Gamer Girls: Online Sexism And Video Game Safety for Young Girls
“Get back in the kitchen.”
“Go make me a sandwich.”
These are some of the more PG-rated sexist comments that Malory Fox of Cincinnati hears when she’s playing an online multiplayer video game. She’s not alone.
Talk To Boys And Girls About Sexism In Gaming Online
“The industry was long structured as a kind of ‘boys club,’ and those ideologies are often reinforced still,” says Shira Chess, author of Ready Player Two: Women Gamers & Designed Identity.
Traditionally, gamers had two options: Play a friend or play the computer. The internet has added a third: Play online with strangers.
That can sound scary to parents, but it’s not all bad news. “The beautiful thing about gaming these days is that it is so accessible for so many people,” says Jenny Haniver, the founder of the website Not in the Kitchen Anymore: Chronicles of a Female Gamer. With games on our phones, computers, and TVs, there really is something for everyone, she says.
Chess agrees that gaming can be a positive experience, and she reassures worried parents that video games are not necessarily “toxic spaces.”
