Minority representation is something that has been missing for the longest time. Only recently are minority people getting representation in things like TV shows and movies and other things. Video games is a place where minority people see the lack of representation. There are many articles that talk about how race and gender representation is important. I feel like video games need more race and gender representation in them because white people should not be the only ones who are glorified as the hero’s while the rest of other minorities are left out but also how minorities are always depicted as the bad guys.
Race representation is already really important but its also important that we get represented in the correct way and not be portrayed as bad people. In the article, “Representing race and Disability”, Rachel Hutchinson talks about a really famous video game called, “Grand Theft Auto San Andreas”. She talks about how race representation is often based on stereotypes and is seen all throughout the games in things such as speech or text. She says, “Analysis of racial representation in games is often based on stereotypical imagery found in short segments of game text, isolated from narrative context and divorced from cultural meaning” (Hutchinson). She says that in games people are not represented correctly instead they are unfairly represented with stereotypes or with only bad things that they are known for. Video games should not falsely represent or negatively represent a race because that just causes more problems with other races. Hutchinson also says, “ Rockstar North’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) is a useful case study, as a game that has attracted much scholarly and media criticism for its depictions of racialized violence”(Hutchinson). She talks about how this games has many negative depictions of black people in it with things such as but not limited to: violent crimes, drug dealing, gang violence etc. She states how even though black minorities are being represented, they are being depicted to be gang members, drug dealers. The fact that really famous and well known video games such as this one is depicting minority races as only being gang members and violent people is really unacceptable.
Gender norms is something that recently have been challenged dramatically. Video games are not different from society. Video games take gender norms and they reinforce them onto the characters of the games. In the article, “VIDEO GAME PARODIES Appropriating Video Games to Criticize Gender Norms”, Gabrielle trepanier-jobin talks about how gender norms in video games are based on predetermined ideas that have been around for many years and do not really matter anymore. She says, “ Most video games can therefore be considered as “technologies of gender,” which contribute to reproducing, reinforcing, and naturalizing preexisting beliefs about men and women. Like any other media form, video games play an important role in the construction of gender identities, which are not— according to a constructivist approach—bound to biological features, but socially established through the repetition of similar behaviors, bodily practices, and discourses” (Jobin). She shows us how videogames are not only depicting races in wrong ways but are also trying to push ideas of things like gender norms that are not valid anymore. Video games like to put the female character as the one who are submissive or the ones who need a masculine man to save them from trouble. Jobin also says, “ the platform video game Super Mario Bros. revolves around the kidnapping of Princess Peach by a turtle-like monster, Bowser, who wishes to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom. A pudgy Italian plumber named Mario has to pass multiple levels connected by enormous pipes and defeat Bowser in order to rescue this non-playable female character and to save the kingdom, this princess rescue plot device perpetuates the old stereotype of a helpless, passive, and gorgeous damsel in distress saved from a perilous situation by a masculine hero”(Jobin). The video game Super Mario Bros, a game that everybody has at least heard of like to play gender norm to the highest degree. The typical female in trouble who need a man to go and help save her. These types of gender norms are not true today at all. But still video games are feeding these old ideas into people and people eat all up and they do not even realise the real meaning behind it.
Another problem we see with gender is the fact that women are not seen that much in things like game developing or game designing. In the article, ““AW FUCK, I GOT A BITCH ON MY TEAM!” Women and the Exclusionary Cultures of the Computer Game Complex”, Jennifer Dewinter and Carly A. Kocurek talk about how women are always given really negative feedback when they try to do things like play video games or be video game programmer or other things of that sort. Dewinter and Kocurek say, “women in gaming culture face more than a little hostility from outspoken male gamers.1 The video game industry currently faces scrutiny from industry professionals, players, and cultural critics who deplore the lack of women and diversity in the production of games”(Dewinter and Kocurek). This shows the problems that women face in the gaming industry with all the negative things that happen to them to the lack of representation of women in these areas of video games.
Video games have a lot of things that they need to fix. The fact they depict people as being something that is not true really is terrible. Also that they would keep pushing ideas of gender norms that are not valid and the fact that gamers in general do not want women to be part of the gaming community which need to change.
