Girlfriend Mode pt. 2 – Shaming, Silencing, Self-Sacrifice

Mahli-Ann Rakkomkaew Butt The University of Sydney Department of Media & Communications Sydney, Australia mahli.ann.butt@gmail.com Keywords gamer girlfriends, interview, affective labour, affordances, gender performativity, gamer identity, INTRODUCTION This paper presents qualitative research of interviews with women who play videogames with their partners and analyses the limited affordances women have for performing their gender and femininity, against the context of the normalised acts of toxic masculinity in the new gaming public. Since hypermasculinity cleaves femininity as being ‘other’ from the gamer identity, this dichotomy between gaming culture and femininity forces women to modulate their own performances of gender identity and gaming practices in order to create refuge. Hypermasculinity in gaming has made women mask their gender, by retreating, avoiding, or downplaying their femininity, in order to play games. These coping strategies turn gaming into an act of affective labour, and also places the onus of creating safe spaces onto the victims of harassment. Silence from partners and spectators in the face of verbal abuse creates a communal sense of shaming and further isolates women when these acts of toxic masculinity are sanctioned as admissible behaviour by loved ones and onlookers. In the palpable hostility of the post-Gamergate climate, women have to balance considering leaving gaming altogether as they feel increasingly threatened and unwelcome, with their own personal investment in gaming. This paper will also examine how women attempt to create positive gaming experiences within the limited parameters given to their gender, even in the face of constant adversity and antagonism http://digra2017.com/static/Extended%20Abstracts/48_DIGRA2017_EA_Butt_Girlfriend_Mode_2.pdf