Communications in Humanities Research

- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences


Communications in Humanities Research

Vol. 6, 14 September 2023

Open Access | Article

Video Games and Gender Equality: How Has Video Gaming Become a Men’s Privilege?

Ruiqi Pan * 1
1 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Communications in Humanities Research, Vol. 6, 37-44
Published 14 September 2023. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by EWA Publishing
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Citation Ruiqi Pan. Video Games and Gender Equality: How Has Video Gaming Become a Men’s Privilege?. CHR (2023) Vol. 6: 37-44. DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/6/20230045.

Abstract

Gender norms and gender exclusion in video games are worth discussing. Based on previous research on video games and gender equality, the article investigates how video gaming excludes female participation and becomes a male privilege. Understanding segregation is crucial because numerous video games today still feature misrepresentations of women despite the ongoing feminist movements that strive for equal rights. This article found that the video game industry was established by a male workforce that designed games to appeal to a male-centric market, thus the female voice is left out from the beginning. Women in contemporary video games are portrayed through the lens of male desire in which females are sexualized, powerless, and subordinate. They are excluded from the male-centric structure because of sexualization, sexual harassment, and workplace segregation. An optimistic vision of the future is also discussed due to the emergence of female voices in the gaming industry.

Keywords

Gender norms and gender exclusion in video games are worth discussing. Based on previous research on video games and gender equality, the article investigates how video gaming excludes female participation and becomes a male privilege. Understanding segregation is crucial because numerous video games today still feature misrepresentations of women despite the ongoing feminist movements that strive for equal rights. This article found that the video game industry was established by a male workforce that designed games to appeal to a male-centric market, thus the female voice is left out from the beginning. Women in contemporary video games are portrayed through the lens of male desire in which females are sexualized, powerless, and subordinate. They are excluded from the male-centric structure because of sexualization, sexual harassment, and workplace segregation. An optimistic vision of the future is also discussed due to the emergence of female voices in the gaming industry.

References

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Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the International Conference on Social Psychology and Humanity Studies
ISBN (Print)
978-1-83558-005-9
ISBN (Online)
978-1-83558-006-6
Published Date
14 September 2023
Series
Communications in Humanities Research
ISSN (Print)
2753-7064
ISSN (Online)
2753-7072
DOI
10.54254/2753-7064/6/20230045
Copyright
14 September 2023
Open Access
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Copyright © 2023 EWA Publishing. Unless Otherwise Stated