Using Feminist Family Therapy and a Multidisciplinary Collaboration to Address Issues Regarding Sexism in Gamers

ABSTRACT

Sexism in video games is present in pop culture. Female video game characters are sexualized, objectified, and made to seem less important as opposed to their male counterparts (Burgess, Stermer, & Burgess, 2007; Dill, Brown, & Collins, 2008; Dill & Thill, 2007; Martins, Williams, Harrison, & Ratan, 2009; Scharrer, 2004). We propose that marriage and family therapists use feminist family therapy to address video games’ sexist content as it relates to sexism within relationships, specifically through feminist family therapy principles of egalitarian relationships, power, women’s strengths, acceptance, and validation. Furthermore, we promote the multidisciplinary collaboration with marriage and family therapists and video game developers, industry professionals, and the gaming community to improve gender equality and reduce sexism within video games.

KEYWORDS:

• sexism
• video games
• feminist family therapy
• marriage and family therapists