Masculinity, Militarism and Marginality: Why Feminism in Video Games Matter?

October 17, 2023

Learning Outcomes:

To understand how video games aid in the construction of a militarist form of masculinity among men.
To learn how women have been systematically pushed to the margins in the video game industry.
To ponder upon how we can foster gender inclusivity across the video game landscape while trying to fathom its importance

The World of Videogames - The Boys' Club

Video games are a world of their own. They are an amazing artistic medium that helps us experience simulating characters, crucial decision-making and uncanny situations, having a market potential of 300 billion US dollars. The proliferation of the internet and online games across the demographic spectrum of the world has only enhanced the diversity of this industry. However, despite this, video games are infamous for being a “boy’s club”. There is a hegemonic dominance of men and masculinity in the entire video game industry: be it eSports, famous YouTube gamers; or even the story and characters of the games in question.

Credits: Apoorva Jyoti, Graphics Head at Mandonna

Even though observers perceive all (or at least a majority) of video game players to be men, according to a survey conducted by International Game Developers’ Association in 2022, about a whopping 48% of the total video game players across the globe are actually women. This is a shocking statistic because it clarifies the fact that women are, by no means, a minuscule minority that can be ignored as audiences or players by video game makers.

However, unfortunately, the video game industry is still largely and unfairly skewed in favour of its cis-het, upper-class, white male audience (who are thought to be the “traditional game players”). Women and other gender minority players are systematically pushed to the margins of the video game industry, through online bullying, sparse involvement of gender minorities in the creative process, and stereotypical stories and characters that solely cater to the dominant male perspective.

Construction of a Militarised Masculinity

Women’s marginalisation in the gaming world begins with the construction of what is known as “militarised masculinity”. Masculinity refers to the standard of how men “ought-to-be”. It is constructed upon gender norms and binaries, which create seemingly hegemonic narratives of how one should act. Through video games, especially the ones involving overwhelming use of violence such as Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, PUB-G, etc. the masculinity so constructed is militarized in nature. In simpler words, the military and its various aspects like violence, weaponization, desire to fight, protecting victims (usually women), etc. are all closely associated with what constitutes to be “manly”. Edwards (2006) explains this phenomenon by describing how perpetuating violence is considered ‘masculine’, whereas suffering violence tends to have a ‘feminising’ or emasculating effect.

Militarised masculinity (or hyper-masculinity) is inherently misogynistic and sexually violent. While it may occasionally give rise to actual violence in the form of school shootings and other public attacks, it almost definitely causes brutal online harassment and bullying of fellow gender minority gamers. This is because the entire idea of such masculinity is based on subjugating gender minorities like women and homosexuals; children and other “inferior” males (racial minorities or physically weak men) in a patriarchal setting. When these minorities enter into the gaming sphere on an equal footing with them, the masculinity of traditional players is threatened and hence, they naturally respond in the form of sexually violent and misogynistic cyber-bullying.

Harassment in the Gaming Sphere

The primary reason that gender minorities remain excluded from the gaming sphere is the ferocious and sadistic bullying by the “traditional” players. This may include death threats, rape threats, sexist insults, criticism, demanding sexual favours, etc. Various studies have shown how women are the most common target for cyberbullying in gaming spaces. T.V. Reed (2014) claims that over 65% of women have reported sexual harassment in the gaming sphere. This means that if you’re a woman playing video games, there is a big chance that you’d be asked to “go back to the kitchen”. Homophobia is another top problem, with homophobic slurs thrown around extremely casually and frequently by online gamers.

It should be noted that such cyberbullying is rarely liable to much consequence. It is tremendously normalised, even if done by public figures in public settings. Famous YouTuber and gamer PewDiePie, and his history of uttering racist and homophobic slurs, allegedly in the “heat of the moment” is a case in point.

#Gamergate, an online harassment campaign in 2014–15 targeting women in the video game industry, is another critical example of a systematic online bullying campaign undertaken to vanquish feminine involvement or intervention in the gaming industry. The attacks were attributed largely to white male right-wing gamers who rallied against the rise and influence of women and feminism in the video game industry. While it began as a subcultural scandal, largely limited to Twitter, it soon emerged as a proxy war for a greater cultural battle over space, visibility, and inclusion— a battle over who belongs to the mainstream. Many independent game designers (mostly gender minorities) and feminist commentators like Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn were relentlessly bullied by misogynistic trolls, so much so that they were forced to go underground to escape the vitriolic hatred.

Creative Marginalisation of Gender Minorities

Women are presented in an overtly sexualised manner in video games, so much so that their absence, rather than their presence, becomes glaringly visible. The female characters are usually non-playable, like a damsel-in-distress to be saved by the player (as shown in Super Mario) or as background decoration to add a spicy flavour to the gaming world (as shown in Grand Theft Auto). Even when they are made playable, they are still heavily stereotyped. Anita Sarkeesian (2014) describes playable female characters as “Ms. Male” or “Fighting Fucktoy”, which are depicted as stereotypically feminine and sexualised. For example, while the female characters of PUB-G are playable, they are still presented in a dark, gritty, sexualised aesthetic. Such characters are not very good feminist representations of women and are hence antithetical to the feminist demands of inclusion and representation. The collected data shows that only 15% of games had a female protagonist or active character. In 41% of games, there were simply no female characters, and in the rest, they were assigned the role of victims or sexual objects (Heeter, 2013).

