What is a girl gamer?

[Luinbariel]

I had planned to start this with “The gaming industry tells us that the female gamer is a scarce individual” and then go on from there, but I couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t be true.  “Tells us” would imply that a male gamer is speaking to other male gamers about the female demographic. No, I can’t assume that position and pretend I fit in with that group, no matter how much I think I do (at least in spirit).

The next logical, antithetical headline seemed to be “Insights on the elusive girl gamer” and yet I still couldn’t go that route. That would be jumping right into a subject that I couldn’t adequately outline, and that even the most hard-core girl gamer could identify, thanks to a fundamental flaw. How can you offer insights into something that no one can really define? Sure, you could say it’s as simple as “there’s a girl, and she likes games” but there are so many questions left unanswered, like does she fit the other typical gamer stereotypes? How did she get into a market that is largely male? What sort of games makes a girl gamer? The questions seem endless and unanswerable.

So that’s where I plan to start.

What is a girl gamer, exactly?

Like any self-respecting denizen of the internet, I thought I’d better check Google first. That seems like a stupid thing to do, but if enough people have asked this same question, there was at least some hope that an answer was out there, somewhere. Of course one of the first links available was a Wikipedia entry, and this was pleasing. We know that even though wiki’s aren’t necessarily reliable sources of information, at the very least they’re a collection of what everyone else thinks. So, maybe, I could get a good idea of what everyone else thought a girl gamer was.

The very first thing I noticed about this article was that it was marked for deletion.

Seriously?

I understand that Wikipedia has standards for their articles and everything, but “girl gamer”, deleted? Hopefully the discussion page had a little more insight into why this was going to happen. It was a short but thick mess of arguments, ranging from pleas to keep the article, hopes to combine it with other ones, and the cry to abolish it altogether. All these opinions aside, there were some really good points brought up about gender and gaming. Why would you need an article about girl gamers specifically, when there weren’t also articles about girl doctors, girl firefighters, and girl scientists?

Discussions about gaming and gender seemed really heated here but I was still a little dissatisfied. If the gaming industry, and other gamers themselves, had devoted enough energy and attention to the demographic and the term, clearly they were worth defining and keeping around. The entry’s claim that a “girl gamer describes a female who regularly engages in the playing of video games, role-playing games, or other games” didn’t hold up to my experiences. It was time to turn to Google again and keep searching.

The next link I checked out brought me to “Girl Gamer”, which claimed to be “an online community and webzine for female gamers”. This looked pretty promising, and I took a little time to browse around. The forum community seemed about the same as any other, discussing games and strategies, tips and tricks. Here was some insight into what a girl gamer was, and I was reminded of the questions the Wikipedia article posed. Why slap gender on something that seems to be pretty much the same without it? If the site didn’t have “Girl” in the title, it would have been exactly the same as most other gaming related sites. Still, as I browsed around, I noticed something odd.

Firstly, there was a lot of pink. I say a lot and you might not really agree, but still. That’s a lot of pink. It was everywhere. Links were pink, the heading was pink... hey, it works with the grey theme, but I’m starting to see some more of that gender segregation. I get that we’re chicks and that we want to maybe have some discussions with other chicks about games and gaming related things, but... why add the pink? What about being a girl and a gamer made pink the best choice? I could easily be applying my own stereotypes about color to this, but something told me it maybe wasn’t the female’s idea of the girly stereotype that they were clinging to.

Something was hiding behind all that pink.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not trying to bash the site at all. In fact I’m really very proud that a place like that exists and sticks to its gaming guns despite the color choices. I’m even more proud that there are many of them and that a large number of them seem respectable and intelligent. But something was still up that had me thinking. The site had taught me that girl gamers were, in fact, girls that liked to engage in gaming of various types, but there was still something else missing to the definition, something that I couldn’t quite get my finger on.

As I went back to Google and tried an image search this time, it hit me. It was sex appeal. The one difference between gamers and girl gamers, the one thing that wasn’t really just a basic gender differentiation (such as girl doctor or girl lawyer), the one thing hiding behind the pink was sex appeal. When I looked through the images that popped up in my image search, I realized that girls who were interested in games as well were sexualized more than gamers “in general”. No one made sexy motivational posters of a guy gamer wearing various console game parts as undies. No one had made provocative clothing with witty slogans or gaming-related themes for male gamers (unless you consider your basic t-shirt to be enticing and naughty).

