Although any kind of verbal abuse can be difficult to handle, a new study found that abuse related to sexual harassment is the hardest to forget.
For this study, researchers at Ohio State University set out to examine how different kinds of verbal insults affected women. They surveyed 293 women from forums, blogs and social media about the trash talking and harassment they were exposed to through online video games. The women's average age was 26 and the average time they spent playing these games was around 13 hours per week. Some of the more popular games included "World of Warcraft" and "Team Fortress 2."
The researchers found that women generally forgot about the trash talking, insults and swearing quickly after going offline. However, when the insults became sexual, such as rape threats, the women were more likely to report thinking about the insults for a longer period of time.
"Most women players understand trash talking and having their playing skill insulted, even if they don't like it," said Jesse Fox, a professor of communication at OSU. "But what disturbs them is being targeted simply for being a woman. They don't easily forget those comments and continue to think about them when they're done playing."
She added: "They don't forget about sexual harassment. The abuse that women experience online stays with them and has a real-world impact. They withdraw from the game and continue to think about what happened."
When the researchers looked at how the women coped, they found that many of them dealt with the abuse like women who experience real-life harassment would, which included avoidance, denial and self-blame. Some women did seek out help. There was one coping mechanism that the researchers found was unique to female gamers. The researchers called this mechanism gender coping, which occurred when female players created user names that were gender neutral.
"Instead of calling themselves 'Miss Kitty Princess' they choose 'User 42' for their online screen name," Fox said. "It just makes it easier for them and they don't have to deal with the sexual harassment.... It makes women invisible in the gaming community. Gaming companies assume that there aren't many female players or that women aren't interested in online games when they're really just hiding their identity. Women shouldn't have to do that."
The researchers also found that women who were exposed to a lot of verbal insults in general were more likely to quit a game than women who did not experience the same level of attacks. Women who believed that the gaming companies were not trying to fix the problem at all were even more likely to quit. Women, however, did not believe that the companies should be held responsible for the insults.
"The moment that abuse stops being about them as players and becomes about them as women, that's when gaming companies are seen as part of the problem," Fox said. "Gaming companies do drive women away when they don't take an active stance against online sexual harassment."
The study was published in the journal New Media & Society.
