Designing Gendered Games – Values of designers and users of gendered toys

Abstract

In a small-scale study we analyzed the genderscripts of the toys of three Dutch toy producing Companies and we have interviewed owners and directors of these Companies. We found large differences in the ‘genderedness’ of the games they were producing. We found explanations for these differences in the (feminist) values that the directors of these Companies had. Moreover, we interviewed eight girls (9-13 years old) on their game playing behaviour and observed them while they played masculine connotated games, to see how they dealt with the genderedness of these games. Indeed, although gender specific games may play an important part in the gendering of children and Computer games may help to present Computer Science as something ‘for boys’, children also have some agency in dealing with the dominant discourses around gendered games.