As video games become more widespread, many complaints have been placed on the level of violence and sex present in these games. What is less spoken about is the level of sexism in video games, both in and out of the game. Research indicates that sexism in these games is a prevalent issue that needs to be addressed as video gaming becomes more popular, especially the effect this has amongst females. Thus, sexist video games are a harmful influence on female players, resulting in lower self-esteem and withdrawal from active participation to discouragement from playing. This is evident through the degrading sexist depictions of female characters, sexual harassment from male players during online gaming, and the controversies and sexism in the
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Many games now include the ability to play and interact online with other people in real time. What should be a time to enjoy playing the game with other people becomes an area full of male gamers determined to show off their hypermasculinity, an exaggeration of stereotypical masculine behaviour including callous sexist behaviour to women to prove their masculinity to other men (Brehm, 2013). When these male players realise that they are playing with a female, they call them out in rude, sexist ways. Gray (2012) recalls her own experience of playing an online game, when she apologised on her microphone for some mistakes, her group responded “Oh you guys hear this? That’s why you suck. You’re a fucking girl! What the fuck are you doing in my room?” (p. 412). Reasoning that she was bad at the game based on her gender enforces the belief that women are not good at video games simply because they are not men. This type of harassment occurs regardless of skill which Fox and Tang (2014) agree with, noting that in many studies, pre-recorded voices of females received more harassment than their male counterparts. Brehm (2013) gives many examples of harassment in online gaming, one example in particular comes from a female player who when playing as a female character, a group of male players “offered to pay her 100 g to take off her character 's clothes and dance in one of the inns” (p. 7). The effect that this has on female players’ self-esteem is destructive as it leads them to stay quiet and give no indication of their gender, essentially erasing their identity in online games. Gray (2012) agrees with this stating that one group of female players in her research decided to use names that had no indication of their gender, disassociating themselves with their femininity, and simply enduring the sexism by getting better at the game.
Many games now include the ability to play and interact online with other people in real time. What should be a time to enjoy playing the game with other people becomes an area full of male gamers determined to show off their hypermasculinity, an exaggeration of stereotypical masculine behaviour including callous sexist behaviour to women to prove their masculinity to other men (Brehm, 2013). When these male players realise that they are playing with a female, they call them out in rude, sexist ways. Gray (2012) recalls her own experience of playing an online game, when she apologised on her microphone for some mistakes, her group responded “Oh you guys hear this? That’s why you suck. You’re a fucking girl! What the fuck are you doing in my room?” (p. 412). Reasoning that she was bad at the game based on her gender enforces the belief that women are not good at video games simply because they are not men. This type of harassment occurs regardless of skill which Fox and Tang (2014) agree with, noting that in many studies, pre-recorded voices of females received more harassment than their male counterparts. Brehm (2013) gives many examples of harassment in online gaming, one example in particular comes from a female player who when playing as a female character, a group of male players “offered to pay her 100 g to take off her character 's clothes and dance in one of the inns” (p. 7). The effect that this has on female players’ self-esteem is destructive as it leads them to stay quiet and give no indication of their gender, essentially erasing their identity in online games. Gray (2012) agrees with this stating that one group of female players in her research decided to use names that had no indication of their gender, disassociating themselves with their femininity, and simply enduring the sexism by getting better at the game.