Girls and Gaming Literacies Dynamics of Gender and Culture

• Published in: Genders, Cultures, and Literacies pp. 227 - 244
• Main Authors: Guzzetti, Barbara J., Foley, Leslie M., Gee, Elisabeth
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 2022
• Edition: 1
• Subjects: Critical Race Ethnographies; Eric; International Game Developers Association; Female Gamers; family literacy; Game Developers; marginalization; Mexican American Families; Gaming Practices; coping mechanisms; China; Young Men; Multiple Theoretical Frameworks; Heritage Language Learning; Women Gamers; Xbox Live; strategies of resistance; Gender Fluid; Key Words; Online Gaming Community; harassment; interventional gaming; oppression; Racial Identifiers; Canada; Created Video Games; Gaming Community; Multiple Social Identities; Children's Heritage Language Learning; game creation; video games
• ISBN: 9780367744564; 0367744562; 9780367742751; 0367742756
• DOI: 10.4324/9781003158011-19

This chapter presents a critical review of contemporary scholarship on girls, video gaming, and literacies with a global focus on girls and women of color who only recently have been given explicit attention by game scholars. Studies included surveys or quantitative studies to examine females' attitudes toward and identities in gaming; mixed-methods studies, interviews; life stories; and virtual ethnographies to describe female gamers' experiences in gaming. Studies explored the out-of-school gameplay experiences of girls of color and tended to emphasize players' responses to feminine or racial stereotypes in games or discrimination in online gaming communities and girls' coping mechanisms and strategies of resistance to oppression. Some girls and women of color developed and sustained interest in gaming through supportive game play with family members or friends. Other girls made their own games as a means of rewriting game characters or story lines that they perceived to be stereotypical or oppressive. This review suggests how video game play can provide girls of color with opportunities for self-expression, strengthen social bonds, and challenge normative sexist and racist representations.