CJCS 10 (2) pp. 193–211 Intellect Limited 2018 Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies Volume 10 Number 2 © 2018 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. doi: 10.1386/cjcs.10.2.193_1 Alejandro Muñoz-Guerado Complutense University of Madrid Laura Triviño-Cabrera Malaga University The erasure of female representation in geek spaces as an element for the construction of Geek identity: The case of Warhammer 40.0001 Abstract Keywords In the following article we aim to depict the complex threefold relationship between game studies the phenomenon of the second digital divide that plagues women inside entertain- gender representation ment spaces, the theoretical framework of post-sexism and the construction of Geek Warhammer identity as a besieged, discriminated space. Our purpose is to highlight how the Geek identity construction of Geek identity was based on both the exclusion of women from geek feminisms spaces and the creation of a melodramatical narrative surrounding such spaces. We Gamergate do so through the analysis of gender representation within the popular Warhammer 40.000 game. Results show a perfect example of a women-excluding setting, packed 193 03_CJCS_10.2_Muñoz_193-211.indd 193 11/2/18 8:24 PM Alejandro Muñoz-Guerado | Laura Triviño-Cabrera 1. This article integrates with gender representation problems that is trying, as of late, to distance itself from the different research topics developed such baggage, taking steps to redefine what it means to be a Warhammer 40.000 fan. from three different research projects:The R&D project reference FEM2017-83302-C3- 3-P (2017), funded by the Spanish Ministry 1. Introduction: The post-sexist politicization of game of Economy and spaces Competitiveness, the Research Since 2014, with the arrival of the organized online hate movement of Project reference Gamergate (Dewey 2014), the need to apply feminist critique to entertainment LITMEC (Multimodal Literacy and Cultural spaces has proven its worth. When we speak of feminist critique we point to Studies), funded what Showalter (1997, cited in Macedo and Amaral 2005: 26) designated as a by the Vicerector’s Investigation Office critical feminist revolution, which advocated for visibility and women’s emanci- from Malaga University, pation in the social and working environments, with the need for establishing and the educational gender as a category. It is from this perspective that our need to look at games innovation research project titled from a feminist point of view stems. Audiovisual Literacy The harassment movement was initiated by Eron Gjoni, a 24-year-old, for performative who, knowing the latent streak of misogyny that permeated gaming commu- practice reference PIE 17-172, funded by nities, published an online manifesto accusing her ex-girlfriend, Zoe Quinn, the Vicerector’s for video game developer, of having sexual relationships with reporters to get Teaching and Academic Organization Office favourable reviews for her games. Gamergate, while presenting itself as ‘a from Malaga University. crusade for ethics in video game journalism’ (Braithwaite 2016: 1), has been the main protagonist of several waves of harassment pointed towards those who dared to deconstruct video games, a media that was trying to prove its artistic maturity, able to go beyond the source of entertainment that it has traditionally been understood as. In fact, the second person most affected by Gamergate is Anita Sarkeesian, who delved into the stereotypes associated with female video game characters with her video-series Tropes vs Women. Four years later, the repercussions of this movement are still alive. The accusations against feminism arise every time a new title is perceived as a threat, normally due to the presence of female protagonists, non-sexual- ized female characters and non-heterosexual or transgender characters. The reasons for all the harassment unleashed by Gamergate followers and organ- ized inside the main Gamergate hubs are varied and have been investigated in several different spaces. For our purpose here we will point towards how, in a neo-liberal society, totally immersed in what Zygmunt Bauman (2000) called liquid modernity, consumerism can turn into an identity-shaper. Quoting Shaw (2012), who, in a turn of phrase, quotes the famous Simone de Beauvoir’s adage: ‘one is not born a gamer, one becomes one’. Frederik De Grove et al. (2015) developed this fact further when trying to understand Gamer identity, that which has been constructed upon video games. Thus, continuing with Shaw’s work (2012), these authors affirm: An important aspect of being a gamer seems to be built around specific types of consumption such as playing certain types of games, spending a certain amount of time playing games, ownership of certain devices and so on. […] knowledge regarding paratextual material can serve as an aspect of cultural capital to (be used to) perform a gamer identity. (Grove et al. 2015: 347) However, a violent reaction against growing diversity, amongst both players and the video game industry