Killing Like a Girl: Gendered Gaming and Girl Gamers’ Visibility

1. Killing Like a Girl: Gendered Gaming and Girl Gamers’ Visibility Jo Bryce, University of Central Lancashire Jason Rutter, University of Manchester

2. OVERVIEW • Objectives • Introduction • Research Context • Gendered Game Content • Gendered Spaces • Gendered Activities • Conclusions www.digiplay.org.uk

3. OBJECTIVES • Offer an overview of gender & games research • Question gendering of digital games and digital gaming • Explore: • game content, • gaming spaces • gaming activities • Suggest female gamers are rendered ‘invisible’ rather than being absent www.digiplay.org.uk

4. A RESEARCH CONTEXT • “Boys Toys”? • 75% of girls play games in the home (Funk) • 42% of US gamers female (IDSA) • Gaming as a contemporary leisure practice • Gaming reproduces gender roles but also offers possibilities for resistance www.digiplay.org.uk

5. The Big Picture • Still a strong media effects discourse • Solitary adolescent males going through “a stage” • Constructed as problematic by parents, politicians, religious leaders, media, etc • Littleton & Erfurt shootings www.digiplay.org.uk

6. The Little Picture • Reduces • Social involvement • Educational achievement • Physical exercise • Increases • Everyday aggression • Gender stereotyping • Nothing new here…. • Gender dynamics a useful way out of the text/effects discourse www.digiplay.org.uk

7. GENDERED GAME CONTENT • Representation of females • Embody gendered, patriarchal & stereotypical representations • Lack of female characters • Sexualised & stereotypical nature of these characters • Parallels gender roles in children’s books www.digiplay.org.uk

8. Male game themes • War, competition, sports, acquisition, etc • Violence • Perception that computer games embody masculine interests and activities • Natural extension is Nintendo’s1991 Gamegirl… • Creates a cyclical argument www.digiplay.org.uk

9. How representative are these textual analyses? • Current games • Current genres • Current platforms • Current gaming activities • Lack of definitional clarity • Not representative? • 90% of UK games suitable for ≤15 year olds • 69% suitable for 3-11 range www.digiplay.org.uk

10. MALE VIOLENCE • How can we usefully compare “Custer’s Revenge” on the Atari with “Quake 3” on the PC/PS2 or the white power title “Ethnic Cleansing”? www.digiplay.org.uk

11. Untenable passive view of gaming • Oppositional & self-contradictory stances on games • Non-voyeuristic perspectives of Lara Croft • Diversity of readings • What are the consumption practices of gendered gaming? • Move from exegesis to ‘real-worlds’ context www.digiplay.org.uk

12. GENDERED SPACES • Digital gaming associated with ‘bedroom culture’ • Female use of domestic space • Restricted from full access to many social spaces • Argues against perceived lack of female subcultures • Less visual culture www.digiplay.org.uk

13. PUBLIC GAMING • Concurrent development with domestic gaming: • IT labs, Arcades, Bars (& other male spaces) • Not asocial, individual space often assumed • Joint construction of gaming text and experience • Female gamers excluded at a level previous to game text www.digiplay.org.uk

14. GENDER ASYMMETRY IN PUBLIC GAMING www.digiplay.org.uk

15. Exclusion reinforced: • belittlement as “only girls” • patronising female competitors • objectification e.g. display of pornography • Female access conditional on filling acceptable (non-gamer) roles: • Girlfriend • Mother • ‘Cheerleader’ • Lack of visibility product of gender dynamics rather than a lack of interest by females in computer games www.digiplay.org.uk

16. Domestic Gaming • Joint leisure activity with existing social networks • Preference to participate in gaming with friends, families & partners (Buchanan & Funk; Griffiths & Hunt) • Not physically or economically visible www.digiplay.org.uk

17. GENDERED ACTIVITIES • Everyday experiences of gaming give a reality to game texts • Realises the socially situated nature of gaming activities • Gender is a vital aspect of everyday situated action www.digiplay.org.uk

18. Circular Problem • Access and participation in gaming is restricted and exclusion is experienced at a local level • Exclusion creates expectations of rejection which discourages females from attempting to enter into gaming practices www.digiplay.org.uk

19. Such a formulation offers no way out • But – things are changing… • Recognition of social gaming • Technological developments • Gaming networks • Grrl gamers www.digiplay.org.uk

20. Grrl/Girl Gamers • Not a digital game only phenomenon • Apparent in football, rugby, drinking, etc. • Not only looking for parity but enacting oppositional stances www.digiplay.org.uk

21. Routine Negotiation • Access to consoles in home (Schott & Horrell) • Males take control as part of “support or collaborative play” • Male assumes role of expert • Interpolates female gamer into subordinate role • Reproduces girl gamers as less skilful or technically competent www.digiplay.org.uk

22. Gendering Technology • Technology incorporates masculine cultures (e.g. Cockburn, Wajcman) • Again – exclusion experienced on a routine level prior to the game text • Are new practices challenging these discourses? www.digiplay.org.uk

23. CONCLUSIONS • Gendered gaming situated outside game text • Important not to fetishize text or technologies • Gendered positions in constant negotiation and renewal • Negotiation and experience take place locally • Female invisibility a product of practice and observation as well as text www.digiplay.org.uk