Reconstruction 6.1 (Winter 2006)
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More Than Girlfriends, Geekettes, and Gladiatixes: Women, Feminism, and Fantasy Role-Playing Games / Rebecca Borah and Inez Schaechterle
<1> “The only function women have in D&D is to serve cookies.” Gary Gygax, the most well known of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons, claims he did not make this remark (Gel214th). That he did or not is perhaps, some thirty years after the introduction of the first fantasy role-playing game, of concern only to him. The problematic position of women players is a secure feature of the RPG zeitgeist. While few male gamers may openly challenge the assumption that women can or should play fantasy role games such as Dungeons & Dragons, the function of women in game-play, at the gaming table, and within the larger culture of the RPG hobby is currently much discussed.[1] The ways women exist within and negotiate the male-gendered worlds of role-play gaming has been less discussed; evidence suggests that female gamers who are determined to play employ a variety of strategies to cope with both their own negative experiences and the larger, masculinist RPG culture. By refusing to allow such factors to prevent them from gaming, female role-play gamers enact an implicitly feminist stance, even if they do not view themselves, or female game players in general, as feminists.
<2> Due in part to fears (often justified) within the gaming community of exploitation by and derision from journalists and academics, we have chosen to position this study within the gaming subculture itself. Both authors have participated in a variety of role-playing games (primarily Dungeons & Dragons), and Borah has attended numerous gaming conventions over the past fifteen years. For this study we spoke with, telephoned, and emailed female gamers to gather their opinions, ideas, and experiences. Contacts were made by distributing fliers with questions at a medium-sized gaming convention in the Midwest and asking other gamers to distribute them as well. We have also been in contact with a handful of female gamers who answered more in-depth questions via e-mail. Furthermore, we visited message boards and web pages created or frequented by female role-players, and examined female and male posts to several gaming listservs. Women with whom we have been in direct contact are credited by first names or their chosen pseudonyms when quoted; quotations from listserv posts are credited by the poster’s signature line.
You’re Playing What?
<3> When the authors began playing Dungeons & Dragons in the early- to mid-1980s, non-gamers wondered why anyone would take part in such an outré activity; nowadays, they wonder how one plays a fantasy game without a computer. A brief explanation of traditional, or pen-and-paper, fantasy role-playing games is thus necessary at this point, as much for readers who have grown up playing video, computer, and multi-user Internet fantasy games as for non-gamers. First, it is important to acknowledge that numerous fantasy role-playing games, or RPGs, have appeared since the introduction of Dungeons & Dragons[2] (D&D) in the early 1970s. D&D grew out of war games of medieval troop movement (Toles-Patkin 1–2, Gel214th) and offers a Tolkeinesque, “sword and sorcery” game environment to players, as have many subsequent game systems. Some more recent RPGs offer game environments based on horror or science fiction tropes, such as Vampire: the Masquerade; others, such as Call of Cthulu and Cyberpunk, are based directly on bodies of popular literature (the works of H.P. Lovecraft and William Gibson, respectively). Each game has its own complex system of rules and style of play, so the following description of game play is general in the extreme and represents only personal experience.
<4> Pen-and-paper RPGs are games of the imagination, played by one or more persons (typically four to eight people) and a game-master (GM). All action takes place in two sites simultaneously: around the table where everyone is seated and in the imaginary world the players and the GM are co-creating. The GM describes an environment and peoples it with characters, all of whom he or she portrays. Each player is responsible for acting the part of a single character developed according to the rules of the game. Characters are designed to be individuals, with different strengths, weaknesses, moral outlooks, professions—even species. For example, one of Schaechterle’s favorite D&D characters was a female human swashbuckler named Bleu Fromage. She fought with two swords, defended the weak when they needed it, and bragged, cheated, and thieved the rest of the time. Bleu was enormously satisfying to enact after a long day of community education and grant writing—hence the descriptor role-playing game and the attraction RPGs hold for many gamers.
<5> Outside of the collective imagination of Schaechterle’s gaming group, Bleu Fromage existed as a piece of paper inscribed with various scores that represented her skills and personal traits. Unlike more familiar games, most RPGs do not depend on boards or score sheets, but may incorporate maps, small props or figurines, and almost certainly dice. Dice are used to determine “random” effects from charts of possible occurrences and outcomes, and to determine a character’s success or failure in a particular action. RPG dice are made in a variety of shapes in addition to the familiar six-sided: four-, eight-, ten-, twelve-, and twenty-sided. They also are available in a vast combination of colors and styles, and selecting new sets of dice and superstitiously switching out “bad” dice for better rolls during game play are familiar rituals for gamers. A game session may last anywhere from a few hours to all day or all night, and one or many sessions may represent the action of a single adventure or episode in the lives of the characters. A character or group of characters may be played for years, creating personal and group histories both in the imaginary world of the game and in the lives of the players who meet regularly to play together.
The Old Warrior's Club
<6> Broadly speaking, role-playing gamers of both sexes are part of a misunderstood and often negatively stereotyped group within Western culture. Similar to the fantasy and science fiction fans Henry Jenkins discusses in his book, Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture (1992), outsiders often describe gamers as misanthropes, usually single males between 14 and 35 who live in their parents’ basements and lack basic social skills and meaningful employment: witness the infamous “Get a Life” sketch with William Shatner guest starring on Saturday Night Live or Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons. Over twenty years ago, thanks to books and movies like Rona Jaffe’s Mazes and Monsters,[3] and conservative religious groups such as Crusade for Christ or the Moral Majority, fantasy gaming developed a reputation for being dangerous, destructive, and even demonic. Marjorie Heins reports in her book, Sex, Sin, and Blasphemy: A Guide to America’s Censorship Wars, that one set of parents even took their complaints about the game to court:
[A] case was brought in the late eighties against the manufacturers of Dungeons and Dragons by parents of a boy who, they claimed, had become so obsessed by the game that he could no longer separate fantasy from reality and was “driven to self-destruction.” …[T]he court rightly dismissed the suit on First Amendment grounds. (10)
At the very least, outsiders frequently classify people who spend a lot of time and energy “playing make-believe” on weekends as geeks and weirdoes. Thanks to unpleasant and inaccurate exposés which tried to link gaming with Satanism and mind control in the late 1970s and 1980s, and more recent media stories blaming Goths and video game players for school shootings and teen violence, role-playing gamers are frequently resistant to communicating with outsiders about gaming. This reticence has helped to reinforce the perception that role-players must be doing something odd or suspect because they keep quiet about their gaming.
