Women’s Community Building in Online Gaming Environments
Farmer, Sarah
Citations
Abstract
Women in gaming often face harassment, violence, and the delegitimating of their gaming identities due to the misconception that women are not capable of being gamers. One way that women can push back against this misconception is by developing women-centered gaming communities online. Using a sample of 19 Reddit threads across two different Subreddits (r/GirlGamers and r/videogames), I examine the process of community building in women centered gaming spaces and how this community building differs from community building in gaming as a whole. I find that women build community through connecting with each other, uniting against others, venting, and centering Women’s Experiences. Further, I find that in more general gaming spaces, the community building process differs in the people its members unite against and their lack of women-centered community practices.
