In the article “Do You Identify As a Gamer? Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Gamer Identity” Adrienne Shaw focuses on the impact of the categories of gender, race and sexuality on how people identify themselves as gamers. The core idea of the article is to dig deeper for the explication of the role of race, gender and sexuality as components of the gamer identity construction. Locating her study within the social context that shapes self-awareness, Shaw attempts to outline the gamer identity in the scope of marginalized social groups.
Considering the aspect of popularity of games throughout various social, racial and ethnic groups, the author emphasizes in the beginning that not all of them are actually represented as characters in video games. Such a disparity, as a number of studies have shown, causes members of socially marginalized groups not to see themselves as gamers at all. In her research Shaw favored an individually reflexive approach, which helped her “look critically at how they articulate their own relationship to gaming writ large” (30).
On the whole, Shaw noticed that most people are not eager to identify themselves as gamers because of the negative connotation of gaming throughout the society. The majority of interviewees admit playing games, but they still feel uncomfortable identifying as gamers. Shaw aptly closes her article stating that representation in video games should address a wider variety of audiences, ensuring that cultural and social needs of every player are counted.
Works Cited
Shaw, Adrienne. “Do you identify as a gamer? Gender, race, sexuality, and gamer identity”. New Media Society 14 (1) (2011): 28-44. Print.
