Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

6-2021

Abstract

This paper identifies opportunities and pathways through which feminist digital geographies can expand into the realm of online gaming. Whilst research at the nexus of gender and online gaming has come a long way in the past two decades, geographical perspectives are noticeably lacking. They can contribute to the discourse by emphasising the contingent nature of online gamespaces, and how a gendered subject position might be redefined through, and help to redefine, the (in)distinctions between “online” and “offline”, “gaming” and “non-gaming” spaces. I identify four directions in which feminist geographies of online gaming can unfold: aesthetic-affective spaces of the “virtually real”, relationality through and beyond the avatar, labours of play and the purpose of leisure, and non-gaming spaces and the gaming of space. These directions foreground an exploration of gender within/and online gaming that is ontologically open, spatially fluid and replete with epistemological potential.

Keywords

Online gaming, feminist digital geographies, gender, relationality, gamespace

Discipline

Gender and Sexuality | Women's Studies

Research Areas

Humanities

Publication

Digital Geography and Society

Volume

2

First Page

1

Last Page

9

ISSN

2666-3783

Identifier

10.1016/j.diggeo.2021.100015

Publisher

Elsevier

Embargo Period

7-6-2021

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diggeo.2021.100015

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