https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0332-7936
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Abstract
Previous research illustrates the many ways that video games are constructed for cisgender, heterosexual, and white men. However, I argue that video games may serve as a valuable site of gender discovery and play for transgender men. Due to the disembodied anonymity of online interaction in video games, players are generally assumed to be cis heterosexual men until proven otherwise. Using 2725 survey responses and 20 interviews with queer men who play video games, I analyze how cis queer men and trans men experience gender in online gaming differently. Focusing on a subsample of 214 surveys and eight interviews with trans men, I illustrate how trans men play with gender through default characters, player-created characters, and gendered roles and gameplay. Trans men prefer to play as male characters and in masculinized roles, allowing them to play with their present gender, imagine their future gender, and rectify their gendered socialization past.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Arlie Russell Hochschild and Anne Machung, The Second Shift: Working Families and the Revolution at Home (New York: Penguin Books, 2012); Michael A. Messner, Power at Play: Sports and the Problem of Masculinity, Men and Masculinity (Boston: Beacon Press, 1992); Eva Tutchell and John Edmonds, The Stalled Revolution: Is Equality for Women an Impossible Dream?, 1st edition (Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Limited, 2018); Shira Chess, Ready Player Two: Women Gamers and Designed Identity (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017).
2 John Suler, “The Online Disinhibition Effect,” Cyberpsychology & Behavior 7, no. 3 (June 1, 2004): 321.
3 Christopher P. Barlett, “Anonymously Hurting Others Online: The Effect of Anonymity on Cyberbullying Frequency,” Psychology of Popular Media Culture 4, no. 2 (April 2015): 70–79, https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034335.
4 Jesper Juul, Half-Real: Video Games between Real Rules and Fictional Worlds (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005).
5 Teresa Lynch et al., “Sexy, Strong, and Secondary: A Content Analysis of Female Characters in Video Games across 31 Years,” Journal of Communication 66, no. 4 (August 2016): 564–84, https://doi.org/10.1111/jcom.12237.
6 I use “online video games” to reference those multiplayer video games that require an internet connection because these games have both player interaction and the anonymity of the internet. This is often in contrast to my use of “video games” to refer to games that do not necessarily require internet, multiplayer gameplay, or social interaction.
7 Amanda C. Cote, “‘I Can Defend Myself’: Women’s Strategies for Coping With Harassment While Gaming Online,” Games and Culture 12, no. 2 (March 2017): 136–55, https://doi.org/10.1177/1555412015587603; Kishonna L. Gray, Race, Gender, and Deviance in Xbox Live: Theoretical Perspectives from the Virtual Margins, 2015, http://site.ebrary.com/id/10944773.
8 Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman, “Doing Gender,” Gender and Society 1, no. 2 (1987): 125–51.
9 Dmitri Williams et al., “The Virtual Census: Representations of Gender, Race and Age in Video Games,” New Media & Society 11, no. 5 (August 2009): 815–34, https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444809105354; Jennifer Malkowski and TreaAndrea M. Russworm, eds., Gaming Representation: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in Video Games, Digital Game Studies (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017).
10 Melinda C.R. Burgess, Steven Paul Stermer, and Stephen R. Burgess, “Sex, Lies, and Video Games: The Portrayal of Male and Female Characters on Video Game Covers,” Sex Roles 57, no. 5–6 (August 21, 2007): 419–33, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-007-9250-0; Edward Downs and Stacy L. Smith, “Keeping Abreast of Hypersexuality: A Video Game Character Content Analysis,” Sex Roles 62, no. 11–12 (June 2010): 721–33, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-009-9637-1; Williams et al., “Virtual Census.”
11 Burgess, Stermer, and Burgess, “Sex, Lies, and Video Games”; Lynch et al., “Sexy, Strong, and Secondary”; Shirley Matile Ogletree and Ryan Drake, “College Students’ Video Game Participation and Perceptions: Gender Differences and Implications,” Sex Roles, 56, no. 7–8 (2007): 7.
