Gender: Part One
I disagree with most people on most aspects of our world. It is not that I am argumentative or a misanthrope or generally disagreeable. It just so happens I am a male feminist who loves American Football.
As such, I encounter, shall we way, resistance to my perceptions.
Nowhere is this resistance more apparent than when I attempt any theory to diminish the perceived physical divisions of the sexes. In fact, the notion of biology as a major force in our lives seems so ingrained, I tend to gauge a person’s political position on their ability to release themselves from this anatomical determinism. Not that I am judging….
My simplistic belief is as such: the physical divide between women and men is mythical and therefore, exaggerated purposefully as to not disrupt the process of procreation. In direct relation, gender, as a set of culturally specific identifiers and meaningful signs, are placed in accordance with this process and provide us, as gendered people, with the tools we must work with. Disrupting this process is complicated, counter-intuitive and difficult.
Thus, research which supports such a position is refreshing. A recent study from the University of Toronto and published in Psychological Science entitled “Playing an Action Video Game Reduces Gender Differences in Spatial Cognition” suggests the generally accepted gender disparity between men and women in spatial cognition is highly dependent on the activities we “choose” to engage in and not our biological makeup (Feng 850). Using two distinctly different video games (an action-based first-person shooter versus a non-action game), the study concludes that exposure to an action-based virtual environment greatly improves spatial ability for both genders, and although gender difference in spatial tasks was not shown to be “eliminated, it was greatly reduced” (Feng 853). As the study states, this is significant for multiple reasons:
- Spatial ability is not determined by biological sex.
- The attainment of spatial ability is not short-term but has long-term effects.
- High level spatial ability is associated with success in underrepresented academic areas for women such as the sciences and engineering.
Therefore, the question becomes, “How are we denying women access to these activities which are proven to narrow the gender gap and provide opportunity?” In my MA thesis entitled “fighting_with_cyborgs: feminism and video games”, the overall answer was apparent: video games are not made with women in mind. From stereotypical, insulting imagery of female characters to complete exclusion, the video game industry has historically ignored women.
When I wrote my thesis in the year 2000, I felt the video game industry was at a turning point. Signs of improvement were around. Internet gaming and technology pointed to a user-defined game-space. All-female Quake Clans and other groups were infiltrating this “male domain” of video games, playing by their own rules and defining their own identities as well as their avatars. The world of video games looked on the verge of something interesting. Eight years later, however, the story seems to have stalled and remained largely the same. Women, despite many improvements, still seemed left out of the equation. Accordingly, we must turn to history and find a moment similar for guidance. In the second part of this post, I will attempt to look at the historic legislation, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, in order to provide further insight in our abilities to grant or restrict freedom on the basis of biological sex and culturally appropriate gender roles.
Further Reading and Citations:
Feng, Jing, Ian Spence, and Jay Pratt. “Playing and Action Video Game Reduces Gender Differences in Spatial Cognition.” Psychological Science. 18:10 (2007): 850-855. PDF version here
The Economist article on the study here
Wire article on the study here
Ian Spence’s Homepage here
Tags: gender, feminism, biology, video games, spatial recognition, sex
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