Gaming, sexism and
abuse toward women within the gaming community: a societal shift toward
progressive equality
Name: Dustin Kochen
Student Number: S5006765
Class Name: 1501HUMNew Communication Technology
Tutor: Ben Ebelebe
Time: Monday, 1:00pm
Word Count: 1488
Video games are rapidly becoming one of the most popular
forms of media around the world, experiencing massive growth year after year, and
surpassing global film and television industries with the primary market
focused in Asia and America. This growth coincides for a worldwide market of
over $67 billion. The increase of gaming has flourished specifically in the
last twenty five years or so, with gaming moving away from a two-dimension
platform to a three-dimension platform, and becoming more and more lifelike
with each passing year, creating a more interactive and immersive experience,
with in depth imagery and soundtracks specifically designed for games (Taylor, et al., 2009).
Traditionally, original video games only allowed for
co-located individuals hardwired to a singular device to share the same virtual
experience together. With the progression of technology and the internet, there
has also been a steady increase in MMO’s (massive multi-player online games);
allowing millions of people to virtually connect simultaneously and play the
same game together. MMOs provide a platform for players to immerse themselves
in same game simultaneously from a virtual space, and not need to be in the
same immediate space to play the same game (Dill, et al., 2008).
This ability to play virtually has created a space for
virtual anonymity, and has important implications for how communication
transpires. In many cases, this space facilitates harassment and other forms of
negative interaction between gamers. Despite the fact that women play games
nearly at the rate equal to men, and in some cases even invest more time in
games than men, the industry and market is heavily driven and directed toward
men (Fox & Tang, 2014).
The gaming industry traditionally has been dominated by
males and male-driven characters and games (i.e. sports, shooting games,
fighting games etc.); with men in these games being portrayed as a role model:
however many times the characteristics do not match the traditional role model
characteristics. Men tend to be characterized as aggressive, quick to anger,
forceful, dominant, and in traditional heroic portrayals; whereas women only
holding a traditional role of being overtly sexualised, emotional, submissive,
warm, scantily clad, helpless and sensitive (Dill & Thill, 2007).
This leads to gender schema theory, which depicts that
highly stereotypical portrayals of women in gaming may attempt to facilitate in
the development and activation of negative schemata, which in turn can prime
negative attitudes toward women in men, as well as a decrease in self-esteem in
women (Kowert, et al., 2012). There is a myriad
of sexualized and objectified representations of women in society, with negative
effects being scouted amongst various platforms: television shows, movies,
magazines and advertisements; with video games portraying a consistent negative
and degrading portrayals of women, causing a behavioural dialogue allowing both
male and female gamers to become more hostile and aggressive toward women (Fox &
Bailenson, 2009)
There is extensive research into gender in videogames,
specifically stereotypical portrayals of women and men in games, with
stereotyped representation of gender contributing to misleading gender
identities and expectations for violence, sexual appeal and beauty. Gender
roles are not excluded from gaming, where for an extended period of time women
in gaming were portrayed as ‘damsels in distress’ and ‘bikini babes’ – that
pervade video gaming and alienate women who may enjoy gaming. Furthermore, as
the market is predominantly male driven, there are less games available with a
strong female lead; as well as the ones with strong female leads are either sexualized
or controlled by men (Soukup, 2007).
Agents and avatars in the virtual space take the form of
virtual humans with realistic features mimicking human form, with users often
inferring sex, age, race and personality traits from human-like representation
as they would if they were meeting another person. Through this there is
virtual interaction just as life-like conversations and interactions,
interactions can also lead to sexualized virtual representations; with both
short-term and long-term effects of sexualized depictions in virtual environments.
Virtual words and video games provide the opportunity for an
experience beyond exposure to still images, with individuals tending to embody
avatars (virtual beings designed by the creator to be played within a virtual
universe) by controlling their movements and interactions (Kuznekoff & Rose, 2012). Due to this
process, embodiment of these avatars can create hyper-sexualized avatars, which
in turn can cause the Proteus effect. The Proteus effect is one whereby people (and
specifically gamers) often infer and embody their attitudes and beliefs into a
virtual avatar, and becoming one with this avatar whilst playing it. Once this
embodiment occurs, the players’ behaviour can conform to the virtual
representation of themselves, with the more attractive the avatar, the more
prone the individual is in disclosing more real life private and personal information.
