Tropes vs Women

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This series of six videos explain six common tropes regarding women. This series is aimed at Hollywood films, television series, video games, and comics though they are found elsewhere as well. The first trope is the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a "bubbly shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach brooding, soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures"-Nathan Rabi. The second is about Women in Refrigerators. This trope was coined by Gail Simon and features female superheroes who have been depowered, raped, or cut up and put in the refrigerator. Third is the Smurfette Principle. This is the tendency for works of fiction to have only 1 female amongst an ensemble of men, despite the fact that roughly half the human population is female. Next came the Evil Demon Seductress. This one is pretty self-explanatory, a female demon, vampire, alien, etc. uses her sexuality to seduce, manipulate, kill, and sometimes eat men by luring them into her evil web. The Fifth is the Mystical Pregnancy. This dates back to the bible. Characters are reduced to their biological functions. This is also called reproductive terrorism or torture porn. The last, and very destructive is Straw Feminist. This trope involves the distorted view of feminism, an exaggerated character is created and filled with misrepresentations, oversimplifications, and stereotypes to make it easy to discredit feminism.

I loved The Avengers, but think about how the women are portrayed.

For me, these videos were eye-opening. I can say I had noticed some of these things before but never knew they were used as often as they are. A common thread for most of them is the women are highly sexualized and objectified. The exception was the straw feminist, who is portrayed as more masculine and pushy, unattractive, often fanatical. The biggest danger of these is their overuse. They paint women in a bad light, they perpetuate stereotypes, and they encourage disrespect and mistrust of women. These attitudes and beliefs make it harder for women to achieve equality. They make us look like either dumb, shallow, helpless creatures, or evil and crazy. These messages are found everywhere on social media, in advertising, in literature. When I really started to think about it, the examples are staggering.

No better example than the cover of a men's magazine.

The information in these videos ties in nicely with other materials we have explored. I feel these tropes also fit in with the video for this module on African American women and sexuality. I think they are portrayed often as part of the Evil Demon Seductress trope. While not always a demon or vampire, they are portrayed as using their sexuality in a manipulative way. This series also mentions the Bechdel Test as part of the Smurfette Syndrome trope. The concept of the Male Gaze is also prevalent in these tropes. Women are objectified, they are a muse, and if they resist and fight to be more, they are crazy.  

After watching the damsel in distress part:1 tropes versus women in video games, The video speaks, for the most part on the way women are portrayed in video games, of course. She starts on speaking about a woman character by the name of Crystal who was a hero but unfortunately, we were never able to play the game because it wasn't the final draft we could say. The game is at its final draft and has been played but they have been some major changes. One being that Crystal, the female character is now no longer the main hero, but she is now the damsel in distress stuck in an ice crystal who needs to be saved by the new hero whom which is a man.

Crystal is in a different outfit which is much skimpier than when she was the main hero. 

This video has influenced my thinking on the particular area she was discussing in many different ways. One being that, woman and cultures I seem to be as weak physically, weak emotionally, although not so much weak mentally. These traits can Portray woman to be helpless, which plays a big part in the damsel in distress. And it is now known in my eyes, that women are in fact being 'robbed' at the chance to be heroes.

Strategic Butt Coverings!

That's right, you read correctly. Butt coverings. This is the controversial topic covered in Feminist Frenquency's video from the overarching topic of Tropes vs Women in Video Games.

Oh look! There's Laura Croft in the very first example, just as I mentioned in my discussion post about how the game takes place in third person view, where the player's eye is drawn to her meticulously crafted behind. What's the problem with this? Well, there wouldn't be so much outrage over it if in contrast the same design strategy was used for male characters - except it isn't. Similarly, I want to add that the first ever game where Lara Croft appeared is incessantly mocked - even by fans - because of her hilariously awful character model. Here, the game designers basically said through the design: "It doesn't matter if her boobs look super bad, as long as she has boobs for the boys to look at" and it's completely and utterly ridiculous to place that much emphasis on having that be a feature when they couldn't even animate it properly. In hindsight they should have just had her mildly endowed or even flat chested, but no - it was more important that she have ice cream cone-shaped breasts than none at all.

Atrocious. Found in an awesome article of the evolution of her character over time (source).

In contrast, along with the many other challenges facing people like myself - female gamers - we face the reality that male video game characters are not treated with such injustice. Which actually kind of sucks because I would love to get a clear glimpse at Ezio Auditore or Soldier 76's ass! I had not guessed that the title of the video would actually refer to the men of video games, who are explained in the video as having an excuse to not have their butts shown because the game creators want the people (read: men) to identify with those characters. But the women? Nope, just there to be eye candy, maybe move the plot along a bit at times.

