In “Where the Women Are,” Taylor points out the manner in which women’s use of technology and enjoyment of games are often (problematically) framed: “Women’s general use of technology and the Internet often is framed around how they enjoy communicating with others and how engaged they are with experimenting with identity. Similarly, this is the major focus when women and gaming are discussed” (94). Such a framework, of course, operates off essentialist assumptions—assumptions that all women are the same and that all women play games for the communal, identity-exploring aspects that exist in such spaces—and such a framework seems to work to erroneously emphasize false constructions of gender difference and gender binaries. But, as Grey highlights, the actual gaming communities in which women play may not be entirely open to their presence in such spaces, and so women’s play may often have different goals, such as the goal of being disruptive, for the groups she researches use methods that “are actually reminiscent of groups who traditionally protest dominant structures; their resistance strategies, no matter the choice, are a means to combat the oppressions experienced within the space.”

This seems to converse well with Taylor’s findings:

In many ways, women play in spite of barriers to entry. Women gamers are finding fascinating and complicated pleasures in online games, and while most of what we have seen in the literature so far points to the social aspects that draw women in, it is clear that this does not tell the full story. Games like EverQuest appear to be offering venues for the interesting exploration of activities typically bounded off from each other—sociability and power, mastery and cooperation—and women are finding dynamic ways to inhabit these virtual worlds. (123)

And one such way, it would seem, is the type of disruptive resistance Grey discusses: “The first half of our griefing exercise was spent killing members of our own team comprised of all males who spoke Standard American English. This type of griefing behavior, although annoying, seriously disrupted the enjoyment of the males within the game. I could hear them through speakers in the television as they were lashing out.”

But what is seriously frustrating is the fact that it’s this resistance that gets policed and punished as opposed to the larger structures of racism and sexism that such acts seek to disrupt:

ThugMisses: Well they usually delete the forums as soon as they’re posted.

Mzmygrane: Why is that?

MissUnique: Because, and I quote, we are violating terms of service. Talking about gender and race may incite racism and sexism they claim.

And, as Grey argues, the problem with this is that “by deleting the forums, it reifies power structures along the lines of race, gender, and class.” And in doing so, it places the onus of responsibility and the blame on those critiquing racial, gendered, and classed power structures instead of those acting on and perpetuating them.

So, in a nutshell, everything sucks, and I’m going to go scream into a pillow, bye.