Video games and virtual worlds have always been a pretty foreign concept to me. Unfortunately, and maybe unsurprisingly, I was never introduced to gaming in a positive way and was never encouraged to take a shot at it.
And with time, the stereotypes and preconceived notions start to pile up – especially when mothers on Facebook consistently rage about how video games are… the devils work.
Not even surprised though:
So when I think of videogaming, I think of the acne-ridden teenage boy. He’s sitting in his gigantic swivel chair, addicting to shooting people and drooling over animated breasts. Apologies for that mental image.
But a few weeks ago I saw a TikTok. It was a girl, surrounded by pink furniture, with pink hair, and a pink microphone. And she was, in fact, a pro gamer. The genius part of her TikTok page: she streams herself relentlessly beating hundreds of boys and men playing video games, and records their reactions as she wins each game. And let me tell you… it isn’t pretty.
The language and the abuse just from this one video really solidified to me that dominant and oppressive hierarchies seriously pervade all spaces of life – virtual and tech spaces included.
As a general statement, I have never been the target buyer of video games. So I have never been advertised video games. And further, I have never seen myself represented in video games. This is my experience.
Gamer xMarieAngel was my first interaction with what it means to be a female entering the virtual gaming space – hearing derogative terms and degrading phrases like “go back to the kitchen” is frustrating and disheartening to say the least. But in reality, this behavior is accepted and widespread within and among a gaming culture that is largely dominated by white males.
The sad thing is, even with the abuse Marie faces online, her presence is a start. And reconstructing power and representation in the digital world has to start somewhere.
After contemplating my own experience with video games and interactive virtual environments, Amy Ge’s piece for
Feminuity acted as a reminder that we all experience digital spaces differently; and, furthermore, interacting with virtual worlds and video games is not isolated from systems of oppression that challenge identity and shape experiences.
Not only are patriarchal, misogynistic, and heteronormative ideologies affirmed and exacerbated on these virtual platforms – colonization has also infiltrated the video game world, systemically excluding BIPOC populations from seeing themselves in tech. Ge’s article, "
Asserting Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace: Interview with Artist Skawennati ", confronts this problem and highlights
Skawennati's work which serves to digitally represent and embody a future for indigenous people.
Pioneering virtual spaces for people who are incredibly underrepresented in those realms, and even further, asserting indigenous identities through futurism is innovative and revolutionary in the colonized tech world of the twenty-first century: Ge names Skawennati’s work as a “piece of resistance” and I couldn’t agree more.
Skawennati’s work has me thinking: developing strength and confidence in your identity is a major feat for individuals who face systemic barriers, racism, and underrepresentation. And more than that, envisioning yourself in the future is essential to identity assertion – as articulated by Cecilia Keating in her article titled "
Indigenous People are Decolonizing Virtual Worlds".
As Skawenatti places indigenous stories in the future, and simultaneously removes them from being historically stuck in the past, she is creating virtual worlds where native people can see themselves. And while that is the basic tenant of video games and digital environments for gaming, this is radical for indigenous populations who, reprehensibly, don’t commonly exist in virtual worlds (Keating).
By “thrusting [narratives about indigenous folks] into the future and showing indigenous people that they do have a place there and that they do survive”, Skawennati tackles the Catch 22 of aboriginal representation: where a lack of future representation fuels the highest dropout rates, incarceration rates, and suicide rates in Canada (Ge). Skawennati’s work, bridging art and tech, empowers indigenous gamers and individuals to assert themselves in cyberspace.
Learning more about gaming and virtual environment platforms, I leave hopeful and ready to see more creatives, minorities, and challengers enter these digital spaces.
References:
Ge, Amy. “Asserting Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace: Interview with Artist Skawennati.”
Feminuity, July 16, 2019.
Asserting Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace: Interview with Artist Skawennati.
Keating, Cecilia. "Indigenous People are Decolonizing Virtual Worlds."
High Country News, September 6, 2018.
Indigenous People are Decolonizing Virtual Worlds.
xMarieAngel.
TikTok, March 17, 2021.
Video Game Streaming.
Media:
"Becoming Sky Woman"
Skawennati,
Skawennati.com/SheFallsForAges.
"Christian Mothers Against Video Games"
Facebook,
facebook.com/christianmothersagainstvideogames.