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Originally Posted by Combine 017
So like, an Alpha Male or something?
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No. More like a stereotype. Like...all males fart and itch their balls, and think women should be in the kitchen.
Hegemony is a legitimate construct/theory but it doesn't hold a ton of weight per se because like much of sociology and gender studies...it is based on intangibles. Kind of like Freudian Psychology which was discredited eons ago for the more popular biological or cognitive approach.
I think Prof S touched on the main point...which is that male games are anything but hegemonic. Most male gamers are still perceived as "live in mom's basement" types. You do have an anomaly of college frat boys playing Madden and Gears of War...but that has to be a minority compared to the plague of males playing World of Warcraft, Pokemon, Nintendo Wii, Halo, etc. You know, the string bean guys with broken glasses that are taped back together. Who have lots of acne and their voice cracks when they talk. Gaming is still stereotypically played by male losers, and you could have a much more fruitful discussion on that point instead of this fake article.
Here is my beef and my guess as to why this article is such an incoherent mess. This article was written like a Gender Studies piece and not a gaming piece. There are burgeoning and cutting-edge areas in communications and sociology dealing with the impact of gaming and technology on people. In order to tackle this subject you need to be educated on it, and clearly this author is not.
Masculinity isn't just how you dress, how big your muscles are, etc. It's more about your actions...so even in a game as vapid as Gears of War; I don't buy any argument or social commentary on masculinity. Whereas Mario's premise is that Peach is in the kitchen baking a cake and Bowser kidnaps her....so the only male in the Mushroom Kingdom needs to run through levels filled with phallic objects and save the princess. Except I'm smart enough to believe that Mario is not misogynistic.
But the man saving woman theme pops up in a lot of games.
Anyway....I still think this lady is way out of her element. Just because she has a Gender Study's degree and happens to play video games does not qualify her to say anything of gaming itself. This is a poorly written, trite article.
Re: Masculinity in Video Games
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