<7> Within this gaming community, females are a minority; in fact, estimates from those with whom we spoke do not run higher than 20%, although LARPs and Gothic-style games[4] attract a much higher percentage of women. To complicate matters, outsiders, as well as some hobby store employees, often do not recognize that women have regularly played RPGs since their inception. We have, however, met female gamers who have been playing D&D for over 30 years: “I initially started gaming when my boyfriend at the time asked me if I wanted to come play this cool new game with some friends. That had to be the early seventies” (Peggy).
<8> Why do so few women, relative to the number of male gamers, play pen-and-paper RPGs? The question has been asked for almost as long as D&D has existed, and the explanations for men’s numerical dominance at the gaming table have remained remarkably similar. In his 1983 sociological exploration of role-playing games, Shared Fantasy: Role-Playing Games as Social Worlds, Gary Alan Fine attributed the lack of female players to three factors: differences between men and women (whether biological or social), the ways new players are recruited, and male players’ reactions to female players and female characters (62). Illustrating gendered differences in children’s game playing in general, Fine cites several studies to show that boys tend to play more aggressive games and also games of longer duration than girls do (63) and that adolescent girls are reluctant to cross sex-role lines to play male-identified games (64). We have already seen how role-playing games are generally presumed to be for males; the games also tend to run for hours at a time and aggressive, “hack ’n’ slash” type scenarios[5] are common, especially in adolescent male groups. Furthermore, the argument that women are not interested in role-playing games because they are women was recently supported by no less a gaming personage than the aforementioned Gary Gygax: “The male brain operates in a different way than does the female brain. Men think differently, have different likes and dislikes. Games are a ‘male like’, and that is what I mean” (Gel214th). Most female players have little use for a biological-determinist stance that precludes their interest in fantasy role-playing games. According to many female and male gamers, the more likely culprits are the ways women are or are not recruited into playing as adolescents, the implicit male assumptions embedded in the games themselves, and ways women and their characters are treated during game play.
<9> Often male role-playing gamers trace their participation back to adolescence, while many women say they started playing seriously in young adulthood. This is not to say, however, that adolescent women are not interested in RPGs. Female gamers taking part in online discussion forums commonly report having been rebuffed by adolescent male players. For example,
I knew lots of other girls in high school who were interested, but also found that the guys didn’t want to let them in. So this whole argument that women would be playing if they wanted to is crap. Women can’t play if no one lets them. . . . A bunch of girls in high school who have been told to bugger off by the boys aren’t going to go spend a small fortune to investigate one or more game systems on their own. So they give up. (Chapman)
A rebuff might also come in the form of overtly hostile play. KM describes such a first-game experience: “My character ended up getting brutalized three times in one game session.” Other women say they were allowed to play with young male groups in a more congenial manner, but consistently were the subject of suggestive storylines: “I know in those early years in middle school I was the only woman in the group, and had to put up with a lot of ‘we find your paladin chained naked to the wall of the dungeon’ kind of adolescent crap” (Lepley).
<10> Such experiences go a long way toward explaining the statistical difference between female and male fantasy role-play gamers. Furthermore, pen-and-paper RPGs are a complex, expensive, and time-consuming activity. Most new players join existing groups that already have the necessary resources and knowledge to play. Once a connection is made with a gaming group, playing on a regular basis requires at least four hours a week. Keeping up with game paraphernalia also requires a certain amount of dedication: dice and source books are available only in larger bookstores and specialty shops. Surely such a hobby is more likely to survive the complicated demands of adult life if begun during the relatively freer time of adolescence. Yet, adolescence is precisely the time when women are most actively excluded from playing RPGs. While it is quite likely that more adolescent males than females are drawn to the potentially aggressive play of fantasy games, perhaps the number of females who begin play during adolescence determines, in part, the number who play at all. In fact, with such a low number of female players continuing to play into young adulthood, fewer novice females can be recruited by established female players who have the resources and know-how to get new players started.
<11> In addition to adolescent male images of gamers and the predominance of males in both social fears grounded in role-playing games and in the actual gaming culture, the games themselves are obviously aimed at a male audience. Traditional “pen and paper” D&D, the game most commonly played by the women in this study, has consistently relied on an essentialist view of gender. D&D’s extensive collection of rules-manuals do not allow much room in their language to deviate from the western male heterosexual worldview. A good example of this is the statement printed near the beginning of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook discussing its use of pronouns:
The Male pronoun (he, him, his) is used exclusively throughout the second edition of the AD&D game rules. We hope this won’t be construed by anyone to be an attempt to exclude females from the game or imply their exclusion. Centuries of use have neutered the male pronoun. In written material it is clear, concise, and familiar. Nothing else is. (8)
Despite the claims of inclusiveness, the absence of the feminine pronoun in the text—coupled with numerous depictions of voluptuous females in the artwork—not-so-subtly sends messages to both male and female players. Some male players (and publishers) feel a sense of vindication and/or validation when they are able to point to the “pronoun” paragraph and comfortably ignore sexism. As one experienced gamer and GM put it, “You can generally train the young guys to recognize it [sexism] and realize it’s wrong, but the old ones are almost a lost cause” (Julie Ratliff). Similarly, some women tend to ignore or deny the sexism, coming down even harder on people who complain about it than some men do. Josephine Donovan, in Feminist Theory: The Intellectual Traditions of American Feminism, discusses this phenomenon in terms of Marxist theory:
To absorb uncritically [the ruling] class’s ideas is to operate in terms of “false consciousness.” Engaging in revolutionary praxis is one means Marx specifies by which consciousness of true class interests may be awakened. … The relevance of these ideas to feminist theory is readily apparent. Socialist feminists have generally assumed (without always stating) an analogy between women and the proletariat, and have urged that women need to develop an analogous true consciousness of their own oppressed condition, in the process shedding “false consciousness,” or “male identified” ideologies that serve male, ruling-group interests. (67-68)
Many gamers may not see pronouns as an issue; however, the last two sentences of the AD&D manual’s paragraph—“In written material it [the use of masculine pronouns] is clear, concise, and familiar. Nothing else is” (8)—imply that someone does object.