I’d struck gold. The missing piece to the ultimate definition of a gamer girl had fallen into place, and I finally understood. Yes, it was true that the heft of the definition was, in fact, a girl who enjoyed and regularly participated in games of many kinds. But sex, or the apparent association that girls who game are equated with sex in some form, was the paper onto which the phrase “girl gamer” was stuck.

To the male gamer, the dominant percentage of the gaming demographic, it was sexy to see girls interested in games too, or at the very least to see them wearing game-themed clothes (or almost wearing them). When someone said “girl gamer”, they were instantly able to call into mind the image that, for them, made a female gamer sexy and appealing. If someone had just asked them about the sex appeal of a gamer, many would probably not respond the same way that they would if you asked them about a girl gamer. The terms, and thus their definitions, were not the same.

The concept was similar on the “Girl Gaming” site, although not to the same extent. By adding the pink and using the term “Girl” in their title, the site differentiated itself from the “regular” gamer and allowed an image to be instantly brought to mind. Whereas the title of “gamer” was so anonymous and large that anyone could easily and seamlessly fit into it, “girl gamer” allowed for a special distinction that separated them from the rest of the community. The color choice and the many traditional gender roles it often helped enforce were just another quick and easy way to remind viewers that girl gamers were indeed to be separated from their mundane counterparts. 

So, there it was. I’d learned what a girl gamer, by a loose sort of internet definition, really was. It was a term that could be applied to girls who like to play games, as you might expect, but it’s also an image laced with sex appeal to a specific group of people. It can be used as a gender differentiation between a girl or guy who likes to game, but it could also be a reference to a fairly specific sexual market. In an instant, it set one group apart from another while embodying specific qualities with the addition of only one word.

Whether or not both apply to those of us out there who choose to reveal our lady gender to the communities in which we game is up to us.

[zaneyard]

nice article liz that was pretty well written

[Luinbariel]

Thank you sir! I didn't realize it had been put out already, heh.

[beep beep diglett]

nice article, but i can tell you why articles are flagged for deletion on wikipedia: retarded definition of what is notable. if i recall articles require atleast 2 media sources to be considered valid for whatever reason. but that's probably why it was flagged

[Luinbariel]

I'm not really sure if that's why entirely or not; I think the question was more along the lines of whether or not "girl" gamers and "boy" gamers should even be separated at all.


After thinking about it for awhile I generally agree. I don't think there's a need for that specific article on wikipedia since it just doesn't really fit or have a point.

[Turtle]

so i googled girl gamer to see

This article needs additional citations for verification.

[Luinbariel]

*shrugs*

I didn't say I didn't think that was the only reason it was marked for deletion.

Did you look at the discussions there?

[beep beep diglett]

yeah, theyre p retarded and i agree with your points, but the citations thing only adds to it

[Luinbariel]

yeah, theyre p retarded and i agree with your points, but the citations thing only adds to it

Yes, I agree.

Where could you even get citations for girl gamers?

[beep beep diglett]

[quote author=dagrett link=topic=4811.msg164489#msg164489 date=1279411710]
yeah, theyre p retarded and i agree with your points, but the citations thing only adds to it

Yes, I agree.

Where could you even get citations for girl gamers?
[/quote]

SHOCKING NEW TREND AMONG WOMEN: VIDEO GAMES, AND ARE THEY SEXIST? CHANNEL 8 REPORTS TONIGHT AT 11

[copulatingduck]

[quote author=dagrett link=topic=4811.msg164489#msg164489 date=1279411710]
yeah, theyre p retarded and i agree with your points, but the citations thing only adds to it

Yes, I agree.

Where could you even get citations for girl gamers?
[/quote]

FRAGDOLLS

Does xboxlive still have a girl-gamer night? I bet if you cited some microsoft page girl-gamers would gain some traction and legitimacy on wikipedia.

[rumsfald]

Yes, I agree.

Where could you even get citations for girl gamers?

