The Evolution of the Gamer Girl:
from Memeification to Ostracization to Reclamation
let’s talk girls who game
Since the beginning of games themselves there have been girls who game. “Gamer Girls” as the term was coined have had an interesting presence within gaming communities. Where videogames are involved, men are seen as the default, women somehow being foreigners in need of proving their worth.
For the purpose of this essay, I’m going to be focusing primarily on your average girls who games, rather than women working in games either on the developmental or cultural end. That being said, many of the issues relating to your average gamer girl are present at all levels of gaming, and it is important to wider conversations about representation in gaming and the games industry.
There is a lot of work to be done regarding women feeling safe and accepted as gamers and within the wider community and that is the result of decades of being told they “aren’t allowed” in the boys’ club. The image of the “Gamer Girl” has evolved overtime, from the memeification of “fake gamers” to the ostracization that the community fosters to the reclamation women are trying to lead through example.
Definitions: an Urban Dictionary Deep Dive
GAMER
Gamer: \ ˈgā-mər \
a person who plays games
especially : a person who regularly plays computer or video games (x)
This is the top definition for gamer on Urban Dictionary:
This is the second:
Most of the definitions listed on Urban Dictionary fall into two categories: self-congratulatory and self-pitying definitions clearly written by men who feel that gamers are misrepresented or misunderstood, and outright satire mocking these other definitions.
For the purpose of this essay, a gamer is a person who plays games, who chooses to self-identify as such. The self-identification aspect of being a gamer is one of the most important parts, due to the traits associated with the archetype of the “gamer.”
In general, a gamer is expected to be white, male, able-bodied, straight, and a bit of a nerd. More negative stereotypes surrounding gamers is that they are anti-social, can’t talk to women, and don’t have good personal hygiene. It is important to note that the root of these stereotypes is in reality, and even if the original gamers were not this way, it is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. And this is reflection of the way games are marketed to their specific demographic.
Not to have to be all “Not All Gamers,” but not all gamers. There are many people who play games, and many that even identify as gamers, who do not fit these stereotypes and even though “Gamer Girl” may seem the antithesis to gamer, gamer is right there in the name.
GAMER GIRL
Gamer Girl: \ ˈgā-mər ˈgər(-ə)l\
noun: Slang: Sometimes Disparaging.
a female video game enthusiast (x)
A girl who games. Also known as a “girl gamer.” This title is often given without self-identification, given that many women prefer that gender be left out of their gaming, as gaming can be an opportunity for escapism.
These are the top Urban Dictionary definitions:
To paraphrase Hannah Kelly, a student in my Game Culture course: I thought I was a gamer girl, at least a girl who games, but sadly I am not Canadian, I am from the United States, so I guess I’m not a gamer girl.
There is evidence that these definitions as well were written by men with similar objectives as the earlier definitions. Note that the definitions of gamer girls, focus primarily on their function in relation to men, as girlfriends and, oddly enough, as mythical creatures.
Also note, that despite these definitions being submitted and upvoted/liked by community members (making it indicative of wider culture), gamer girls in action—that is, playing and participating in games—don’t get treated positively. They aren't a spectacle in the way a unicorn might be; they are a spectacle in a much more negative way.
It takes until the fourth definition to get to one that is genuinely positive and seems to take a more objective stance on girls who game. Even so, a “boyfriend” is still mentioned in the definition.
But the fifth definition, that’s where things get interesting to me. This definition makes a distinction between a “girl who games” and a “gamer girl,” a distinction that I think is only relevant in theory. Because in practice, men often assume that any girl playing a video game is a “gamer girl,” that is, someone who is doing it for attention, to get a boyfriend, to be “not like other girls.” In practice, many men who play video games assume than any gamer who is a girl is doing it for these reasons until proven otherwise.
OTHER DEFINITIONS
Ostracize:
to exclude, by general consent, from society, friendship, conversation, privileges, etc (x)
Reclamation:
the act or process of reclaiming (x)
How did the “Gamer Girl” archetype come to be?
Simply stated, the games industry identified its target audience to be straight, white, cis, able-bodied men ages 18-30 and haven’t really thought to adjust that much since (disregarding the minority of games targeted towards girls specifically or towards “the whole family”).
