Virtual Violence Article: “Extreme Sex, Death, and Computer Graphics Imaging Technology”
Virtual violence has always been a topic that garners a great deal of attention, and in 2002, Claudia Herbst wrote an article that critiqued technology that continues to display extreme sex, death and computer graphics. One of the most important ideas that Herbst focuses her article on is the idea that “the cornerstones of CGI are the sciences, mathematics, and the military, all disciplines in which women have had little presence”. With this in mind, she continues to say that since women have not been as involved with these fields as men have, that they are not being accurately represented in CGI.
Although a few main characters in videogames have been women (i.e. Lara Croft, Parasite Eve, Tekken 3), they have only recently been portrayed as self-reliant, strong, and confident, which is clearly better than being just a submissive sex object. However, Herbst points out that the women characters are still ridiculously violent and “images of sexy violence are no more desirable than the previously common images of sexy incompetence”. Violence is still a huge issue because many people believe that children who play videogames look up to the characters as role models. This is especially problematic for girls who may see huge-boobed, tiny-waisted, gun-toting Lara Croft as the ultimate woman. Unfortunately when they get older and most likely do not develop the same sexual features as Lara, the only way left to imitate her is with the violence.
One other way to look at the lack of progression in the CGI industry in regards to women is that it is largely due to the fact that the women in the games are “not a product of women’s vision of themselves but of the male-dominated CGI and film industries”. This is quite problematic when women are still attempting to find their place in the world that is yanking on them to be both mother and worker, care-giver and powerful, natural and beautiful, etc. Hopefully women will one day have a larger say in how CGI is presented and thus how women are being depicted to the masses.
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