Online Video Games

After looking at the recent readings and videos we have been studying I wanted to focus more on toxic masculinities within the video game community. Online video games have started to become more popular over the past couple of years. Recently I have started playing them a lot more and I have been dealing with the toxic masculinity that happens in the gaming community. There are some guys who do not act differently when they hear a more feminine voice but those that do tend to react negatively. I never really understood why the acted like that until taking this class and seeing the break down of toxic masculinity. The guys within the gaming community are also gate keeping, whenever someone new tries to join the community they block them. So many of the guys I have faced are usually disgusting with how they interacted with me. I have heard multiple times various racist and homophobic remarks just while they are playing these games. The main issue with this happening is that no-one really has the guts to tell these guys to stop, most people realize that they only have to deal with the disturbing remarks for only ten minutes and they would never have to deal with them ever again. 

I now tend to only talk to the friends I have made while playing online games and tend to stay away from talking in team chat. Hopefully over time the gate-keeping and toxic masculinity in the online video game community will start to change and be more welcoming.