Geek Gatekeeping: No Girls Allowed

Joan Nobile COM450W Final Research Paper

Geek Gatekeeping: No Girls Allowed

Abstract

In the past few years, the Internet has exploded with responses to female gamers, video game

designers, and video game critics, most of it being overwhelmingly negative. Women have faced

emotional, sexual, and physical threats of violence based on their work or opinions about video games.

My research examines the issue of ongoing harassment of women in the gaming community, why

it is occurring, and the widespread effects of it. My work begins by exploring some of the key figures

in the community who have faced harassment, such as Anita Sarkeesian, a feminist critic, and Zoe

Quinn, a game designer. I document the work they and others have contributed, the responses and

harassment they have received, and the consequences of the harassment. I draw on work from media

critics and contemporary researchers to examine the intersection of gender and gaming; to discuss how

character representations of women in gaming may influence how female gamers are treated; and to

investigate how harassment affects female gamers in the larger community.

Introduction

Death threats. Rape threats. Doxxing. While many gamers experience some form of taunting,

there has been an increase in the past year of both the harassment, and the severity of said harassment,

toward female gamers. From female game designers receiving threats of physical violence, to female

journalists and media critics being stalked, the harassment (and, arguably, terrorism) seems to know no

bounds. But why is this happening? What could these women be doing that is threatening the games

industry? Are they actually doing anything threatening, or do the opinions and concerns of these

women just challenge the status quo? I aim to know why women are being targeted; why women are

leaving the industry; and why (primarily) male gamers feel the need to employ terror tactics to this

'growing threat' of women and feminist critique.


1: Today's Gamers

First, it is important to break down what a 'gamer' is. According to the most recent statistics from the

Entertainment Software Association, an organization that provides consumer and business research,

44% of video game players - hereafter referred to as gamers - are women. Furthermore, the ESA says

"Women age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (33%)

than boys age 18 or younger (15%)" (ESA). I find this to be immediately telling, as it clearly

demonstrates that gaming is, technically, no longer a 'boy's club'.

This information becomes troubling, however, when you look at the statistics of who is

experiencing harassment. In a 2012 survey conducted by student Emily Matthew, 874 gamers answered

questions regarding harassment and sexism in the gaming community. While only 35.2% of

participants responded to being the subject of “sex-based taunting, harassment, or threats while playing

video games online,” an enormous 63.3% of all women who responded experienced taunting or

harassment (Matthew). In comparison, only 15.7% of men reported that they had experienced sex—

based taunting, harassment, or threats (Matthew). While there is an obvious undercurrent of sexism for

both genders, women are four times more likely to experience harassment, despite being almost half of

the people who play games.

2: Prominent Women

It is this diversity that we turn our attention to next. More women are beginning to be

recognized for their contributions to the gaming industry, either through game design, critique, or

journalism, among other things. Two of the more prominent women I will be focusing on are Zoe

Quinn, and Anita Sarkeesian.

Zoe Quinn is an independent (indie) game designer. To clarify, an indie designer is someone

who does not work for a large game company, such as Nintendo, Bioware, or Activision, but either on


her own, or with a small group of people to create games. Indie designers do not have the large budgets

of triple A titles, and must rely on self-sourcing, crowd-funding, or limited assets to build a game.

Quinn released a game called Depression Quest in 2013, a browser based 'choose your own

adventure'-style game. In it, gamers were meant to fill the role of an unnamed protagonist who lives

with depression, and the choices the gamer makes directly effects the protagonist's mental state and

their way of experiencing events in the game. The game, while flawed with its execution (choices were

limited, and it is relatively easy to "beat" depression by making the "right" choices), enabled many

without depression to briefly experience what living with it might be like. Quinn went on to create

more titles and become a well-known indie designer. This isn't, however, the end of her story.

Anita Sarkeesian is not directly involved in the gaming industry per se, but important to

highlight as an example of someone outside of the gaming industry having influence on consumers and

designers. Sarkeesian is the creator of Feminist Frequency, a YouTube channel in which she examines

media through a lens of third-wave feminism. One of her more prominent series was Tropes Vs.

Women, a collaborative project with Bitch Magazine (a feminist publication) that examined common

characterizations of women in media. Some of these characterizations included The Smurfette Principle

(in which a movie, book, show, etc. has only one female in an ensemble cast) and the Manic Pixie

Dream Girl (a quirky young woman whose sole purpose is to instill life into a brooding, emotional

male protagonist).