Because of this male dominated space, women were then considered foreigners in any instance where they entered into that space. This wasn’t aided by representations of women in games, and representations of women who game in other media.
In videogames, early depictions of women were hypersexualized or nonexistent. They often had unrealistic body proportions and wore very little clothing. An example of this is Samus Aran from Metroid, who was objectified as a reward for finishing the game in under a certain time, the player being given the chance to see her in a bikini. see below.
In TV and movies, in cases where the girl is our token minority among a group of guys, she is often quite tomboyish to justify her “just one of the guys” personality. But because the token woman is often brought in as a type of fanservice she is necessarily feminine and hyperaware of her gender. There is often little to her personality outside of being female and good at games, sometimes much better than her male counterparts. Take Penny from the Big Bang Theory for example. She begins playing Halo and is immediately beating the men in their group, leading the character Sheldon to say “I don't know how, but she is cheating. Nobody can be that attractive and this skilled at a video game.” see above.
The token minority leads to an issue though: it feels like an attempt to say “look! A girl can game, too” without really proving it. What it often says unintentionally is “most girls can’t game, but this one can.”
As you can see, it began with a metaphorical line being drawn in the sand by women who game, separating themselves from the gamer girls. From there, the stereotypes evolved to be more extreme and pervasive. The stereotype of the fake gamer girl became an almost caricature of what it started as prior to its memeification.
Controller eating is one of the most notable photo-centric memes, wherein the subject would share a picture of themselves posed with a controller in their mouth. This was “based on model photos in which females are shown interacting with gaming hardware in a way to arouse the viewer.”
There is an article posted to the website The Gamer titled “24 Gamer Girl Memes That Are Too Hilarious For Words.” The article dances back and forth between the sides of inclusivity and condemnation, praising girls who game, while condemning those fake gamers.
One brand of meme included in this bunch are the "clueless girl" memes. These images show girls and women misidentifying characters or elements of well known games as a way to discredit their gamer status. It has the air of "Oh, you're a fan of [insert band here]? Name five of their songs."
Regardless of whether a female player knows much about the lore of games, the act of playing the game is what would make her a gamer, not that knowledge. It's a type of gatekeeping that prevents women from joining in on games conversations for fear of not being a hundred percent correct.
A second brand of meme is the "casual sexism," reaching back to jokes about women making sandwiches and belonging in the kitchen. Even though this meme shows the woman being capable of playing and understanding the game, the sexism is indicative of the larger attitude surrounding women in games at this time.
The gamer girl meme led to another resurgence of the “I’m not like other girls” phenomenon, where girls who gamed, in order to try to separate themselves from the negative stereotypes of gamer girls, tried their hardest to appear just as crass and hardcore as the men who identifies as gamers. This meme is one again that is indicative of the type of attitude during this time.
Below this meme, the author of the article wrote:
“What if I told you that slim, attractive, socially-adjust women can be just as capable gamers too? Anyone can hunker down and rage at Call of Duty or League of Legends with the best of them. If this is what hardcore gaming looks like, then let’s be a little more inclusive.”
This quote is very #hotgirlsgametoo.
The distinction that was drawn between women who game and gamer girls is an important one to note, specifically because it bred a second type of ostracization and especially because women where the ones to draw that distinction. Suddenly, women weren’t solely memeified through their lack of gaming knowledge and skill, their fakeness, but they were also ostracized for holding feminist viewpoints, for pushing for better standards for women in games, for demanding respect and recognition as real gamers.
The origin of the gamer girl meme is rooted in the stereotypes of gamer girls reflected in the definitions above. While the stereotype emerged in the early 2000’s, the meme of the “gamer girl” as an inflammatory or derogatory term finds its start around 2010, with this meme posted to an online forum.
MEMEIFICATION
Memeification
It’s important to note the ostracization that has been happening since the beginning of video games. Games as a general concept—so not just video games—were typically marketed across age and gender, especially games meant to be enjoyed socially. Think: Candyland.
