While doing research for this article, I find a picture of a girl, presumably a “gamer girl,” licking an XBox controller. The message seems to be, of course, that she loves playing videogames, and this is the manner in which she chooses to express her appreciation for her console. A statement of appreciation for an Xbox by a dude, by comparison, would be seen as highly banal, and, if accompanied by the gesture of sticking out his tongue onto greasy hard plastic, perceived as a bit ridiculous, not to mention unsanitary.
Wikipedia has an article for “Girl Gamers,” and Urban Dictionary also contains a definition for the term — because “girl” and “gamer,” it seems, aren’t clear enough for those most resistant to grasping the notion of an individual of female persuasion shooting her way through enemy mercenaries in Mass Effect 2.
It might be inexplicable to some, then, that in the Mass Effect series and most of BioWare’s games, the player’s character can be either female or male. According to BioWare statistics, only about 20% of players choose a female version of Mass Effect’s protagonist Commander Shepard — most promotional material for the game features the standard male Shepard avatar. Nevertheless, if BioWare’s social network is any indication, there are plenty of women adventuring in the rich universes of BioWare’s absorbing RPGs and writing plenty of creepy fanfic about the romance options. Similar gender choices are available on Bethesda and Blizzard games. It is estimated 40% of gamers are women, and that number is increasing.
Despite all the minor nuisances, being a female gamer is not an entirely frustrating experience. I have been able, thus far, to play my gender in most games I’ve tried. And, as most female gamers will tell you, playing a man isn’t always an issue. I don’t mind playing Mario.
What is most frustrating about single-player remains, for a fair share of us, the pink-wrapped girlie games at GameStop, which allow you to do thoroughly exciting things like taking care of a baby or folding the laundry. The damsel-in-distress narrative also remains fairly popular. But those options can be ignored.
And of course, the charming Duke Nukem Forever, which, among many other things, features an alien that rapes women to death. Defence of the game’s sexism contains some powerful arguments, such as the apparent need of male gamers to be misogynistic.
As most female gamers of the “girl gamer” variety who try to create a rather dull appeal based on having a hobby associated with males, however, I remain rather aware of the fascination my hobby attracts nevertheless. And that’s only in single-player.
When playing online, it seems every identity that deviates from white, straight, and male is liable to be bullied, usually with the corresponding inflammatory slurs. Though some games, like a few Call of Duty titles, are set in World War II, it is safe to say that most players are not expecting that level of immersion into the mid-20th century.
In the case of female gamers, it is no different. Experiences of females playing online are recounted in the blog Fat, Ugly or Slutty, in which female gamers narrate the numerous threats, insults, and obscene comments thrown at them in online gaming. The title is based on the three most common insults directed at the website’s creators, all of whom are women and gamers.
Otherwise, females circulating through certain environments, especially the more testosterone-filled (for whatever reason) first-person shooters, should expect to be hit on fairly constantly. The perception seems to be that gamer women have nothing better to do than date everyone in their clan/guild/group, which helps explain the existence of titillating pictures involving scantily clad females mooching on hardware, and the general mystique surrounding “girl” gamers.
Now, to be clear: it is rare for gamers to go through certain networks without being told to lick someone’s balls. It seems nevertheless that only those in positions of structural privilege can go through the experience without having their identities insulted because some teenage boy can’t stand to be killed.
The attitudes toward these issues on gamer websites range from genuine sympathy and concern to cries telling women, as well as other minorities, to simply get over it. The conclusion that follows is that both gaming websites and multiplayer networks share the same audience. Though I wish to be known as a gamer first, and a female second, rather than a “girl gamer,” I can’t help but understand with the reasons many choose to create and participate in more friendly all-female realms. Some also choose to hide their own gender, something that is less straightforward on the Internet than it seems.
Which is not so different from male-only environments in the physical world. Gaming is for many men a refuge, a virtual world in which they are able to act out and where their prejudices apparently are allowed to be aired. Considering their roots in very real oppression, nevertheless, that world evidently does not exist in a vacuum. And that’s why I can’t just get over it.
