Using A Sexy Video Game Avatar Makes Women Objectify Themselves

reply to post by graceunderpressure


It does, it tells me you are slightly annoyed, then somewhat surprised!!. a confusing but amusing combination

JakiusFogg
... slightly annoyed, then somewhat surprised!!. a confusing but amusing combination

My typical ATS experience when reading about the government. Very well put!

reply to post by graceunderpressure


Yup, just another sunnyt day in ATS land

Si, solo un otra dia en ATSlandia

reply to post by JakiusFogg


agreed. I think the bigger issue, is the type of female avatar choices that are available to women (or men), in games. On sites like ATS it's different because people can craft their own avatar but on games where there's an avatar creation tool, how often do they let you make not so appealing avs?

Doesnt it matter what the player is doing with that avatar?

I find it difficult to believe that playing as Lara Croft, for example, leads the player to act the role of a victim in real life seeing as how Lara Croft is constanly breaking the necks of agressive men.

Granted I dont play games much but I cant recall seeing any game where the lead being female focused on being fragile, weak or a victim.

I find this funny!

I regularly play an online pc game in which I picked a female avatar, but many men in the game also picked to play as the female character as they are slightly smaller than the male one so the men who picked to play as women think themselves harder to hit by bullets by being slightly smaller.

to be honest it really doesn't matter to me. I am female and an online gamer and in my experience the 'game' comes first then the 'gender' ( well to those serious about the game ), i have experienced female/male avatars getting run out of a squad if they cant perform their duties, just depends what game you play i suppose and who you play with

edit to add - i think the study is total and utter nonsense! They base it on a study of 86 women! and they dont state if these women are gamers or not ( which I think is important)

Crakeur

OtherSideOfTheCoin

also what about men, why is it when men chose a "sexy avatar" no one says anything but when a woman does it they are "objectifying themselves".

Because men don't use scantily clad studs as their avatar, unless they are the scantily clad hot guy in their avatar.

It's why I went for the shot of the clown in mine. I want everyone to see me as a fool, thus I use an image of a fool.

In video games, the clown/fool is generally my gimmick too. There's a video around of my avatar playing SWTOR pretty much naked with a dunce cap on just because it's fun.

reply to post by Nyiah


Well this study can be misleading. First, they didn't have a control group in the study from what I can tell. The sample in the study was also of college females(probably from same university) that were paid 15 bucks to participate. Which classes did they hit up to recruit these young women? Basically the sample size was too small and not set up properly for them to be making any assumptions.

Rape culture is very bad on college campuses and I think more than any other place there is victim blaming.

"She shouldn't have been walking at night."
"She shouldn't have worn those clothes."
"She shouldn't have gone out to a party."
"She shouldn't have lived alone"

Blah blah...the list goes on. This study proves nothing but maybe an issue with a particular age group of women in a particular major. That's why science, especially involving people's behavior needs very LARGE samples.

Either way, I am a female gamer and 30s age group. I don't know what view I would have had at 18, but either way I am a somewhat butch lesbian(although do dress girly from time to time). If you had made me suffer through an avatar that was dressed in pretty woman clothing that looked like me who knows what kind of a reaction I would have had. Either way though, at my age I create characters based on the mood I'm in. Usually they are good looking women in scantily clad clothing...like my Skyrim character who looks like Kate Beckinsale. I also created a character like me that was in scantily clad clothing(is there even another option for female armors....) and I still don't think rape victims are to be blamed.

I've been gaming for the majority of my life.
In the beginning, we didn't have avatars, we simply played.
But then the times changed and online gaming was new and radical, speaking from the console POV, we still just played.
Then online gaming went full temp with avatars, including your dashboard and a variety of games, that's when we actually stopped and tinkered with our online identities.
Me for example, I play X360 a lot and my dashboard avatar looks a lot like me.
My Halo 4 soldier is a reflection of ME.
It's really whatever people like. I have friends who just come online and use the voice chat feature on party chat and just chat away.
Some people just feel more comfortable online then the real world and they will make that character a reflection of what they REALLY WANT TO BE.
It's literally an entirely new digital society that can run on it's own.

For the record, whatever it is I do, whenever, I AM THE MASTERCHIEF, Spartan 117.

OtherSideOfTheCoin
Can i just say you have a very sexy avatar OP......

Thanks, she was the result of a request on the BTS Av thread, and a talented member's time

also what about men, why is it when men chose a "sexy avatar" no one says anything but when a woman does it they are "objectifying themselves".

Why can they not just create a avatar why does it have to turn into sexual objectivity.

Its just a game

enjoy it (if thats your thing otherwise dont play the dam things)

Good question about the male avatars. I've seen a ton of customized male avatars that are muscularly "sculpted", attractive facial constructs, in open-chested shirts, etc. I wouldn't necessarily call them skimpy, but they do put the characters on a pedestal just as unattainable IRL as the female avs have been. I've played my fair share of male avs, so I do know they're not all males behind the screen, but it raises the same question for men. If it's objectifying ourselves as women to play a skimpy, sexy, et al avatar, does it not mean men are equally objectifying themselves as highly muscular, extremely good-looking avatars showing off what they can, too?