So girls were included in the marketing of many games, but at the same time a lot of our toys and games where separated by gender, making it clear from the start which products were made for you and which ones you weren’t allowed to have. Cue: a sense of ownership over games. As explained in depth in the documentary GTFO, men felt that their community was being breeched anytime someone outside of their safe little bubble got in, because videogames were for them. Gamers were often men who didn’t fit into the jock or popular stereotypes who sought refuge in gaming. Girls were a threat to that, especially if they viewed those girls as in it for the wrong reasons.
The gaming community created a positive feedback loop wherein sexist ideas were shared and reverberated back in a way that confirmed preconceived notions about women in games. This feedback loop reared its ugly head in 2014.
To talk about ostracization, and not talk about Gamer Gate, would be to overlook a major indicator of the attitude surrounding women in this male dominated space at the time. Aja Romano sums it up well in the quote to the right:
Regardless of whether someone participated in the harassment during Gamer Gate, many gamers continued to operate within the communities alongside people who did, and casual sexism became normalized, almost expected. It is not lost to me that many men use “girl” and similar female coded terms as insults when playing against other men.
In 2018, the YouTuber and streamer Spawntaneous began sharing sound bites from men who she games with online in a series entitled OMG A Girl. This series has 17 parts, with the most recent installment being posted as recently as April 28th, 2021, the day I am writing this. She plays primarily first person shooter multiplayer online games and the reactions of the boys and men she plays alongside range from overtly sexual to unaware, ignorant harassment. One man spent the entirety of a round asking for her snapchat in exchange for various things. Several others asked invasive and inappropriate questions relating to her dating life and appearance. And as you might expect, many blamed her for lost rounds and doubted her capabilities.
“In the fall of 2014, under the premise that they were angry at “unethical” games journalists — a lie that persists today — thousands of people in the games community began to systematically harass, heckle, threaten, and dox several outspoken feminist women in their midst, few of whom were journalists. The harassment occurred under the social media hashtag “Gamergate,” which is still a hotbed of debate and anti-feminist resentment today.”
- Aja Romano
OSTRACIZATION
Ostracization
RECLAMATION
Reclamation
So where are we now?
With regard to male attitudes towards women, not significantly better. Men who participate in online forums and within the positive feedback loop of reaffirmed ideas still hold the same views: that women do not belong in games. This has led to more and more right wing extreme ideas, including the insurrection of the capital on January 6th, 2021, as the same forums and groups that did Gamer Gate became “subsumed into the greater rise of the alt-right movement.”
Women still experience harassment and rude comments online, as Spawntaneous’s OMG A Girl is evidence of, but there is a greater push to speak out about this harassment and support the women who experience it. And this is in part due to platformed people leading by example.
Many male gamers who stream on platforms like Twitch with massive followings stream alongside female gamers, demonstrating through example that you can still trash talk and be competitive without gender being the main factor of those insults. Streamers like CorpseHusband, Julien Solomita, and Sykkuno, among many others, regularly stream alongside women in respectable ways; the women they play with are not at all shamed for being women gamers.
Importantly, more and more female streamers are streaming on platforms like Twitch, bringing representation to the forefront. Streamers like Rachel Hofstetter—AKA Valkyrae, one of the most viewed streamers on YouTube—Corinna Kopf, and Bailey Meyers are showing that they can simultaneously be traditionally feminine and good at games. It is a type of reclamation, taking the image of the “fake gamer girl” and saying “Hey, I look like this and I can still kick ass at games.” Unfortunately, the confidence to say that doesn't prevent the additional sexualization and harassment they face.
As for the casual player, my sister had this to say: “I don’t mind being considered ‘basic.’ I can be like other girls and enjoy gaming at the same time because people can fit into more than one trope or group.” Being a girl and enjoying games doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive.
Women streamers are proving that there is a place for women in games, and that is not lost to their female viewers. Representation matters, and seeing that you don’t need to fit into either box to be respected in certain gaming circles is necessary. While sexist and misogynistic men still exist in online spaces, there are increasingly many spaces that are inclusive and can foster positive experiences for women.
Sources
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Spawntaneous. "What Girl Gamers REALLY Have To Deal With | OMG a Girl Series [1]" YouTube, 19 Apr. 2018, https://youtu.be/jL0aVqVslSE?list=PLEDsO12Ccv9ES1Qlnwu_Gi72udJyhVXyZ
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