Gaming Sexism

Interviews with female gamers about structural sexism across the gaming landscapeWhen the Nintendo Wii was released in 2006, it ushered forward a new era of casual gaming in which video games appealed to not just the stereotypical hardcore male gamer, but also to a much broader, more diverse audience. However, the GamerGate controversy six years later, and other similar public incidents since, laid bare the internalized misogyny and gender stereotypes in the gaming community. Today, even as women make up nearly half of all gamers, sexist assumptions about the what and how of women’s gaming are more actively enforced.In Gaming Sexism, Amanda C. Cote explores the video game industry and its players to explain this contradiction, how it affects female gamers, and what it means in terms of power and gender equality. Across in-depth interviews with women-identified gamers, Cote delves into the conflict between diversification and resistance to understand their impact on gaming, both casual and “core” alike. From video game magazines to male reactions to female opponents, she explores the shifting expectations about who gamers are, perceived changes in gaming spaces, and the experiences of female gamers amidst this gendered turmoil. While Cote reveals extensive, persistent problems in gaming spaces, she also emphasizes the power of this motivated, marginalized audience, and draws on their experiences to explore how structural inequalities in gaming spaces can be overcome. Gaming Sexism is a well-timed investigation of equality, power, and control over the future of technology.

An excellent book that anyone interested in video games should definitely read. ... Cote conducted a series of interviews with players to generate insights about their play and interactions that are woven throughout most of the book, but the data from those interviews are beautifully packaged alongside a deep understanding of video games and game studies. Cote is exceptionally well-read ... she provides readers with an excellent conclusion that offers clear suggestions of how to address the problems she has laid out in the body of the work., Gaming Sexism is essential for anyone conducting scholarship on gender in masculine contexts and those who study video gaming in general. I also believe this volume to be a valuable entry in a syllabus for a media, culture, and society course (or something similarly labeled) as this book offers a contemporary sociopolitical analysis of not only the video game industry but also the people who play them., Since Gamergate, attention has turned toward toxic masculinity, but what has been sorely lacking until this point is the sociological data and deep understanding of the cultural interstices of gaming, gamers, and gaming culture that Gaming Sexism provides. Amanda C. Cote’s polyvalent methods and scholarship speaks for itself, and any gamer or scholar of games will be better for having followed her lead.

Amanda C. Cote is Assistant Professor of Media Studies/Games Studies in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon. Her work focuses on video game culture and industry, with an emphasis on questions of gender, identity, and power.