Reconco, Erik

Reconco 1

Professor Ditch
English 114A
November 4, 2014
Youre Not a Man. Unless
Male gender expectations are key when it comes to shaping a society. Male gender expectations affect everyone. For example when a police officer violently shoots an kills an innocent man people get involved and it causes the society to change their approach on regulations,
thus changing society. A male gender expectation can be something such as being dominant and
even violent. Violence is more common amongst men because violence is portrayed as a male
gender role. For example, Grand Theft Auto Five, is one of the most violent and popular games
out there and it presents men as being dominant and violent. A person playing the game can go to
a strip club and pick up females as if they are only important for sexual purposes because females have really no other significance in the game. People who play this game, typically males,
can possibly see this dominance over females as true and may incorporate this into their own life
because they might be trying to fit into the male gender role of being the dominant one. Male
gender expectations should change because it causes men to try to fit into them and by trying to
fit in can become violent, and overly dominant and it just doesn't let the males and females become who they want to be without being criticized and considered nonconformists.
The visual text I have chosen is quite the one to look at. The collage is a series of pictures
displaying what the video game known as Grand Theft Auto 5 is all about. The collage displays many different pictures where men are displaying dominance through violence. The men in

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the collage are holding guns and have cars, displaying their clear dominance. The men are a
symbol of masculinity and thus portray what a real man looks like. Boys instead had athletic
equipment and cars and building blocks. Boys were taught that things like these were for men
and its no surprise that the game displays men using these toys only in versions for adult
males. The women on the collage on the other hand, display weakness and sexuality in the pictures within this collage. The collage has two pictures of females. One of them displays a women
in a bikini and a women being handcuffed by a police officer. The women in the picture where
she is being handcuffed displays weakness and submission, which typically is what is expected
of a female in some societies. The visual text is meant to grab the viewers attention by displaying
what a man should be like in order to look cool or accepted as a male. The game is directed towards males because everything you can do in the game is considered traditional gender performance. You can't be a female in the story part of the game. All the selectable characters are males
and perform violent actions. The only purpose females serve is to be a stripper really and attend
to a males sexual needs. The game puts females in a position where they are considered unimportant when it comes to life situations. The male displays control over the women. This type of display in a video game can influence young people quite easily for they are not yet completely matured and they might think what they see in the media and especially video games is what is expected of young males. Males aren't commonly displayed as emotional or weak which leads to
the obvious conclusion that males act according to socially accepted norms.
Male violence is a constant problem in almost any society. Video game advertisements
such as this can not only put gender roles on people but have influential effects on young males.

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Young males can see this type of violence as being cool and are taught by the media and video
games that this is what a man is like. In the game you can go around insulting people and young
kids playing the game online don't even say hello to other international gamers before they start
talking smack. I play many violent games such as GTA5 and Call of Duty. And in every game it
is filled with kids that sound very very young and all they do is curse and talk about how they are
going to do bad things to your mother. The kids do this because they feel like they have to act
this way in order to be seen as men rather than boys, and violence to them is a clear way of displaying dominance and masculinity, or so they think that because it is presented to them by video
games like this that men are supposed to be violent. Kids at a very young age are presented with
this type of male gender rolling and will only copy that image of a male so they can fit in and
avoid criticism from other males and even females. Males at a young age are taught to be dominant and these types of gender role teachings will stay with men even into their careers.
The current United States Government is largely controlled by males. 70 percent to be a
little more detailed. Males control far more important roles than women do. Many men believe
only other strong and powerful men should uphold these responsibilities for most women are
considered incapable of that. Male hyper dominance can be an issue because it leaves female
opinions out of the picture. And males may act to what they believe is best for males and females, when the truth is the action they have chosen only affects the women negatively. Like the
video game, Males control the government. Leaving most women powerless to do otherwise.
African female political leaders are presented in a negative way by the international media, calling into question the credibility of these women as leaders of their nations. ( Anderson, Diabah,

