Midterm reflection

The idea that hiring more women within the gaming design industry alone will fix the issues with representation is much too simple for the real problem at hand. Even if gaming is a virtual reality, this does not mean this realm is excluded from dominant societal issues within the United States. Though I am extremely happy that more women are going into the gaming field and finally being allowed more positions, this does not mean there aren’t road blocks within these institutions to align with dominant ideologies. I did just see recently that statistically more women are actually playing video games than men nowadays, yet we still have this stereotype that gaming is for straight white guys. The problem with thinking that representation within games can be solved as easily as hiring more women within the industry is assuming that, A, all women are feminists, or B, they are very aware of feminist issues. Also, this suggests that the men within this industry are not capable of creating anything other than things that align with themselves or their over sexualized fantasies. I believe that the whole system has to be revamped with a feminist lens, if people aren’t aware of difference or willing to try and be understanding of others experiences, then the continuation of the same norms within games will continue. There is no good enough reason that all different types of people aren’t allowed fair representation within games. The continued thinking that marginalized groups aren’t relatable or interesting enough perpetuates this Black or White mentality, when really people are much more complex and fluid than the dominant discourse displays, especially within games. There is a spectrum of people out there that have many intersectionalities, which deserve to be heard, understood and normalized. All of these issues are due to dominant ideologies/discourses within our culture that helps perpetuate the norm and continues to allow the creation of games that are hyper masculine, hetero-normative, misogynistic, and homophobic. More diverse people need to be involved within the gaming industry, not just women, and the people that do align with the dominant norms need to become allies of marginalized groups and work towards diversifying videogames within the future.