The most recent batch of sexism toward women in video game culture has become popular enough to be discussed by Forbes and The New Yorker, as well as five articles on Time in two days. But why do some gamers hate women enough to send violent and detailed rape and death threats, harass their families, and drive the women from their homes? I asked Doctor Rosa Mikeal Martey, an associate professor at Colorado State University in the Department of Journalism and Media Communication who researches identity and gender in online social interactions.
Martey explains that
"gamer" is a label reclaimed by a community that was once stereotyped as
having a low social status and no relationships with women. Like all
communities, they also defend their boundaries, so if a woman threatens
the gamer community by trying to enter or change it, the community
retaliates. In the case of gamers, the threat is handled like a boss
fight in a raid, where people team up and strategize how to take her
down.
"The fact that there's a
human being who might actually have personal consequences as a result
just wasn't part of the thinking in any way, because she became the
object, literally the object of their attack," Martey describes. "It was
a name and a set of linkages that they were trying to sever in their
mind, not a person."
Martey
suggests that the open dialogue between developers and players has
created a more solid sense of ownership over the medium than fans of
other media have, likely because developers listen to player feedback
and make adjustments, especially for online games. In the case of
BioWare, enough people voiced their dislike for the ending of Mass
Effect 3 that the developer released downloadable content with a new
ending. PlayStation users KillaBlaze and Mayhem_24_ agreed that changes
could happen in a game if the community of players is persistent and
vocal about its ideas, suggestions, or complaints.