Gender Studies and Foucault
One of my professors came through with some help I never expected, and as always from an angle completely unexpected.
Pulling old notes from a “Sexual Ethics” class (one of the more interesting classes I ever took I must add) has led me down the path I spoke about yesterday - that In
order to legitimate itself, the law first produces then conceals the
production of its subjects.
And then this got extended by Foucault’s “What is an Author” (which I still have to read) but as this prof notes it is:
about the creation, and subsequent hiding, of the modern
author. This might be of interest to you as games have authors. And games,
maybe even more so than novels, need to hide their authors.
One of the things I have been struggling to put into words in my own head is the way in which games are stories written by a biased (perhaps interested is a better word?) author/developer and that story is then passed off as just a game, completely harmless, completely safe for consumption (minus the blood, guts and ass of course) by all ages - much like disney or sesame street.
The interesting thing about games however, much like Brynen and others point out in their analysis of TV and movies, is that they tend to reflect, and push the boundaries of, existing global socio-political events.
It is easy to see the progression of bad guy themes from Russian Communisits to Chinese and North Korean Communists, followed by a brief stint of WWII military games in the wake of “Saving Private Ryan” and now we are on to Arab/Islamic terrorists - themes which are in the mind of the population, on the news and needing exploring or release.
But more on that another time.
Though o’ the day:
Game authors are real people with real bias, but in order for games to be “just games” for the mass consumer, they must hide the fact that their stories were created. They present themselves as a legitimate source of fun and more importantly here, content, which just “is” and is just the way it was meant to be played to steal someone’s marketing phrase. This can allow the re-enforcement or creation of stereotypes and perceptions in a way that involves minimal challenge because it is both just a game and just there.
I think I will avoid going into the male gaze too much in this thesis, but the gender boundaries of male/female may be interesting to look at from a development perspective.
Perhaps the portrayal of women-as-prostitutes in GTA as they relate to under-developed US neighborhoods (such as Harlem)