Published: 2021-05-181

Power Relationships as Understood by Michel Foucault in Female Roles in Computer Games in the Two First Decades of the 21st Century

Adriana Krawiec
Media - Culture - Social Communication
Section: Articles
https://doi.org/10.31648/mkks.6744

Abstract

In one of the most popular media of contemporary culture, which are computer games, there is an informal message encoded, which may discourage women from playing. It involves unrealistically slim and exposed bodies of female avatars. One of the reasons for the sexualisation of women in games is the fact that the designers of games are usually men. They create not only fantasies about women, but also about themselves – men are supposed to act, and women are supposed to be attractive. However, these are not blameless fantasies, but the outcome of social arrangements. The thesis regarding the patriarchal structure in the industry is reinforced by data showing that the sexualisation of women does not equal sales success. The author addresses research on the female gender stereotype contained in computer games over the past two decades, providing her own narrative as a commentary on the findings of the most important of these studies.

Keywords:

roles of females within video game culture, female protagonists in games, gender stereotype, male gaze, computer games

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Krawiec, A. (2021). Power Relationships as Understood by Michel Foucault in Female Roles in Computer Games in the Two First Decades of the 21st Century. Media - Culture - Social Communication, 4(16), 31–45. https://doi.org/10.31648/mkks.6744

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