I think its high time we take a closer look at the demographics of game consumers and also at the way we are portraying gender and sex in video games. The game industry would love to believe that it's just young straight men who play their games, and secondarily that they play them either to relate to a male character or want to stare at a sexy female. I can only name a handful of times that I've gone to a video game store and not been asked if I was buying the game for my boyfriend or brother. No! I'm buying the game for ME! By the way, when the next Assassin's Creed game comes out, can I get a lingerie skin for the male protagonist if I preorder the gold edition? Pretty please!

Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Ezio Auditore from Assassin's Creed II by DoubleLeaf on DeviantArt.

Either everybody should have their junk hanging out for people to enjoy - or everybody should be covered properly. This trope doesn't even begin to cover my gripes with parts of the cosplay industry - whereby a lot of "popular" female cosplayers usually wear lingerie or bikini or sexy versions of armor or of regular characters. Sometimes they even cosplay a "sexy female" version of an original male character that wasn't ever sexualized at all! I'm never sure whether to be annoyed at these people, or just enjoy their creativity. I may never know which side I stand on. I just want to see more dude butts.

Justice Ain't Gonna Dispense Itself

As much as I really wanted to talk this week about John Marston from "Red Dead Redemption" he is actually an extremely typical Western cowboy character existing in a very classic rendition of the Old West atmosphere. So instead, I'll switch gears to another cowboy heartthrob who's just one of many varied characters in a video game I'm obsessed with lately:

Jesse McCree from Overwatch

Three guesses what the belt buckle stands for! (source)

Since in my discussion post I argued that it would be completely plausible for an Old West cowboy to be able to live in today's world, I'll further my point by using McCree as an example that's already in practice.

For those who haven't heard of Overwatch, the timeframe of the game takes place about 60 years from now, during which time the heroes (playable characters) are called back to their initial positions in a United Nations-style task force called "Overwatch" which was created in order to fight against the Omnic resistance - the Omnics being sentient robots who are fighting for their own rights. It turns into a pretty ugly war between the Omnics and the Overwatch force, taking many casualties and ruining many cities around the globe.

Jesse McCree gets involved in Overwatch only after the gang he belongs to - the Deadlock Gang - is infiltrated in a sting operation by Overwatch commander Gabriel Reyes (Later, Reyes becomes Reaper). The Deadlock Gang had long been holding the American Southwest captive to its illegal activities for decades and they mostly dealt in arms and munitions. On one of the game maps (called Route 66), the gang has blown up a bridge in order to obtain a nuclear warhead from a military cargo train passing overhead.

Route 66 map on Overwatch, note blown up bridge over the canyon. (source)

After most of the Deadlock Gang is captured, including McCree, he (much like John Marston) decided that he had enough of that life and wanted to atone for his wrongdoing by fighting for noble reasons and justice. Overwatch's leaders, Reyes specifically, wanted to recruit him to their cause and McCree accepted, though he later went into hiding when infighting between Overwatch members began its downfall. I'd also like to mention the fact that he'd lost part of his arm and had a robotic one to replace it, this sort of thing being the norm in this future era since a lot of the characters have robotic appendages or systems to use to their advantage.

John Marston from Red Dead Redemption (source)

The similarities even between McCree and other cowboys are not to be ignored either, since his "Deadeye" ability is the exact same that Marston uses in "Red Dead" and they look very similar to each other. McCree also has notable voice lines that are direct references to other Western movies and characters, for instance: "I'm the quick... you're the dead," he says at random in the game lobby (The Quick and the Dead), or, "I'm not good, not bad, but I sure as hell ain't ugly." (The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly). He also has several different "skins" or outfits in the game that hearken back to other classic Old West characters.

Here you can see what McCree sees during "Deadeye," also notice his robotic hand. (source)

So, here we have McCree, who in the year (est) 2045 or so is running around the Southwest with a gang of bandits, dressed in chaps, spurs, and a ten gallon hat, with his signature weapon being a six shooter known as the Peacekeeper. His "ultimate" attack ability is called "Deadeye" and when activated he shouts a classic throwback to many a standoff: "It's High Noon" and then yells "DRAW!" while simultaneously shooting any of the enemies he's locked on to. A tumbleweed appears behind him and gently rolls across the ground nearby. Yet it all takes place 60 years from now and no other characters think that he's odd or out of place. It's still very normal for the southwestern United States to look and operate much like it did in the 1800's with some modern upgrades alongside.

