“Pitching a virtual woo”: Analysing discussion of sexism in online gaming

Abstract

Issues of sexism and gender-based harassment have been divisive within online gaming communities with contested understandings of the presence of these issues, prevailing explanations and potential solutions. This report was prompted by the discrepancy between problematic representations of women observed in online gaming community discussions of these issues and women's rich and complex accounts of their gameplay. Poststructural theory facilitated exploration of the construction of women gamers as important in the reproduction of and resistance to problematic gendered discourses. Analysis illustrates the politics of (in)visibility that women gamers negotiate: limited possibilities for women as 'active' subjects and little recognition of women's desires in gaming motivations. Findings highlight a need to engage with both the re-inscription of women as denoted a 'secondary status' and the poverty of discursive resources available in discussion of these issues for transforming existing understandings.

Examining Cybersexism in Online Gaming Communities: A Scoping Review

“…Nonetheless, four studies point out that gamer women have also reported further aggravations in the form of sexual advances (Cote, 2017; De Letter et al, 2017; Easpaig & Humphrey, 2017; Fox & Tang, 2014) where the perpetrator engages in sexual coercion in a public or private manner, or even both, in a way that is overtly threatening and disturbing. Threats of rape, sexual assault, and murder create understandable distress and concerns about personal safety (Brehm, 2013; Cote, 2017; Jagayat & Choma, 2021; Tang & Fox, 2016).…”

“…All these behaviors reported so far in this section could be labeled, according to the ambivalent sexism theory (Glick & Fiske, 1996), as malevolent sexist behaviors. However, we have also found seven studies that have reported displays of benevolent sexism such as "white knight assistance" where it was reported that gamer men are likely to offer favorable support, and even gifts, to gamer women to obtain sympathy or potential sexual favors (Ballard & Welch, 2015;Brehm, 2013;Chou et al, 2014;Easpaig, 2018;Easpaig & Humphrey, 2017;Ruvalcaba et al, 2018). Another study reported a case of what we had labeled as "housewife farming" where a woman claimed that she had been induced to play on behalf of their boyfriend in order to do several repetitive or insubstantial tasks to earn game points or status for him (Puente Bienvenido & Lasén Díaz, 2015).…”

“…Women who had achieved a certain status within a traditionally maledominated field such as gaming might show hostility toward other women. This phenomenon known informally as queening is reported in three studies and shows how some gamer women can become as territorial as men (Easpaig & Humphrey, 2017;McLean & Griffiths, 2019;Ruvalcaba et al, 2018).…”

“I suppose I’ll be patching you up, as usual”: Women’s roles and normative femininity in a team-based video game

“…However, even new technology that may amplify women’s presence in the gaming space is not a panacea; many women prefer to remain anonymous due to fear of harassment (Cote, 2017; Fox and Tang, 2017). Upon entering the gaming space, many women try to mask their gender—for example, choosing gender neutral screen names—lest they become targets, a practice that, as Nic Giolla Easpaig and Humphrey (2017) point out, reifies men as the default consumers of gaming. The most frequent approach to masking gender is avoiding in-game voice chat functions (Fox and Tang, 2017), which are designed to enhance team cohesion and strategy, but instead become a liability for many women.…”

“Condescending, Rude, Assholes”: Framing gender and hostility on Stack Overflow

“…In computational cultures, this communication process cultivates a femininity of technological incompetence and juvenile 'girlness' (Nic Giolla Easpaig & Humphrey, 2016;Shifman & Lemish, 2011). A male dominated masculine space can therefore lead to understanding women only in terms of the outsider.…”