Kulturkampf

[benji]

Book in this bundle: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/all-about-gaming-mit-press-books

An important new voice provides an empowering look at why video games need feminism—and why all of us should make space for more play in our lives.

You play like a girl: It’s meant to be an insult, accusing a player of subpar, un-fun playing. If you’re a girl, and you grow up, do you “play like a woman”—whatever that means?

In this provocative and enlightening book, Shira Chess urges us to play like feminists. Playing like a feminist is empowering and disruptive—it exceeds the boundaries of gender yet still advocates for gender equality. Roughly half of all players identify as female, and “Gamergate” galvanized many of gaming’s disenfranchised voices. Chess argues games are in need of a creative platform-expanding, metaphysical explosion—and feminism can take us there. She reflects on the importance of play, playful protest, and how feminist video games can help us rethink the ways that we tell stories. Feminism needs video games as much as video games need feminism.

Play and games can be powerful. Chess’s goal is for all of us—regardless of gender orientation, ethnicity, ability, social class, or stance toward feminism—to spend more time playing as a tool of radical disruption.

“Play like a Feminist. is a crucial contribution to conversations around gaming, power, and labor. Chess shows us all the importance of reclaiming games as a feminist act and provides a blueprint for how feminists of all ages can approach them in new and joyful ways.”
Adrienne Shaw
Associate Professor, Temple University, and author of Gaming at the Edge

“This book is a hopeful and upbeat foray into the intersection of feminism and games, with an activist bent. I love the idea of Gaming Circles—as a games researcher who has spent a lifetime ‘playing like a girl,’ I may take Chess up on the suggestion of circling up more people in my life outside the narrow bounds of ‘gamer’ toward a richer and more diverse dialog around this important cultural form.”
Katherine Isbister
Professor of Computational Media, School of Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz; author of How Games Move Us; Founding Fellow, Higher Education Video Game Alliance

 

Feminist audiences who are looking for a way into the world of video games, video games worth their attention, or who are wondering whether they should "bother" with video games will find great value in Play Like a Feminist. Chess proposes feminist gaming circles as a way to approach the medium. Similar to book clubs and the proverbial sewing circle, they would pick a game and meet to discuss it.

There are so many games, especially single-player games, that I would love to play alongside other players and meet to discuss. When people talk about gaming groups, they inevitably mean groups of people they play a game with, and while they inevitably talk about the game, it's usually a mix of strategy and griping. There are online forums, but I'd sooner read a phone book (remember phone books?) than a Steam forum, and at this point in my life, I'm proud to not have a Reddit login. This is more like the feminist knitting circle I was part of as a graduate student: there's whatever you're doing with your hands, and there's the conversation.

Really, Chess is calling for a rebirth of the salon, not the kind that cuts hair but the sort that was so essential in the development of feminist and other progressive thought in the 18th and 19th centuries. The games she chose for her circle reflect this: they're stunning, mostly short, single player games that call for passionate (but never shouty) discussion, preferably over coffee, tea, wine, beer, or whatever suits you. If you want to hear what this looks like, check out the Not Your Mama's Gamer podcast, where they start by sharing what they're drinking and then get into that week’s games, applying intersectional feminism like a scalpel or a machete, as needed.

In addition to Stardew Valley, Chess recommends Florence, Reigns: Her Majesty, Monument Valley, Donut County, and Gorogoa. I can't think of a better starter selection of games for "non-gamers," assuming they have a smartphone and motivation. That's perhaps the most important thing Chess does in Play Like a Feminist. She presents a case for play as a feminist value, one that women and feminist thinkers have often denied themselves.

I had to stop and think about that. Chess points out that feminist writers often use the language of "self care" to push back against the constant encroachment of domestic and emotional labor on women's free time, and makes the case that women have internalized the need to be "productive" at all times, viz the popularity of crafts. I

 

Oh, look, that old lie:

Still, there is a gap. The games girls and women are allowed to play have often been a highly restricted subset of those allowed to boys and men, and women’s sports are still constantly being looked down on, despite the fact that many women’s leagues were created not to protect "the fairer sex" but after women embarrassed men by beating them at their own game(s).

Oh, wait, this review is getting crazier than the book probably is:

The only major flaw in Chess' argument for womens' right to play is that there are times when she verges on making it a duty. It becomes the work of feminism. When she calls on readers to "Play All the Things" she says that "PWNing leisure means trying new things, pushing our bodies and experimenting with play that might (initially) make us uncomfortable."

Ugh. Asking me to emotionally labor in my feminism???

But Play Like a Feminist. is a slender tome, and it needs to be. In particular, Chess has to be clear and concise about the goals of feminism: she's taking on a long history of the term being demonized and completely mischaracterized by opponents who weren't willing to admit that they were fundamentally opposed to equality in any form, from Phyllis Schlafly and Rush Limbaugh to the modern “incel.” Play like a Feminist. is a timely intervention, not an elaborate consideration from all angles. I accept that, but it does mean that there are times when Play Like a Feminist. stops to tell me "I don't care about you."

As a feminist and a lifelong "gamer" (though I distrust the latter word), I understand why Chess can't give me more depth with regards to either games or feminist theory. But as someone who is nonbinary, transgender, and deeply concerned with intersectionality, Play Like a Feminist. acknowledges my existence just enough to exclude me from consideration. In some ways, that's doing me a solid: I'm used to people rejecting the possibility of my existence. Chess doesn't do that. I need to be absolutely clear here: Chess embraces intersectionality and is absolutely not a TERF. Full stop.

 

Anyone who is gender non-conforming is likely to feel rebufffed by the book, at least at certain moments. The first time the word "nonbinary" appears in Play Like a Feminist. is on page 47: "The focus of this chapter is on women specifically, however my goal is not to be dismissive about the leisure needs of men and nonbinary folks." Men aren't the focus, but they have a place: they are presumed to have access to games and leisure, not without issue, but with considerably greater ease than women. The only other time the word "nonbinary" appears, it is in a similar caveat a few pages later.

Chess' experience creating a feminist game circle informs every aspect of Play Like a Feminist. What she accomplished with Athena's Gaming Circle is impressive, but specific, and that defines the scope of this book. If I understand correctly, Chess' group was relatively white, heteronormative, professional-class, and skeptical about video games. As such, Play Like a Feminist. is most relevant to that demographic. I would love to see Chess follow this up with a longer, more scholarly work, something that takes the feminist gaming circle beyond a rebirth of the salons attended by the likes of George Sand and the Brontës. It will take the work of many hands, but I hope to see a new wave of gaming circles emerge, reflecting the lived experiences of folks along the many intersecting axes of people who need feminism.

 

I think I still don't know what this book is about exactly other than the gaming circles thing.

Spoiler: book author with 100% accurate cartoon representation (click to show)(click to hide)

Spoiler: googling the review author lmao (click to show)(click to hide)

A relevant quote from a social justice ur academic about saying "as a narcissist" before you give your opinion: