Document Type
Article
Abstract
[First paragraph]
"The only function women have in D&D is to serve cookies." Gary Gygax, the most well known of the creators of Dungeons & Dragons, claims he did not make this remark (Gel214th). That he did or not is perhaps, some thirty years after the introduction of the first fantasy role-playing game, of concern only to him. The problematic position of women players is a secure feature of the RPG zeitgeist. While few male gamers may openly challenge the assumption that women can or should play fantasy role games such as Dungeons & Dragons, the function of women in game-play, at the gaming table, and within the larger culture of the RPG hobby is currently much discussed.[1] The ways women exist within and negotiate the male-gendered worlds of role-play gaming has been less discussed; evidence suggests that female gamers who are determined to play employ a variety of strategies to cope with both their own negative experiences and the larger, masculinist RPG culture. By refusing to allow such factors to prevent them from gaming, female role-play gamers enact an implicitly feminist stance, even if they do not view themselves, or female game players in general, as feminists.
Repository Citation
Borah, Rebecca, and Inez Schaechterle. "More Than Girlfriends, Geekettes, and Gladiatixes: Women, Feminism, and Fantasy Role-Playing Games." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 6, no. 1, 2006, pp. 1–22. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol6/iss1/6
Included in
Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Leisure Studies Commons