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.

male gaze- the perspective of a notionally typical heterosexual man considered as embodied in the audience or intended audience for films and other visual media, characterized by a tendency to objectify or sexualize women

Voyeurism- an interest in observing unsuspecting people while they undress, are naked, or engage in sexual activities

Patriarchy-a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it.

Positive and negative stereotypes

Counter-types- representation that highlights the positive features of a person or group.

Misrepresentation-the action or offence of giving a false or misleading account of the nature of something.

Selective representation-when some groups of people are represented more in government than others. 

Dominant ideology-Ideologies that are told to us repeatedly by important social institutions 

Constructed reality

Hegemony-leadership or dominance, especially by one state or social group over others

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.

Fluidity of identity-Having a fluid identity means having the ability to change how you see yourself, the world, and your actions.

Constructed identity-the way we construct our identity.

Collective identity- individuals’ sense of belonging to a group

“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”

“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″

“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” “

I produced a racing car game and I created a dominant signifier image that all genders would be intrigued to play. In my games cover there is a connotation within the image to explain how there are varies of car games and alongside with a story line. This might target the audience more as people enjoy taking part in the story rather than just playing the game as it wont be as interesting. The only production there is a clear focus on my female character and the racing cars. This can be identified in the posture that I created for my main character, it is a slumped, which when I tested it on my target audience they recognised as “a typical female character!”.

Further to this I have exaggerated the feminine attributes of my character with thin arms, legs and torso. I also included clothing that was simple but intriguing and comfortable. 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 she 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 as I am trying to keep the game clean.

Nevertheless, I believe that it is generally accepted in society that females should be seen as less violent and aggressive rather than males. This is because there have been many games that males tend to save the mistresses in distress, however i also believe that females can be portrayed as how they want to be as they all have different personality’s. Therefore my games cover is a radical image for my main character and my dominant signifier is the car as it stands out to everyone who will play the game as you can simply tell what sort of game it is.

I think this is a positive image as I think that it influences females that they can do whatever they enjoy and shouldn’t be ashamed of something they are not capable of doing. This is also seen as saying males are better drivers than females. My games cover represents to all genders as i think society has a wide range of ideology, however I disagree to agree that, ‘yes’, there are more things that males are better at doing but that doesn’t mean that females weak and always in distress. I avoided the stereotypical of representation so that my image would stay radical rather than reactionary. The reason for creating a female character is because I want to target my audience to all genders without having to sexualise my character.

I produced a games cover about the new FIFA, called FIFA 22, it is based around zombies, military and masks with the dominant signifier being the zombie wearing all of these things on him. That was masculine through me picking two male characters, although it you could say it doesn’t identify with any gender as its a zombie. This relates to the analysis of the distinction between female, feminine, feminist categories of representation by Tori Moi (1987). The main focus of my production (games cover) was masculinity. This can be identified by the fact that they are standing with their shoulders out and broad to create the sense that they are the Alpha males. The target audience will recognize it as “a typical male pose”.

Further to this I have exaggerated the muscular attributes of my character with expanded arms, legs and torso. I also included clothing that was war-like and confrontational, including a large weapon – signifying combat, aggression, conflict etc – and a war-like helmet. 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 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 (i.e. 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)

Sign	Stands in for something else
Code	Symbolic tools used to create meaning
Convention	Accepted ways of using media
Dominant signifier	The main representative
Anchorage	Words with an image to provide context
Signifier	Stands in for something else
Signified	Idea being evoked by signifier
Icon	A sign that looks like its object
Index	A sign that has a link to its object
Symbol	A sign that has a more random link to its object Roland Barthes:
Signification	Structural levels of signification, meaning or representation
Denotation	The most basic or literal meaning of a sign
Connotation	The secondary, cultural meanings of signs or signifying signs signs that are used as signifiers for a secondary meaning
Myth	The most obvious level of signification, but distorts meaning by validating arbitrary cultural assumptions in a way similar to the denotative sign
Ideology	codes that reinforce or are congruent with structures of power
Radical	Something that challenges dominant ideas
Reactionary	Something that confirms dominant ideas

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.