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Sexism and video games

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Sexism in video gaming refers to prejudiced behavior or discrimination based on sex or gender that is experienced by people who play and create video games, primarily women. This may manifest as sexual harassment or in the way genders are represented in games, where characters are often presented according to common tropes and stereotypes.

The demographics of video game culture have changed since the 1980s and 90s, when video games were perceived as something of interest mainly to young men. Women make up about half of all game players as of the 2010s. This has contributed to industry professionals and media increasingly paying attention to issues related to sexism in video gaming.

Harassment

Form

Harassment can involve sexist insults or comments, death or rape threats, demanding sexual favors in exchange of virtual or real money, or criticism of the presence of women and their interests.[1] In some cases, female players are also stalked, whether online or offline.[2]

Women can also be considered intruders, as it is assumed they do not play video games, except games associated with female players such as the Sims, music video games or casual games. Conversely, insults towards men focus mainly on their alleged lack of manliness for playing "girl games" or disliking violent games.[3] As a result, women may face offensive behavior at conventions, competitions or in video games stores. It may affect female gamers, journalists or game developers, even when they are invited to talk at a conference or to present a game.[4][5][6][7] Since the release of the NES, video games advertisements have been accused of strengthening this tendency by targeting only men.[8][9] In the 1980s, women stopped being represented playing video games in advertisement and scantily clad women started being used on game covers and ads.[8] Some women saw their non-sexualized female character designs rejected, and others reported sexual harassment in the workplace.[10][11]

According to a 2014 survey created by the International Videogame Developers Association about the satisfaction of working in video game development, results show that females claimed insubordination from subordinate male colleagues, a preference for white males in management position, and a preference for males in hiring and promotion.[12] In the same survey, many female developers complained about how peers did not take their video game credentials into serious consideration and reported invitations to "meetings" that were actually romantic dates. There was also a small number of men feeling discriminated against in favor of women.[13]

Sexual harassment occurs frequently in many online settings relating online video games. Specifically, 65% of women report harassment and statistically receive three times as much derogatory or insulting remarks than men. With anonymity masking gamers, women are susceptible to extreme misogynistic and violent remarks.[14]

Frequency

Although insults are frequent in online gaming or on internet, women are, according to Stephen Toulouse, moderator of the Xbox Live between 2007 and 2012, the most frequent target of harassment,[2] but data from Riot Games list racism and homophobia at the top.[15] Derogatory words for gay are used almost constantly in online gaming.[16]

In 2012, a study of the Ohio University showed that the same person playing online on Halo 3 with a male and a female profile using recorded voice messages received three times more negative comments with the female profile, despite similar game scores. Even welcoming everybody at the beginning of a game could lead to sexist insults against the female profile.[6][17]

A study from 2006 showed that 83.4% of gamers had seen the words "gay" or "queer" used as derogatory names, and that 52.7% of gay gamers perceived the gaming community as "somewhat hostile" while 14% perceived it as "very hostile".[18]

Another study about online harassment in gaming, also from 2012, said that to date, there had been very little empirical research into online harassment and few existing studies have been focused on the motivation behind the harassment.[19]

Examples

Events in 2012 to 2014 brought sexual harassment in video gaming to mainstream media's attention in the United-States,[2] United Kingdom and Germany:[4]

  • In February 2012, the behavior of a Tekken team coach against a female player of his team during a Capcom competition named Cross Assault provoked an outrage.[1] He interrogated her about her bra size, asked her to remove her shirt, took a webcam to film her breasts and her legs, smelled her and discussed her appearance during the live broadcast of the tournament on internet.[2] He then stated that sexual harassment and the fighting game community are "one and the same thing" and that it would be "ethically wrong" to remove sexual harassment from the community.[20] After a few days without any reaction from the sponsoring company, the female player eventually gave up the competition. [21] Capcom later issued an apology and stated that "any inappropriate or disrespectful comments will not be tolerated during filming".[22] The team coach also apologized afterwards.[2]
  • In May 2012, the Kickstarter crowdfunding of videos on female representation in video games received wide coverage due to the cyber-bullying of its founder, the feminist video-blogger Anita Sarkeesian. Her Facebook, YouTube and email accounts were subsequently flooded with hateful and sexist comments, death and rape threats, and photoshopped pictures of her getting raped by video game characters. A game was created, inviting players to beat her up.[2][5][23] She eventually collected $160,000 out of the requested $6,000.[24] The most recent threat against Anita Sarkeesian was in Logan, Utah on October 15, 2014. She was scheduled to deliver a speech on a Wednesday evening until an anonymous email message arrived a day before, stating that there would be a mass shooting if the event was held.[25]
  • In France, the female blogger Mar_Lard brought attention to the sexism in the video gaming community in May 2013 by publishing a blog post named Sexisme chez les geeks: Pourquoi notre communauté est malade, et comment y remédier, a compilation of sexism problems in the geek community.[6][7][26]

