Beyond Sp34king L33t: How ‘Net Gladiators Discursively Construct Gendered Identity
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Introduction
Drawing on Goffman, Shugart, de Klerk, Cameron, Kulick, and Edley & Wetherell, this
critical discourse analysis examines how male and female players socio-discursively negotiate
gendered identities and norms in action games. More than chatter, talk in the game involves the
communicative sharing and policing of ideas, values and norms within a tortuous, mediated
system of game mechanics, digital tradition and wider cultural constraints.
Counter-Strike, played by millions worldwide, makes an excellent case study of gamer
interaction. Transcription for this study was gathered digitally, and a number of different servers
were analyzed for conversational sequences that clearly demonstrate more widespread trends in
game communication.
Game messages are filled with disembedded references to broader social practice and pop
culture. Messages are synchronous, reciprocal, personal, spontaneous, informal, and
linguistically transgressive, performing variety of purposes: from task accomplishment, to
entertainment, persuasion, and identity work. This study focuses upon the ways in which female
and male participants employ socio-discursive power and construct both sexual identity and
inter-gender relations within the game.
Cameron (1997) suggests, “Gender has constantly to be reaffirmed and publicly
displayed by repeatedly performing particular acts in accordance with the cultural norms . . .
which define ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’.” The near-constant labeling of others with
sexualized pejoratives in Counter-Strike attests to that. Young males use expletives, “(depending
on the context) to break norms, to shock, show disrespect for authority, or be witty or humorous .
. . they are part of a shared linguistic code, reinforcing group membership, and indicative of
shared knowledge and interests . . . they have become associated with power and masculinity in
Western cultures,” (de Klerk, 1997). The extensive use of vulgar, misogynistic, homophobic
language by male gamers, then, is a form of social in-grouping. It appeals to a shared, if
problematic, sense of what it is to articulate maleness.
When a female or ambiguously gendered player is present within the game the
performativity of gender becomes increasingly complex. In the case of this study, one such
player whom I will call “[_||Pointer||_|c>-,” forms the locus of frenzied discursive activity. This
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Convention