From: Brooke
Gender roles are very common today and have been throughout the past. Whether it’s through media, toys, sports, and more gender roles are constantly pushed on society and sometimes it’s so common we don’t even see it ourselves. However, the most gullible and vulnerable people exposed to gender roles are children and adolescents. Children’s imaginations and perception of the world can be very active as well as very easily influenced, hence why we need to be more careful when exposing our children to certain shows, toys, video games, and environments. In my photo I decided to focus on the subtopics of the “Tough Guise”, gender socialization, and masculinity in media. My photo captures a young boy playing a violent video game with different elements such as nerf gun, a football, and a messy room in the background. Especially important in this photo is the video game being displayed on the screen as he shoots a civilian and the words “critical headshot” pops up in the background almost encouraging the behavior of violence and aggression. This photo is taken from an angle that is just over the shoulder of the boy, making viewers feel the boy’s immersion in the game. The photo I took also hides the boys face showing how widespread this issue is rather than it just affecting one specific person. In the foreground of my photo is the boy as well as the video game “Cyberpunk 2077.” This game, especially the moment of the boy shooting the civilian shows how boys are socialized into an aggressive and almost militarized masculinity through media. In the background of the photo a nerf gun, football, and messy clothes hamper is visible which are all gendered expectation that boys are expected to adopt. I included the nerf gun in the photo because it symbolizes how violence and aggression are normalized in toys for young boys. In the story “The ‘Two Cultures’ of Childhood it states, “As toddlers, boys (in comparison to girls) show a stronger attraction to
rough-and-tumble play (i.e., boisterous and more physically active play, such as wrestling)
(Rudman 61).” I felt the football also added a marker of traditional masculinity that reinforces
toughness, competition, and dominance as well as active play. Football is also only offered to
males, there is flag football that women can compete in, but it still isn’t common as football is
socialized as a male dominated sport. There are also some less noticeable themes I included in
my photo such as the color and lighting. Colors such as blue, grey and black can be seen which
are typically seen as masculine colors and reinforces seriousness, stoicism, and toughness. The
room is also not lit and very dim with the light source coming from the video game, further
emphasizing the dominance the video game has in his world. The “Tough Guise” is also a
concept that we need to focus on as society when it comes to masculinity, and I think I captured
this very well in my photo by showing the violent video game and rewarding comments made
when you successfully kill someone. The term “Tough Guise” refers to front that men put on to
be accepted by other men which includes hiding their feelings unless it’s anger as well as
participating or showing interest in violence and toughness. The documentary “Tough Guise 2”
states, “It’s a dirty little secret that the video game industry and the Hollywood film industry get
paid by the firearms industry to feature popular gun brands in their games and movies, and that
the American military uses Call of Duty and other video games in their recruitment and training
(Katz). The documentary also emphasizes, “And the reason this matters so much is that while
we’ve been debating whether guns or movies and video games are more to blame for violence,
we’ve missed how both of these industries have combined to glorify not only violence, but a
particular brand of violent masculinity (Katz).” Overall, my image doesn’t just represent a boy
playing video games, but rather a societal issue in which media, toys, and cultural expectations
shape young boys understanding of masculinity. By exposing these boys to violent video games
and normalizing aggressive masculinity we are setting up boys for failure by leaving no room for
boys to express their emotions. As a society we need to be more careful with the messages we
give and the media we show to represent gender norms to live in a healthier society with more
diverse understandings of masculinity.
Works Cited
Rudman, Laurie A., et al. "The Two Cultures of Childhood." The Social Psychology of
Gender: How Power and Intimacy Shape Gender Relations. The Guilford Press,
2015, 59-63
Katz, Jackson. Tough Guise 2. Media Education Foundation, 2013
1 comment:
Hey Brooke, this picture takes me back to what some of my friend’s rooms looked like back from the ages of 11-15. All the props along with the main piece of the boy playing video games feels like a factory like architecture for most young boys. The foreground having the boy face away from the camera does exemplify the sameness among young boys, that most of them experience this kind of exposure. Then you notice the small things in the photo, like the nerf gun, the football, the clutter of things on the chair supporting the game console, the colorization, it all comes together the evolution of interests and behaviors from young boys. From my experience, seeing a young boy playing any shooter game does make me think about all the crazy offensive things they might have said while either being alone or on the microphone with friends or other people. In activities like that, boys normally try to one up each other, whether it is the gun they have, what rank or level they are in the game, or who can say the most hurtful thing to the other person when in a fit of rage. The themes of violence in the game its self is indeed promoted, but I’d argue they get more aggressive when it’s among other people, especially if they are losing or feel cheated. The idea of the “Tough Guise” does help exemplify personal life mixed into the gaming realm, for example it might not be masculine to play a children’s game like Roblox or Animal Crossing, so if you aren’t playing Fortnite, Call of Duty, or any other shooter games, a young boy could be called a pussy or gay for not falling in line with what some other boys have had set the bar of masculinity to. Ironically those phrases still get used when you’re playing the game and if you aren’t doing a particular action or if one or more person is mad at you in the game. I also do agree that the nature of these game so set up a suppression of emotions and vulnerability when the objective of the game and the community along with it are adults and children swearing, insulting, and raging at each other for feeling inferior in game they feel like they hold a hierarchy in.
Post a Comment