Hegemonic Masculinity In Video Games

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This research began with the premise of querying whether the misogynistic behaviour and attitudes expressed during Gamergate towards females in every facet of gaming culture, from players to developers, critics and journalists, could be rooted in videogame journalism disseminating an ideology of hegemonic masculinity to its audience, which would subsequently indicate ethics were a justifiable concern.
Conducting a historical and contemporary exploration of previous research related to gaming culture, including game content, advertising, cover art and videogame journalism, evidenced an entrenched male centric gaze within both the videogame industry and the gaming press that has socially, and artificially, constructed gaming as a male space, …show more content…
Furthermore, it asserts hegemonic masculinity has become culturally embedded and maintained in gaming by its institutions, the industry and the gaming press, legitimising and continually propagating the dominance of men. Accordingly, the challenging of this ethos must also begin with these institutions. Hegemonic masculinity is pervasive and can be difficult to alter; repeatedly policed by the barriers to females in games culture, from the exclusionary and stereotypical content of the games and journalistic content that reinforces and shapes societal perceptions to the harassment and misogyny in the gaming community, and the unwelcoming environment detailed by the women who do work in the gaming industries (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005). However, the high profile nature of Gamergate, and the revelation that women now comprise almost half of the gaming audience, which was also reported in mainstream media, presented an opportunity for such change; for these institutions to reflect upon their norms, values and repeated practices, and recognise there is a gender inequality in their creation and presentation of videogames (Jayanth, 2014; Plummer, 2014; Casti, 2014; Shaikh, 2014). In this sense, both game designers and journalists need to be more accountable for their sexist discourse that normalises the …show more content…
This research identified writers were more likely to review games with male protagonists and discuss male characters, and when games had both male and female protagonists, journalists generally dismissed female leads to focus on their male counterparts, counteracting any signs of progress from the industry.
Furthermore, it has been acknowledged that for games culture to alter, the industry must employ more female creators to allow for different perspectives within the production of videogames. However, this, and earlier research, also indicated that gaming journalists are primarily male, and achieving gender equality in this realm may be equally
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