<12> Although the 1995 printing of the AD&D Player’s Handbook (second edition) kept the same “A Note About Pronouns” entry, it is conspicuously absent from the third edition manuals, which make use of feminine and gender-neutral plural pronouns. Most gamers we spoke with agree that this and other more significant revisions (i.e. streamlining of rules and less of an emphasis on numbers crunching) were made in Dungeons and Dragons Third Edition (2000) to try to appeal to more female role-players. Despite these recent changes, women have had to either accept some sexist preconditions or become adept at subverting or exploiting the stereotypes for their own purposes.
<13> In addition to language choices, the substance of the game rules and the illustrations in rules-manuals both have suggested that RPGs are for men, not women. Early sword-and-sorcery games restricted female characters’ abilities and roles, often claiming they were staying true to medieval reality—a reality that might include magical spells, enchanted beasts, elves, trolls, and animated, sword-wielding skeletons, but not strong or thoughtful women. The first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, for example, stated that the characters might meet a “goodwife” on the street of a city or town. Such a matron would most likely respond to “any offensive treatment or seeming threat” by “scream[ing] for help, accusing the offending party of any number of crimes, i.e. assault, rape, theft, or murder” (192). However, this stereotypically “normal” woman, always ready to exercise power by accusing an innocent man of rape, was not the only female a party of adventuring characters might encounter in the city. Prostitutes walked the streets of fantasy games—and not just ordinary prostitutes. In the “harlot table” of the first edition of AD&D, one had a ten-percent chance of meeting a “slovenly trull,” a “cheap trollop,” a “wanton wench,” or an “expensive doxy;” a fifteen-percent chance of meeting a “brazen strumpet,” a “typical streetwalker,” a “saucy tart,” or a “haughty courtesan”; and a two-percent chance of meeting an “aged madam” or a “wealthy procuress” (192). Given the lavish detail of these adjectives and nouns, it is not difficult to picture a group of young men seated around a gaming table, rolling percentage dice and guffawing at their luck. Picture also one or two young women who were allowed to join the game, and it becomes obvious how a female player might encounter a hostile, male-centered environment even when the male players welcome her and treat her well.
<14> Rules such as the “harlot table” (and some of the game systems employing them) have largely gone by the wayside, and players were always free to ignore such rules anyway. However, the illustrations in most RPG books also have marginalized women by appealing directly to the male gaze. Especially in medieval fantasy games, women in general have been depicted as either helpless and shapely, or sexy and shapely—distressed gentlewomen to be rescued or tavern wenches to be wenched with. Another common depiction of female characters, and perhaps the most disturbing to dedicated female gamers, is the warrior woman in a “chainmail bikini”—an under-dressed fighter who seems more intent on wielding her breasts and buttocks than her broadsword. Although the 3 rd edition AD&D handbooks, as well as the current books of many other games, picture females more sensibly dressed and occupied in game-related activities, thirty years of subservience and cheesecake have left their mark on women’s and men’s perceptions of gaming and on male/female RPG interactions.
Bring Us Your Women
<15> “Are we all that odd?” muses a female role-playing gamer in an online forum (Robertson). “I’ve only ever once played any sort of RPG with another woman and that’s only because she was the girlfriend of the GM,” another player responds (Burleson). Meanwhile, game publishers, GMs, and male and female gamers continue to discuss how to bring more women into the world of RPGs. The implicitly masculine bias of the games themselves, revealed in game language, game rules, and game manual illustrations, our social perception of the “typical” gamer, and the ways in which females first encounter gaming clearly account for the male/female discrepancy overall. Among dedicated, acculturated players, however, gender-related preferences and problems consistently arise. Within the gaming community, for example, there is a well-known division between “roll players” (those who like to fight and enjoy the mechanics of the game) and role-players (those who prefer to interact in non-combat situations and favor character development).[6] More often than not, we (and many others) have noted that male players seem to prefer the former type of play to the latter, especially younger males or those who have gamed since before 2 nd edition AD&D was published. All of the women with whom we spoke said they liked both types of play in a game, but they also agreed that they would rather spend time working with their characters and getting into the complexities of an adventure than simply hacking, slashing, pulverizing, or zapping their way through every game.
I prefer games that allow for plenty of role-playing and character development. I also favor games that are more cerebral (i.e. less hack, more riddles, puzzles, and mysteries). I do enjoy a good fight, but I think that too much mindless hacking makes for a boring session. I have played in many sessions that have been mostly fighting, but the only ones that were interesting to me were the ones that the battles went along with the storyline instead of being random encounters[7] dealt by a pesky [GM] die. (Paula)
All but one woman we spoke with agreed that they liked adventures with balance and a few suggested that longer campaigns in which they got to spend “quality” time getting to know other people in the gaming group were preferable.