12 Kelly Bergstrom et al., “All in a Day’s Work: A Study of World of Warcraft NPCs Comparing Gender to Professions,” in Proceedings of the 2011 ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on Video Games – Sandbox ’11 (2011 ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada: ACM Press, 2011), 31, https://doi.org/10.1145/2018556.2018563.
13 Burgess, Stermer, and Burgess, “Sex, Lies, and Video Games”; Downs and Smith, “Keeping Abreast of Hypersexuality.”
14 Mark Cruea and Sung-Yeon Park, “Gender Disparity in Video Game Usage: A Third-Person Perception-Based Explanation,” Media Psychology 15, no. 1 (March 13, 2012): 44–67.
15 Megan Condis, Gaming Masculinity: Trolls, Fake Geeks, and the Gendered Battle for Online Culture, Fandom & Cuture (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2018); R.W. Connell, Masculinities, 2nd ed. (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2005).
16 Nirmal Puwar, Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies out of Place (Oxford; New York: Berg, 2004).
17 West and Zimmerman, “Doing Gender.”
18 John L. McKenna et al., “‘You Can’t Be Deadnamed in a Video Game’: Transgender and Gender Diverse Adolescents’ Use of Video Game Avatar Creation for Gender-Affirmation and Exploration,” Journal of LGBT Youth, November 11, 2022, 1–21, https://doi.org/10.1080/19361653.2022.2144583.
19 Jackson McLaren, “Towards Representational Adequacy: A Critical Analysis of Transgender Representation in Tell Me Why,” Games and Culture, May 18, 2023, 15554120231176634, https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231176634; Frazer Heritage, “Politics, Pronouns and the Players: Examining How Videogame Players React to the Inclusion of a Transgender Character in World of Warcraft,” Gender & Language 16, no. 1 (January 2022): 26–51, https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.20250.
20 Amanda C. Cote, Gaming Sexism: Gender and Identity in the Era of Casual Video Games (New York: New York University Press, 2020); Kishonna L. Gray, Race, Gender, and Deviance in Xbox Live: Theoretical Perspectives from the Virtual Margins (New York: Routledge, 2015); Adrienne Shaw, Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014); Wai Yen Tang and Jesse Fox, “Men’s Harassment Behavior in Online Video Games: Personality Traits and Game Factors,” Aggressive Behavior 42, no. 6 (2016): 513–21, https://doi.org/10.1002/ab.21646.
21 Jeremy Brenner-Levoy, “Virtually Masculine: Queer Men’s Experiences with Harassment in Online Video Games,” Sociology of Sports Journal (forthcoming), https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2022-0170.
22 Cote, “‘I Can Defend Myself.’”
23 Sabine C. Koch et al., “Constructing Gender in Chat Groups,” Sex Roles 53, no. 1–2 (July 2005): 29–41.
24 María Carla Sánchez and Linda Schlossberg, eds., Passing: Identity and Interpretation in Sexuality, Race, and Religion, Sexual Cultures (New York: New York University Press, 2001).
25 Brenner-Levoy, “Virtually Masculine.”
26 Participants indicated they were men upon starting the survey. However, when asked to specify their gender identity and history, some indicated that they were non-binary or genderqueer. I opted to include these participants in the analytic sample.
27 I use Latine as a gender-neutral version of Latino/a because it can be used in Spanish and is popular with activists.
28 Johnny Saldaña, The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers, 3E [3rd edition] (Los Angeles; London: SAGE, 2016).
29 West and Zimmerman, “Doing Gender.”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Jeremy Brenner-Levoy
JEREMY BRENNER-LEVOY is a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Cincinnati. Jeremy’s research focuses on gender, sexuality, and race in nerd culture. Their previous research looks at embodied experiences and the performance of self in cosplay, queer men’s experiences with harassment in video games, and reproductive care access in Ohio. Jeremy’s dissertation focuses on how gendered expectations and preferences shape and limit our goals, interactions, and access to prestige within online video games. Correspondence: Department of Sociology, University of Cincinnati, PO Box 201378, Cincinnati, OH 45221-0378. Email: [email protected].