Intersectional Identities in Dungeons & Dragons
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DUNGEONS & DISCOURSE: INTERSECTIONAL IDENTITIES IN DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Philip J. Clements A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2019 Committee: Timothy Messer-Kruse, Advisor Paul Morris Graduate Faculty Representative Esther Clinton Jeremy Wallach i ABSTRACT Timothy Messer-Kruse, Advisor Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) has been a pervasive force in American culture for over forty years, and while it has frequently been examined as both social practice and cultural text, rarely have both the texts and the praxis of D&D been studied with a focus on how race and gender interact within the game. This research looks at how race and gender intersect (or more often, contrast) within the text and practice of D&D. This study culls data from a wide variety of sources. It includes literary analyses of important source material for the game, such as the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert E. Howard, describing the way these authors influenced the way the game understands and uses race. It also examines later works that both influence and have been influenced by Dungeons & Dragons. This includes texts like Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen, a fantasy epic that began as a Dungeons & Dragons campaign. In addition to textual analyses, this study includes data and observations taken from interviewing players and observing numerous sessions of D&D. These interviews and observations are essential, as they provide information on how people talk, act, and think around the gaming table, and how players engage critically with concepts of race and gender in and out of the game. The ethnographic work in this study also provides critical information on the characteristics of D&D gaming groups as social units, and how the social qualities of those groups impact the messages imparted during play. The basic conclusion of this study is that knowing that someone plays D&D means very little, while understanding how and why they play D&D is highly informative. While both ii D&D’s origin as a game and its literary basis are marked by a predominance of white male voices, there is a surprising amount of flexibility in the stories that players can tell. While there is no guarantee that players will use their narrative freedom to tell morally uplifting stories (and they often do not) a great deal can be learned from understanding why people enjoy specific tropes and concepts. iii For Mom and Dad. And for S. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Timothy Messer-Kruse. He has been invaluable throughout my doctoral work, and a truly encouraging and mentoring person besides. I would also like to thank Dr. Esther Clinton, and Dr. Jeremy Wallach, for support and patience, and reams of good advice over the years, some of which I have even been smart enough to listen to. I would also like to thank Dr. Paul Morris, for being an exemplary graduate representative. And finally, thank you to (Future!) Dr. Beck Jenkins, without whose moral and victual support I would not have made it this far. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 Why Dungeons & Dragons Matters .......................................................................... 1 A Brief Primer on D&D ............................................................................................ 7 Playing Race & Gender ............................................................................................ 14 The Gaming Narrative: A Sample of Play ................................................................ 18 CHAPTER 1: CRITICAL FRAMES ..................................................................................... 32 The Racial Frame ...................................................................................................... 33 Haraway, Hill-Collins, and Complex Identities ........................................................ 37 Critical Perspectives on Gaming ............................................................................... 41 Race, Revisited ......................................................................................................... 46 CHAPTER 2: LITERARY FOUNDATIONS ...................................................................... 58 Alignment and the Moral Center of D&D ................................................................ 63 J.R.R. Tolkien: Godfather of Fantasy ....................................................................... 74 Pulp Fiction: Lovecraft, Howard, & D&D ............................................................... 82 Emergent Properties: Texts About D&D .................................................................. 98 Out of the Game and Onto the Page: D&D-based series .......................................... 104 CHAPTER 3: REPRESENTING D&D ................................................................................ 116 On the Small Screen: D&D In Mainstream Television ............................................ 117 Moral Panic, and the Mockery Thereof .................................................................... 126 Convergence Culture and Fan-Made Products .......................................................... 129 CHAPTER 4: D&D AT THE GAMING TABLE ................................................................. 145 vi Player Demographics ................................................................................................. 146 The Gaming Environment ......................................................................................... 149 The Impact of Observation ........................................................................................ 154 Race in Play……. ...................................................................................................... 155 Gendered Play & Sexual Dungeoneering ................................................................. 168 CONCLUSION……… .......................................................................................................... 184 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 190 APPENDIX A: LIST OF THINGS MR. WELCH IS NOT ALLOWED TO DO ............... 196 APPENDIX B: IRB APPROVAL LETTER ........................................................................ 197 vii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1 Player Race & Ethnicity ............................................................................................ 147 2 Player Gender Identity .............................................................................................. 147 1 INTRODUCTION Why Dungeons & Dragons Matters This dissertation attempts to do several things at once. I discuss what Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is: a combination of tactical simulation, story-building system, social activity, and celebration of fantasy tropes and concepts. I analyze how the elements of the game, especially the tropes that make up its foundation, are in turn representative of larger American cultural constructs. I focus mainly on gender and race, but socioeconomic class is also inevitably involved. I look at the differences between the way that D&D is written, and the way D&D is played. This last is especially critical, because D&D as a text is very different from D&D as a game or as a cultural practice. D&D’s instructional texts represent an idealized version of the game, but players of D&D are actors who constantly break the fourth wall. D&D is a space where the tropes and conventions of fantasy fiction collide with real life, a zone of tenuous reality where familiar cultural constructs are rendered strange in the guise of fantastic kingdoms, and where, sometimes, unexamined ideas about race and gender are questioned. D&D is a space of play, and that can include playing with, and even subverting, dominant cultural narratives. Part of this text discusses the ways “whiteness” is created and deployed in opposition to “non-whiteness” in the culture of the United States. People who play D&D are stereotyped as “outsiders” in the white middle-class and working-class worlds. Even shows like Stranger Things (2016) which look on the game with great affection, reinforce the idea that it’s the “weird kids” who play D&D. But even though nerds and geeks are traditionally “outsiders” in mainstream white culture, being a “nerd” has traditionally been an implicitly white identity. As Mar-Kell Law II wrote in his thesis Revenge of the Blerds, “To be Black is to be “down,” and to 2 be a fan of either music or sports. In short, to be Black is to be the antithesis of a (usually white) nerd.” (Law) In fact, being “nerdy” is in some respects the whitest way of being white. As comedian Donald Glover pointed out, being a black nerd was “Illegal until like 2003”. (Glover 2010) Nerds are marked as deeply, iconically white, yet they are also seen fundamentally as outsiders (or have been until quite recently). D&D is a major aspect of nerd culture and understanding the cultural touchstones and ideologies of D&D helps circumscribe the boundaries of whiteness. D&D is also useful in understanding nerd culture, a cultural form which has become increasingly influential within mainstream American culture. Nerd culture’s influence has grown as a relatively small but highly influential set of nerds become cultural insiders through Silicon Valley and the