Abstract

Many media are associated with masculinity or femininity and male or female audiences, which links them to broader power structures around gender. Media scholars thus must understand how gendered constructions develop and change, and what they mean for audiences. This article addresses these questions through longitudinal, in-depth interviews with female video gamers (2012–2018), conducted as the rise of casual video games potentially started redefining gaming’s historical masculinization. The analysis shows that participants have negotiated relationships with casualness. While many celebrate casual games’ potential for welcoming new audiences, others resist casual’s influence to safeguard their self-identification as gamers. These results highlight how a medium’s gendered construction may not be salient to consumers, who carefully navigate divides between their own and industrially designed identities, but can simultaneously reaffirm existing power structures. Further, how participants’ views change over time emphasizes communication’s ongoing need for longitudinal audience studies that address questions of media, identity, and inclusion.

中文翻译：

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休闲抵抗：视频游戏性别建构和相关受众感知的纵向案例研究

摘要

许多媒体都与男性气质或女性气质以及男性或女性受众相关联，这将它们与围绕性别的更广泛的权力结构联系在一起。因此，媒体学者必须了解性别结构如何发展和变化，以及它们对受众的意义。本文通过对女性视频游戏玩家（2012-2018年）的纵向，深入访谈解决了这些问题，因为休闲视频游戏的兴起可能开始重新定义游戏的历史男性化。分析表明，参与者之间的交流是随意的。尽管许多人庆祝休闲游戏欢迎新用户的潜力，但其他人则抵制休闲游戏的影响力，以维护自己作为游戏玩家的身份。这些结果凸显了媒介的性别结构可能对消费者而言并不突出，仔细浏览的人会在自己的身份和工业设计的身份之间进行区分，但可以同时重申现有的权力结构。此外，参与者的观点如何随着时间而改变，突显了交流对纵向受众研究的持续需求，以解决媒体，身份和包容性问题。