This explorative study focuses on the performance of gender and sexuality in World of Warcraft (WoW), an online game, following Butler’s performance theory. Through interviews with female WoW players, gender and sexuality is analysed. The article argues that we cannot study gender online without also looking at sexuality. Gender performances are discussed within the framework of four themes: the avatar; strategies; sexuality, and the contextual importance of WoW. Results show that gender identity construction in WoW is an ongoing process highly dependent on the social context of play. The women interviewed created gendered and sexualized identities constrained and empowered by the rules of the game and the opportunities it offers as well as of their social relations. Although a heterosexual norm rules, there are possibilities hitherto unrecognized for queer performance within the gendered role play in WoW and the game offers the possibility of multiple and alternative performances of the self.
Beasley B., Standley TC ( 2002) Shirts vs. skins: Clothing as an indicator of gender role stereotyping. Mass Communication and Society5(3): 279-293.
2.
Beavis C. ( 2005) Pretty good for a girl: Gender, identity and computer games. Proceedings of: DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views - Worlds in Play. Vancouver. URL (consulted 16 April 2011): http://www.digra.org/dl/db/06276.30483.pdf
3.
Blizzard Entertainment (2004) World of Warcraft. Vivendi Universal, Irvine USA.
4.
Blizzard (2010) World of Warcraft® Subscriber base reaches 12 million worldwide. Press release 7 October URL (consulted 15 December 2010): http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/press/pressreleases.html?101007
5.
Brathwaite B. ( 2006) Sex in Video Games. Boston, MA: Charles River Media.
6.
Butler J. ( 1988) Performative acts and gender constitution: An essay in phenomenology and feminist theory. Theatre Journal40(4): 519-531.
7.
Butler J. ( 1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity . London: Routledge.
8.
Butler J. ( 1993) Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex. London: Routledge.
9.
Carr D. ( 2005) Contexts, gaming pleasures, and gendered preferences. Simulation and Gaming36(4): 464-482.
10.
Cassell J., Jenkins H. ( 1998) From Barbie to Mortal Kombat; Gender and Computer Games . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
11.
Consalvo M. ( 2003) The monsters next door: Media constructions of boys and masculinity. Feminist Media Studies3(1): 27-45.
12.
Corneliussen HG ( 2008) World of Warcraft as a Playground for Feminism. In: Corneliussen HG, Rettberg JW (eds) Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft® Reader. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 63-86.
13.
Creswell JW ( 2007) Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. London: SAGE.
14.
Ducheneaut N., Yee N., Nickel E., and Moore RJ ( 2006) Building an MMO with mass appeal: A look at gameplay in World of Warcraft. Games and Culture1(4): 281-317.
15.
Esaiasson P., Gilljam M., Oscarsson H. and Wängnerud L. ( 2002) Metodpraktikan. Konsten att studera samhälle, individ och marknad. Stockholm: Norstedts Juridik AB.
16.
Flanagan M. ( 2000) Navigating the narrative in space: Gender and spatiality in virtual worlds. Art Journal59(3): 74-85.
17.
Glaser BG, Strauss AL ( 1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Strategies for Qualitative Research. New York: Aldine de Gruyter .
18.
Halberstam J. ( 2005) In a Queer Time and Place: Transgender Bodies, Subcultural Lives. New York: New York University Press.
19.
Hayes E. ( 2005) Women and video gaming: Gendered identities at play. Games and Culture2(1): 1-26.
20.
Hayes N. ( 2008) Doing Psychological Research. Maidenhead : Open University Press.
21.
Huh S., Williams D. ( 2010) Dude looks like a lady: Gender swapping in an online game . In: Bainbridge WS (ed.) Online Worlds: Convergence of the Real and the Virtual, Human-Computer Interaction Series. London: Springer-Verlag , 161-174.
22.
Jenson J., de Castell J. ( 2005) Her own boss: Gender and the pursuit of incompetent play . Proceedings of: DiGRA 2005 Conference: Changing Views - Worlds in Play. Vancouver. URL (consulted 16 April 2011): http://www.digra.org/dl/db/06278.27455.pdf
23.
