Thoughts/vibrations "You Play Like a Girl".

When reading Bertozzi's article 'You Play Like a Girl' the concept which i found most interesting was the issue of female competitiveness and how it finds its way into the world of gaming. Bertozzi touches on the idea that males tend to use gaming as a way to gain status and/or create a ranking system among their friendship group, while females can be seen to use such competitiveness within everyday life. The idea that it is socially acceptable for males to openly challenge and be aggressive with one another perpetuating traditional masculine traits was also examined, exploring the reinforcement of gender stereotypes.

This can be seen in contrast to that of females and the portrayal of femininity within society, the idea that females use aggression and hostility as a way to 'shun' and hurt other females was also explored. It can also be understood that as female hierarchies are believed to revolve around the improvement of ones status among their group and their physical attributes, digital gaming is therefore seen to give females the chance to represent and portray themselves in a way that gives them confidence and makes them comfortable.

Experimenting with gender roles, for example morphing, is also used in gaming, a lot of strategies have been deployed by the gaming industry to draw in female gamers - this can be seen through tapping into traditional female values/interests. I think that some of the suggestions made in the hopes of attracting more female gamers are rather positive, ultimately by representing female characters' strength/competitiveness as attractive and increasing the number of female characters in games, digital gaming will then be thought of as gender neutral.