<16> To be fair, many male role-players agree that balance is necessary for a high quality gaming experience; however, female players describe their interactions with a number of male players, especially younger ones, as antagonistic and counterproductive to what they feel are the goals of the game:
[It] was a battle of strong wills between the guys. Each guy wanted his own leadership of the group and wanted the others to follow, which never happened. The guys were brash, tactless and had huge egos. I’d often get teased about my place in the group, being told that the woman’s place is behind the man and that I should be subservient. I soon learned that arguing with the guys was like fighting with a living wall on steroids: futile. (Hoffman)
Another woman with more gaming experience described a typical gaming session for her as being even more geared toward male competition which left her out in cold.
Currently a typical game for me would be staring into oblivion while the power (or gold) hungry players pillage and plunder. (Too bad we’re in a GOOD campaign!)[8] Most of the games I have played have not been fun, due to sarcastic and harsh words. It seems there are quite a few gentlemen (term used loosely) that can’t appreciate a creative, intelligent woman. Heh. Who’d a- thunk it? ;-) Most games sessions end with my head low, fuming mad… yet biting my tongue. Ever read Knights of the Dinner Table?[9] I’m Sarah. There you go. [smirks] (Paula)
These women, whose experiences are far from atypical, are understandably frustrated with the type of gaming situations in which they have found themselves. Rather than joining groups that embodied the aspects of gaming they valued—cooperative group interactions—they landed in situations that either put them at odds with the male majority or forced them into uncomfortable silence and archaic gender roles. These women have chosen, at least in some instances, to tolerate the testosterone-heavy atmosphere in order to be able to play the game, usually because they were already friends or in a relationship with other players and knew they were capable of better behavior. Some women put up with similar problems, hoping to change attitudes from inside the group, while other women refused to put up with what they regarded as “juvenile stupidity” that wasted their time. “I thought I would enjoy playing with these guys from the gaming store, but all they wanted to do was challenge the [GM] over rules or mess around with NPCs[10]—no matter what the circumstances or type of adventure. After two campaigns, I finally said, ‘I’ve got to find a new group’” (Mia).
<17> Unfortunately, even when female players are satisfied with the style of play within a predominantly male gaming group, they may have difficulty participating in that play:
Actually, one of my worst problems has been in playing with a group of guys (& no other girls), I have to stand up and shout (not in character) to get attention during combat and other fast-paced scenes. The [GM] and other players are so loud & talk over each other, and I'm afraid my female vocal register doesn't command much attention. But yeah, it takes a LOT of effort to be recognized as a good player instead of just “so & so’s girlfriend” or the “token girl player.” (Danica)
In Danica’s case, she was literally silenced by the loud and boisterous voices of not only the other players, but the GM as well. The fact that she felt she needed to completely overachieve just to be acknowledged as a “good player” has likely kept her from having a satisfying gaming experience. If her fellow players or GM knew she felt this way, it might make a difference in their behavior. Then again, due to her position as the “token girl,” it might not.
<18> On rare occasions, women reported that individual players (males in all but one instance) took things too far. Even the most tolerant and accommodating females drew the line when it came to having their characters violated or physically compromised at the hand of another player. Of the women who reported having these unpleasant experiences, all of them said they were new to that gaming group and chose not to return to it. “I’ve heard of some women who have had their characters attacked and worse by guys whose characters were supposed to be teammates. I mean, it’s one thing if you know each other and you’ve both agreed to let your characters get intimate or flirt in a game, but it’s just like a real attack when a stranger acts that violently, even if it’s not ‘real’” (Karen). Although combat of some type is an expected component in most role-playing games, sexual assaults, which are used to intimidate and humiliate other players of either sex, are completely unnecessary and generally not accepted within the gaming community. One experienced GM, Julie Ratliff, went as far as to state that all sex should happen “off stage—period,” in D&D adventures.
<19> On her Women in Gaming Archive page, Anne Moore posted the topic, “Rape in Role Playing Games,” and received 13 lengthy replies, which averaged 275 words per response. One female gamer reported an incident that happened without her consent:
I have had characters raped by NPCs but never PCs.[11] I can say from experience that even though I know I am not my character it is very traumatic. The GM in question did not give me an out (this was AD&D by the way), he also decided to rape my character simply based on the fact that she had an 18 charisma[12] not because of where she was or who the NPC was or anything else. He then had the nerve to be surprised when my character hunted the NPC down and killed him very messily. This was definitely a case of bad GMing in my opinion. Needless to say I never gamed with this particular GM again. (Lisa T.)
On the other hand, some players felt very differently when GMs used a rape as part of an adult game narrative when it was incorporated appropriately into a storyline. Not surprisingly, White Wolf’s World of Darkness settings, which are geared toward adults, and most especially Vampire the Masquerade whose themes inherently involve sexuality and violence, tended to incorporate rape more often than D&D settings:
I had another character that was raped by a NPC. … I had the best ST [Storyteller] for that thou [sic] and he was way cool about it. He asked me BEFORE the game started would I be okay and able to play this game if that happened. I said yes I thought so and we went from there. It really did freak me out a bit. But afterwards the group I gamed with sat around and talked about it. This was a mixed game of men and women. Was kinda interesting the insight gained. The guys were MORE upset than the women in the group over the whole thing. I think we sat around for 3 or 4 hours talking about it. I was never as proud of the group I gamed with as I was that night. I do think that player consent is important. I know that if I HADN'T known before hand … I would have been upset and may have walked out on it. (Jen B.)
Clearly choice and consent are the key issues involved. Recognition of rape as a form of violence and use of power—not sex—against male and female players alike is also a crucial distinction. None of the GMs we spoke with would involve a player’s character without speaking to her or him and getting the player’s permission first, but in all of the cases when players reported the GM had not asked for prior consent, the GM was a male.