The google, it works

http://www.slideshare.net/Netwoman/femal...onal-gamer

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=33...N=34974692 (check out that reference list - from 1996! a reference on gender differences from 1985).

http://www.bitmob.com/articles/why-game-...l-approach

http://contexts.org/socimages/2010/01/15...en-or-not/

http://www.redorbit.com/news/scifi-gamin...index.html

[Luinbariel]

Well, there it is. I was thinking like I was making a paper for school, where you can't use anything you find on google as a source.


I forget, this is wikipedia I'm talking about.

[Live-Free-Or-Pie]

The part about pink being a stereotypical female color reminded me of this article: http://www.howstuffworks.com/gender-color.htm

[Ianki]

I think you hit the nail on the head.

Personally i think that labels like "girl gamer" is equivalent to something like "Jewish doctor", "black superhero", or something equally as offensive.

Why draw these distinctions at all except to exploit it?  I think the real offshoot to this is the concept of the female nerd, which is another archetype which has been over sexualized in it's display.

Though one concept that i think deserves exploration is the equivocation between the rise of casual gaming via the DS and the Wii to the rise of female gaming.  This comparison really has to stop.  More people are playing games period, you don't have to make it a gender breaking moment, mostly because i don't feel as though wii tennis really has that "male dominated" vibe to it and has no bearing on whether or not that new gamer will then go and pick up halo.

But along those same lines, i think a lot of this is generational. most 20 and 30 something gamers grew up with an NES, SNES, or genesis in their home and i don't think these demographics worked out gender neutral (i blame the parents).  Honestly though, even though i believe that gaming will become less dominated by men in the coming years, the sexualization of women who play games will never go away.  let's face it, people will sexualize anything that will let them believe that attractive members of the opposite of sex share their hobbies. Women are just as guilty of this as men, it's just really easy to see when pinup models are hanging gamepads over their tits.

[Luinbariel]

Honestly though, even though i believe that gaming will become less dominated by men in the coming years, the sexualization of women who play games will never go away.  let's face it, people will sexualize anything that will let them believe that attractive members of the opposite of sex share their hobbies. Women are just as guilty of this as men, it's just really easy to see when pinup models are hanging gamepads over their tits.

Exaaactly.

Thanks for your comments too, I appreciate it. I'd never really thought about the rise of gaming on the whole, but now that I do I DO see a lot of people having access to it, perhaps more than ever before. I'm reminded of my own niece who already has more access to games than I ever did at that age. She's already probably played more in the last year than I might play in months, but it's not just her; she tells me about all of her friends, both boys and girls, who have this game or have that console, and it's an interest among all of them now. I am so curious to see how, if at all, it effects her as she grows up.


Pie, your link is also really interesting. I took a glance and I wonder whether or not we can actually de-construct the idea of color as a societal thing or as a product of decisions made by evolutionary predecessors. I really don't know for sure, of course, but somehow it seems like such a re-enforce issue at this point that I don't think a preference across two (or maybe even more) totally different cultures would be enough. Especially with the amount of connection that the world has to itself these days.

What do you think?

[Odin]

Some interesting points brought up in this thread.

I tend to agree with the statements that the discrimination and sexualization are pretty unnecessary.  However, the ratio of male to females is still pretty one-sided, and will be for a long time.  It's just the way it is, and until the ratio becomes more even there will always be discrimination.  It might not be meaningful, or intentionally offensive, but it will always be there.

Out of my 121 steam friends 9 are female, that's a pretty big disparity.  With girls being such a 'rare sighting', people take notice.  When people take notice of someone because they're different, they unintentionally segregate them from the rest of the players on the server.  I guess I'm trying to say females will just always stick out among the gamer crowd, it's just the way things are.

[Luinbariel]

With girls being such a 'rare sighting', people take notice.

I'm going to address this next, I think. Since I have DEFINITELY noticed it as well.

[beep beep diglett]

from what i've experienced, the fact that theyre treated differently causes women to just stop putting that out there, like if you're constantly getting harrassed for being gay, you're gonna stop telling people you're gay, yknow?

[Surf314]

from what i've experienced, the fact that theyre treated differently causes women to just stop putting that out there, like if you're constantly getting harrassed for being gay, you're gonna stop telling people you're gay, yknow?

Yea I see this. This phenomena seems to divide women up into 3 camps: those that don't want to be known because of the attention, those that want the attention and those that could care less. Personally I can't wait until everything normalizes and it's just "oh a woman, hi person."