Feminist and gender studies of video games: modern approaches

Abstract

In modern English-language studies on gender in computer games, several approaches can be distinguished, although this seems difficult due to the moving structure of Gender Studies. These basic approaches are divided by research methods and parts of theorists. In general, reliance on feminist theory is typical for the Gender Studies space, therefore, scientists in this direction share the main theoretical base in many ways, but focus on different aspects of feminist theory and political problems. Among the loci of such studies can be identified: feminist criticism of texts, the problem of representations, the construction of gender relations in the community, etc. This article identifies several approaches to the study of video games: textual, perfomative, and representative, differ in the spectrum of the problems considered. This classification is not complete, and the framework of the approaches themselves is mobile, so that one approach can flow into another, and the research fields are adjacent. The approaches outlined by us have much in common, including they share lacunae – certain gaps in the conceptual apparatus of the study, which are also described in this article.