In 2012, Sarkeesian revealed the creation of a new project, Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games,

with hope of getting it crowd-funded through Kickstarter. She wanted to examine how the

representation of women in video games was damaging to gamers, particularly women. Her project was

successfully Kickstarted, and she continues to produce videos on the project to this day. But, like

Quinn, there is more to Sarkeesian's story.


3: Harassment

While Quinn's game and Sarkeesian's work seem rather harmless, the response to their

contributions was anything but; both women experienced large amounts of vile harassment by angry

gamers.

Some of the arguments were puerile, claiming that games do not need to be changed because

they (the gamers) said so; many more were visceral, bile, and rather horrific. Both Quinn and

Sarkeesian have received threats of physical and sexual violence, stalking, and death. The examples

below highlight a tiny portion of the harassment and comments both women have received.

Illustration 1: Tweets directed towards Anita Sarkeesian (author's screenshots)


Unfortunately, the harassment is ongoing. Since the initial release of Sarkeesian's Kickstarter,

and the release of Quinn's game, both women have experienced this onslaught of harassment for years.

This is especially pronounced with the recent 'social movement' #GamerGate.

Illustration 2: Tweets about, or directed towards, Zoe Quinn. (Quinn, author'sscreenshots)


4: #GamerGate

In August of 2014, Quinn's ex-boyfriend Eron Gjoni released a 9000+ words blog, called “The

Zoe Post”, in which he vividly describes his breakup with Quinn, revealed some of Quinn's personal

information, and various ways in which Quinn allegedly cuckolded him. Within the posts were

accusations that Quinn allegedly slept with male games journalists in return for positive coverage for

Depression Quest (Gjoni). Boston Magazine recently interviewed both Quinn and Gjoni, and continues

this 'history lesson':

Within a week of “The Zoe Post,” strangers threatened to kill other women in the

industry. Jenn Frank, who wrote for the Guardian, ultimately felt forced to quit writing

games criticism. In short order, Gjoni’s post had become the basis for a savage online

movement that came to be known as GamerGate. GamerGaters cited “The Zoe Post” as

evidence that women were ruining the video-game industry’s boys’ club. (Jason)

Despite the fact that Quinn did not receive positive reviews for sex, many gamers took it upon

themselves to hold “The Zoe Post” as the prime example of both women 'destroying' the industry, and

as a breach in journalistic integrity. Soon after “The Zoe Post” launched, actor Adam Baldwin created

the GamerGate hashtag on Twitter, insisting that this “debate” was about ethics in journalism

(Johnston). From that point on, #GamerGate became a bastion of harassment and an excuse to abuse

women.

It is worth pointing out a few interesting developments as #GamerGate gained traction. Intel,

for example, pulled advertising from Gamasutra (a website for gaming news and professionals in the

industry) after #GamerGaters sent a flurry of complaints regarding an editorial about equality in

gaming (Brightman). In response, Richard Lemarchand (a former designer for game company Naughty


Dog) penned a letter to Intel which included the following:

"It is extremely unsettling that a campaign like GamerGate has, with Intel's support, sent

a clear message to Gamasutra that discussing certain types of ideas is a high-risk

proposition for the site. The 'chilling effect' that this creates, again with Intel's support,

sets a very dangerous precedent for game culture... As a naturalized American citizen

who values freedom of speech very much, I cannot [emphasize] how disturbed I am by

this turn of events and Intel's role in it. (Brightman)

Another curious development is the creation of an avatar, Vivian James (a play on the phrase

“video games”), made by #GamerGaters in response to accusations of misogyny. According to Vice, a

user on Reddit claimed that Quinn allegedly "sabotaged a female-centric game jam sponsored by

feminist group the Fine Young Capitalists” (Ringo). In response, some users from 4chan decided to

rally together and donate money to the Fine Young Capitalists project, seemingly to spite Quinn. Users

raised enough money to have an original character designed and used in the game, with "one user

[suggesting that] the character should be 'just an average female gamer to troll everyone'", as the media

would assume a sexist interpretation from 4chan (Ringo). Since then, Vivian James has been a mascot

for #GamerGate, despite the fact that the sole purpose of the character is to spite feminists.

