Maya Ann Rhodes
Maharaj
Writing 10
April 17, 2012
Video Game Avatars: Is The Media Ruining Our Self Image?
Humans are limited to the appearance that they are born with. Despite this fact, people
are always trying to change their appearance. Apparently, people cannot appreciate themselves
for natural beauty, and instead strive to become someone else. Many members of society strive
to become more physically attractive, exemplified by standards set by the media. Nowadays, the
media makes it difficult for Americans to appreciate inner beauty by brainwashing society into
believing that beauty is something that needs to be applied to the skin, not attained naturally.
Media’s influence on societal values has become the leading cause of the lack of self confidence
and self esteem in America. This influence is especially prevalent in the video game society,
revealing itself through the creation and use of avatars. An avatar is a digital representation of
the person who creates it, and can usually be heavily customized to fit the user’s preference.
Avatars allow a gamer to become something that they are not, yet aspire to be. The ability to
create an avatar that does not reflect a gamer’s true physical appearance distorts the sense of self
with which all humans are innately endowed.
An avatar is an abstract concept within itself. There are many definitions of the word, but
there in one in particular that really personifies the true implication behind the concept.
According to it’s Hindu meaning, an avatar is a “bodily manifestation of an immortal being”
(Waggoner 489). In this case, the immortal being this definition refers to is a person’s inner
personality, who they are on the inside. The bodily manifestation of the immortal being, then,
would be the avatar that a person creates. By this definition, an avatar should be a digital
personification of whoever creates it, a physical manifestation of an intangible concept. In other
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words, an avatar is what a person feels that they should be, how they should look, in comparison
to their true physical features. In American society, however, avatars have gone from being
physical manifestations of the inner self to a beautified version on what a person wishes they
could become. An avatar no longer reflects the emotional, or sociological aspects of the creator,
and instead has become an image of the beauty that can never be physically obtained. The desire
for this beauty is not innate, but learned by society, and taught by the media. Natural beauty isn’t
enough for anyone in this world anymore, most people feel the need to change themselves for
what society claims to be “the better”.
Why can’t we just appreciate ourselves for who we are? Everyone is beautiful in their
own unique ways, without conforming to the societal norms of what beauty is. But innate beauty
is not good enough for women (and men) nowadays, thanks to the expectations of men. Ponzer
explains, “It's that men with power position in the media still think its acceptable to demand that
women be displayed only in the hyper-objectifying images they feel is somehow their due.”
(Ponzer 221) Women are deceived into believing that their own inner and natural outer beauty
isn’t enough. The make-up laden women in advertisement and magazines make women feel as
though they always need to become prettier. This common misconception ruins a woman’s view
of herself, and renders her unable to see herself in a positive standpoint. Media pressures women
into believing that they need to be prettier, and this is the motivation behind the avatars of most
female gamers. Avatars can be customized to appear unrealistically attractive, with bigger
breasts, bigger butts, and flawless skin. The pressure that media puts on women is reflected in
the avatars that female gamers create, because being yourself is never enough.
Jennifer Ponzer’s article blames the desire to create these unrealistic avatars, or avatars
that don’t reflect a person’s true identity on advertisement and the media. The article focuses
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purely on women, however, can be extended to men when considering different advertisement
companies. Ponzer argues that men are the reason why women feel as though they always need
to make themselves more attractive. The same can also be said about media, and making men
feel pressured to make themselves more attractive. But, for the creation of every avatar, the
creator needs to make a choice. Gamers choose what their avatars look like, and could make a
realistic avatar if desired. It is the gamer’s decision to synthesize an avatar that follows a
particular archetype. Society is not at fault for creating this archetype, and neither is the media
for advertising their products in the most effective way possible.
Gender plays a major role in how products are advertised, and has over, the years come to
set an example for modern day society to follow. Craig’s article about stereotypes in popular
video games clearly defines the idea that gender stereotypes are the basis on which avatars are
built. In his article, Craig outlines the differences between what women want in men, and what
men want in women. He also goes so far as to give examples of ideal characteristics of a person
within the same gender as another. These differences are the reason why a gamer’s true physical
self looks so different from their virtual avatar. For example, in Craig’s article, he defines Men’s
Women as “physically attractive, slim, and usually young and white, frequently blond, and
almost always dressed in revealing clothing” (Craig, 192). Anyone could go into an online video
game server, and see that most female avatars on the server fit this description. The purpose of
these avatars, in most social video games, is to attract males. One might argue, however, that the
main premise of an avatar is to look like the person behind it. Yet, avatars almost never look like
their creators, because of the archetypes defined by media in American society.
Female gamers want an avatar that is physically attractive, white, with a nice body, long
hair and big breasts, very similar to a “Man’s Woman”. Male gamers generally tend to create
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similar, yet well defined masculine avatars that are also usually white, with short, blond or black
hair, fitting the “Man’s Man” archetype. There are very few people in the world that are born to
fit the descriptions explained in Craig’s article, yet thanks to the media, everyone in the world
wants to fit this description. Society has caused people to believe that in order to be beautiful and
socially accepted, they have to fit the beauty standards set by the movies, magazines, and TV
shows. Men and women who play video games express their own desire to fulfill the stereotypes
of the media through the creation of their avatars. Rarely will one see an avatar created based on
the physical appearance of the creator of the avatar, though there are a select few cases where the
avatar is not too much different than it’s user. Another reason why someone may create an avatar
that is dissimilar from what they are in reality is to become something that is impossible to
achieve in real life.
The human imagination is a wonderful tool. It can be used to create concepts that have
never been discovered before, and help manifest them into a physical form. But there are some
concepts that are impossible, even for the human imagination. Despite innovative technology
that has been formed over the past few decades, not even the most famous of scientists have
found a way to restore missing limbs, or allow the physically handicapped to suddenly regain all
of their motor functioning. This is where the fantasy aspect of avatars comes into place. For
example, a disabled child can create an avatar with perfectly working arms and legs, and by
playing as that character in a virtual world, live vicariously through them. A burn victim who has
been terribly disfigured by an accident can create a perfectly normal looking avatar, and in turn
regain their previous physical form with that avatar. There is a therapeutic aspect to avatars for
some, an aspect that is generally overlooked when the issue of self image is brought to anyone’s
attention. These children are not creating avatars because they want to be attractive, or sought
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after by someone else, they just want to look normal. To have working legs, working arms, or
just have a desire to be what almost everyone can be without trying. While some create avatars in
an attempt to be normal others strive to become the complete opposite. A unique being, whether
it is human or not.
An avatar can be whatever it’s creator wants it to be. And not every creator wants their
avatar to be human. Some create superheroes with incredible strength and supernatural abilities
that defy the laws of the universe. Others create elves and giants, neither of which exist in the
real world, but are an option for some avatar customizations, depending on the genre of the game.
One race that is even more common than that of the giants and the elves, are anthropomorphic
animal characters, also known as Furries. No matter how technology develops in the future, no
one is going to be able to become an animal, or a combination of human and animal (also known
as a hybrid). All of these races are unrealistic, and appeal to many gamers simply because it is
something that cannot be achieved in the real world. In this aspect of avatars, there is absolutely
nothing wrong with having an avatar that doesn’t reflect a person’s real self. Creating a unique
avatar is simply a expression of imagination, something that is good for anyone of any age to
display. But using too much imagination, and getting completely immersed into the game is
never good for anyone. Especially when playing video games becomes the only activity that a
person participates in.
