The article I chose to summarize for our section on violence was “Extreme Sex, Death, and Computer Graphics Imaging Technology” by Claudia Herbst. The article focuses on how CGI technology has primarily been used in the past to bring “realistic” violence to life through our computers and film. More recently CGI has been used to make women unrealistically and overly sexualized; the author uses the example of Lara Croft’s impossible body proportions.
Herbst brings up the argument that CGI technology is and always has been a very gendered industry. It is an industry that relies on math and science, two disciplines in which women are drastically unrepresented. She also discusses how there have been some strong female characters created and represented by CGI technology, but there is an obvious trend of these women only maintaining statuses of power because of their violent nature. A few examples that are brought up are Sarah Connor from the Terminator series, Ripley from the Alien series, and GI Jane. All of these women are extremely strong figures, but they are not viewed this way because they are smart or cunning (which they are) but because they can beat up guys and use guns. Herbst mentions that it is an improvement that there are some strong female characters being created by the CGI industry, but these characters are not necessarily represented in a way that women would portray them if they were in charge of the industry.
The article reflects on ways that the CGI industry is primarily focused on violence and women’s sexuality and how it could potentially be something very different if the industry weren’t so gendered.
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