Category Archives: girls

video games for girls

Not a Psychology of Gender class goes by these days were I do not read at least one journal entry from a woman who LOVES video gaming but nevertheless struggles with the fact that her favourite games were designed by and for men, and, furthermore are played predominantly by men and boys. So here is an entry for our video gamers -- both women and men. Watch the following video and ask yourself if you feel video game researcher, Brenda Laurel, is on the right track as she designs video games for girls. Here is a short description of her 2009 TED talk:


A TED archive gem. At TED in 1998, Brenda Laurel asks: Why are all the top-selling videogames aimed at little boys? She spent two years researching the world of girls (and shares amazing interviews and photos) to create a game that girls would love.





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Link: Go to TEDtalks to read related material and commentary:
The Gender Companion, copyright 2011 – Dr. Jessica Motherwell McFarlane, Ph.D. This blog is a companion site for the Psychology of Gender Online, UBC. Creative commons attribution, non-commercial sharing only (translation: feel free to quote me in context or use this entry but please always credit me for my work, thanks.)http://thegendercompanion.blogspot.com/ See also Psyc 320 course description: http://ctlt.ubc.ca/distance-learning/courses/psyc/psyc320/

Push-Up Bikini top for 7 yr old girls???

Are you stuck for a gender topic to journal about? How about this topic: here is a video link shared with our class by Wenny C (thank you!) about Abercrombie executive's marketing a padded bikini top for very young girls. It is easy to see what is wrong with this product. But my guess is that Abercrombie's owners are betting there are unconscious and persuasive complexities at work in the relationships between the young-insecure-girls and their parents-with-purchasing-power that makes this sexualized marketing potentially lucrative for the company owners. Or is this just an outrageous scheme to grab consumers attention? After much controversy, company owners have stopped marketing the padded swimsuit to preteens (news article, "Abercrombie padded bikini for preteens stirs up fuss")

So here is your (optional) journal prompt: get your journal and pen, clear your mind, tune into YOUR self, and then watch the following video. Pay close attention to YOUR feelings and thoughts as you watch the news cast. When you are done, write about YOUR whole experience of and reaction to this video.
Ready, set, go write ...