Frigid Environment Ahead
I’m sure we can all remember the first time we encountered the smell of freshly fallen leaves from the giant like trees that hovered over us. We wondered at the beauty that was gliding down, and delighted in the crunching sounds. Life was simple. Leaves were fun. As a young girl, you were not aware of the mountains that you would face within society, just because you are a girl. As a young boy, you had no inclination as to what society would ask of you when you became a man. How, as with every passing moment, the world would depict your childhood neighbor and best friend, let’s call her Sarah, as an object. An object that would never quite hit the same mark as you would, because you are male. The warmth and security of fall would pass, and winter would set in on Sarah.
Let’s fast forward . . .
Working within the societal norms that have dictated the west for well over fifty plus years as a female is not easy. Especially if one is working within the media industry. The climate is frigid. When it comes to IT jobs, program designing, as well as the gaming industry, there is a vast under representation of women. Even when there is representation, women face extremely hostile environments.
A well known video gamer developer, Brianna Wu, has experienced this first hand. Her life was threatened, just due to the fact that she is a woman within this industry. This needs to change. Even though women are becoming more prevelant withing the gaming sphere, it is attached with degragatory comments, and death threats.
The issue is not only how women are treated within the game developing community, but how they are depicted within the games developed as well. A lot of female characters shown in games are objectified and exploited for the gratification of the user. It is not unprecedented that a character develops as newer editions of the game are released, however, as one can see below, this character named Sophitia has progressed over time to be even more sexual than when she was first developed.
Between death threats and the sexualization of women, a change needs to happen, not only within gaming culture, but the culture of the west in general. Women have ideas, voices, and opinions that need to be heard and cherished, and the continuing of discrimination and attacks needs to stop. The frigid climate needs to pass, and spring needs to come.
Glitch
The below piece of glitch art is something that I believe represents the current climate of those who are in tune with the reality of marginalization of class, race, and gender. I did focus on gender mostly in my post, but discrimination runs rampant through our nation everday in many different avenues. The sign that is being held up by a woman states, “We are better than this.” I chose to distort the image because I believe that a distorted perspective is what some citizens have. They have a blurred view of the reality of the climate, and that reality has been on a loop, just as this photo is looped. However, if they are able to slow down, focus, they will be able to see that we truly are better than the reality that they are in. The woman holding the sign is the one spreading the awareness, that we can be better citizens to everyone, that all it takes is for one person to stand up and declare that.