Illustration 3: Concept art of Vivian James, The Fine Young Capitalists


Since the creation of #GamerGate, many women in the industry (and some men) have

experienced ongoing abuse, and this is somehow attributed to “ethics”. Sarkeesian, after releasing

another video in her Tropes vs Women in Video Games series, had to cancel a lecture at Utah State

University due to the threat of a possible school shooting (Suellentrop). Game designer Brianna Wu

fled her home after receiving death threats (Elise). Comedian, actress, and high-profile gaming

celebrity Felicia Day was doxxed minutes after publishing a blog post about her fears on #GamerGate

(McDonald). While a few men have also been subject to harassment, such as popular YouTube gamer

Steven “Boogie2988” Williams (whose wife received threats, and a previous personal address was

publicly leaked), it does not appear to be anywhere near the level of harassment that women in the

industry have received. This, of course, begs the question: why?

5: Cause and Effect?

There is no easy answer to why this harassment is happening on such a large scale. I

interviewed Dr. Jennifer Jenson, a York University professor and leading expert on gender and games,

and asked her if she had any thoughts on why this kind of harassment was occurring; her response was

“because they can” (Nobile). According to Dr. Jenson, the veil of anonymity works as justification

enough to provide anybody with the means of harassing whomever they wish. In other words, once

somebody is anonymous, their behavior is no longer subject to common courtesy and decency – they

can say what they wish.

That being said, I have a working theory on why some of this harassment might be occurring. I

think there is something to be said for the representation of women in games, and how that may

influence gamers to treat female gamers badly – and there is some interesting data to be found that

seems to support this.

In a 2009 study, 74 male university students were "randomly assigned to play either a sexually-

explicit game, or one of two control games" (Yao, 77). The sexually-explicit game was Leisure Suit


Larry: Magna Cum Laude, a series that emphasizes objectification of women as part of its core

gameplay. One of the main hypotheses of the study was that "individuals who played a sexually-

charged video game with female characters as sex objects would display an increased self-reported

tendency to sexually harass" (Yao, 85). The results were telling: "...the present study found that playing

a sexually-charged video game for merely 25 minutes might increase a self-reported tendency to

engage in inappropriate sexual advances" (Yao, 85). This is significant for a number of reasons.

First, we must consider how often women are portrayed as sexual objects in video games. In a

2007 study of 255 video game covers, over two thirds of the female characters were represented in

stereotyped gender roles or were the subject of objectification; this is in opposition to only ten percent

of the men (Burgess et al. 424). Researchers Dill and Thill studied images of characters from American

game magazines and found that "female characters are more likely than male characters to be portrayed

as sexualized (60% versus 1%) and scantily clad (39% versus 8%)" (851). In a different study of

American gaming magazines, articles were analyzed to discern if characters were portrayed differently

based on gender. Results found that:

In general, males were more likely to be heroes and main characters, while women were

more often supplemental characters. Males used more weapons and had more abilities

than women. Male characters were more muscular and powerful, while females were

more attractive, sexy, helpless and innocent. Females also wore more revealing clothing

on both the upper and lower body... Finally, a majority of women were dressed in a

very revealing manner (Miller and Summers, 741)

The data clearly shows a disheartening picture of the depiction of women: as sexualized objects

to titillate the player.


Second, in respect to influence, video games are a medium, and it should be noted that media

does have power to reorient how we view and interact with one another. Jean Kilbourne, author of

Can't Buy My Love, discusses this while analyzing violence in advertising:

...Objectification and disconnection create a climate in which there is widespread and

increasing violence. Turning a human being into a thing, an object, is almost always the

first step towards justifying violence against that person. It is very difficult, perhaps

impossible, to be violent to someone we think of an an equal... ...but it is very easy to

abuse a thing (278).

Another 2007 study tested the exposure of sexually charged video game characters against

images of professional women and men, finding this result:

Most interestingly, the males who were exposed to the objectified female video game

characters were the most tolerant of any of the groups towards sexual harassment.

Furthermore, the trend was for the females who were exposed to these same demeaning

and objectified images of women to react by decreasing their tolerance for sexual

harassment (Dill, Brown, and Collins, 1406).

