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This paper adds nuance to game studies' critical analysis of gender by analyzing different types of masculinity that are represented in video game content. Using the theories of performativity and the hierarchical gender order, this paper analyzes the relationship between technomasculinity, or the gendered performance of technological mastery, and militarized masculinity, the hegemonic form in video game culture. Narrative, character, and game design analysis was conducted on two action-adventure games-Dead Space and Resident Evil 5. The relationship between technology and militarized masculinity in Resident Evil 5 is based upon conflict, and subsequently technomasculinity is subordinated and presented as ethically bankrupt. Resident Evil 5 relies upon the militarized masculinity in both the narrative and game design. In contrast, the relationship between technomasculinity and militarized masculinity in Dead Space is one of complicity. The protagonist performs technomasculinity as part of his official job as an engineer, and the game design features technomasculinity as well. However, in order to survive from one job to the next, the protagonist must perform militarized masculinity. Technomasculinity cannot totally supplant the conventions of militarized violence, and this represents a boundary that denies a full expression of an alternative form of masculinity in game content.
Keywords: technomasculinity, militarized masculinity, video games, technology, performativity
Much of the research to date on gender and video game content has emphasized representations of women (Gaily, 1993; Jansz & Martis, 2007; Mikula, 2003; Rehak, 2003) or has compared male to female characters or masculinity to femininity (Dietz, 1998; Ivory, 2006). While it is generally understood that mainstream video games are largely produced for boys and men (Ivory; Kline, Dyer-Witheford, & de Peuter, 2003), gender analysis in video game studies often relies on an abstract critique of "militarized masculinity" in terms of violence and male domination in representations and play (Kirkland, 2009; Kline et al.). Yet there is no research to date that compares different forms of masculinity in relation to the hegemonic norm.
There are actually two prominent types of masculinity in mainstream video games- militarized masculinity and technomasculinity. Militarized masculinity is the hegemonic form of masculinity in video game content. The dominant idealization of the apex of a particular gender order is referred to as hegemonic masculinity, and it "is always constructed in relation to...