Effects

A study conducted in the University of Cologne concluded that sexist video games do not cause sexism.[27]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Fletcher, James. "Sexual harassment in the world of video gaming". BBC News. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e f O'Leary, Amy. "In Virtual Play, Sex Harassment Is All Too Real". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  3. ^ Emily Matthew (2012-06-06). "Sexism in Video Games: There Is Sexism in Gaming". Price Charting.
  4. ^ a b Süddeutsche.de GmbH, Munich, Germany. "Frauenrollen in Computerspielen - Sexspielzeug - Digital - Süddeutsche.de". Süddeutsche.de. Retrieved 9 September 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ a b Süddeutsche.de GmbH, Munich, Germany. "Sexismus in Videospielen - Wo Feminismus als "Terrorismus" gilt - Digital - Süddeutsche.de". Süddeutsche.de. Retrieved 9 September 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ a b c "Jeux vidéo: une étude confirme le sexisme des joueurs - Slate.fr". Slate.fr. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  7. ^ a b "Les Inrocks - Le milieu geek, bien trop sexiste ?". Les Inrocks. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  8. ^ a b "No girls allowed - Polygon". Polygon. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  9. ^ "Playstation 4 (PS4) et Xbox One: la surenchère sexiste - L'Humanité". L'Humanité. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  10. ^ Mary Hamilton (November 28, 2012). "#1reasonwhy: the hashtag that exposed games industry sexism". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  11. ^ "#1ReasonWhy: Women Take to Twitter to Talk about Sexism in Video Game Industry". Time Newsfeed. November 27, 2012. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  12. ^ Edwards, Kate; Weststar, Johanna; Meloni, Wanda; Pearce, Celia; Legault, Marie-Josée. "Developer Satisfaction Survey 2014 Summer Report" (PDF). gameqol.org.
  13. ^ http://gameqol.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/IGDA%20DSS%202014-Summary%20Report_released.pdf
  14. ^ Digitized Lives, T.V. Reed
  15. ^ http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/05/using-science-to-reform-toxic-player-behavior-in-league-of-legends/
  16. ^ http://www.ign.com/articles/2010/01/13/homophobia-and-harassment-in-the-online-gaming-age
  17. ^ "Study: Female Gamers Receive Verbal Abuse From Male Gamers - Pacific Standard: The Science of Society". Pacific Standard. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  18. ^ http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Gay-rights-group-plans-talk-on-silencing-slurs-by-3224946.php
  19. ^ http://www.igi-global.com/article/exploratory-study-trolling-online-video/75169
  20. ^ Kuchera, Ben (2012-02-28). "Sexual harassment as ethical imperative: how Capcom's fighting game reality show turned ugly". The Penny Arcade Report. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  21. ^ "Cross Assault sexual harassment controversy overshadows on-screen combat - GamesBeat - Games - by Marcos Valdez (Community Writer)". VentureBeat. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  22. ^ "When Passions Flare, Lines Are Crossed [UPDATED] - Giant Bomb". Giant Bomb. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  23. ^ "Digitaler Sexismus ǀ Emanzipation der Trolle — der Freitag". Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  24. ^ "Lara Croft et le sexisme des gamers". Le Monde.fr. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  25. ^ "Anita Sarkeesian Cancels Speech Over Utah State University Allowing Firearms To Her Event". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
  26. ^ "Le jeu vidéo est-il sexiste ? - France info". France info. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  27. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite pmid}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by PMID 25844719, please use {{cite journal}} with |pmid=25844719 instead.
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