- sciencedirect.com.
On the other hand, I believe Tomb Raider’s use of Lara Croft is also a step forward to breaking gender stereotypes within the gaming community, in the sense that the game is reactionary as a female character is completing daring tasks set around those expected to be done by a male in an in the conventional patriarchal industry. Lara Croft is seen carrying a gun connoting that she is powerful and dangerous which then contradicts her body which suggests she is weak. I feel the portrayal of Croft’s character can be inclusive to females as it is giving them the chance to play games mainly directed towards males. Tomb Raiders Lara Croft was also one of the first compelling female video game characters in a game that transcended and became a huge pop culture icon. On the contrary, although Metroid is presented as what is conventionally considered male, once the armour is taken off we are revealed to a female character who also follows many of the physical features similar to Lara Croft, I believe this is very empowering towards women, however, this can also be negative as Metroid was only seen as strong and powerful when being presented as a male stereotype.
Therefore, I believe the gaming industry is toxic in the sense that it allows and justifies negative stereotypes of gender, body image and race. Both male and female characters are overly sexualised to fit into a certain category to suit the male gaze, feed voyeurism, but mainly degrade and objectify women.
Male Gaze- The male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world, in the visual arts and in literature, from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heterosexual male viewer.
Voyeurism – the practice of gaining sexual pleasure from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity.
Patriarchy – a male dominated society
Positive and negative stereotypes– refers to a subjectively favourable belief held about a social group. Common examples of positive stereotypes are Asians with better math ability, African Americans with greater athletic ability, and women with being warmer and more communal.
Counter-types– a positive stereotype that emphasizes the positive features about a person. An example of a countertype is that all religious people are kind.
Misrepresentation– A misrepresentation is a false statement of a material fact made by one party which affects the other party’s decision in agreeing to a contract. If the misrepresentation is discovered, the contract can be declared void and, depending on the situation, the adversely impacted party may seek damages.
Selective representation – In terms of media, Selective Representation is only showing (representing) some events/conflicts, not all, sometimes chosen based on importance, proximity to home, and viewer preference.
Dominant ideology – the attitudes, beliefs, values, and morals shared by the majority of the people in a given society.
Constructed reality – when people and groups interacting in a social system create, over time, concepts or mental representations of each other’s actions, and that these concepts eventually become habituated into reciprocal roles played by the actors in relation to each other.
Hegemony – media hegemony is a perceived process by which certain values and ways of thought promulgated through the mass media become dominant in society. It is seen in particular as reinforcing the capitalist system.
Audience positioning – Audience positioning refers to the techniques used by the creator of a text to try to get the audience to understand the ideology of the text.
“For a time, some of the only places where Black characters could be found was in sports games, such as PUNCH OUT!!, released in 1987″
“implies that Latinos like Tony are inherently violent.”
“stereotypes were not limited to African Americans; Latinx characters have often been portrayed as gangbangers and drug dealers”
“The industry traditionally projects an image that is young, white, straight and male”
“games are his home. “games let me explore sexuality and gender at times when I’ve questioned both”
“As a girl growing up playing games I was always like, why do I have to play as a boy?”
“Once he actually confronts her his erotic drive is to break her down and force her to tell by persistent cross questioning.”
“The industry has been improving its depiction of non-white, non-male characters for several years, but in the last three E3 events, there has been a real sense of momentum, belief and priority”
i produced a pirate adventure game and i created a dominant signifying image that was female in a role usually assosiated with males. This corresponds to Toril Mois analysis of the distinction between female, feminine, feminist categories of representation (1987). In my creation i made her a pirate which is usually seen as a males job, ignoring video game steryotypes.
further to this is have exaggerated the feminine features without over sexualising my character, through clothing that covers the legs and the back of her. The clothing i included and a large sword signifies- combat, movement, power and hints of fights… This tactic links to laura Maulveys notion of the male gaze in that my main character is not to be objectified and stared at. However, my character will still probably be sexualised due to being a female pirate.
Nevertheless, I believe that it isn’t generally accepted in society that females in video games can be the main character (aggressive, strong, powerful) and females are often seen as the ‘prize’ or the thing that needs saving. so in this sense, my product is reactionary
I think this is a positive representation of a strong female character as i personally believe, females are in the spotlight enough when it comes to video games, it is usually strong men. I do not think it is healthy for any gender to play a video game which includes a female who is powerless for no other reason than her gander. I wouldn’t change much about my character as i believe she doesn’t signify a particular type of person, and wears similar clothing to those of which men would wear in video games. However, I do believe I could’ve made my character less conventionally attractive as it would send a more positive view out to players and have them play the game for the adventure, not for the character. 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)
