Gender Stereotypes

Representation of people in western media has been a contested topic for many years. With its influence in the way that people construct their identities it is necessary to look at what images and ideas are being portrayed. Many people are aware that the western standard of beauty is that of the slender, fair skinned woman with straight hair and blue eyes. However, one should also be made aware of how the constant repetition of this image in the media has lead to this standard becoming the normalised and “ideal” look that women and girls should strive to achieve. Michel Foucault discusses the ways in which discourses are normalised and how they are used as a means of control. He looks at how knowledge is given power to justify the ideologies

The greater variety of skin tones alone provide players with the feeling that they will be able to create sims after themselves or the people with whom they identify. Furthermore, the ability to mold features as well as the availability of more ethnic features allows for the representation of many different ethnicities to whatever accuracy the player feels. In addition to all of these changes, the Sims4 later came out with an update that removed the gender binary option. Instead, when creating the sim, players are given a mini survey, whereby they tick what the sim is capable or not capable of achieving biologically. The survey deals with the stature of the sim - sims may now have a feminine or masculine physique, however, the option for breasts and breast adjustments are still determined by gender. Pregnancy options - which allow players to determine whether their sims can fall pregnant, make another sim pregnant or neither despite the sim’s gender. The options also allow the sim to be able to stand or sit when going to the bathroom, or just sit. Beyond this, the update also allows for sims, regardless of gender, to wear clothing, hairstyles and accessory items previously restricted to the other gender. The update attempts to be inclusive of cis as well as non-cis non-heteronormative people. Which in previous installments had not been represented in the game (bar the possibility for same sex couples in the later games, but that was the extent of their