1st Edition

Race, Gender, and Deviance in Xbox Live Theoretical Perspectives from the Virtual Margins

By Kishonna L. Gray Copyright 2014
    114 Pages
    by Routledge

    114 Pages
    by Routledge

    Race, Gender, and Deviance in Xbox Live provides a much-needed theoretical framework for examining deviant behavior and deviant bodies within one of the largest virtual gaming communities—Xbox Live. Previous research on video games has focused mostly on violence and examining violent behavior resulting from consuming this medium. This limited scope has skewed criminologists' understanding of video games and video game culture. Xbox Live has proven to be more than just a gaming platform for users. It has evolved into a multimedia entertainment outlet for more than 20 million users. This book examines the nature of social interactions within Xbox Live, which are often riddled with deviant behavior, including but not limited to racism and sexism. The text situates video games within a hegemonic framework deploying whiteness and masculinity as the norm. The experiences of the marginalized bodies are situated within the framework of deviance as they fail to conform to the hegemonic norm and become victims of racism, sexism, and other types of harassment.

    Part I: The Games

    Chapter 1: Video Games as Ideological Projects

    Chapter 2: Racing and Gendering the Game

    Part II: The Gaming Space

    Chapter 3: Deviant Acts: Racism and Sexism in Virtual Gaming Communities

    Chapter 4: Deviant Bodies: Racism, Sexism, and Intersecting Oppressions

    Part III: The Solutions

    Chapter 5: Deviant Bodies Resisting Deviant Acts

    Chapter 6: Virtual Tools in the Virtual House?

    Biography

    Kishonna Gray

    Drawing from a range of sociological theories of race, gender, and collective behavior, this book provides an intersectional analysis of virtual communities—specifically Xbox Live (an online video gaming platform). Using game narrative and ethnographic data, Gray illuminates how video games serve as ideological projects that reproduce the unequal representation and treatment of people of color and women within the gaming community. Accessibly written and supported by rich qualitative data, this book could be invaluable in sociology and game design courses alike.

    --Bertan Buyukozturk, Department of Sociology, Florida State University