Playing Games & Playing Gender
Playing Games & Playing Gender
By Akira Albar-Kluck
By Akira Albar-Kluck
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“Gender is not something you are, but something you do.” This is a phrase used by numerous gender studies scholars to describe what gender is, and why it is. Gaming offers unique insight into how individuals “do” or “perform” gender. Gender is performed in a multitude of ways, by players and creators. From how people create lore around popular characters to feel connected to their gender to, the ways in which people make a character experiment with their gender in ways they could not in any other way, video games provide insight into how we can perform gender.
Millennials and Gen Z are the first generations of kids where at home video game consoles were a common experience. They grew up on video games, where some of the defining characters of their childhood were from video games. These generations have clung to nostalgia, especially in the wake of the pandemic and other difficult global experiences. For young people who are transgender, while wanting to experience that nostalgia from their youth but they can’t see any characters like them reflected back. Since their childhood, many transgender people have revisited the games from their childhood and found narratives that mirror their own experiences.
Link from Legend of Zelda is probably the most popular of these characters. With an extremely androgynous look Link is somewhat of an icon for transgender gamers. While Link is canonically a cis man according to Nintendo, the medium of video games lends itself to multiple interpretations. Every person plays the game differently, and experiences it differently, so even though the developers might say a character is one thing, it is easy for an audience to perceive it as another. Trans femme, trans masc, and nonbinary people have all formed an attatchment to Link because of his gender neutral look. It is easy to imagine that this character from a video game you grew up with is like you, especially when no one else is like you in video games.
Many games have players create an avatar for them to play as in the game, often acting as a self-insert. However, this is an opportunity many gamers take to experiment and use their imagination in a variety of ways. Some men take it in a hypermasculine direction, getting to live out their fantasy of looking like the men in a comic book and getting to act out certain violent impulses. However, that is certainly not the only way gamers play with gender in games. In games like Skyrim, Mass Effect, and in Roblox for a younger generation, players get to completely
The virtual world does not have the same immediate consequences for transgressing gender roles. Homelessness, violence, and employment discrimination are just a few of the issues that face trans people if they come out or even start to experiment. This is also a barrier for cis people who would like to experiment with their gender as well. Video games offer a fun and safer option for people to try out experiences that were previously barred for them.
It also allows the performance to be extremely personal. Not every feminine person presents the same way, nor does every masculine person. However, there is a certain expectation for every trans femme person and every trans masc person to present the same. When players can customize their avatar they get to imagine different versions of themselves and perform gender in ways impossible to in real life. Someone can not be six different versions of themself in one day, the way you can in a video games.
The only limitation in creating a character is the developers view of gender, which is a larger hurdle than one would hope. As an earlier article on this blog stated, while Cyberpunk 2077 had made big claims about its customization features for gender non-conforming poeple, it left many disappointed and insulted. It fed into the obssession with genitalia as a part of transgender identity and still enforced the gender binary with voice options. This is not the only way developers limit how people express gender. As discussed in another earlier post to this site, female characters are abundantly sexualized, and have similar bodies. They are slim, with large breasts, and a large butt, and no fat anywhere else on their body. Very few women in real life look like this, and this is by far not the only way to be a woman. Luckily developers are adding more diversity to their female line ups, but it pales in comparison to the scope of the issue.
Video games are going to be the art form that comes into itself this century. Every medium is a way to experience gender, but video games are an interactive medium. This is an art form where the “doing” is a part of the experience, so “doing” gender is going to be an essential way both the audience and art form evolve.
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