I Am A Cosplayer and I'm Not Sorry

Firstly, I apologize if this comes out in a terrible format because I have never really "blogged" before, so I hope the technical aspects take care of themselves.

As per the title of this post, I can confirm that the area of pop culture that interests me the most is Cosplay. For those who have never heard this term before, it is the combined concept of "costume" and "roleplay," meaning that you not only dress as a character that you like, but you act like them, and while dressed you do your best to fully become them. Now, there are definitely many different levels to this act, as any beginner or casual fan could tell you but that shall remain a topic for another time. I will simply state that I would consider myself at the upper echelon of cosplay, in that I try to make my costume as accurate as I can and do try to speak or act as that character would most of the time.

Myself as Maya the Siren from the "Borderlands" video game series at Boston Comic Con 2015.

Cosplay is important to me for more intrinsic reasons than I could probably count, but the most major reason is that it is very social by nature, there are thousands and millions of others who like to wear costumes to conventions and I just plain love making friends! Secondly, it speaks volumes to my artistic nature; not everyone endeavors or is capable of making their own costumes, but it is an artistic challenge that I thoroughly enjoy testing myself on.

Myself, my husband Nick, and friend Sammy as characters from "Metro 2033" and "Fallout" at PAX East 2016.

As to what I expect to learn - conversely I intend to include the things I know in order to contribute to the amazing discussions we are about to share and I expect to learn more about the things I have likely been avoiding. For instance, I have never been particularly fond of zombies. The original idea of roaming deceased humans is wildly entertaining, but I feel it has become very overrated. The market has been completely saturated with zombie-themed things and frankly, I quickly tired of it. However, I promise to give it another chance as perhaps one of my classmates enjoys that part of pop culture and would be willing to elaborate in order to convert me :)

Myself at Boston Comic Con as Ezio from the "Assassin's Creed" video game series at Boston Comic Con 2015.

Gears of War's Logo

Image Source

Gears of War released in 2006 for Microsoft's Xbox 360. The soldiers in the game are referred to as "Gears", and they work for the Coalition of Ordered Governments, or C.O.G (Get it? Gears, COG? Heh.). This small amount of information is actually all we really need to make sense of their logo, a blood red skull inside of a gear.

The logo in question
Image Source

First thing's first, here's the breakdown of the logo.

Sign: Gears of War Logo

Signifier: Blood-red colored gear and skull
Signified: Gears of War series
Myth: War and death

We obviously know the sign is for the series Gears of War because it is paired with the title in the image above and on the cover art for the series. It's seen on all four of the games (Gears of War, 2, 3, and Judgment) covers, and will also be included in the upcoming Gears of War 4.

Breaking the logo down now, we can look at the signifiers. What makes this logo relevant to the game series? We know from the title and the basic premise of the game that the soldiers are the gears that make the C.O.G. operate, hence their name, and why it's present in the logo. Then we look at the word "War". War implies death, and blood. Since blood is red, we can pretty easily figure out why they colored the logo red; they want to imply that the game is bloody, and there will be violence and death. Inside of the gear, we see a skull, which we know as the symbol for death, because when a person dies and their body breaks down, left behind at the top of their skeleton is the skull (the symbolic properties of the skull could be a blog post all on its own).

By applying these three elements together in the logo, we know what the game is about before we even play it. There will be blood, and there will be death. Since this is the key element of the gameplay in the series, the logo is now synonymous with the series itself, and becomes the game's signifier.

The Ms. Male Character and other Female Gaming Characters

Anita Sarkeesian, host of
Feminist Frequency (Image Source)

The video I watched this week was Ms. Male Character - Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games. In the video, Anita Sarkeesian speaks about the concept of a "Ms. Male Character" and how often they appear in video games. This concept came about due to a need for female characters in games, but these specific types of female characters are essentially female stereotyped clones of their male counterparts. In gaming, this began with Ms. Pac-Man, who is basically just Pac-Man with a bow, eyelashes, and lipstick. All of these things are what people identify as female, but Anita points out that these are things that are completely superficial, created by society.
There are examples of female characters in games that don't fall into the Ms. Male Character trope, such as Claire from Thomas was Alone (see left) and Ellie from The Last of Us, but unfortunately, most female characters will end up being created using this exact trope. This trope also tends to mean the characters have very little depth or personality, outside of being a female version of their male counterpart, like Ms. Pac-Man.

