In episode 11, Rhonda and I talk to writer, mother, gamer, and Ph.D. candidate Sandi Glahn. We discuss the evolution and origins of gender stereotypes and gender roles.
We talk in depth in this episode about the cultural differences of gender stereotypes, how they’ve changed and not changed over many years, and about our own experiences (all three of us) bucking against gendered expectations. We also touch some more on the use of female images in the marketing of E3 and some of the topics we will cover in upcoming episodes, including casual vs hardcore definitions and gamer girl on gamer girl hate.
We also share listener feedback from our cyber-mailbag about avatar names and website feedback on Episode 8 – Endorphin Dude.
Many thanks to Sandi for sharing her time with us for this episode. Follow her on Twitter and check out her website for more information on her research and writing.
As always, we’d love to hear your feedback on the episode. Leave a comment here or Drop us a Tweet @game_on_girl.
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Until next time, Game On!
Regina and Rhonda
Sandy is indeed a fascinating guest. Really enjoyed listening to this one. There's some stuff in there I think I need to touch on in my own line of thinking, so I'll be giving it a second, more attentive listen in the future.
Added a reference, Regina. 🙂 You may want to look at some of the other articles I talk about in the piece, too. I can imagine your reaction to the Katie Williams article about her time at E3 is similar to mine.
I have to ask you, though, what exactly is your doctorate under in terms of a focus? And did you get any of the treatment Williams mentions in her rebuttal to some of the criticism she received at Kotaku (in particular what I quoted)? That's something I've been meaning to ask you.
Hey Jerry. As always, thanks for your comments and your shout out to us on your site. I love the reference feature… so very cool!
Not surprisingly, I've read all the posts that you talk about. I am mulling over my own response but it seems the one thing I can't make time for with my teaching and the podcast schedule is writing (and I am actually behind on some deadlines.) With that said, my degree is in American Studies with an emphasis in feminist performance theory and game studies. So no, I wasn't in a game centered program but any female academic in game studies comes up against the same issues. I was at my first national conference and I was looking at the game studies panels. I commented to the one female organizer, "Is it mainly men in game studies?" and she said yes and if you're a woman and not talking about gender, they get really confused. So I guess I dodged a bit of a bullet there.
I've also faced the, "OMG you game?!" thing myself at cons. I went to several PAX booths where people were shocked that I could pick up a controller and pretty much play anything I wanted to play. Seriously. I was attending PAX and still there was an assumption I couldn't game. I think it's a sad commentary on how consistent and unjust gender stereotypes can be.