Alterconf Toronto 2015 - It's Hard Out Here For a Dyke: Being a Lesbian in Games by Merritt Kopas
Channel: Alter Conf
Date: 2015-11-06

It's Hard Out Here For a Dyke: Being a Lesbian in Games

It's an incredible time for queerness and games -- conferences, documentaries, and high-level conversations about queer issues are springing up all over the place. While we celebrate these successes, it's worth remembering that shorthand umbrella terms like 'queer' and 'LGBT' can also obscure a huge range of diverse experiences. I want to go beyond the broad categories of 'women in games' and 'queerness in games' to think through what it means to be a lesbian in a field that is still profoundly sexist and homophobic. While the issue of direct harassment has received a fair amount of attention, lesbians working in and around games also face rarely-discussed structural barriers like lack of mentorship and economic insecurity driven by heteropatriarchy that are specific to our position as queer women. Let's consider these issues together and think through how we can work in solidarity to create more space for queer women in videogames.