<20> In addition to being ignored or brutalized in fantasy play, women are sometimes treated as stereotypically helpless or needy by male players. In response to a man who asked for advice in getting women to play RPGs, Hazel writes, women “would enjoy things if they’re (sic) men just buggered off and let them play. . . . You’ll find that if you shut up and let her think, she’ll come up with some great ideas of her own.” Over-eagerness to direct novice female game-players is not the only issue: female characters may be coddled or forced into helplessness within the game scenario. Such treatment may take the form of the male GM going “gentle on us girlies” (Robertson), or showering the lone female player’s character with “special abilities as bizarro-world compensation for actually having tits” (Mal). Other women find that the “special” treatment they are afforded conflates overprotection with the abuse described earlier. One female gamer reported that
The game master had me raped (in game) and had me get pregnant and chose to have me deal with morning sickness and labor. He provided a fellow player to protect & support me both physically and financially. Of course, the fellow player was a prince with wealth. I thought it was rather stereotypical of what is assumed women want. (Ivy, interviewee’s italics)
Such treatment further complicates women’s presence at the gaming table. We can assume that, for the most part, men and women enjoy fantasy role-playing games for the same reasons:
You get to express a whole lot of crazy ideas and never have any real consequences. You can charge into a fight, wielding a sword, kill several monsters, get killed yourself and be restored to life the next day as a hero. You can have an affair, be a flirt, say disgusting things, laugh when someone dies, fly, breathe in outer-space or underwater. All without cost or reprisal. And you get to do this with good friends who are exercising their imaginations along with yours. (Bianca)
Unfortunately, however, sometimes female gamers’ participation in such imaginative group play is circumscribed by game rules that specifically limit female characters’ actions, by the mostly-male group’s preferred style of play, by abusive or punishing game scenarios that single out female characters, or by GMs who modify rules to make women’s play “easier.” When this happens, the women are not fantasy role-playing; rather than co-creating an imagined world, they are allowed merely to act within parameters that are overly-prescribed due to their gender. In essence, it ceases to matter whether or not the male players have allowed or invited the female players’ participation. Women who have such experiences are indeed present at the gaming table, but they are not permitted to become true players of the game.
Entering the Dungeon
<21> In part, because women are so often expected to play stereotypical, over-the-top female characters or they are coddled, ogled, and hit upon by male players or GMs, female role-playing gamers often have a difficult time finding a group where they feel accepted and fully able to participate on an equal footing with their male counterparts. Nevertheless, women who are determined to play seldom let their negative experiences prevent them from finding a group of gamers with whom they are comfortable enough to game, while others continue to search in hopes of finding agreeable gaming opportunities.
I’ve found that even though locating a bunch of people you want to game with can take a while, and for some women I know it’s been a big challenge, I’ve been really lucky to land in good locations with organized gaming clubs and meet nice people (or I should say, nice people whom I’ve be able to convert to gamers). Of course it helps if you’re a GM and willing to share your books, soda, and other resources. (Ratliff)
<22> For female role-players, their motivations for going to such trouble are often similar to those of their male counterparts, but what they take away from role-playing sometimes varies from males and other female gamers. For both sexes, what often attracts them to gaming is an enjoyment of adventure in a fantasy realm. For a number of women, it was the Saturday morning cartoon Dungeons and Dragons (1983-86) that introduced them to the game and whetted their appetites for gaming. Two out of the six characters were female, and both were portrayed as competent team members who were treated well by their male comrades. Most of the women with whom we spoke had fond memories of the series and noted that it had made them aware of or attracted them to the game:
I liked both female characters in the cartoon though I thought the one with the thief skills was a bit wimpy. Actually, the character I really identified with was the ranger. I think Willy Ames did his voice. When I finally got to play the game years later, my first character was a ranger who used a bow. He wasn’t based on the cartoon character, but he really could kick butt when he needed to. (Mia)
Other women cited the taboo nature of poaching on male territory or defying authority as part of the appeal of both the cartoon and the game.
I remember catching bits of the cartoon on Saturday mornings before my mother made me turn the channel. She told me why she didn’t want me watching it… because it was priming me to play an evil game: Dungeons and Dragons! [gasp!] After that, I desperately searched for someone who had this game, or knew more about it. (Paula)
Others admitted to liking the “geeky” aspects of gaming such as knowing an exclusive jargon unique to the gaming subculture though none would claim to be fond of numbers crunching. Those who had served as GMs or who had written their own adventures liked being in control as well as having the satisfaction of seeing other people play with and appreciate their fantasy creations.
<23> However, there are other motivations and rewards for some female players that most male gamers may not understand. In her column on the RPGnet entitled “Eye of a She-Gamer,” a writer identified as Eva described her feelings about being the only female in a gaming group and the discomfort she feels when a second female player comes into the picture:
I like the attention. I crave it. If a second female joins the game, I’m friendly to her, of course, but secretly disappointed because she may gain the notice that would have been mine. If I am the second female to arrive at a table of males, I feel awkward because I can’t help thinking she feels the same way about me, even though the poll [I took after the last column] shows she is more likely to consider me a potential friend. And that’s just in a group of strangers. When I have a regular gaming group of all males (other than myself), I consider them “my boys”. The suggestion that another female might join us makes me cringe with jealousy….
Eva’s admission is rare because she recognizes and articulates her identification with the male-dominated group. She has invested her time and energy in the game as it is, so she has very little desire to make the situation more welcoming to other female gamers if she is satisfied with her “queen bee” position. Paulo Freire describes this type of relationship in Pedagogy of the Oppressed: “The oppressed suffer from the duality which has established itself in their innermost being. They discover that without freedom they cannot exist authentically. Yet, although they desire authentic existence, they fear it. They are at one and the same time themselves and the oppressor whose consciousness they have internalized” (30). It is particularly interesting that she still feels this way after having experienced a more presumably egalitarian form of the game. Yet, for some female gamers, being the only female is the only way they know how to play. Sadly, both women in this situation may lose an opportunity to make a true connection with one another due to this coping mechanism.