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hmensa. 1)Women in political positions in Africa and the United States are criticized by the media. This type of criticism puts fourth the possible fact that women are incapable of leading a nation, and who is left to do the job, well the sex that has always done it, the male. The females are
criticized for being non conformists and taking on roles they shouldn't have. This puts females in
an inferior position to males. Thus giving the males the gender expectation of being dominant
and able to lead, while women are given the gender expectation of being incapable of that dominance.
In Tough Guise Jackson Katz explains that men are more violent in almost any aspect
of crime. Sexual harassment, rape, and murder. Male violence is substantially more common
than that of female violence. This lead me to find out what percent of women play this game. If
men play it less, it should mean that women are more violent. If men play it more, it should mean
that women are less violent. Well it turns out that men do play it much more than women and this
game most likely influenced some men into becoming violent. Grand Theft Auto around 15
percent of its fans are women (Sydell 1) This quote explains how little females play Grand theft
auto. This can be a valid piece of evidence showing that since less females play violent video
games like this, it could most likely mean that women wont be as violent as men because men
play it more and are more exposed to this type of gender role. Men are more exposed to this violence caused by men and it can lead them to think that men are like this. Men in the past have
committed various crimes like mass shootings and murder. But some murders are similar to murders done in media. For example, a librarian asked me that if i heard on the news that a women
was killed by her boyfriend. The women that was

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killed was killed in a way similar to that of a murder in a television show named Dexter. The
man would watch this show. Leading to the speculation that this might have influenced the man.
Media is very powerful and can influence people to do many things. Males might be taught to be
violent and women will be taught to be submissive.
What i am about to quote are possible counter arguments other people might have towards my claims. These aren't real quotes from actual people but these are very plausible confer
arguments that i must address. Males are violent because violence is presented to them by their
family and other circumstances like where they grew up in, not because of video games. Violence in Video games is only one way a male can be influenced to be violent and dominant. But
it in fact can have a great deal of influence on young adolescents. However it is true that those
other circumstances may also influence violence in men as well. Living in the ghetto surrounded
by violence can cause a man to feel the urge to be violent in order to protect themselves; they
Conform to the male gender role of being violent rather than taking the supposed female gender
role of talking things out. My son plays these video games and he isn't violent at all. Video
games have no influence on people when it comes to being violent I play video games like this
and consider myself a very passive person. It doesn't affect every man, it only influences some
men. Ive personally experienced little kids being rude and make threats on online gaming. These
kids show clear symptoms of being influenced by these types of video games that the definition
of a man is to impose dominance over others, even through verbal abuse. ( which keep in mind,
the game has a feature that allows you to talk smack to other characters in the game.)

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Male violence and violent video games may not have the clearest ties but it is evident that
men can be influenced by video games such as this because other types of media do have this
effect on males where they are influenced into acting ways a man should act like violent and
dominant. Women are portrayed as being nothing more than sexual tools in the game and in real
life you can see similarities to the dominance men have in the game and in governments around
the world. Young males shouldn't be exposed to this type of violence for they are the most vulnerable to being influenced for they are not matured yet. Men and women shouldn't be put forth
what is expected of them and they should be allowed to do what they please without being criticized. Games like this can influence men negatively and put females low on the totem pole of
dominance.

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Works Cited
Anderson, Jemima Asabea, Grace Diabah, and Patience Afrakoma Hmensa. "Powerful
Women in Powerless Language: Media Misrepresentation of African
Women in Politics (the Case of Liberia)." Journal of Pragmatics 43.10 (2011):
2509-518. Web.
Austin, Grace. "Surprise! Government Is Still Mostly White and Male-Dominated - diversity Journal." Diversity Journal. N.p., n.d. Web.
"Tough Guise: Violence, Media & the Crisis in Masculinity." YouTube. YouTube, n.d.
Web.
Sydell, Laura. "Female Fans Love New Grand Theft Auto Despite Demeaning Content."
Www.npr.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2013.
Groner, Rachel. Composing Gender. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. Print.