From image design to player discrimination, the specter of misogyny in the field of gaming is not scattered

Reporter | Pan Wenjie

Edit | Yellow Moon

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According to the news of Sina Games, the Recent King's Glory Professional League (KPL) reported that the female player Tiantian Ke was rejected to participate in the draft. Although there was a follow-up news that Tiantianke confirmed the participation, this incident still triggered a lot of discussion, because the KPL arena is basically all boys, and many netizens began to pay attention to the question of whether female players can gain a foothold in the e-sports arena. In fact, the many dilemmas faced by female players in video games are not due to the scarcity of professional e-sports players. In fact, many women already feel the situation of women in video games the moment they open the game - the female character in the game pays so much attention to the physical value and sexual object identity of women, and ignores other values; female players are regarded as "dishes" and need male players to "bring sisters"; in the professional field, women's situation is even more difficult.

News screenshot of "Eternal Maiden" in the game

Female characters in games often make female players feel uncomfortable. For example, in the early days of the domestic hit game "Glory of the King", when presenting female figures, the characters were often very exposed. Zhong Wuyan is wearing a bikini, does not know that the fire dance clothes do not cover the body, Chang'e's skirt is too short and there are no leggings, even if the appearance of the obvious underage Little Joe is also exposed. Although the clothing fabrics of these female characters are gradually increasing as the game characters are updated and iterated, this does not mean that the male gaze in the game has disappeared. In a 2018 paper, "Gender Trespass and Age Delay: A Study of Body Mimesis in China", Wu Si, a lecturer at the School of Media and Art of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications, analyzed and studied the image of 203 human characters out of all 244 characters in the game that year. The study found that on the one hand, all the middle-aged and elderly characters in the game are male, not a single woman; on the other hand, the body image of the male character is shifting towards the female, and some young male figures are more neutral, but the female body image still maintains a fairly traditional aesthetic.

The women in the game are all girls, how did this "eternal girl" phenomenon come about? Although the characters in the game are fictional, there is a deep-seated basis for the gender order behind them. Wu Si pointed out that there are more women than men in the actual elderly group, because women live longer on average, but in the patriarchal aesthetic, middle-aged and elderly women have never had a place. Young and beautiful is still the demand of this gender order on the female body. In this way, the game exaggerates the social reality that the value of women's body is completely ignored and ignored in the image presentation.

In a new study published in Time magazine in 2015, author Rosalind Wiseman and others surveyed more than 1,400 middle and high school students across the United States, asking questions about how boys and girls felt about gender representation in video games. 47% of middle school boys and 61% of high school boys believe that because female characters are too sexy in the game, they are often treated as sexual objects; 55% of boy gamers believe that the game needs more female heroes. Yes, even middle school students will feel that gender bias in the game is inappropriate.

Image source: Visual China male and female players are misogynistic

According to the "Asia$70 Billion Game Market Success Guide" report jointly released by Google and Nico Partners, as early as 2019, female gamers in Asia have reached 500 million. Research conducted by Newzoo and Facebook shows that by 2020, female gamers worldwide will account for 47% of the total number of gamers. Despite the large base of female players, they are still marginalized in the game to some extent.

Female gamers in the game have been plagued by gender stereotypes. In the article "Pride and Prejudice - A Study of Gender Stereotypes of Female Gamers", Cao Shule, an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University, and others saw that the gender stereotype of female gamers by game groups is that female players have a relatively low level of play and are more dependent on others, although some voices point out that female players who play well and male players who play well exist. In addition, there is a saying within the player called "taking the sister", in some people's concept, female players need male players to lead. There are also many people in the game group who believe that female players will use more auxiliary types of characters, the role is to protect friends, and less direct confrontation with the enemy. Overall, for female gamers, most people have patriarchal gender stereotypes of "high enthusiasm and low ability" (good personality, supportiveness, but poor game level, and subordinate status), which are both male and female and are not affected by their own game time. Cao Shule and others believe that this means that these stereotypes are actually influenced by the social context.

The default gender of gamers is male, while female players are on the edge of the game, and this stereotype affects the way people treat players of different genders. If a woman conforms to stereotypes, such as assisting the player and being able to support others, she will be welcomed, and vice versa, she will be blamed. In 2019, Yunnan University master's student Ru Mengran's thesis "The Other in the Other:A Study on the Game Practice of Female Players in MOBA Games" focuses on the game "League of Legends" and "Glory of Kings", which are MOBA (Multiplayer Online Tactical Competition) games. The researchers found that the identity dilemmas faced by female players are similar - people think that female players have good personalities, gentle and cute, but also think that they are "dishes" and "mixed". In responses to "Evaluation of Female Gamers in the Game," most of the male interviewees believed that there were indeed some female gamers who were at a high level, but that men's game performance was generally higher than that of female players, both among average and top gamers.

