Stickman Games and Gender: An Analysis of the Representation of Gender
Stickman games are a genre of video games that focus on creating an action-packed adventure. These games include 2D platformers, shooting games, and fighting games. These games are popular with many players.
The critically acclaimed game The Last of Us proves that great video games can be created without maintaining gender stereotypes or appealing to the sexual desires of male players. This will hopefully set a new trend in the development of video games.
Gender stereotyping
Gender stereotypes are beliefs about how women and men should be (descriptive beliefs) or how they should behave (prescriptive beliefs). They often involve gender-specific descriptors for personality traits, physical characteristics, role behaviors, and occupations. These gender stereotypes cluster together to form gender ideologies, which have profound effects on psychological functioning.
Studies have shown that girls and women who endorse sexualized gender stereotypes have lower self-esteem and less positive feelings about themselves. Gender ideologies that emphasize beauty, thinness, and feminine emotionality also interfere with academic achievement by limiting girls’ interests in subjects such as science and math.
Gender stereotypes are detrimental because they don’t allow people to fully express their emotions. It’s damaging for masculine folks to feel that they can’t cry or express sensitive feelings, and it’s harmful for feminine folks to be expected to be passive and emotional. Breaking these stereotypes allows everyone to be their best selves. This is important because it reduces discrimination based on gender and promotes equality.
Socialization of gender roles
Gender socialization is a complex process that occurs in families and other primary groups. It involves the acquisition of both person and role identities, which are characterized by an oppositional structure that defines one’s self in relation to others (e.g., teacher-student, doctor-patient). In addition to the existing literature on family and gender dynamics, this discussion also uses identity theory to explore how sex-related stereotypes and behaviors persist.
The application of identity theory to the study of family and gender allows us to better understand how sex-related attitudes and stereotypes perpetuate. Specifically, the application of identity control theory demonstrates how emotions operate as part of an internal control system to stabilize gendered identities and perpetuate gendered stereotypes. Moreover, the literature on gender and family reveals that there are a number of ways that families influence the socialization of gender. For example, studies show that as parental education increases, adherence to traditional gender roles decreases.
Body image
Body image is the degree to which one feels satisfied with their physical appearance. It is associated with other variables, such as age and family affluence, but also has a strong association with gender role orientation. Among girls, upholding traditional role preconceptions is associated with lower levels of body satisfaction.
These findings indicate that gender-based stereotypes about appearance can cause body dissatisfaction and result in a variety of negative consequences for well-being, including psychological distress, health behavior, and mental illness. Questioning traditional gender roles during adolescence could help to prevent such problems.
Moreover, women are expected to purchase cosmetics and beauty products in order to conform to hypersexualized norms of beauty while men are expected to use protein powders to obtain muscle mass. These expectations are often based on the desire to attain a masculine body that is perceived as sexy and attractive by others. This pressure can lead to unhealthy lifestyles and eating disorders.
