[Note: Trigger warning for sexist, demeaning language and violent imagery.]
If you’re a regular reader of Soc Images, chances are pretty good that you also know about Anita Sarkeesian’s project to look at sexism in video games. Sarkeesian, who runs the fantastic Feminist Frequency site, attracted a large amount of hateful online attacks and harassment after starting a Kickstarter campaign to raise a few thousand dollars for a project looking at sexism in video games. If you aren’t aware of the story, check out any of the many media stories about her experience.
Sarkeesian’s project looks at stereotypes or sexist imagery in the design of the games themselves. My coworker Darren D. let me know about a website that highlights another element of sexism in the gaming community: the demeaning or threatening sexist comments gamers often send to other players, especially those they believe are women. Fat, Ugly or Slutty collects examples of the sexual harassment and sexist attacks that are an unfortunately common part of female gamers’ lives.
Many of the comments sexualize and objectify the women by suggesting they should be sexually available to other players or open to comments on their appearance. Some angrily lash out with hateful sexist attacks and put-downs about physical appearance and sexuality. Others send threats or vivid scenarios of violence.
As one of my female students told me last semester, as a gamer, she has the extra mental and emotional burden of having to decide, every time she considers playing, whether the joy she gets from the game outweighs the likelihood that she’ll be called a whore or a bitch or have to ignore sexual comments as she tries to concentrate on the game.
For more on the topic, check out the BBC’s documentary “Guns, Girls and Games.” Also check out Not in the Kitchen Anymore, where Jenny Haniver posts recordings of the types of sexist comments she has to deal with as a female gamer.
UPDATE: Several commenters have pointed out that men also get comments like at least some of these. That is absolutely true. Insults of a wide and creative variety are thrown around. But these comments, whether targeted at men or women, illustrate a common cost of admission to online gaming: whether a man or a woman, you have to expect sexist, demeaning, violent insults if you want to play. Those are the informal rules of the game.
And yes, both men and women receive these types of objectifying or sexist comments. In a world in which women are more likely to face this type of behavior in their everyday lives outside of gaming, and in which women playing multi-player or FPS games generally find themselves in the minority, the fact that both male and female gamers experience these insults shouldn’t reassure us that the impacts of them are equal and, thus, harmless.
Gwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.
Comments 142
md — September 10, 2012
i'm so glad i can't get the xbox live thing to ever connect then.
It's not just games though, it's any internet forum, chatroom, or community site. I used a penpal site where I pretty much just deleted any male message without reading.
JohnMWhite — September 10, 2012
These comments are terrible, certainly, and while they clearly use sexist, misogynistic language and jump to ludicrous conclusions for no reason other than to hate and hurt someone, this isn't really about women - everybody gets treated like this when trying to play online. I've had plenty of men claim they're going to rape me (or currently are raping me because they're a little better than I am at shooting people in the face) or demand that I suck their penis. It's ugly and it's crude and it's not acceptable, but I don't think boxing this kind of anti-social behavior off as simply misogyny adequately reflects reality - it's not so much about hating women as it is about simply hating other people and trying to inflict verbal damage on them by any means necessary.
Still, there are significant gender issues in the gaming community and hopefully sites like Fat, Ugly or Slutty will start making inroads in changing that culture to one that's more inclusive and less vicious.
E.S. — September 10, 2012
I often avoid online gaming unless it is done with friends because of how abusive it can be. It has kind of become a cyber-culture in of itself where because of the anonymous nature of it people act in ways they would not normally do in public.
It really is not that surprising to learn of how women are targeted with these types of insults. It shows that even within gaming these words like "lesbian", "(w)hore" and physical insults rear their ugly heads when someone's pride feels threatened...such a when they lose in their game to one.
geoffreyarnold — September 10, 2012
You should hear the racial slurs on those games. I quit playing x-box live after college (Counter Strike) because everyone loved to call everyone else "nigger" over their headsets. Some games are better than others though. The most vulgar behavior seems to come from the first-person-shooters. Other action or strategy games are not so bad.
Okey Dokey — September 10, 2012
Another aspect to this is the whole "girl gamer" thing. Basically, a
lot of gamers will get really angry if you indicate you're female,
because it's "attention seeking" and it's wrong to identify as a "girl gamer" because you should just be a "gamer".
If
you talk you will hear the same "ARE U A GIRL?" or "ARE U A 12 YEAR OLD
BOY" comments over and over and over from people who think they are
clever. You will be asked if you are fat. Some men will also get really
mad if you don't pay attention to them or don't act flirty. If a man
on the server tells them to quit it, they will get yelled at for being a
"white knight". If you get angry, you are a "bitch who can't take a
joke".
If you are good at the game, men will express surprise that a
woman can play well. You will be told you are probably only good
because you're ugly.
You get random friend requests because you are a
woman. If you don't pay enough attention to these random people they
will get angry. You will sometimes wonder if some of your genuine gamer
friends only like you because you're a woman.
If you play in a
competitive league, commentators will always point out you are a woman.
There will people watching your matches who will call you a slut. If
you are sexually harassed by another competitor during a tournament,
there is a really good chance the people running it will ignore it or
tell you to just suck it up.
If you decide to make gameplay videos
and put them on youtube? You will constantly be told the only reason
people watch your stuff is because you're a woman.
Sorry for
ranting I've just being gaming since I was a kid and the culture is so
frustrating, this isn't even getting into the stuff you encounter in
tabletop gaming.
K.S — September 11, 2012
Nah, just being lucky. BtW positive feedback ( and asking about your sex/gender) is bad too, it shoudn't matter if you are female or male, because it can't influence you skill as a player.