itself, has joined consumerism as the defining 194 Catalan Journal of Communication & Cultural Studies 03_CJCS_10.2_Muñoz_193-211.indd 194 11/2/18 8:24 PM The erasure of female representation in geek spaces ... aspects of Gamer identity. The reason is twofold; on the one hand we can point to a resistance from what was traditionally understood as a Gamer, that is a white, young, heterosexual, cissexual male. On the other, we believe that there is more to it than mere group dynamics. This behaviour could be explained by what Lorente (2017: 10) defines as Post-sexism, a reaction against postmoder- nity and the triumph of feminisms that are here to stay, not as a trend, but as a powerful earthquake that shook patriarchal structures. Post-sexism is characterized by the search for new spaces in which to grow, searching a modernization that avoids spaces usually associated with more traditional, entrenched, sexist resistance. To survive in a postmodern context, this resistance had to change, adapt and overcome, hence the infiltra- tion of its discourse in several entertainment spaces, such as video games. In Lorente’s words: Post-sexism condition feeds on postmodernity and uses its elements on its own particular reflections upon women’s advance, to further its objectives. One of the most used has been the image. […] post-sexism needs to create its own aesthetics and break away from the stale, virile image of sexism, aiming to lend its proposals and ideas some credibility and preventing them from being associate with a stance aimed at main- taining male power. (2017: 11) Only from this perspective can we explain the virulence of the attacks carried on by Gamergate, as a performative exercise of identity-building, associated in turn with a bigger, post-sexist, identity building. The importance of this violence as an identity-shaper was pointed out by Salter and Blodgett (2012: 401): ‘The centering of gaming culture around technology means that the shared identity of gamers is defined in the publicly mediated intersection of social network’. It is our belief that the violence against a growing diversity and a better female representation in video games is associated with the construction of the post-sexist ideology, a conception reinforced by several similar events on other big entertainment spaces, such as Magic the Gathering (Wizards of the Coast, whose community has been recently hit with massive attacks target- ing one of its most well-known female figures, leading her to abandon the community altogether) (Alexander 2017). These attacks made the games’ publisher, Wizards of the Coast, change its own event policy, cutting its links with those that enabled and promoted such harassment. Meanwhile, the emergence of Feminist 40k on Facebook and different arti- cles noting the gender disparity present in the Warhammer 40.000 universe (McConaughy 2016a) has caused new waves of harassment, particularly through YouTube. These attacks have shown the existing problems inside one of the most popular tabletop games, with a large transmedia presence resulting in large quantities of books and video games. It is our closeness to this envi- ronment that allowed us to sense a pattern. The key to interpret this pattern was given to us by the concept of ‘Second Digital Gap’ (Castaño 2008) In her work, Castaño describes the evolution of access to online spaces as follows: The digital divide or digital cap was initially defined in connection with the existence of populations included and excluded from the information society depending on having or no access to computers and the Internet. www.intellectbooks.com 195 03_CJCS_10.2_Muñoz_193-211.indd 195 03/11/18 12:15 PM Alejandro Muñoz-Guerado | Laura Triviño-Cabrera At a later stage, when the number of users keep increasing, the digi- tal divide manifests itself as a more complex phenomenon than mere Internet access, and different digital divides appear. The first one is access to a computer and an internet connection […] The second digital divide it’s the one affecting uses (both in its intensity and in its variety) […] the most difficult barrier to overcome it’s not that of access […] but that of use and skill. Beyond the quantity (the number of hours spent with the computer or the Internet) it is necessary to explore quality of use in detail. (Castaño 2008: 23, original emphasis) We believe that the phenomenon that Castaño describes for the digital world can be used for other areas if we frame it inside the post-sexism dynamic that Lorente describes. Thus, a new strategy against equality would be not forbid- ding access to entertainment spaces, something unacceptable in a society that sees itself as democratic, but to negate the quality of such access, negating women’s right to normality by a different array of harassment techniques, effec- tively accomplishing the same goal, excluding women, while at the same time retaining the three key elements of the post-sexist camouflage that Lorente (2017) describes: a pretension of neutrality, scientism and a pretension of interest in the common good.