Part of why this happens is because of the lack of gender minority representation when it comes to designing video games. Few women are involved in the creative process, and for those who are, their ideas are amost always ridiculed and not accepted.

For example, in 2012, the hashtag #IReasonWhy went viral on Twitter, where female designers explained why there aren’t many women in the video game industry. Their reasons ranged from sexism (like their ideas not being taken seriously) to sexual harassment (like groping by superiors within the designer control rooms). For instance, many female game developers alleged various forms of sexual harassment, like drink spiking, power abuse, and assault even at the recently held Game Developers Conference (GDC). Paige Wilson, a game developer at Aggro Crab Games and survivor at the GDC, claimed that her drinks were spiked with drugs on the night of the event, but fortunately, she was with close friends who kept her safe. Cases like these show how the video game industry is extremely unsafe for gender minority employees and also explain the scarce presence of female employees.

An Inclusive Way Forward: Solutions & Suggestions

That sexism and patriarchy are prevalent in every aspect of the video game industry is no longer a hidden fact. Women and other gender minorities are positioned as precarious subjects and objects in the video game culture, which ties in with socio-cultural gender norms. Strengthening politico-legal structures online can prove beneficial in protecting gender minorities from online harassment. Encouraging more women to enter the video game landscape, in absolutely any capacity, be it as players and designers or as producers and distributors is also vital.

More female players would mean that video game makers would consider the female perspective more seriously. In this regard, the demographics are also encouraging. Women would soon equal men as game players, at least in number, if not in influence. Hiring and involving more gender minority game designers during the creative process will also help solve the problem of the flat dimensions of the existing female characters. This can also aid in incorporating more characters from the LGBTQIA+ community. Individual gaming corporations would have to take the lead in bringing about this change by consciously designing inclusive games and characters. Awareness can also play a big role here. Prominent gamers from the industry can be encouraged to propel messages of inclusivity in the gaming industry, in order to bring about a much-needed change in the mentality of ordinary “traditional” gamers.

However, nothing will be fruitful unless we acknowledge that the gaming industry is not apolitical. It requires feminist engagement, not only to foster inclusivity but also to mainstream so-called “subaltern” gender identities.

References

Brusuelas, Candice. “Why a

Brusuelas, Candice. “Why Does Feminism in Gaming Matter?” Medium, May 23, 2021. https://cbrucewillis.medium.com/why-does-feminism-in-gaming-matter-2d6ae305de2b.

Dewey, Caitlin. “The Only Guide to Gamergate You Will Ever Need to Read.” The Washington Post, October 14, 2014. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/10/14/the-only-guide-to-gamergate-you-will-ever-need-to-read/.

“A Radical Feminist Critique of the Video Game Industry.Pdf – A Radical Feminist Critique of the Video Game Industry An Interactive Qualifying | Course Hero.” 2020. January 28, 2020. https://www.coursehero.com/file/53994351/A-Radical-Feminist-Critique-of-the-Video-Game-Industrypdf/.

Heeter, Carrie. 2014. “Femininity and Video Games.” ResearchGate, January. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303544372_Femininity_and_Video_Games

Jenson, Jennifer, and Suzanne DeCastell. “Tipping Points Marginality, Misogyny and Videogames.” Journal of Curriculum Theorizing (2013).

Kontour, Kyle. “War, Masculinity, And Gaming In The Military Entertainment Complex: A Case Study Of Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.” Thesis, CU Scholar, 2011.

Mishra, Gayatri. “Is the Video Game Industry Still Negatively Catering to Boys?” Feminism in India, October 7, 2020. https://feminisminindia-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/feminisminindia.com/2020/10/07/video-game-industry-boys/?amp=&amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16867720480103&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Ffeminisminindia.com%2F2020%2F10%2F07%2Fvideo-game-industry-boys%2F.

Reed, T. V. “Digitized lives Culture, power and social change in the internet era.” New York, NY: Routledge, 2019.

Does Feminism in Gaming Matter?” Medium, May 23, 2021. https://cbrucewillis.medium.com/why-does-feminism-in-gaming-matter-2d6ae305de2b.

Heeter, Carrie. 2014. “Femininity and Video Games.” ResearchGate, January. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303544372_Femininity_and_Video_Games

Jenson, Jennifer, and Suzanne DeCastell. “Tipping Points Marginality, Misogyny and Videogames.” Journal of Curriculum Theorizing (2013).

Kontour, Kyle. “War, Masculinity, And Gaming In The Military Entertainment Complex: A Case Study Of Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.” Thesis, CU Scholar, 2011.

Reed, T. V. “Digitized lives Culture, power and social change in the internet era.” New York, NY: Routledge, 2019.

Charu Pawar (Head of Research) is a Political Science student at Lady Shri Ram College for Women. She is trying to navigate through the patriarchal world with a feminist heart. Find her debating about “smashing the patriarchy” over a plate of momos in college lawns, dingy tea shops, and practically everywhere else…