Research Project Proposal

1). Suggested Title of Research Project 

How has misogyny/ misogynistic representations of women within geek culture affected female audiences?

[I am going to be focusing on comics and video games mainly so should I make this apparent in the title? Although its not just about the video games and comics its about the male fans]

2). Significance - Why is this Research important, or interesting?

Females do like comics, video games etc. Lots of female characters are overly sexualised for the male gaze - alienates a female audience when it should be more inclusive. Female audiences are accused of being 'Fake geek girls' and are bullied because of their gender.  Anita Sarkeesian (creator of feminist frequency) recently got DEATH THREATS as she was supposed to talk in a school - (a school shooting was threatened). 

3). Primary and Secondary Sources 

Madrid, M (2009). The Supergirls, USA,  Exterminating Angel Press 

Pohl-Weary, E (2004) Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Mutants, Slayers and Freaks, Canada, Sumach Press 

Walter, D. (2012). Women are Fighting back in the Battle for Geek Culture. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jun/19/women-fighting-back-battle-geek-culture. Last accessed 5th Nov 2014.

Penny, L (2013) Cybersexism: Sex, Gender and Power on the Internet, Bloomsbury (E book Available: http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=6bacAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT4&dq=geek+misogyny&ots=_oUrjrauAd&sig=5-3AmHSmbIEalB4V4b8vNY6-Uoc#v=onepage&q=geek%20misogyny&f=false)

Thorpe-Moscon, J.S (2013) How Geek Girls Will Rule the World, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Boiling, B & Smith, M.J (2014) It Happens at Comic-Con: Ethnographic Essays on a Pop Culture Phenomenon, McFarland

Gabilliet, J (2010) Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books, University press of Mississippi 

Schrier, K (2010)  Designing Games for Ethics: Models, Techniques and Frameworks: Models, Techniques and Frameworks, Idea Group Inc.

Prescott, J (2013) Gender Divide and the Computer Game Industry, IGI Global 

Knight, G.L (2010) Female Action Heroes: A guide to women in comics, video games, Film and Television, ABC-CLIO 
I have been to talks at thought bubble and spoken with a few artists already but I intend to speak to people in the comic & game industry as well as fans as primary research to get their opinions on this. I'm wondering if males will have a different opinion to females. 

4). Methods 

I am going to be mainly researching the misogynistic representations of women within comics and videogames and how that affects a female audience. It would also be useful to research what girls actually want from a comic - as the terrible misogynistic ones are clearly not designed for them. I will look into comics that are designed for females, created by females and/or have characters obviously not intended for the male gaze. 
my practical work is going to look at subverting misogynistic themes in geek culture & making something that is more accessible for women. I'd like to include some kind of humorous element to highlight the ridiculous-ness of some things - body proportions to look sexy and revealing outfits etc but also design some kick-ass characters. 

5). Limitations - 

I knew I wanted to do something to do with women in geek culture but just 'women in comics' is such a broad topic I had to narrow it down. Initially I thought about basing it around strong female characters - as there are a lot in comics, games and TV that can often be overlooked as geek culture is seen more as a male thing. This was a good starting point but I realised what I wanted to say was more about how women are treated negatively - also I wanted to try and combine the two which would have made way too much too research!

From 'geek culture' I narrowed it down to comics and videogames as those are the most problematic when it comes to misogyny within the culture - also trying to research comics and games and tv and film and EVERYTHING related to geek culture would have been a big mess of research that I would have just got lost in (and probably written all about Buffy the Vampire Slayer) I am unsure whether to narrow it further to just comics - As 'gamergate' has just happened I feel it would be useful to include video games within the essay but I'm not sure if this will make my research too broad. 

6). Essay Plan -
     a) Introduction 

• introducing how terrible misogyny is (do I need to introduce what is is?)& how there is loads of it in geek culture - comics video games.
• Male dominated culture - are females affected by this? [yes, and we'll talk about this later. - Briefly outline problems of the culture in regards to misogyny etc. ] 

     b) Main Body  

• Representation of women in comics and video games - their roles, costumes, design, sexualisation - female characters created for the male gaze (and not to threaten them) 
• How female fans are treated by the 'geek' community - the effects of this - alienation, unable to enjoy games etc
• How female fans feel seeing how women are represented - is it disheartening to see few female characters that are not obviously created for the male gaze. 
• Women working in the industry - how are they affected/how are they working on reducing misogyny 

c) Some Visual Examples - Will probably find more and narrow the selection down from there - these are all based around comics and I would like to find some video game concept art/ screenshots of characters that are problematic. 