2018 International Women's E-sports Championships (Chengdu, China) Image source: Visual China

And if the female player level is higher, she may be said to be "like a man". Ru Mengran saw that some women who think that they have higher game talent, longer contact with games, and richer game experience than other women usually call themselves men, such as "Father", "Female Man", "Brother X", etc., and even emphasize that they are "different from other girls". The perception that women are strong for themselves, accompanied by the recognition of themselves as an exception in the female community, and the mocking attitude towards other women, reflects how gender stereotypes contribute to the misogynistic consciousness between the same sex.

Is it necessary to distinguish between men and women in esports competitions?

There are deep-seated gender biases in all areas of the gaming industry. According to a survey published by Forbes, a 2020 survey of 14 of the world's top game companies showed that 84% of executive positions in the gaming industry are held by men, and only 24% of the industry's staff are women. In the field of professional competition, female professional players are still in trouble, and the gender order hidden behind the game characters has surfaced. The article "Chinese Women's E-sports Survival Atlas" released by "Titanium Media" in 2021 pointed out that from the selection rules of team members, male and female e-sports team members face different selection criteria - the selection of male teams only needs to look at the game level, but the women's team will be required to attach photos and three circumferences in addition to the results. On the one hand, this has led to women's e-sports being regarded as a simple "beauty team", that is, the so-called "vase"; on the other hand, many female e-sports players have little experience, and even no youth training system for female team members. It can be seen that both the selection mechanism and the training system are exacerbating the prejudice against the "dish" of female e-sports players.

Perhaps a more fundamental question is: Do esports competitions really need to distinguish between genders? In 2021, Glory of Kings held a women's open tournament, which is the first king's esports women's professional event, in addition to this game, many esports have held women's professional competitions. But is it necessary to distinguish between men and women? Is this distinction and segregation discrimination or protection? In sports competitions, testosterone plays a key role in distinguishing men and women from competing. After experiencing male puberty, men are usually heavier and taller than women, with limbs that are longer than their own height, larger hearts and lungs, less fat, more oxygen-carrying red blood cells, denser bones, more muscles, and narrower hips, making running more efficient and reducing the chance of injury. And esports doesn't seem to have anything to do with male physiological advantages, because it's just a movement of the fingers and brain.

Since the physiological distinction is not established, what is the purpose of e-sports competitions to distinguish between men and women? This is somewhat similar to a chess game, which is just a movement of the fingers and brain, but there are games that belong specifically to women. Chess is a rating game, but there is really no evidence that there is any difference in skill levels for different genders. To distinguish between men and women in such a field is a purely social decision. MindSports International development manager and chess coach Eduardo Sajgalik once said that the overall competitive environment is seriously lacking in female players, and this practice can help the number of female players grow. Perhaps according to this statement, the way e-sports and chess distinguish between men and women playing is reasonable, but the problem is not completely solved - can games for more vulnerable genders help women better integrate into the mainstream of the industry? Will it be possible to finally bring female players into a race where both men and women can participate, giving them the freedom to choose who to compete with?

In fact, women also like to play with women and team up together. Fifth-time women's Counter-Strike world champion Stephanie "missharvey" Harvey once said in an interview: "I think women should play with the people they like... The reason I love being on the women's team the most is that we can beat men," Harvey said, "and I want to prove that we can be equally good." But she doesn't think women should be encouraged to play only with women, and that women should be free, free to form teams, and free to compete.

Resources:

Ru Mengran: "The Other" in: A Study of the Game Practice of Female Players in MOBA Games

Wu Si: Gender Transgression and Age Retardation: A Study of Body Mimicry in China

Cao Shule and Dong Ding: Pride and Prejudice: A Study of Gender Stereotypes of Female Gamers

Hu Fei: "Chinese Women's E-sports Survival Atlas" https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1715204246765434122&wfr=spider&for=pc

Newzoo Female Mobile GameRs Survey: Number Surges, Players Account for More Than 48%

https://new.qq.com/omn/20210309/20210309A06HKG00.html

http://time.com/3948744/video-games-kate-upton-game-of-war-comic-con/

https://www.polygon.com/2014/7/11/5870331/esports-gender-league-of-legends-starcraft-female-leagues

https://esportsinsider.com/2020/08/all-women-esports-teams/