Video Games and Machine Games of Domination

Recently, everyone has been excited to own the game Grand Auto Theft 5 that just recently came out. This game is a major example of the violence shown throughout video games. This video game has brought out so many concerns to people because of the damage that can be done within this game. In an article I read, Has "Grand Theft Auto V" Grown Up?, they had talked about how it caused "a media storm like no other". The media questioned the violence in this game and were convinced that this is the type of thing that has corrupted American children. In this article it was brought to my attention that maybe GTA 5 has gotten better instead of getting worse by this line in the article: "The violence increased, but the use for it in the game matured.". Like Grand Theft Auto IV, Grand Theft Auto V seems to be taking the same approach where one of the main characters is trying to come out of crime and escaping violence, not "embracing' it.
I read an interesting article where a mother did not want her son to play Grand Theft Auto but didn't mind if her son played Call of Duty. Now there are two sides to every story, in this case its just an opinion which I have two sides to. This article is from the Grand Theft Auto IV but I still found value in it. The article,  Grand Theft Auto IV. Should 14 Year Old Be Able to Play? I'm With Mom, "No!", explains how the mother is considered a hypocrite from the father due to the fact she will let her son play COD but not GTA. The mother's excuse is that it is because COD is a game about war, teaching her son about the soldiers in battle. In reality, what 14 year old is really learning about historical wars during the game of COD? There is probably a very slim chance that the teenage boy takes something educational about this game. In my opinion, children aren't old enough at that age to realize what really goes on during a battle, whether the game is a perfect jist of it or not. Yes, GTA is more of a game where crime is committed by thugs and there are women in the game who are prostitutes. I believe COD is a better game to play than GTA, but I feel like they both provoke violence in our society even if one does more than the other. GTA has gamers enjoying the fact that they can steal cars, beat up women, kill prostitutes, and all sorts of other violent acts. COD is a more militaristic game but it also has violence which many people could learn from. Honestly, I used to love to play COD with my best friend and we would always laugh when we shot each other because of course we knew it's was not real, but what if one day a child does the same thing realistically, would the child still laugh? Another way to look at these games is if the gamer is mature enough to be playing these games. If the gamer knows that the actions during the game are somewhat realistic but should not be brought in society, then I find that perfectly okay. On the one hand, when children play these games, what goes on in their minds?  To go along with the idea that these games are somewhat tolerable, an article had talked about how the person enjoyed the more gruesome qualities of the game but also said that it could help people realize the gruesome and terrible consequences of killing someone. I honestly don't think a game will help a MAN or BOY realize that there is terrible consequences when these games really don't have a terrible consequence for killing anyone during the game. 

Violent Masculinity in Advertising

It all starts out early. Children learn things quickly. They quickly learn the aspects that they should have based upon their gender. Boys learn at an early age that in order to be considered male even they need to have specific "boy" toys. Let's take the huge Hulk hands for example, kids are learning that they need to be strong in order to be a man. There are so many adverts that affect a men's view of what a "real man" should look like. The formula for manhood is strong, assertive, confident, sexy, and powerful. A lot of ads show the dominance over women. Although there are some ads I have seen on the internet that show a woman dominating over a man for a fashion ad. Why do we see violence as being the major aspect of dominance? Men take on a Tough Guise by Sut Jhally which makes them develope an act of violence whether it is fake or not. Eventually they adapt to that nature and therefore it stays with them. A huge developement within helping men think they need violence to be dominant is the media. Television, magazine, any type of ads show men that are dominant and successful. We see successful and violent men as the dominant people in society such as Eminem. Eminem is successful in his music career and has so many fans, but why? Why do we like his music so much? What does he show throughout his music videos and songs? He sings about violence and shows power and violence in his music videos. We have been so accustomed to the violent masculinity act that we don't see anything wrong with it. People today still joke around and might say, "Yeah, my girlfriend got that bruise from me." The funny thing is that I have seen so many women allow their significant other to talk like that. They just find if funny. There's something wrong with that, joking or not.

 Even during car commercials the cars more pushed towards men use words like "speed, power, acceleration, strength". The media wants men to feel like they have to have a nice, powerful car to go along with their powerful and confident aspects. There are even political ads that show power dominance very violently.  The ad below shows the U.S. kicking Chinese out of the U.S. this shows the power and dominance of the U.S. over China by using violence. 

This political cartoon, circa 1886, uses the metaphor of washing to describe the cleansing of the Chinese from the U.S.  At the bottom it reads, “The Chinese must go.”

Traditional Roles Within TV Shows

In today's society there are still so many stereotypical views towards men and women within their occupations, their roles as a family member, and their roles just as their gender. These stereotypes are highly portrayed by television shows in the past and still are today. The Little House on The Prairie shows how women were the ones without an occupation and men were the ones to go out and provide for the family financially.  The family had more than one child which was very common back in that time period. The mother would always be the one to do all of the housework, take care of the children, and even the children did work at home also. Now, in today's society we still have shows stereotypical like this, although the shows are more realistically within our time period. One show which I think is a good example of this is Modern Family. This show has in a way gone against what we usually see on television with gay couples, which I think is great. The couple in this show may be two guys but they still each portray themselves as more feminine or more masculine. The more masculine guy of the two goes to work and has a good occupation. His partner is more feminine and stays home, does the laundry, makes dinner; he does everything a woman would typically do in a household. I found an article very alarming on the gay couple in the show; People are still hateful towards gay couples. If you read the article you might be able to understand the argument they are making but some of what they say shocked me. http://www.mamapop.com/2011/10/why-modern-familys-gay-couple-cameron-and-mitchell-are-a-bad-influence-on-families.html. I chose to talk about this show because there is so much to talk about within it dealing with gender roles, race, religion, and class. Going off on how television shows are usually portrayed as the "american dream", this show proves that in good detail. During the reading, within the chapter "Family Formation and the Economy-The Television View" they talked about how the tv shows do have female and male expectations shown through their dialog. The children in TV shows express their parents' need for change. Throughout these tv shows you can see what the society expects us to be like and how they expect us to react to certain things.

http://www.mamapop.com/2011/10/why-modern-familys-gay-couple-cameron-and-mitchell-are-a-bad-influence-on-families.html