To what extent does the consumption of media featuring female role models in the gaming community influence how likely female adolescents are to self-identify as a “gamer”?

Abstract

Compared to male players, female players are much less likely to identify themselves as gamers due to the stigma associated with gaming. Currently, no research has been conducted on how female role models, in this case content creators, influence female players’ decisions regarding their gamer identity. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted to explore how the content consumed by female players influenced their gamer identity. Results suggest that, while there is a relationship between the two variables, the influence of content creators varied. In particular, there was a trend of female players expressing distaste towards some popular female content creators, suggesting that, in some cases, the influence of female content creators on the gamer identity of female players may be negative. As gaming becomes increasingly more popular, it is important that we understand how to best support female players so that they feel they belong in the gaming community.

Keywords

• gamer identity
• female role models
• content creators
• female adolescent gamers