Wiring the Dungeon
<24> Whether women relish or regret their isolation from other female gamers, the isolation itself, due to the scarcity of female players, is largely unavoidable. In the last decade, however, Internet sites devoted to fantasy role-playing information have allowed many women to overcome geographic and numerical isolation and join a larger female gaming community. Additionally, while most RPG sites serve a general, and therefore male, gaming audience, several specifically address female players. Women in Gaming, for example, states that it is “an Internet-based organization dedicated to promoting women and [pen-and-paper] role playing games . . . we believe more women will get involved with role playing games if they were (sic) aware that there were already many women playing” (FAQ). Women In Gaming provides support for its members through a variety of services, including discussion lists, game reviews, a meeting forum where female gamers can find others living in their areas, and articles on topics such as “Body Type in Cyberpunk” and gaming while pregnant. Women In Gaming also provides a net ring, allowing users to link with smaller female-specific gaming sites, such as TechnoMom’s Place[13] and Zephrin’s Sanctuary for the Lesbian Gamer.[14]
<25> Women In Gaming is perhaps the largest, most professional site solely concerned with women and pen-and-paper fantasy games. Another large site, WomenGamers.com, provides similar services for women who play computer and online RPGs.[15] Of course, many women who play computer and online games also play pen-and-paper games; thus, WomenGamers.com and some non-female-specific sites, such as RPGnet, provide articles and discussion forums for female pen-and-paper gamers.
<26> Women In Gaming’s logo is the classic Venus symbol, a circle atop a cross. According to Women In Gaming, a frequently asked question is, “Why the Venus symbol? Aren’t you afraid of being mistaken for a feminist?” The Webmistress replies, “I am a feminist. Not only that, but Women In Gaming is a feminist cause, and has never pretended otherwise. We feel that the gaming industry has historically excluded and mistreated women, and are taking action to correct that. What is that if not feminism?” (FAQ, author’s italics). WomenGamers.com’s logo is also the Venus symbol, enclosed in a ringed planet. WomenGamers.com does not self-identify as feminist, however; the site is clearly profit-generating and addresses female concerns in order to make that market available to game researchers and advertisers. Still, the site does provide articles, polls, and forums on topics of concern to female gamers, and many members posting on the listservs identify themselves with feminist ideals. Clearly, whether claiming feminist status or not, websites giving voice to female gamers are performing a feminist act. The very rhetoric of their names serves a dual function, creating a group identity for female players and presenting a coherent, female face to the larger RPG world. The sites challenge the male-dominated discourse about role-playing games while simultaneously confronting the inherent masculinity of the games themselves.
<27> In her article “Substantive and Feminist Girlie Action: Women Online,” Jacqueline Rhodes draws comparisons between the textuality that is possible online and “radical feminist textuality of the 1960s” (116). Defining features of that textuality were “manifestos, statements of purpose, guides to consciousness raising and other political actions—that were often written collaboratively, distributed collectively and publicly through the magic of mimeography and volunteer effort” (116-117); another key feature is that such textuality “work[s] for change” (129). Internet sites such as Women In Gaming certainly fit Rhodes’ description of “radical feminist textuality”: they occupy a public space, they are written collaboratively through group listserv forums, they exist to change the masculine hegemony of role-play gaming, and they “distribute” themselves via net rings and links on other websites. In fact, Rhodes identifies hypertext linkage and net rings as a critical feature of women’s online sites, specifically likening them to radical feminists’ underground textual networks of the 1960s (128).
<28> Some women gamers who communicate through Internet sites are explicitly aware of their feminist heritage. Not only does Women In Gaming specifically identify itself as a feminist endeavor, but Hilary Doda, a professional role-playing game designer, published “A GamerGrrl’s Manifesto” on the non-female-specific site RPGnet. Doda’s title clearly draws a connection between the 1960 radical feminist manifestos, the 1990s RiotGrrl movement, and female gamers’ desire for change in fantasy role-playing culture.
<29> While cautioning against a simplistic, one-to-one comparison between 1960s radical feminist textuality and women’s Internet texts, Rhodes does draw another connection that is also descriptive of female RPG players’ online presence. All three texts share a sharp exigency, a “feeling that the authors created the texts because somebody had to do it (129, author’s italics). Given the thirty-year history of consistent stereotyping, control, and fantasized abuse women have endured to participate in role-playing games, the female players who protest via the Internet are certainly doing so out of necessity, using the best tool at hand. By speaking out online, Doda, the individuals behind Women In Gaming, and all women who post about these issues on RPG-related sites or their own homepages are acting for change and giving their readers an immediate opportunity to act for change in turn by sharing links and participating in forum discussions.
Feminists and Other Mythical Creatures
<30> When a woman speaks out against sexism in role-playing games, she receives much the same response as a woman speaking out in our larger society: agreement from some men and women, opposition and even extreme characterization from others. For example, the author of “Interview with Gary Gygax, RPG Legend” asks Gygax if female players might be disturbed by gaming artwork that “showcases the men in full armor, and the women in thongs and with copious amounts of bare skin.” Gygax replies, “Not any mature female, no. . . . Now if one is a rabid and militant feminine (sic) activist, I am sure it would cause a horrid outburst” (Gel214th). In other words, a woman who does not accept male-gendered aspects of fantasy role-playing games as they presently exist must be part of an extremist fringe. In the online discussion forum for the interview, respondents return repeatedly to Gygax’s comment and to questions of women and sexism in gaming. Positions are, for the most part, polarized: either sexism in gaming still exists and has potentially negative effects on female gamers or little is wrong with gaming’s representations of women and those who disagree are part of an unpleasantly vocal minority. Curiously, the terms “feminism” and “feminist” seldom appear in posts representing either side of the argument (Discussion).
