The Most Powerful Women in Video Games

Today, I had the pleasure to attend a free lecture by Bonnie Ross. She is a video game leader of the popular franchise Halo, and the Corporate Vice President of 343 Industries and Microsoft Corporation.

This lecture was appealing to me for many reasons. Firstly, she graduated in my major. I admit I was interested in hearing her story. Secondly, the lecture interested me because she is a powerful women in a heavily male dominated industry.

The lecture was interesting for many reasons. One part that amazed me was when she compared graphics from Halo 2 to Halo 2: Anniversary. She explained how motion capture has made an awesome difference in the way graphics can be achieved, and how better graphics enhances storytelling. She also explained how user generated content and empowering the player has become an essential part of Halo.

However, the most important part to me was when she explained her challenges of being a women in the field. She had some statistics about women as well. 43% of people that play video games are female. Only 18% of women go into Computer Science or Information  Science. This is actually down from 35% in 1985.

Also, technology is a great background to have. By 2018, the U.S. will have 1.4 million new jobs in the tech field, and only 61% of those jobs will be filled.

Ross laid out three obstacles that can get in the way of women pursing technology degrees. These three obstacles are:

• Lack of Support
• Lack of Exposure
• Lack of Understanding 

She explained how these obstacles played a part in her life. She didn't have a problem with lack of exposure. She started off as a Engineering major, and had full support of her father who was also an engineer. She soon found it hard in a male dominated major to find people to study with, except for the one other girl student that she knew. That is where lack of support came in. Lack of understanding followed when she couldn't figure out what to do with an engineering major, so she switched to Technical Communication. She stared off with an internship at IBM, and worked her way to where she is today. She also discussed how hard it was beginning at Microsoft as a women, but how he liking of sports helped her bond with her male coworkers.

I felt elated after hearing her talk, mostly for selfish reasons. I often feel behind in my major. I didn't have a computer until I was 14, so the technical parts of my major often make me feel very intimidated. However, after hearing her talk I feel more confident than ever.

Also, the fact that she is a woman that has accomplished so much was very inspiring. I think this is more so because she climbed her way to the top in a very male dominated business, and that is an accomplishment worthy of taking notice.

I feel that in a patriarchal society, or a male-dominated society, young girls are often denied the privilege of being told we can be scientists, doctors, and engineers. I know I was never told I could be these things, but I should be a teacher or a nurse instead. I know if I ever have a daughter, I will be sure to tell her she can be anything. 

Now I think I'll go play some Halo.

The Media's Use of the Oppression of Women to Perpetuate Hatred of Islam and Fear of Sharia Law

One thing I have noticed over the years is the news media's love of using the oppression of women in Islamic countries to perpetuate an anti-Islam agenda. If you don't know what an agenda is, it is the media's ability to influence the way the public views an issue.

There is no doubt that women in certain regions of the world face terrible odds compared to their male counterparts. I know that I am very lucky to live in a country where I as a female can have access to education and many other rights.

However, people love to use the oppression of women in Islamic countries to hate Islam as a whole, and perpetuate the idea that everyone should hate Islam too.

Recently, I watched a CNN special called Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door. The special focuses on conflict that arises in a small Tennessee town over the proposed building of an Islamic community center and mosque. No surprise, the oppression of women is used as an excuse to lead a force against the Muslims in this town. To see the part in which I am talking about, skip to 31:25 in the video.

I have seen this as well in the news media, which has really never been kind on reporting on Islams or Muslims in general. However, oppression of women is constantly used to perpetuate fear of a religion and Sharia law.

What is Sharia Law? It is a system of laws that govern civil and criminal law based on the Quran, according to duhaime.org Legal Dictionary.

Take this Hannity panel on Fox News. On this panel, five men debate on whether or not Islam is truly a religion of peace. Eventually, Hannity mentions the oppression and abuse of women in countries under Sharia Law, saying that Christians have never interpreted the Bible so literally as to kill and abuse women and gays.

To view it click here.

Eventually, Hannity asks "Is Sharia often used to oppress women and minorities?" One member of the panel comes back that it depends on the place and interpretation, which is also what the expert in the CNN special I mentioned above says as well. Some Sharia Law is interpreted as progressive towards woman, others are not. It is interpreted differently depending on where you are at.

I guess my problem with the news media is they love to throw around "Islam" and "Muslims" like everyone under this group is the same. Islam is one of the big three religions with millions of followers around the world. Literally anyone can follow Islam.

Researchers Omi and Winant coined the term Respectable Racism when referring to Arabs and Muslims on T.V, and found certain themes are associated with this group on T.V. One of these themes is an "Us. versus Them" narrative, which is often present in news media. Often, it is Americans versus Islam or Muslims. The term Muslim is also conflated to fit this narrative, though as I mentioned before anyone can be Muslim.

Do women in the certain areas of the Middle East face oppression? Of course. In Saudi Arabia, women cannot drive or leave their houses without male supervision. However, that is Saudi Arabia, one country among many that have large Muslim populations. That doesn't mean we should use that as an excuse to hate a religion.

Not all Muslim women are oppressed, and Sharia Law is different for everyone in different places. Women historically and now face terrible odds all over the world under many religions, not just Islam. Instead of looking at it as a religious issue, we should look at it as a human rights and gender equality issue.

