Sunday, February 23, 2014

Chris's Opening Blog Post


            This will be blog run by my peers and I. The goal is to examine the progression of the roles gender played in various aspects of life as seen through media from the 1950’s onward. The portrayal of each sex has changed gradually throughout history. In order to examine this progression of gender roles first the word gender must be defined. For the intents and purposes of this blog it will be defined as a set of social and behavioral standards that are considered appropriate for either a man or woman in a social setting. The blog will also keep in mind that these representations of life are just that, representations. It is often the case that these depictions and the real thing are not equal. Rather they are depictions of how the people of the time believe or wish the world were.
            For the blog the starting point of 1950 was chosen for multiple reasons. First of these reasons being that a great deal of change in the roles of both genders, male and female, has occurred from the 1950s to now in the United States of America. This was the result of various movements, organizations and events that have truly impacted modern society. The other major reason being that the great technological leaps made during this timeframe not only made the current forms of media more available to the public but also created entirely new forms of media. These leaps in technology put televisions and eventually computers into the home of every American.
            My peers and I will research this topic through different forms of media. Each person will focus on a particular form of media. These forms of media include advertisement, film, television, music and gaming. By gaming I mean anything from sports to modern video games.  The topic I will cover is the representations of gender roles in gaming. An individual blog will focus on one of these topics in a specific decade. Starting with the 1950s to modern day.
            The topic I will cover in this blog is gaming. I chose this topic for several reasons. First being that growing up I was an avid fan of both sports and video games to the point that they have both became an integral part of who I am today. For sports I ended up latching onto tennis where I competed throughout my life until I graduated community college and have connections through my uncle into the professional scene of the past. For video games I have played various games including Counter Strike, Street Fighter and Ultimate Marvel versus Capcom 3 at a semi-professional level. Being in the various communities associated with both of these major parts of my life give me a unique insight into the topic at hand over someone looking into it from the outside. I will look into the roles of both men and women in this topic for a change in gender roles.
The research done for this blog will be done in a few different ways. First being archival research on the topic at hand. Archival research will be done through university resources as well as outside resources. The next being interviews with members of these communities. Primarily being the tennis community for sports and the fighting game community for video games.
This topic depicts very well the ways of thinking towards gender roles in society and the issue some have with the changes that have occurred. Hopefully through research of the various decades will show a general trend. I believe this trend will prove to be in favor for gender equality in not only this aspect of society but in society as a whole. That being said this progress will not be linear. I believe there will be many set backs to go along with the progress made throughout the decades.

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