Losing a sense of reality is a constant threat to gamers everywhere. Spending several
hours a day playing video games, and shying away from the real world is the route that most
gamers seem to be taking, especially in this stressful economy. Harris even says it himself, “We
are closer than ever to creating truly virtual worlds that permit us to indulge in the desire of
personal experiences impossible in real life. And as time goes on, this evolution will assuredly
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continue, unbated” (Harris 505). Are gamers in danger of losing sight of what is real, and what is
not? As technology develops, the difference between virtual gaming and real life will be almost
unnoticeable. We will be able to dive into new worlds, under a completely different name, in a
body that we created ourselves, and escape from reality What will happen then, when the
majority of the young, 15-38 year old population is so engulfed in gaming that they don’t want to
return? Evolution of virtual gaming will continue, despite what happens to the economy, or to
the people who live as slaves to this economy. A desire to escape from reality is one that lies in
all humans, as a psychological buffer to prevent the human mind from losing a grip on the world
we live in.
The media is also to blame for driving the most vulnerable people of American society
into the virtual world. Now that virtual games are becoming nearly as realistic as reality itself,
many people have started to escape into the virtual worlds of video games. Virtual games appeal
to the members of society who play them because in a virtual world, a person can be whatever
they want to be. The game player can transcend gender, appearance, race, and even sexual
orientation in a virtual world, which is frowned upon in the standards of today’s society. There
is no pressure to be yourself in the virtual world, the nature of most virtual games go so far as to
encourage the player to be something they are not. However, this desire to be someone that is not
a person’s true self is stemmed by pressure from the media, pressure that has been applied to
American’s for as long as advertisement has existed. The damage has already been done to the
hearts and minds of the American people, and it will be difficult for everyone in society to regain
their sense of self beauty. An effective solution to this problem lies in changing the way that
media, and advertisement presents products. Instead of using ‘beautiful’, heavily photoshopped
models, companies can advertise their products with normal people, unaltered by digital devices.
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While this solution seems to be difficult to attain, it is as simple as changing the way
advertisement is presented to the American people. Through advertisement using normal,
everyday people showing their natural beauty, society can discover that there is nothing wrong
with the way we look.
Everyone is beautiful in their own way. Media distorts this beauty in advertisement by
presenting an unrealistic view of everyday people in society. This distortion has destroyed
America’s self esteem, and forced people into believing that they must rely in beauty products to
become socially acceptable. A desire to become an unrealistic being has been instilled into the
American people, and is especially prevalent in the creation of video game avatars. There are
reasons why a gamer may create an avatar that does not look like a true, physical body, and
many of these reasons are rather superficial. The media has sparked this desire within the people
who play video games, and has blinded the people affected by it in ways they have yet to realize.
Others create avatars in an attempt to adopt a normal appearance, something with which many
cannot identify. Virtual gaming has drawn in many vulnerable Americans, and taken these
people away from reality. Some choose to dive into these virtual worlds as a means to escape the
harsh reality that the media has created, but in the end, one must face reality whether they are
prepared or not. If the media changes the way that it advertises it’s products, and represents the
American people in it’s visual advertisements, the damage that has been done to the minds of the
members of society may be reversed. Despite changes that may be made in the media, American
society will never be the same.
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Works Cited
Detweiler, Craig. Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games With God. 1. Westminster
Knox Press, 2010. 12-213. Print.
John
Dickerman, Charles, Jeff Christensen, and Stella Beatriz Kerl-McClain. “Big Breasts and Bad
Guys: Depictions of Gender and Race in Video Games.” Journal of Creativity in Mental
Health 3. 1 (2008): 20-29. Web. 21 Mar. 2012
Mathieu s. “Who is hiding behind videogames avatars?” The Swedish Bed. 35 Mar. 2010. Web.
21 Mar. 2012. http://theswedishbed.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/who-is-hiding-behindvideogames-avatars/
Ponzer, Jennifer L. “Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ Backlash.” Signs of Life in the USA. Ed. Sonia
Maasik and Jack Solomon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2005. 219-222. Print.
Spaight, Tracy. Alter Ego: Avatars and their creators. Chris Boot, 2009. Print.
Waggoner, Zach. “Videogames, Avatars, and Identity.” Signs of Life in the USA. Ed. Sonia
Maasik and Jack Solomon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2005. 487-503. Print.