The point is every religion has its extremists that take holy books too seriously.It's when we get the idea to put every person that belongs to that religion under one umbrella, and attach a stereotype to them, that it becomes problematic.

I found this video interesting as well. In it, a Muslim community leader replies to a Bill O' Reilly segment on the issue. In it, the community leader explains passages from the Quran and how every religion has its extremists when it comes to women.

Take a look:

The Middle and the Representation of the Working Class in Sitcoms

I would like to start off this post by saying I love The Middle. I have watched this show on and off again since high school, and I can say that it is one of my favorite shows, as far as sitcoms go.

If you don't know what The Middle is about, it is pretty simple. The show revolves around The Hecks, a working class Indiana family and the various parts of their family lives.

Mike and Frankie are the parents, and Axel, Sue, and Brick are the children. Mike works for a construction company, and Frankie often has on and off again jobs. These two parents do whatever they can to support their children and make their goals a reality.

However, after recently watching the documentary Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working Class, I began to associate a lot of what the documentary had to one of my favorite sitcoms, The Middle.

The documentary pointed out five typical ways in which the working class is framed in the media. These frames are:

• Seen has buffoonish of they attempt to move out of their class
• Often need makeovers if they want to move up 
• working class men are depicted as unintelligent or weak, loving beer and sports 
• not interested in politics
• poor work ethic and no leadership skills, dysfunctional family values

A couple of these made me think of the Hecks. The one that stood out to me is the unintelligible beer-loving father figure. I immediately thought of Mike Heck. Though he is a very loving and hard-working dad, he has his moments when he is uncaring, especially when beer or sports are around. Take this clip of when him and Frankie got the wrong baby Brick at the hospital when Mike is so caught up in a football game, he brings back the wrong baby. 

The next one that hit me was the dysfunctional family values frame. Now, I would argue that most families are pretty dysfunctional, so a lot of people could relate to this. However, dysfunctional family makes up a large part of Heck life, especially with interactions between the kids. Mike and Frankie are always trying to do something to make their kids get along. This is seen in numerous clips like this one where Frankie is explains why her kids can't stand each other around Christmas time: 

Or this one where Frankie tells Mike, beer in hand, that he is a lazy parent. When she tries to go out and play with the kids, she is also lazy, and ends up loosing her patience and getting knocked out by a football:

I could add many more clips, but I think you get the point. Middle class families are framed in specific way in the media more often than not. Often these portrayals are the opposite of the class that makes up the bulk of American society. 

However, this show is called The Middle, so a working middle class family and the struggles that they endure makes since for a show of this type. However, the fact that middle class families are depicted with these characteristics across the board is interesting. Think about your favorite sitcom, and see if these apply. 

Fox News Shouldn't Try To Talk About Women...Or Try Harder

I love The Young Turks. This Youtube channel does a fantastic job of critiquing various media clips from different news sources.

In this clip, they critique a Fox news clip of a panel discussing a Pew Study that found American society is shifting to women becoming the breadwinners in family households, and that has had a negative effect on children and marriage.

The Fox news clip starts off with Fox anchor Lou Dobbs introducing the topic of women becoming breadwinners in America, and refers to this as "concerning" and "troubling". The Fox lip then goes to another corespondent talking about the fact that something is going wrong in American society, and our children are doomed.

Another Fox correspondent goes on to talk about that fact that conservatives know science too, and uses that fact that males are dominant in the animal kingdom. Since males are dominate in the natural world, we are letting our society go to shambles.

This is obviously wrong. Roles of male and females vary by species. The Young Turks use many examples such as the Praying Mantis and Penguins. Female Praying Mantis often kill males after mating, and female Penguins are the ones that go out to get food, while the male penguin stays with the egg.

The first thing that I noticed about this Fox clip was the fact that this panel is made up of all dudes. Not one women is there to defend females' roles in society.

Besides the complete under-representation of women on this panel, I would also like to discuss the way the issue is framed.

The Young Turks mention framing in the beginning by talking about the way Lou Dobbs framed the issue by referring to the Pew Study findings as terrible. Right off the bat he framed the issue before even going into the panel.

So, what is framing and why does it matter? Framing is the selection of certain aspects of an issue and making them more prevalent. According to Robert Entman, framing can consists of four things, but not all. Those four things are: promotion of a problem definition, casual interpretation, moral evaluation, and treatment recommendation.

This Fox News clip included all of these, but I would like to focus on the part that the Young Turks mention, which is the way that the problem is defined right off the bat by using words like "concerning" and "troubling". He really didn't need to describe the issue in this way, bu the did, framing it in a away that set up the issue for the audience.

Framing maters because it shapes the way people view issues, and how those issues are talked about by the masses. If the public only sees frames put on by a certain mass media, that shapes the way views understand and attempt to resolve problems. It also is powerful in shaping opinions of people.

In a perfect world, the media would report on issues with dignity, but in Journalism the audience matters. News channels will frame issues in a way that they know their audience will agree with,

If I had a say, I would recommend stations report and practice Journalism the way it should be: with integrity. However, that would be a perfect world.