If female gamers embody sexualized avatars, it is common for women to portray
hyper-sexualized features (large breasts, skimpy clothing, thin waist, thin
legs etc.). By creating such avatars as women, some argue that it infers that
their belief and attitudes support the over sexualisation and objectification
of women, causing potentially irreversible damage by objectification and the
rape myth acceptance, which is prevalent amongst gamers (Fox, et al.,
2013).
Research has also drawn attention to the relationship
between video games and violence, with those who play first-person shooters
exhibiting evidence of hostile expectations and a higher level of verbal
aggression toward women (Dill, et al., 2008). This can be potentially dangerous
particularly on an anonymous virtual platform which many gamers are able to
mask their identities online or through online avatars, increasing sexual
harassment and verbal abuse within the gaming community (Fox & Tang, 2014). As players are
exposed to this misrepresentation, there may be a skewed belief and view on how
players view and communicate with one another, particularly with female
players. As interactivity and online connectability increases each year with
technology and gaming, women are continuously and meticulously singled out
within a virtual environment and within a shared virtual environment (SVE’s) (Kuznekoff & Rose, 2012). Within these SVE’s
there tends to be an overtly hostile virtual environment toward women, which
there tends to be a direct correlation
between gaming portrayals and gender discrimination within gaming – and
therefore reinforcing negative stereotypes within games (Salter & Blodgett, 2012). In recent times
there has been a tirade of abuse toward women online, specifically a gamer
named Zoe Quinn, causing an international gaming scandal known as GamerGate.
This was covered extensively across various media platforms including ABC
America. Many outspoken women in the gaming industry such as Anita Sarkeesian have
also been sexually and verbally abused online, with harassment so prevalent she
feared for her own life, health, and bomb threats at public speaking events (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAyncf3DBUQ
). Women on average tend to receive over three times more abuse than their male
counterparts, ranging from general sexual harassment to traditional sexism (Kowert, et al., 2012).
Given the growing adoption of videogames in both male and
female audiences, it is important to continue to investigate the many virtual
areas of interaction and communication, and to monitor hypermasculinity and the
overt sexualisation of women, and find effective ways to counteract verbal
aggression in video games, in order to create a more pleasant communicative
environment – where participants are not singled out and targeted or for
harassment on account of age, sex or race (Schott & Horrell, 2000). Furthermore, women can become proactive
online in not just their verbal actions, but ensuring that they have positive
and realistic female traits to further elicit positive change in attitudes and
self-image. Through positive interactions, avatars and an industry shift toward
positive images of women and communication channels.
With people spending more time in virtual words, from video
games to social worlds, chat rooms and forum websites, the need for studying
virtual words has increased in the last decade. Both men and women are
progressively changing their sexist attitudes, after encounters with
gender-stereotypical virtual females. Although there has been a detailed
history regarding the copious amounts of previous sexual and verbal abuse
toward women, the gaming industry as a whole is endeavouring to become a more
inclusive group, with the increase of female gamers steadily increasing year by
year. Furthermore, there are more games being developed targeting female
gamers, and more and more games being pushed to produce gender stereotypes,
specifically virtual MMOs and adventure games. With a conscientious eye, and
many gamers becoming more aware of the real-world implications of negative
stereotypes and the hindrance of inequality toward women (Fox & Bailenson, 2009). This year, there
are new and interactive games that are incorporating women into them, such as
FIFA 2016 and NBA 2k16; providing a small step in the right direction for
millions of gamers worldwide, due to not just a shift in gaming, but also due
to a gradual societal shift toward gender equality and positive imagery (Salter & Blodgett, 2012). This is in large
part due to the positive action of feminist gamers and those that are
passionate about creating positive imagery for women and creating an even and
equal playing field for future gamers and, in turn, society as a whole.
References
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