MA Project Workshop Blog

“The Double Edged Sword of Online Gaming: An Analysis of Masculinity in Video Games and the Gaming Community” is about the double sided analysis of violent video games on adolescents mental/emotional/sociological development. Overall it explains how these video games showcase mainly male characters and normalize violence as a way to ‘win’. For young boys this kind of media often normalizes and perpetuates rigid masculine norms like toughness, violence, and emotional restriction. However, on the other side it does also provide a space for young boys to make friends with similar interests and find belonging in that. 

When it comes to my project this is important because it shows how young people gravitate to certain forms of media, for boys it is usually video games. What comes from the use of these popular violent video games is often harmful societal standards and gender norms found in the ‘Man Box’. These include the idea that to identify as a man, these young boys must use aggression and violence to get what they want; further, emotional restriction is normal and expected as a man and to be tough is how boys are supposed to act. This is very different from what popular media for girls understand and take away. However, the difference in the media that young boys and girls view is usually unknowingly pushing certain gender/social norms, this article is one example of this for boys’ relationship with video games.

This week, I haven’t done too much for my MA project but I have begun to think about who I am going to interview and how I am going to find people to interview. I think I will interview 4-5 people of different genders ages 20-25 and then also my younger sister and maybe younger brother under age 18 to get a young perspective on how media is either continuing to push these norms with new tools like AI or if it is actually getting better for younger generations.

Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. (2021). The double-edged sword of online gaming: An analysis of masculinity in video games and the gaming community. Retrieved from https://geenadavisinstitute.org/research/the-double-edged-sword-of-online-gaming-an-analysis-of-masculinity-in-video-games-and-the-gaming-community/

For my MA Project, I’ve decided to do something based around the hyperreal and gender/social norms projected onto young kids, further exploring how that may be becoming more aggressive as we begin to merge more with the hyperreal over time. I’d like to do this in a documentary form, interviewing people of different genders to see how the media they consumed pushed them into certain hyperrealistic stereotypes, how young they were, and where they are now etc. For example,  to see how young boys whose main mode of online interaction was with different video games, how that shapes their perceptions of masculinity today, and what pushed them to get there. Whereas for girls, maybe social media and other gender norms pushed while being a young girl, that could be the reason for certain insecurities or beauty focuses today. 

I think the Figures Fashion Show by Rachel Bromberg is similar to what I am going for in terms of documentation. I will have a clear idea of what I am researching and writing about, and therefore ask specific questions pertaining to different genders and their relationship with online communities and norms when they were younger. This is similar to the way this project asked the fashion show participants about their relationship with the male gaze and how being a woman connects with different garments in a critical way.

Sources:

Bromberg, R. Figures Fashion Show. 2023.