Claire from Thomas Was Alone (Image Source)

As an avid gamer, this makes me think a lot about what makes a female character in a game. Is it for the sake of having a female character? How were they created? Why are they dressed the way they are? I then realized that some of my favorite female game characters avoid these tropes, at least mostly. A recent favorite of mine was Lara Croft in my personal Game of The Year 2015 pick, Rise of The Tomb Raider. Lara is the central character, and has no male counterpart. She doesn't display many of the stereotypical female attributes, and in fact displays herself as one of the most bad ass characters around, male or female. She's tough as nails, doesn't wear pink, but she does have a bow. Only this one isn't the kind you stick in your hair. This is a total change from her original character's portrayal, who was a hypersexualized woman with large (albeit polygonal) breasts and long legs. The new Lara, which was changed for the 2013 reboot of the Tomb Raider series, removes this hypersexuality, going for a far more subtle look.

Zelda and her disguised persona, Sheik (Image Source)

Princess Zelda of The Legend of Zelda fame allows us to take an interesting look at this trope. Zelda herself, while not a "Ms. Male Character", does have some of the stereotypical female attributes. She has long hair, wears purple, and has a tiara. However, in one of the greatest games of all time, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, she disguises herself as another character named Sheik, who displays none of the female stereotypes we're used to seeing in games and pop culture in general.

It's important to look at female characters in gaming and understand where they come from. I believe more of an effort needs to be made in order to change the Ms. Male Character stereotype, but we seem to be well on our way, especially thanks to characters like Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider reboot.

The Protrayal of Women in Video Games

In this video by Feminist Frequency discusses the role women characters have in video games. For the most part, Feminist Frequency says, women characters have the role of the damsel in distress or “passive victims”. Princess Peach, for instance, in the Mario Bros. game plays that role. They’re generally very feminine, attractive and princess-like. Rather than playing the role of the savior or the hero the characters are usually portrayed as submissive, weak and helpless. It’s the male characters who are the hero who save the female. Also, often times the female character is fought over and “a prize to be won” by the male characters. It’s almost as if she’s a ball in a game which is passed back and forth. She does point out that even if the female character starts out strong they will often become weak, particularly it their femininity becomes apparent.

Even though it’s just a game and really just for fun there is a social impact. These games are very popular and played around the world and they give a backward impression of women. The female characters are always the helpless victims that need to be saved. They also empower men by reducing women as helpless victims. This, I think, sends a message that women are not equal and need to be protected and shielded. These games also portray men as the subjects and women as objects and this only further exacerbates the different expectations society has of men and women.

The Last of Us: A True Modern Western

As I mentioned in my first blog post, I'm an avid gamer. You probably also noticed that in the bottom of said post, I had said that my second favorite game of all time is Naughty Dog's The Last of Us. This game is simply incredible in all senses of the world (and if you have a PS4 or PS3, you MUST play it), but especially because of it's deep narrative. The story starts with a man named Joel, a single father living at home with his daughter, when all of a sudden, a fungal infection starts spreading rapidly across the US (it's revealed to be a humanized form of the cordyceps fungus). Like a traditional zombie story, if you are bitten, you are infected. Joel is forced to transport a girl named Ellie, who is apparently immune to the fungus, and Joel must take her across most of the US, from Boston to Utah, where a group is trying to find a cure for this infection.

Image Source

Joel is a perfect example of a modern cowboy, and The Last of Us is a perfect example of a modern western. Firstly, they are, in fact, moving west throughout the entirety of the game. They didn't even try to blur the lines on this one, Joel's goal is to successfully move west throughout the US to reach a hospital in Salt Lake City, UT. Like other typical cowboys, Joel is a masculine white male. He often acts tough and hardened, and has to endure a lot of brutality throughout his life, especially in the time the game takes place. By bringing Ellie to Utah, he is trying to bring order to the lawless land of infected that the US has become. If a cure can be found, order can then be restored in the country, since the infected will all theoretically be either cured or killed.

Traveling most of this journey on his own, it can be safely assumed that Joel is quite self-sufficient, often even crafting weapons and other items along his trek, such as first aid kits bandage himself. Unsurprisingly, the environment surrounding him is quite hostile, with essentially everything trying to kill him and Ellie. Life has been reduced to shambles compared to what it once was, and the country is trying to sort life out once more and regain balance.

