Abstract
This study uses an autoethnograhic approach to examine the role of doubt as a feminist knowledge lens. I argue that the experiences of designing, executing, and writing a research study with myself at the center produced a unique insight into how doubt shapes and filters not only gameplay for some women, but also the very process of creating new knowledge claims. This chapter blends narratives of experience with commentary based in feminist theory to comment on the benefits and drawbacks of doubt as an epistemological phenomenon. Placed into the context of current video game and academic cultures, the study asks us to reconsider what it means for women and marginalized groups to doubt themselves and others.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Arce, Nicole. 2014. Gamergate Continues: Female Video Game Developer Flees Home After Receiving Chilling Death Threats on Twitter. Tech Times, October 15. http://www.techtimes.com/articles/17901/20141015/gamergate-continues-female-video-game-developer-flees-home-after-receiving-chilling-death-threats-on-twitter.htm.
Bell, Kristina, Christopher Kampe, and Nicholas Taylor. 2015. Of Headshots and Hugs: Challenging Hypermasculinity through the Walking Dead Play. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology 7 http://adanewmedia.org/blog/2015/04/01/issue7-bellkampetaylor/.
Berger, Leigh. 2001. Inside Out: Narrative Autoethnography as a Path Toward Rapport. Qualitative Inquiry 7 (4): 504–518.
Bochner, Arthur P. 2012. On First-Person Narrative Scholarship: Autoethnography as Acts of Meaning. Narrative Inquiry 22 (1): 155–164.
Calafell, Bernadette Marie, and Shane T. Moreman. 2009. Envisioning an Academic Readership: Latina/o Performativities per the Form of Publication. Text and Performance Quarterly 29 (2): 123–130.
Chang, Heewon. 2013. Individual and Collaborative Autoethnography as Method: A Social Scientist’s Perspective. In Handbook of Autoethnography, ed. Stacy Holman Jones, Tony E. Adams, and Carolyn Ellis, 107–122. New York: Left Coast Press, Inc.
Chess, Shira, and Adrienne Shaw. 2015. A Conspiracy of Fishes, or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying about #GamerGate and Embrace Hegemonic Masculinity. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 59 (1): 208–220.
Chess, Shira, Mia Consalvo, Nina Huntemann, Adrienne Shaw, Carol Stabile, and Jenny Stromer-Galley. 2014. GamerGate and Academia. International Communication Association Newsletter 42 (9). http://www.icahdq.org/membersnewsletter/NOV14_ART0009.asp.
DiGRA. 2014. Digital Games Research Association. www.digra.org.
Ellis, Carolyn, Tony Adams, and Arthur Bochner. 2011. Autoethnography: An Overview. Historical Social Research 12 (1): 273–290.
Frank, Jenn. 2014. How to Attack a Woman Who Works in Video Gaming. The Guardian, September 1. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/01/how-to-attack-a-woman-who-works-in-video-games.
Griffin, Rachel Alicia. 2012. I AM an Angry Black Woman: Black Feminist Autoethnography, Voice, and Resistance. Women’s Studies in Communication 35 (2): 138–157.
Guiller, Jane, and Alan Durndell. 2006. ‘I Totally Agree With You’: Gender Interactions in Educational Online Discussion Groups. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 22 (5): 368–381.
Hern, Alex. 2014. Feminist Games Critic Cancels Talk After Terror Threat. The Guardian, October 15. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/15/anita-sarkeesian-feminist-games-critic-cancels-talk.
Herring, Susan. 1994. Politeness in Computer Culture: Why Women Thank and Men Flame. In Cultural Performances: Proceedings of the Third Berkeley Women and Language Conference, ed. M. Bucholtz, A. Liang, and L. Sutton, 279–294. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Women and Language Group.
Herring, Susan C. 1999. The Rhetorical Dynamics of Gender Harassment On-line. The Information Society 15 (3): 151–167.
Jenson, Jennifer, and Suzanne De Castell. 2010. Gender, Simulation, and Gaming: Research Review and Redirections. Simulation & Gaming 41 (1): 51–71.
Johnston, Casey. 2014. Intel Issues #GamerGate Apology, Still Not Advertising at Gamasutra [Updated]. Ars Technica, October 6. http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/10/intel-folds-under-gamergate-pressure-pulls-ads-from-gamasutra/.
Lorde, Audre. 2009. Poet as Teacher—Human as Poet—Teacher as Human. In I am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings of Audre Lorde, ed. R.P. Byrd, J.B. Cole, and B. Guy-Sheftall, 182–183. New York: Oxford University Press.
Martey, Rosa Mikeal, and Jennifer Stromer-Galley. 2007. The Digital Dollhouse: Context and Social Norms in The Sims Online. Games and Culture 2 (4): 314–334.
Massanari, Adrienne. 2017. #Gamergate and the Fappening: How Reddit’s Algorithm, Governance, and Culture Support Toxic Technocultures. New Media & Society 19 (3): 329–346.
Salter, Anastasia, and Bridget Blodgett. 2012. Hypermasculinity & Dickwolves: The Contentious Role of Women in the New Gaming Public. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 56 (3): 401–416.
Taylor, T.L. 2006. Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Terlecki, Melissa, Jennifer Brown, Lindsey Harner-Steciw, John Irvin-Hannum, Nora Marchetto-Ryan, Linda Ruhl, and Jennifer Wiggins. 2011. Sex Differences and Similarities in Video Game Experience, Preferences, and Self-Efficacy: Implications for the Gaming Industry. Current Psychology 30 (1): 22–33.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Janish, E. (2018). Shoot the Gun Inside: Doubt and Feminist Epistemology in Video Games. In: Gray, K., Voorhees, G., Vossen, E. (eds) Feminism in Play. Palgrave Games in Context. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90539-6_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90539-6_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-90538-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-90539-6
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)