Koldpurple — September 11, 2012
This pisses me off greatly because it's not just gaming. It's happening to us women on many if not most websites. I hope these woman hating,racist trolls burn in hell!
mimimur — September 11, 2012
I think it is particularly interesting that these young men seem to think of women on the internet as prostitues (the comments asking for sex) in a way that surely won't about the women around then in real life. One has to wonder how that works in their heads. Does the virgin- whore dichotomy line up with real life- online and how do they reconcile that with the fact that the women on the 'net exist in real life too?
Oh, and of course the go to insult for women is Lesbian, because a lesbian is apparently the worst thing a woman can be. I'm really starting to see a problem in that the homophobia behind that word is never dealt with in the same way as when worlds like Gay are used in the same way- all is attributed to sexism in the general conversation (meaning sexism against straight women, natch). Aren't lesbians worth defending too?
mimimur — September 11, 2012
"Doing wrong"? What, you think the less lucky women have brought this into themselves? Your wife is just lucky, and believe me when I tell you that making friends online does not refute that there is harrassment out there.
Yrro Simyarin — September 11, 2012
A 16-year old boy plays a video game with a WASPy male, a Jewish male, a black man, and a white woman.
He calls the first one a filthy cocksucker, the second a kike, the third a nigger, and the fourth a lesbian cunt.
Is the problem best explained by sexism, racism, or just plain assholery?
Because it's been my experience that anyone playing online will be the recipient of this sort of treatment. The gender of the player just provides local color to the insults chosen.
Doesn't mean it's good, but it's a little broader than just sexism.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/
Deadlyforcegamers — September 11, 2012
sadly this happens almost every day to us girl gamers that beat men lol its hilarious how pissed they get!
Mkreaps — September 11, 2012
I have also noticed that "faggot" and "gay" and "you just got raped" are thrown around a lot.
anonymous — September 11, 2012
I think one of the problems here is that a couple of issues are being conflated. Most of what the comments are discussing is verbal abuse in the context of playing (trash-talking, etc). Which I think is bad and should be addressed. However, I think you see the real difference in male and female experiences online when you realize that a lot of the abuse women talk about online IMMEDIATELY follows their "outing" as female, and can be directly attributed to people's reactions to their disclosure of gender.
bad_penguin — September 11, 2012
One thing that I think people seem to be missing here is that XBL gamers who send this type of message to other players are typically fairly young--I'm talking middle/high school. Obviously at that age people have quite a bit of maturing to do and are more prone to shooting off at the mouth. They most likely are just taking advantage of the anonymity that online gaming offers them. I'm not using "kids will be kids" as an excuse for their behavior but it is something to consider when you receive this type of message.
So, as a female who likes to play online games, I also take advantage of the anonymity by using a gender-neutral name and not using a microphone. Neither of these things gets in the way of my experience and I do not feel as though I have compromised anything about who I am in order to avoid some of the more negative aspects of online gaming.
DD — September 12, 2012
Yes, men are raped in jail. So are women. In fact, women are raped just about anywhere and everywhere, across nations and cultures, all over the globe, including en masse during wars, with knives. There are famous art historical paintings about the rape of women, it's in religions and mythos everywhere. Tell me again that men and women are raped the same amount. As a culture we don't address the rape of men, but we overall condone the rape of women. I mean, if we're going to play the "who gets raped more" game.
"I want to talk to you about equality, what equality is
and what it means. It isn’t just an idea. It’s not some insipid word
that ends up being bullshit. It doesn’t have anything at all to do with
all those statements like: “Oh, that happens to men too.” I name an
abuse and I hear: “Oh, it happens to men too.” That is not the equality
we are struggling for. We could change our strategy and say: well, okay,
we want equality; we’ll stick something up the ass of a man every three
minutes.
You’ve never heard that from the feminist movement, because for us
equality has real dignity and importance–it’s not some dumb word that
can be twisted and made to look stupid as if it had no real meaning." -Andrea Dworkin
Ben Zvan — September 12, 2012
Nor have I.
TMK — September 13, 2012
Yeah, this is pretty much equal opportunity insultorama. Of course, the specifics differs, males get homosexuality-related insults and gender policing insults that question their masculinity, for example. To claim this environment is specifically hostile against women shows ignorance about how it operates.
TMK — September 13, 2012
Oh, thanks for the anecdata. As a female gamer (or rather, having female avatar/profile), i wasn't threatened with rape, either.
Samantha Henry — September 21, 2012
I've honestly never had this problem and I've been on the internet as a gamer for 12+ years...Full Disclosure wise I don't play on Xbox Live or much FPS, but I do many multiplayer games including World of Warcraft and several other MMO type games.
Jarrik32 — October 8, 2012
Ignoring (for now) the gender element, I do find it very concerning that the vast majority of (near constant) verbal abuse dished out on fps is (in my experience) mostly dished out by 10 to 15 year old boys. As a bonus most of them shouldn't even be playing those games (the 18 rating IS a legal restriction), so... wtf? P.S. Nobody enjoys the abuse, I can only offer female gamers my condolences (If I get called a fag by a 10 year old one more time...)
Why is Gender an Issue? | Beauty of a Being — January 22, 2016
[…] Sexism is also common among people of the internet. “Meninists” use satire and jokes to mock and degrade feminists. They support the mockery of female empowerment, and completely take,”All of the blood, suffering and even death that hundreds and thousands of women [go] through to achieve the strength and liberation for people,” as a joke. In the gaming community, sexist slurs are thrown at females to “get back in the kitchen” and is common for a them to experience sexual harassment. […]
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