<31> Female players’ online objections to stereotyping and ill treatment, their calls for female-friendly games, groups, and retailers, and their personal determination to continue playing RPGs in spite of an industry-wide masculine identification are feminist acts; however, this nomenclature may offend some women who participate in RPGs. The terms “feminist” and “feminism” seem to be out of fashion, especially with young adult women, and many female gamers have heard, or perhaps even said, “I’m not a feminist, but . . . .” But what? But I play female characters who are competent and possess a variety of skills? But I want to be treated with respect by my mostly-male gaming group? But I’d like to see less cheesecake (or a little more beefcake) in fantasy role-playing art? As Patricia S. Misciagno remarks in Rethinking Feminist Identification: The Case for De Facto Feminism (ix), qualifiers such as these sound feminist to us.
<32> According to Misciagno, de facto feminists are women who do not identify themselves as feminists and, in fact, may bear little social, economic, or educational resemblance to women typically perceived as feminists in our culture. De facto feminism is not dependent on ideological identification. It is rooted in praxis and involves “the initiation and continuity of political conflict” (99, author’s italics). A de facto feminist would be, for example, a “Rosie the Riveter” munitions worker who answered the call for wartime female labor and determined to continue earning her own income after WWII despite the national call for women’s return to the domestic sphere. Women who sue employers over unequal working conditions are also performing acts of de facto feminism. A de facto feminist’s recognition of inequality and her resulting praxis are necessarily products of self-interest (48); her challenge to patriarchal ideology is, nonetheless, an act of feminism and may well benefit others.
<33> In light of this definition, female gamers who do not self-identify as feminists are nevertheless performing acts of de facto feminism—not only when they voice objections to women’s treatment in the RPG world, but when they simply play the game, discuss the game, or identify themselves as gamers. Beginning with the first publication of Dungeons & Dragons in the early 1970s, RPGs explicitly and implicitly have discouraged female participation on both global (publisher) and local (gaming group) levels. Women who began playing and continued to play in this male-gendered environment served their own needs for a particular type of entertainment and/or social interaction. At the same time, however, their presence challenged the game’s masculine identities and actively contributed to the significantly less-hostile RPG culture female players encounter today. Likewise, women who participate in discussions of gaming, in online forums or face-to-face, or who identify themselves as gamers, contest male-gendered assumptions of gaming even when the women themselves voice support for gaming’s masculinist ideology. Each female player’s participation in games or in discussions belies the idea that “games are a male like” Gel214th), that girls and women are satisfied with the pink-boxed dating games and Barbie-doll images offered by mainstream entertainment media; that women can be driven away from a voluntary activity by concerted efforts to make them feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. Women gamers enact feminism whenever they enter or re-enter the real, as well as the imaginary, patriarchal worlds of pen-and-paper fantasy role-play gaming.
<33> When both the authors play, or even GM, fantasy role-playing games, they often do serve cookies or other food; in fact, snacks are a crucial aspect of most pen-and-paper gaming sessions. We also portray female and male characters that are unique to us and that are vibrant and integral inhabitants of their fantasy worlds. Like most fantasy RPG players of either gender, we enjoy both the fighting and problem-solving aspects of the games, as well as the regular opportunity to interact and relax with our fellow gamers. As female players, however, we are continually forced to negotiate the male-gendered assumptions of RPG culture and of our largely male gaming groups. Additionally, because the publishers of fantasy games, the game systems and rules, and the history of RPGs are founded in patriarchal ideologies, all women gamers are subject to overtly or covertly hostile gaming environments. However, during the thirty-some years that fantasy role-playing games have existed, female players have worked to enter gaming culture and to fashion game rules and gaming discussions that foster their participation. Women who discuss and play pen-and-paper RPGs despite negative conditions are performing feminist acts—even if the women do not self-identify as feminists or support typical perceptions of feminist goals. And yes, Mr. Gygax, even if they baked the cookies themselves.
Works Cited
Bianca (pseudonym). Has 20 years RGP experience. E-mail Interview. 26 Oct. 2002.
Brandes, Jennifer, and Chris Hepler. “Saving Throw for Half Cooties: Gaming and the Femininely Advantaged.” Tastes Like Phoenix Games. 28 January 2003 <http://www.tasteslikephoenix.com/articles/women.html>.
Burleson, Laura. “Re: Are We All That Odd?” 26 May 1999. Online Posting. Women In Gaming Listserv. 11 Oct. 2002 <http://wwwpersonal.umich.edu/~acm/WIG/WIG7. html>.
Chapman, Kimberly. “Re: A Couple Comments on Women.” 24 Oct. 2000. Online Posting. WomenGamers.com Listserv. 20 Oct. 2002 <http://forums.womengamers.com>.
Danica (pseudonym). Has 10 years RPG experience. E-mail Interview. 15 July 2002.
Discussion Forum. Re: “Interview with Gary Gygax, RPG Legend.” 20 Oct. 2000. WomenGamers.Com. 11 Oct. 2002 <http://forums.womengamers.com/forum?aid=00/ 10/20/160854>.
Doda, Hilary. “A GamerGrrl's Manifesto (Part One).” 30 Nov. 2000. The Head of Vecna: Women in Gaming and Other Myths Column, RPGnet. 11 Nov. 2002 <http://www. rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/Vecna1.html>.
Donovan, Josephine. Feminist Theory: The Intellectual Traditions of American Feminism. New Expanded ed. New York: Continuum, 1996.
Eva. “Eye of a She-Gamer.” RPGnet. May 1999. 28 January 2003 <http://www.rpg.net/ news+reviews/columns/evamay99.html>.
FAQ. 2 July 2001. Women In Gaming. 11 Oct. 2002 <http://www.rpgtimes.net/wig/>.
Fine, Gary Alan. Shared Fantasy: Role-Playing Games as Social Worlds. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1983.
Freire, Paulo. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Revised 20th-anniversary ed. New York: Continuum, 1994.
Gel214th. “Interview with Gary Gygax, RPG Legend.” 20 Oct. 2000. WomenGamers.Com. 11 Oct. 2002 <http://womengamers.com/interviews/garygygax.html>.
Gygax, Gary. Advanced D&D: Dungeon Masters Guide. Lake Geneva: TSR Games, 1979.
