My brother and I have tend to have overlapping interests but our gender effects our tastes within those interests.
His Games
These are some games from my brother’s collection. They are open-world, violent, and generally male-led. The covers are very cool and of interest to a variety of people, with cowboys and other-worldly beings and what not. They are meant for the male demographic, but that does not limit them to one group of people and are generally played by all players.
My Games
These games come from my collection. They are visual novels with romance and are female-led. Specifically marketed to female players, the covers even limit who they appeal to. Most male players looking for games will not see a cover with pretty boys and stop browsing to see what it’s about. Unlike my brother’s collection, these are not popular among across demographics.
His Manga
These are volumes of manga taken from my brother’s shelves. The top three have very masculine covers that are violent or disturbing. The bottom No Game No Life is a bit more on the edge appearance wise, but it features a genius gamer with a group of cute girls who love him and plenty of fan-service. Much like with the games, these are mostly marketable to anyone and many girls love these series. The fact that they are meant for male readers does not mean they are off limits.
My Manga
The manga from my shelf look very different and are easily labeled as feminine. The titles alone are enough to let you know who is meant to read them. A story called My Love Story is unlikely to get picked up on a whim by male readers. The stories all revolve around relationships and are much more realistic. There are no extraordinary geniuses or flames here…it’s just kids falling in love.
Presents
Every year at Christmas, my parents will give me make-up. The idea is that I will use it to look nice but the only things I use are foundation and mascara. I’m grateful they have given me something, but it just isn’t for me. As a result, my bathroom floor is covered in kits full of unused products. There’s no photo comparison to my brother here; he does not consistently get presents he does not use. The reason for that isn’t because he doesn’t use make-up…it’s because he’s a boy. It isn’t “meant” for him.
3 thoughts on “Brother vs. Sister”
I play all sorts of video games, but it stands out to me that most of the time the character you have to play is male. Recently more games are released with character customization so that you can choose who you want to play as, but still in many there is no choice and the default is male. I feel like it’s more common to see guys playing games because they are more represented in them. It’s strange how often people who identify as male play as females in online video games because I feel like there are more of them than people who identify as female.
The comparison between what you have and what your brother has was a great interpretation of gender and how people do it. I would have never considered looking at what my brother and I were given growing up, but it is interesting to look back now and remember certain points of our childhood that we had different toys than our growing, shared video game collection.
As a female gamer, I am a lot of times stuck with playing male characters or having a male only customization character. It can be frustrating that video games are marketed to males more than females, and that the female games are completely different with softer themes.
I play all sorts of video games, but it stands out to me that most of the time the character you have to play is male. Recently more games are released with character customization so that you can choose who you want to play as, but still in many there is no choice and the default is male. I feel like it’s more common to see guys playing games because they are more represented in them. It’s strange how often people who identify as male play as females in online video games because I feel like there are more of them than people who identify as female.
The comparison between what you have and what your brother has was a great interpretation of gender and how people do it. I would have never considered looking at what my brother and I were given growing up, but it is interesting to look back now and remember certain points of our childhood that we had different toys than our growing, shared video game collection.
As a female gamer, I am a lot of times stuck with playing male characters or having a male only customization character. It can be frustrating that video games are marketed to males more than females, and that the female games are completely different with softer themes.