– 3.1 Equality & Diversity

Representation of Women in games

Representation – the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way.

For the starter activity, we tried to link up important events in history that gave women equal rights to their correct dates.

This is the correctly linked up version:

This task could be helpful if say a game was set before 1928. You would have to consider the fact that women couldn’t vote.

After that we arranged a series of posters in chronological order:

Next we looked at a series of controversial games and looked at how women are represented in them. This task is in the games comparison section of the blog.

Sexuality in games

Sexuality – a person’s sexual orientation or preference.

Types of Sexuality

This is a brainstormed list that we did as a class.

• Bisexual
• Pansexual
• Asexual
• Heterosexual
• Homosexual
• Gender Fluid

Next we were given a series of LGBT events to try and guess the right dates for.

This is my guessed version:

And these are the correct dates (in the order that they are shown in the picture):

• 1951
• 1988
• 1967
• 1990
• 2014
• 1992
• 1980
• 1957
• 2010
• 1971

Next we looked at a series of LGBT activists and found out why they were important and what happened as a result of their sexuality.

Alan Turing

Known for:

Developing the idea of the modern computer and artificial intelligence. Worked with the government in the Second World War by cracking the Enigma Machine used by the Germans, Winston Churchill said he “shortened the war by two years”.

Issues Faced:

Found guilty of being homosexual in 1952 and was punished by being chemically castrated. This led to his suicide in 1954.

Ellen DeGeneres

Known For:

Being a famous comedian and chat show host. Is an LGBT activist.

Issues Faced:

She was sacked due to her sexuality. Her TV sitcom was cancelled due to her sexuality.

Sylvia Rivera

Known For:

She founded the Gay liberation front and was a transgender activist.

Issues Faced:

Beaten up by the police and anti-trans activists because of her sexuality. Arrested for being transgender.

Audre Lorde

Known For:

Successful writer and poet. Gay rights activist.

Issues Faced:

Faced discrimination because of her race and sexuality.

Next we looked at a series of controversial games and looked at how sexuality is represented in them. This task is in the games comparison section of the blog.

Racial Diversity in Games

Race – groups of people who have differences and similarities in biological traits deemed by society to be socially significant, meaning that people treat other people differently because of them.

Ethnicity – the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition.

Violence in Games

Violence – behaviour involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.

Next we got into pairs and looked at how violence has been used in the following time periods:

• Neanderthal Period
• Medieval Period
• Industrial Period
• Modern Period

For each of these, we tried to find as much uses of violence as we could.

Neanderthal

• Hunted for meat
• Fought over food
• Fights over water
• Fights over firewood.
• Tribe wars

There is very little evidence of violence in the neanderthal period, a skull fracture was found in the remains of a neanderthal male, looking like it was inflicted by a sharp object. There would have been competition over food, water and resources as they would have been scarce. Given the little evidence of violence in this period, it could have been rare for neanderthals to resort to it.

Medieval

• Torture
• Hunted for meat
• War
• Executions
• Brawls in taverns and streets
• Revolution
• Assault and Murder
• Social Barriers (Rich and Poor)

It seems like in this period the violence definitely got worse with torture and executions being acceptable as punishment for crimes. Hunting animals was still treated as a sport or as a way of making money. People would revolt to overthrow any royalty. Wars between different armies.

Industrial

• Labor Dispute
• Firearms
• Haymarket Affair
• Executions

I didn’t find much about the industrial revolution, but this is the revolution in which firearms were first starting to become available to everyone. So there were likely a lot of murders or assaults with the use of guns. Executions were still allowed. The haymarket massacre was a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration, killing seven police officers and at least four civilians, and injuring dozens.

Modern

• War
• Religious Violence
• Interpersonal Violence
• Violence of Armed Forces
• Assault and Murder
• Domestic Violence
• Ritual group violence
• Violent Protests
• Terrorism

World War 1 and 2 are obvious examples of worldwide violence in the modern period. Violence between religions and couples is common. Protests often get violent causing armed forces to use violence to stop them. Assault and murder happens much less often due to the decreasing ease of access to weapons. Terrorist attacks have become quite common.