Clearly, something in gaming is wrong, but Breuer’s research would seemingly let games off the hook for creating a sexist atmosphere. Brianna Wu, the cofounder of developer Giant Spacekat and another
target of harassment by some gamers, disagrees. She takes particular issue with the methodology Breuer used to determine sexist attitudes, which asked respondents whether they agree or disagree with sentiments like “even if both partners work, the woman should be responsible for taking care of the household.”
“The scale this study uses was devised by [
researchers Donna Brogan and Nancy Kutner] in 1976,” Wu told GamesBeat. “The questions ask the respondents if they agree with ideas like, ‘The man should be responsible for all major decisions made in a family.’ It’s great that gamers don’t agree with those ideas more than the general population — but it’s not the problem I see in the industry, and it’s not what other women see in the industry.”
Wu says that sexism in 2015 is more subtle and insidious than it was in 1976.
“It’s not that men believe that women shouldn’t be gaming and should be making sandwiches instead,” said Wu.
“It’s that gamers have strong unconscious biases against women. When they think about what a gamer looks like, it doesn’t look like me — and that affects how they treat me and other women on an unconscious level.”
Above: A hyper-sexual portrayal of a woman in Dragon’s Crown.
Image Credit: Atlus
Wu went on to point out that the study doesn’t consider why women are harassed more than men when they use online services like Xbox Live or why women game journalists get more threats than their male counterparts.
I asked Breuer what he would say to critics of gaming who still believe games are somewhat responsible for bolstering or excusing sexist attitudes. He didn’t buy it.
“I would agree that many games — or at least parts of their contents — can be considered sexist,” Breuer said. “But, similar to the debate about violence in games, I would rather say that games are more influenced by ‘real life’ or ‘society’ than vice-versa. In this case, this would mean that some games do proliferate sexist or other negative cultural stereotypes, but they certainly do not cause them. In general, I would say that the effects of the contents of video games — be they violent or sexist — on people’s actual attitudes or even behavior are often overestimated.”
But Breuer doesn’t completely excuse games.
“You might also say that, even though sexist content in games has little effect on players’ real-life attitudes and behavior, they also provide no reason to change preconceived sexist beliefs,” said Breuer.
And while Wu doesn’t believe that this research debunks her criticisms, she does accept that Breuer is after the truth.
“It’s clear that these are honest academics,” she said. “But in the study’s conclusion, they say themselves they’ve only scratched the surface of this problem and more research needs to be done.”
