As we discuss violent masculinities in this chapter and the media's hand in pushing a hegemonic caricature as the only way to be a man, I reflected on how I see this in my personal life. Last year, I joined a video game Discord group chat that consisted of friends and friends of friends. Most were cis men but a handful were nonbinary people so I felt safe enough to be out to them, as the cis men seemed to respect the identities of the nonbinary members. It took a while, but I noticed that there was a clear divide in the way the cis men interacted with each other versus how they interacted with the women and trans people; I felt like my comments and jokes were ignored entirely in favor of a man saying basically the same thing. Then, I started seeing some individuals using incredibly derogatory slurs to which I called out but was met with absolute silence. I've since left the group chat, but it really put me front and center to how toxic masculinity infiltrates male-dominated groups even if the men don't exhibit hegemonic masculinity. The link I've attached has an interesting insight on gaming masculinity.
Gaming Masculinity
No comments:
Post a Comment