Thor Cover

Kali Ciesemier

This image is not from a comic or video game but it is a good represenation of what female characters should be designed like - fully functioning armour that does not show unnecessary skin/sexualise the character. (good reference for the practical work)

Cameron Stewars & Babs Tarr

Jamie Hewlett

Guillem March

 d) Conclusion 

• maybe look at progression of the culture here & what can be done to further the inclusion of women within geek culture.
• summary of findings 

Videos for Reference

Analysis

This piece by Jack Teagle was created in 2012 for Urban Graphics' Toasted range. Urban Graphics are a company that is 'design led', focuses on pop culture and specialises in stationary, this design was designed for use on wrapping paper and greetings cards. The image was commissioned after the success of Teagle's initial design 'Heroes and Villains' which is similar in layout but the main subject was male characters rather  than female ones. 

Teagle has used paint to make this image, although it is not stated what kind I can assume it's gouache or acrylic as the colours are bold and flat - something that would not be achievable with something like watercolour. Even though a traditional medium has been used the image is still clean, crisp and graphic, making it excellent for mass production. I assume that each character was painted separately and then composed as a whole later using digital media, as I have seen this image but with extra characters or with the characters switched around. The image is in grid formation and makes for a good loopable pattern, which makes it an effective design for wrapping paper. The company, Urban Graphics' stationary etc is sold in many different stores including Paperchase, Waterstones, The Tate Modern and Urban Outfitters. The place the items are sold and their focus on pop culture suggests that the target audience of their work is a younger, teen - young adult generation. 

The image pictures iconic female characters, both heroes and villains from pop culture. The characters are somewhat stylised but definitely recognisable. Each character is framed by a colourful background and a spiky, comic book style shape around the head. The male counterpart of this image is done in a similar style, with differences in colour and positioning of the characters. The female image is much more pastel and typically feminine in colour whereas the male image uses darker tones, which gives it a somewhat vintage look.

These two images are designed for males and females. The typically feminine colour scheme paired with all female characters - meant to appeal to a female audience whereas the darker more masculine colour scheme to appeal to males. It's interesting how 'Heroines and Villainesses' was made after the initial success of 'Heroes and Villains' suggesting there is more of a female audience for comics than previously thought. 'the representation of gender is one major battle in a wider war for the soul of geek culture'...'all those people who are not straight white males are quite rightly demanding they are represented in geek culture.' (Walter, D, 2012)

 By segregating the male and female characters into different images it helps to highlight how many strong female characters there actually are, as sometimes female characters can be bypassed 'most (people) being unable to even name any other comic book heroines (than wonder woman) reflecting on what little exposure these characters get in the industry' (Madrid, 2009: vi/vii).  Also girls are shunned in 'geek' societies, Elizabeth Walker states 'They scoffed because I was a chick, reading the soft stuff in graphic novels...They scoffed because I wasn't suffering' (Pohl Weary, 2004:210). An image like this that centres around female characters for a female audience helps to bring girls into the culture.  However this may give a very set in stone 'this is for girls' , 'this is for boys' nature - alienating each gender from the others' things rather than creating an all inclusive environment.

The portraits of the heroines is a simple yet appealing layout. The viewer is able to see the characters and there is a sense of power that exudes from them, despite this image being just a wrapping paper design. 'Any power these women may have is often overshadowed by their overly sexualized images' (Madrid, 2009: vi), by not portraying these characters in a sexual way as they often are in comics Teagle has a) been able to capture the female characters with an equal essence to the male characters, and b) made the image more appealing for females, as the female characters are not sexually objectified.

Fig 1

Fig 2

Fig 3

Fig 4

(bonus) Fig 5

Fig 6

Madrid, M (2009). The Supergirls,  Exterminating Angel Press , USA

Pohl-Weary, E (2004) Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Mutants, Slayers and Freaks, Sumach Press, Canada 

Walter, D. (2012). Women are Fighting back in the Battle for Geek Culture. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jun/19/women-fighting-back-battle-geek-culture. Last accessed 5th Nov 2014.

Fig 1. Rory Midhani (2013) Drawn to Comics [Autostraddle Column Header]  

Fig 2. Sherwin Tjia (2004) Slumpyheroes [Unknown] Found in 'Girls Who Bite Back - Emily Pohl-Weary

Fig 3. Russell Dauterman (2014) Unknown Title [Thor Comic Art]

Fig 4. Guillem March (2012) Unknown Title [Catwoman Comic Cover] 

Fig 5. Cameron Stewart (2012) Unknown Title [Reinterpretation of March's Catwoman Cover]

Fig 6. Jamie Hewlett (1991) Unknown Title [Comic Cover]

Study Task 2

Jack Teagle - Heroines and Villainesses - 2013 

Spencer Salberg - Buffy Summers as part of a 'Strong Female Characters' series - 2013

Kali Ciesemier - The Power of Mom - July 2012

Although I am thinking around the more strong female characters in pop/geek culture I couldn't resist including this image as it is a beautiful representation of a group of strong women. 

The Space Mariner - Kali Ciesemier - 2012

Rat Queens (Cover)- Fiona Staples - 2013/2014

'Library Task'

301.412

I am thinking about focusing around girls in geek culture. This book describes itself as an 'anthology of short fiction, cultural analysis, comics and original artwork' and is concerned with female role models in film, tv, comics etc.