Gaming and Gender: Home as a Place of (Non)conformity for Women Gamers

Abstract

This research examines interactive multimedia video games that are played on technological devices such as: computers, gameboys, PlayStation, Portable PlayStation (PSP) and Xbox. Particular attention is paid to women 30 years of age and older, who engage in gaming activities whilst at home. This is a particularly useful group of women to investigate because it opposes stereotypical and gender-normative notions of what it means to be a 'woman at home'. Also, to the best of my knowledge, there have not been any previous studies conducted that explore this particular group in relation to geographies of home. There is an ever expanding body of literature that focuses on 'home' and the meanings that are associated with it. This research represents an attempt to seek a new way of understanding the mutually constitutive relationship between women, home, and gaming by drawing on feminist and poststructuralist theories of identities, place and space. In this thesis, I argue that there are various ways in which women's identities can become blurred by their engagements with cyber/space, and that gaming is an activity which facilitates levels of empowerment for women within the home.