Image Source

The story fits essentially every trope you've come to know from the Western genre, yet manages to modernize it with great success. Joel is every bit a cowboy as any other one that's ever existed, and the story is a Western through and through, without a single doubt in my mind. If you get the chance, please check out this fantastic game, you won't regret it. Here's a trailer to leave you with a taste of what the game is all about (WARNING: GRAPHIC).

Module 2: An Example of Popular Culture

PROMPT

Using An Example of Popular Culture (10:36 minutes) as an approach, take a look at some form of popular culture (other than coffee or gaming) from a variety of angles to understand the ways and means people interact with it and make sense of it. 

 It should be something largely known and recognized so, therefore, you can use specifics to draw out different angles (similar to the coffee where coffee was generic but then discussed different forms of coffee to distinguish different identities).

Some other ideas or areas you might consider (but are not limited to):

• Anime
• Baseball
• Basketball
• Cars
• Comics
• Crafting
• Do-It-Yourself
• Fashion
• Food
• Football
• Hockey
• Movies
• Music
• Music festivals/concerts
• Soccer
• Television

Due Sunday by 11:59pm.

Relevant Tags: Pop culture studies, [Name of specific popular culture being explored]

Example:  Gaming 

I found this week's video on Coffee to be fascinating and got me to thinking about how I consume coffee and what it means to "get coffee" with someone.  That lead me to think about other areas of popular culture and one that I participate in quite off, which is "gaming."

Gaming is much more multi-faceted than the six-letter word lets on.  First, there is the traditional console-based gaming that occurs on Wiis, Gamecubes, Playstations, etc. While these used to be for singular or dual use, they are now open for much more interaction with players able to join entire community of gamers online through their consoles.  Or gamers can also access different and new games rather than buying them at a store.  We've moved from a 2-input console (hello Atari joystick!) to consoles that can read your motion (and therefore, change gaming from inactive to a very active past-time). 

After my recent semester finished, I played this for many hours on my Wii.

We also have mobile games and these too are curious.  Some are simply time-killers to occupy us in the in-between spaces of time when we would be twiddling our thumbs or growing impatient with waiting in line.  Others like one of my favorites, Ingress, brings us into the physical world to explore it, play with others, and learn more about the world than we knew otherwise.  Other games pit us against our friends (Words With Friends) or we look to help out our friends in the game. 

There are games with rich and complex graphics that really does make you feel you are in another world or the games wherein you put in hundreds of hours to complete--hours that can feel like "work" but are still somehow rewarding.  Such games require an amazing amount of concentration, dedication, and intellect to complete.  Other games are equally demanding but don't necessarily have a "complete" phase wherein the person feels they have "beat" the game. 

Then, of course, there are the secondary elements of gaming--the critique blogs, vlogs, and podcasts (Geek and Sundry is one of my favorites), the gaming competitions, Twitch tv, LARPing and Cosplaying around video game characters or when video games become movies. 

 We "play games" for many different reasons: to relax, to engage our brains, to be social and connect with friends, to enter the "zone", and many other reasons.  We can often see the word "game" used derisively and yet, the modern gaming world is such a rich world of interaction and exchange among people. 

It seems like games are everywhere in our culture and I know that some people see that as a sign of being somehow lesser and yet, I can't help but think about how I've seen games be a place where I make friends, learn more about the world, and even a place that brings me a lot of joy. It requires a variety of skills from hand-eye coordination to social interaction to critical and creative thinking to even physical ability. Thus, I tend to think there's a lot more going on with gaming than many people realize.  

Resource: 8-Bit Philosophy

I have been a fan of 8-Bit Philosophy for a few years now and believe it's a great resource for people learning popular culture.  The video series on YouTube takes deep philosophical topics and ideas and breaks down what they actually mean, but most often they use characters, plots, and motifs from video games--particularly old school video games of the 1980s and 1990s.  I often find myself coming to 8-Bit Philosophy when I want to get a strong and easy to understand approach to discussing a specific philosophy or concept.  Here is an example: 

This particular video helps us to understand the basics of a very complex theory: marxism.  I found it useful because marxist ideology is strongly bound informed by the development of mass-production (via the Industrial Revolution) and therefore has often used in exploring critiques of popular culture.  In particular, it makes me think about our roles as fans of popular culture, which makes us de facto consumers who often spend our limited resources (because we would often be understood as "workers" in Marxism) on elusive things that benefit capitalists.  That is not to say I entirely believe this is the case, but in looking to understand Marxism, such ideas are what stem from extending the theory to our modern life.