The data is also potentially troubling for young women as well. In a 2009 study that looked at

the effects of video games and adolescents says "girls were more likely than boys to recognize

stereotypes in the games, and particularly for the female-stereotypic games in which females were

portrayed in sexually explicit ways... [and] were more likely than boys to view the images as having

harmful consequences" (Henning et al., 189).


This objectification and violence is glaringly apparent in the treatment of women like Quinn

and Sarkeesian, and of other women in the industry who dare to speak up or challenge the gaming

status quo. Additionally, considering the continued repetition of women as sexual objects in games, as

things to be grazed upon, it is little surprise that some of this behavior may bleed over into how we

treat female gamers.

Finally, we must also consider how easily we can disseminate information, particularly with the

advent of social media. As Todd Gitlin says in his book, Media Unlimited, “public life is a place where

private transactions go on... private life in public converges with public life in private. For growing

numbers of people, the world is a multiplex... an arcade of amusements” (65). Consider how one bitter

ex-boyfriend's post quickly led to the harassment of a game designer, most of it occurring over Twitter,

where 140 characters are just enough to send a woman fearing for her life. It is entirely too simple to

not only spread information (or, in this case, misinformation), but to get wrapped up in the literal

torrent of it, all for the sake of amusement – or, as #GamerGaters might say, “ethics”.

6: Not (Yet) Game Over

It should be noted that people are standing up against the waves of harassment that women are

facing. An open letter written by indie game designer Andreas Zecher encouraged people who saw

harassment and threats to report the offenders; part of the letter reads “We believe that everyone, no

matter what gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion or disability has the right to play games,

criticise[sp] games and make games without getting harassed or threatened” (Rawlinson). This letter

was signed by over 2,000 people in the gaming industry, including major developers such as Electronic

Arts and Ubisoft. Intel allocated $300 million for "[improving] the diversity of the company's work

force, [to] attract more women and minorities to the technology field", partly due to its earlier response

of pulling advertising from Gamasutra (Wingfield). The Electronic Frontier Foundation also wrote


about the topic of online harassment, stating, among other things:

Just because the law sometimes allows a person to be a jerk (or worse) doesn’t mean

that others in the community are required to be silent or to just stand by and let people

be harassed. We can and should stand up against harassment. Doing so is not censorship

—it’s being part of the fight for an inclusive and speech-supporting Internet. (Kayyali,

O'Brian)

In addition, Quinn, along with allies, created Crash Override, an “online anti-harassment task

force” which purports to help victims who are targets of harassment, terror, and doxxing, as Quinn was.

The network “seeks to work with targets of harassment to help reduce harm, help them recover, and

'disempower their harassers'” (Sottek). More and more people are stepping up and responding to this

onslaught of harassment, which at least promises that this situation has the potential to improve.

7: Limitations

This paper has some limitations that are worth noting. One concern is the lack of focus on

harassment that men receive; while seemingly not as prominent, it does still occur, and there is little in

the way of research and data that delves into this topic. Another limitation is the lack of longitudinal

research on sexual objectification of women in games, and the possible harassment that may occur

because of it. Much of the data cited in the study analyzed short-term effects. While promising, I would

love the opportunity to study long-term effects of playing games with sexual content, and seeing if the

data carries over.

Additionally, there is much more to the #GamerGate story that is beyond the scope of the paper

to cover. I needed to stick to the bare minimum of coverage to highlight the more prominent aspects of


harassment and its effects. There are some arguable positive effects of #GamerGate (namely, potential

influences on gaming journalism), but its efforts are diminished in the face of the larger problems of

attacking women in the industry.

8: Conclusion

It should be readily apparent that the harassment of women in the gaming industry is a ongoing

problem and something to be taken seriously. The creation of an alternative indie game about

depression, as well as a series of videos about female representation, is certainly not justification

enough to ruin the lives of women who want the industry to improve. The targeted attacks against

women who speak up about these problems needs to end. Unfortunately, since anonymity is readily

accessible on the Internet, there is no true way to completely end these attacks. There is promise,

however, should the industry improve its representation of women, which may lead to better treatment

of female gamers as a whole. And as more companies speak up against this harassment and actively

battle it, the message becomes clear: this is happening, and we will not stand for it any longer.

The gaming industry is better than this. Gamers are better than this. It is time we began acting a

little more humanely towards our fellow gamers.


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Geek Gatekeeping: No Girls Allowed

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