Hazel. “Re: My Thoughts on Introducing New People to Gaming….” 12 Nov. 2001. Online Posting. Hazel’s Room Listserv. 11 Oct. 2002 <http://www.geocities.com/area51/Labyrinth/5135/hazelnew.html#11.12.01>.
Heins, Marjorie. Sex, Sin, and Blasphemy: A Guide to America’s Censorship Wars. Revised ed. New York: New P, 1998.
Hoffman, Rebecca. Has 14 years RPG experience. E-mail Interview. 22 Oct. 2002.
Ivy (pseudonym). Has 13 years RPG experience. E-mail Interview. 26 Oct. 2002.
Jenkins, Henry. Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge, 1992.
Karen (pseudonym). Has eight years RPG experience. E-mail Interview. 26 Oct. 2002.
KM. “Re: Annoying Gamer Stereotypes.” 11 Apr. 2002. Online posting. Women In Gaming Listserv. 11 Oct. 2002 <http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Labyrinth/5135/hazestereo.html>.
Landry, Donna, and Gerald MacLean, eds. “Reading Spivak.” Introduction to The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. New York: Routledge, 1995. 1-14.
Lepley, Chris. “Re: Are We All That Odd?” 26 May 1999. Online posting. Women In Gaming Listserv. 11 Oct. 2002 <http://www-personal.umich.edu/~acm/WIG/WIG7.html>.
Mackay, Daniel. The Fantasy Role-Playing Game: A New Performing Art. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2001.
Mal. “Re: Gaming with Your Significant Other.” 25 June 2001. Online posting. Women In Gaming Listserv. 11 Oct. 2002 <http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Labyrinth/5135/hazeso.html>.
Mia (pseudonym). Has 18 years RGP experience. E-mail Interview. 2 Sept. 2001.
Misciagno, Patricia S. Rethinking Feminist Identification: The Case for De Facto Feminism. Westport: Praeger, 1997.
Modeleski, Tania. “Soap Opera, Melodrama and Women’s Anger,” from Loving with a Vengeance: Mass-Produced Fantasies for Women. New York: Routledge, 1982. In Common Culture: Reading and Writing about American Popular Culture. 2 nd Ed. Eds. Michael Petracca and Madeleine Sorapure. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. 217-32.
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---. “Rape in Role Playing Games.” Posted: 6 April 1999. In Women in Gaming Archive. 28 January 2003 <http://www-personal.umich.edu/~acm/WIG/WIG13. html>.
---. “Want to Hear from Everyone, Or Why So Many WW/Larpers?” Posted: 11 June 1999. In Women in Gaming Archive. 28 January 2003 <http://www-personal.umich.edu/~acm/WIG/WIG10.html>.
Paula. Has 13 years RPG experience. E-mail Interview. 22 Oct. 2002.
Peggy (pseudonym). Has 24 years RPG experience. E-mail Interview. 20 Oct. 2002.
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Notes
[1] The online “Article Discussion Forum” for the Gygax interview is monopolized by recurring debate about women and RPGs, some of it quite heated. The author of the article, “Gel214th,” and Gygax himself participate. These posts may be viewed at <http://forums.womengamers.com/forum?aid=00/10/20/160854>. [^]
[2] As the first published fantasy RPG, Dungeons & Dragons is often used to represent all RPGs, often by detractors of the genre. Most research into the psychological effects of fantasy RPGs has also been performed with players of Dungeons & Dragons. Thus, this specific brand name is often used as a term of general classification. We use the generic “Dungeons & Dragons” and “D&D” throughout this article to represent both the original Dungeons & Dragons game and the later-published Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) unless otherwise specified. [^]
[3] Jaffe’s 1981 novel was made into a sensationalistic, low-budget movie for television in 1982. [^]
[4] LARPs are Live-Action Role-Playing games, which require players to wear costumes and act out their characters’ roles rather than sit around a table and describe what actions their characters take as in traditional pen-and-paper games such as D&D. Gothic-style games would include, but are not limited to, games published by White Wolf as a part of its Storyteller role-playing game system such as Vampire: The Masquerade (1991) and Werewolf: The Apocalypse (1992). [^]
[5] Cf. Hernandez, this volume. [^]
[6] D&D games involve character interactions, which generally fall into two categories: those that involve combat and those that require “non-combat” skills such as persuasion, information gathering, or espionage. Combat requires a player to roll a die to see if she or he is successful, hence “roll” playing. The very term “non-combat” implies where the emphasis lies for some players and perhaps the game’s creators as well. [^]
[7] Encounters are interactions that give characters a chance to gain experience and advance to a higher level. GMs may decide the characters must face an unknown foe determined by a roll of their dice. Though there are a variety of reasons for having encounters, some GMs may overuse random encounters out of vindictiveness while others may have run out of better things for the players to do. [^]
[8] Characters are seen as being good, neutral, or evil in their outlooks or alignment. It would be against a good character’s alignment to loot, burn, and cause wanton destruction. [^]
[9] Knights of the Dinner Table is a popular comic strip that spoofs gaming stereotypes. Sarah is the serious and mature female gamer who is the voice of reason compared to the male gamers who are each a walking stereotype: the munchkin, the rules lawyer, and the geek. [^]
[10] NPCs or Nonplayer Characters are extra characters such as innkeepers or townspeople that the GM creates and plays in order to dramatize the story. [^]
[11] PCs or Player Characters are characters controlled by players whereas NPCs or Nonplayer Characters are controlled by the GM. [^]
[12] A high Charisma score, such as 18 out of 20 points, denotes a very attractive character. [^]
[13] <http://wwwtechnomom.com/sff/gaming.html>. [^]
[14] <http://www.angelfire.com/pa/goldencrystal/home.html>. [^]
[15] Female players of computer and online games share many concerns with female pen-and-paper gamers, particularly sexist game art and overprotection and abuse from male players. [^]