Gender Gaming Divide: An Analysis of Teenagers' Perception of Gender Inequalities in the Gaming Culture

This study examines how teenagers in Spain understand the gamer identity, with particular attention to how models of masculinity and femininity, social class, and gender shape those definitions. Drawing on a sample of 48 adolescents aged 14 to 15 in Barcelona and Vic, the research combined eight focus groups separated by gender and social class, eight semi-structured virtual interviews, and eight online gaming interviews. Its framing rests on the view that gaming culture historically tied technical mastery to masculine rationality, producing forms such as geek masculinity that legitimize male dominance within the medium.

The findings indicate that social class substantially alters how these gendered norms operate. Among working-class teenagers, gamer identity rests on a technicist conception in which time invested, competitiveness, and skill define a "good gamer," a model presented as a single, hardcore-subcultural reference. This framing, rooted in hegemonic masculinity, narrows the category and limits who can claim it, reinforcing a hardcore versus casual duality that feminizes and devalues certain practices and titles.

Middle-class participants, by contrast, showed a trend toward opening the concept. Their accounts moved away from an exclusive, masculinized definition and included professional categories such as the gamer-professional and the celebrity-platform-gamer, as well as cultural-intellectual ones such as the foodie-connoisseur. Their criteria emphasized interest and knowledge of the medium, enjoyment separate from competition, and the potential for learning.

Overall, the study concludes that social class is a decisive factor in how masculinity and femininity intersect with gamer identity among adolescents, and therefore in how young people relate to video games. The analysis is situated within Game Studies and Cultural Studies and draws on a substantial body of prior work on gamer identity, hegemonic masculinity, and gaming culture.