Juul J. ( 2010) A Casual Revolution: Reinventing Video Games and their Players. London: MIT Press.
24.
Kafai YB, Heeter C., Denner J. and Sun JY ( 2008) Preface: Pink, purple, casual, or mainstream games: Moving beyond the gender divide. In Kafai YB , Heeter C, Denner J and Sun JY (eds) Beyond Barbie and Mortal Combat. New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming. London: MIT Press, xi-xxv.
25.
Kennedy HW ( 2002) Lara Croft: Feminist icon or cyberbimbo? On the limits of textual analysis. Game Studies, 2(2). URL (consulted 13 April 2011 ): http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/kennedy/
26.
Kvale, S. ( 1997) Den kvalitativa forskningsintervjun. Lund: Studentlitteratur. (English version: Kvale, S. [1996] Interviews: An Introduction to Qualitative Research InterviewingThousand Oaks, CA: SAGE).
27.
Langer J. ( 2008) The familiar and the foreign: Playing (post)colonialism in World of Warcraft. In Corneliussen HG and Rettberg JW (eds) Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft® Reader. Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, 87-108.
28.
MacCallum-Stewart E. ( 2008) Real boys carry girly epics: Normalising gender bending in online games. Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture . 2(1): 27-40.
29.
Nabeth T. ( 2005) Understanding the identity concept in the context of digital social environment, INSEAD CALT - FIDIS working paper. URL (consulted January 2005): www.calt.insead.fr
30.
Pace T., Houssian A and McArthur V (2009) Are socially exclusive values embedded in the avatar creation interfaces of MMORPGs? Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society. 7(2/3): 192-210.
31.
Peixoto Labre M., Duke L. ( 2004) ‘Nothing like a brisk walk and a spot of demon slaughter to make a girl’s night’: The construction of the female hero in the Buffy video game. Journal of Communication Inquiry28(2): 138-156.
32.
Royse P., Lee J., Undrahbuyan B., Hopson M. and Consalvo M. ( 2007) Women and games: Technologies of the gendered self. New Media Society9(4): 555-576.
33.
Schott G.R., Horrell KR ( 2000) Girl gamers and their relationship with the gaming culture . Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies6(4): 36-53.
34.
Stone R. ( 1991) Will the real body please stand up? Boundary stories about virtual cultures. In Benedikt M (ed.) Cyberspace: First Steps. Cambridge: MIT Press, 185-198.
35.
Sundén J. ( 2002) Material Virtualities, Approaching Online Textual Embodiment . PhD thesis, Linköping University Department of Communication Studies.
36.
Sundén J. ( 2009) Play as transgression: An ethnographic approach to queer game cultures. Proceedings of: DiGRA 2009 Conference: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory. London. URL (consulted 16 April 2011): http://www.digra.org/dl/db/09287.40551.pdf
37.
Taylor TL ( 2006) Play Between Worlds Exploring Online Gaming Culture. Cambridge: MIT Press.
38.
Taylor TL ( 2008) Becoming a player: Networks, structure, and imagined futures . In: Kafai YB, Heeter C, Denner J and Sun JY (eds) Beyond Barbie and Mortal Combat. New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming. London: MIT Press, 51-66.
39.
Tronstad R. ( 2008) Character Identification in World of Warcraft: The relationship between capacity and appearance. In: Corneliussen HG, Rettberg JW (eds) Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft® ReaderCambridge, MA: MIT Press, 249-264.
40.
Turkle S. ( 1995) Life on the Screen - Identity in the Age of the Internet . London: Phoenix.
41.
Williams D., Consalvo M., Caplan S., and Yee N. ( 2009) Looking for gender: Gender roles and behaviors among online gamers. Journal of Communication59(4): 700-725.
42.
Yee N. ( 2006) Love is in the air, The Daedalus Project. URL (consulted November 2010): http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives/001528.php
43.
Yee N. ( 2008) Maps of digital desires: Exploring the topography of gender and play in online games. In: Kafai YB , Heeter C, Denner J and Sun JY (eds) Beyond Barbie and Mortal Combat. New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming. London: MIT Press, 83-96.