To be frank, I think the entire argument in the article is skewed bunk, but if we're going to discuss it, we might as well be fair and cover both genders if there's really a self-worth or image issue being promoted subtly.

reply to post by RUFFREADY


awesome book, I really enjoyed it! looking forward to the movie they are 'supposedly' making, although I hope they do it justice! that book is relevant to this thread, was a great story about avatars and the true people behind them

Nyiah

OtherSideOfTheCoin
Can i just say you have a very sexy avatar OP......

Thanks, she was the result of a request on the BTS Av thread, and a talented member's time

also what about men, why is it when men chose a "sexy avatar" no one says anything but when a woman does it they are "objectifying themselves".

Why can they not just create a avatar why does it have to turn into sexual objectivity.

Its just a game

enjoy it (if thats your thing otherwise dont play the dam things)

Good question about the male avatars. I've seen a ton of customized male avatars that are muscularly "sculpted", attractive facial constructs, in open-chested shirts, etc. I wouldn't necessarily call them skimpy, but they do put the characters on a pedestal just as unattainable IRL as the female avs have been. I've played my fair share of male avs, so I do know they're not all males behind the screen, but it raises the same question for men. If it's objectifying ourselves as women to play a skimpy, sexy, et al avatar, does it not mean men are equally objectifying themselves as highly muscular, extremely good-looking avatars showing off what they can, too?

To be frank, I think the entire argument in the article is skewed bunk, but if we're going to discuss it, we might as well be fair and cover both genders if there's really a self-worth or image issue being promoted subtly.

edit on 10/10/2013 by Nyiah because: (no reason given)

edit on 10/10/2013 by Nyiah because: (no reason given)

--
That avatar...I want to say that's Rikku from the final fantasy 13....

reply to post by Evil_Santa


I was talking about the fool of an avatar I have here. It was a joke.

The last time I picked an avatar for a game, I made a hot little red headed woman and wound up getting all kinds of gifts, and some ugly chat, from dudes who assumed I was a woman. I wound up changing her name to Xysys Nohlayde (this is no lady) and, eventually, the dudes backed off.

Arnie123

That avatar...I want to say that's Rikku from the final fantasy 13....

You know, it never crossed my mind to ask. Now that you're pondering it, I'm curious as to where her image hails from.

Speaking of avatars on ATS, if I take a fleeting glance at yours, I somehow see a Tholian in an enviro suit.

Female gamer here, yes we do exist and there are plenty of us! I call bunk on this study!

In most games we don't get much of a choice. Most character are designed to be eye candy for the guys. Even if you can create your own avatar you usually only get to choose between 3 body types on average and they are all busty, and you can usually increase the bust size but never decrease it from the preset.

Women totally get the short end of the stick when it comes to eye candy. I would like to see an increase of good looking male avatars. Oh, that's right, girls don't play games so we only need to please the guys right?

I think it's more the other way around. I'm female, I'm proud of my sexuality and my sensuality, I'm a gamer, I'm a strong woman... my avatar reflects ME, I don't reflect my avatar. If I ran around naked in a game, it wouldn't ever make me think that women asks to be raped or mistreated because of how she dresses. However there are a lot of very insecure, uneducated women out there, they would be so whether they played video games or not.

usertwelve
reply to post by Nyiah

 

If anything it helps you be a better gamer.

OMG that is one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time, and so SO true.

ETA: I used to work with a guy that played strictly female characters in World of Warcraft because he always got free stuff (items, gold, etc) from complete strangers.

reply to post by DeadSeraph


Maybe once upon a time that was true, now no gamers even believe you're a female unless they hear you on voice chat.

reply to post by Nyiah


As a female gamer (30 years of video gaming and still going--some women take up knitting, I frag people), I'd like to point out that their theory is bunk. You see, as a FPS female gamer, I've been playing male characters for at least a decade now and often times for a good number of hours every week. You see, most FPS games don't even have the option of playing a female character (and when they do, they tend to look like Lara Croft). Under their rationale, I should be fully embodying my male avatars in video games--the basic equivalent of a neurological transsexual. However, that hasn't happened. I'm still straight. I don't check out "hot babes". I like my hair long and while I'd never be caught dead in a floral print, I'm still pretty darn feminine. But hey, maybe that's because I've also played some games where I could have a female character.

Now, if they're going to look for a pattern to rape myth acceptance (RMA), then I would suggest asking these same women who espoused RMA whether or not they played with Barbie dolls as children, how much tv they watch(ed), what their religious beliefs are, and how they perceive scantily clad women in general outside of a virtual environment. Each one of those things are going to have a far more pronounced effect on RMA than having them mess around with a video game avatar. Expecting a video game avatar to influence RMA is ridiculous when there are so many other forces at work in RMA development throughout society. Those women were probably already that way when they walked in the door (unless they lived in a bubble).

This was something that the researchers could've addressed, however, if they had developed a control group or queried the women about RMA thoughts before they put them through the experiment. Last I checked, a good scientific method requires a control to make sure that the outcome is not explained by some other aspect than the expected variable. I've looked at the abstract's methodology and I don't even see them asking the women that are accepting the treatment of the experiment (VGA) what they thought about RMA subjects before having them mess around with the virtual character. Their conclusion on its influencing the development of RMA is one hell of a stretch based on the paper.

grey580
reply to post by Nyiah

 

Right....

I'm sure all those bathroom selfie shots aren't helping either.

^^^^^^This^^^^^^

Huge guffaw...

"Duckface"