The Stereotypical Woman Figure in the Gaming World

I Am a Taboo

Feminism has been spread through the years in different waves, causing a stir in people worldwide. For years on end, females have been dictated how to live their lives according to society’s standards, and this movement has been trying to stop this notion. The stereotypical woman figure has been established from an early stage – someone who sacrifices herself for her family. Society brought up females to be “pure… [and this] purity was supposed to be her chief beauty–her blushes, her great grace”.

Significantly different than the male breadwinner custom, women had to be weak, simple-minded and beautiful, like wilting flowers. But of course, there were women who refused to conform; all they hoped to do was “[speak] the truth about (their) passions”. Virginia Woolf, for example, found herself conflicted with her occupation. Although she loved to write, she was limited by both herself and outside sources. Constantly haunted by the Angel repeating “You are a young woman… never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own”, Woolf was always pressured not to express her thoughts to their full extent.

Similarly, she was oppressed in the same way by civilization’s standards in that she had no freedom to formulate her own opinions. In her world, it appeared that “every man… was capable of song or sonnet” whereas no women could write “a word of that extraordinary literature”.

Just as Virginia Woolf’s perception of the “powerless, meek, charming” woman gradually seeped into her world, other Victorian women were also unable to resist the power of the Angel.

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Females during this age had their individual identities taken and replaced by a single role model. This ‘ideal’ wife would never stray from a husband’s side, “dearly devoted to his arms… [loving] with love that cannot tire”.

When the term “girl gamer’ is brought up, many can’t help but have a specific image in mind: an attractive female sporting a low-cut shirt and over-the-ear headphones, controller grasped in her hands. On Twitch.tv, a streaming platform for gamers, this stereotype is enforced onto all women who choose to broadcast. The chat accompanying their streams is constantly filled with lewd remarks about their appearance – how jackets should be taken off, cameras should be focused on their assets, makeup should always be put on – along with the occasional question of why they choose to stream when there are better male gamers out there. This isn’t just a phenomenon portrayed on Twitch. It’s quite well known and well received in the gaming community how girl gamers are constantly downplayed; women who play games are essentially a taboo.

Just a few weeks ago, I began to watch streams of a well-loved game around the globe – League of Legends. I had played the game once several years ago and decided it wasn’t for me, then promptly uninstalled it. But the curiosity returned to me when I was looking for something to do over spring break, something that could take up just enough time that wouldn’t leave me bored. As a result, I picked up League again, but decided to watch plays instead of jumping straight in, which brought me to Twitch. It didn’t take long for me to notice the lack of girls in the community. There were no females who participated in the worldwide competitions the game was known for – no women considered to be ‘pro players’. Irked about this fact, I browsed over League forums, longing for a good answer, and ended up finding the same response over and over again: girls couldn’t compete professionally without getting jealous of each other, girls couldn’t live in the same house without fighting, girls sucked at video games anyways.

I couldn’t say I was too shocked, because they were all responses I had heard before. However, it was upsetting reading the same reasons over and over again; I knew that they didn’t hold the complete truth. Who said boys wouldn’t break out into fights over mundane issues just like girls would? Was there a simple sentence in a book stating how inept girls were at playing video games? Although the sexist comments were bad enough, dealing with these judgements directly lower my self-esteem as a girl gamer. When I hesitantly tell people about my hobby, they are taken aback. “You like to shoot those virtual guns?” they chide, shaking their heads. “Why don’t you leave that to the boys?” But the criticism doesn’t stop in-game either; no matter what I play, most male players can never even get over the fact that we, as differing genders, play on the same tier.

All of these factors tie into an overall hesitance whenever I boot up a game now. I feel as if I’ve lost confidence in myself, trying to conceal my real identity behind a virtual mask. Since such a prominent disapproval has been placed on female gamers, I can do nothing but shrink in size when the topic is brought up. A large part of me worries that if my fellow teammates find out that I am a girl, they will group up to make me feel inferior. As sexist as it sounds, when I’m in-game, all I want is to be treated like one of the guys.