GI Janes' co-founder Elise Vist was featured in a Waterloo Stories article for her work raising the profile of women in gaming. Read the full article below.
As first published on the Waterloo Stories website.
May 29, 2014
Rewriting the story of women in gaming: Can Frodo be a woman?
Waterloo researchers establish GI Janes group to raise profile of women in gaming
By
Megan
Scarborough
Faculty
of
Arts
When
Elise
Vist
entered
the
gaming
world
she
felt
she
had
to
prove
herself
not
just
as
a
gamer
-
but
as
a
woman
in
gaming.
So
when
she
arrived
at
the
University
of
Waterloo
to
pursue
doctoral
studies,
she
co-founded
GI
Janes,
a
Games
Institute
group
designed
to
raise
the
profile
of
women
in
gaming.
“I
wanted
a
space
to
talk
about
what
it
felt
like
to
be
a
woman
who
plays
games,”
says
Vist,
a
PhD
student
in
the
Department
of
English
Language
and
Literature,
who
co-founded
the
group
with
researchers,
Emma
Vossen
and
Judy
Ehrentraut.
Teaching women how to create games
Last
semester,
the
group
hosted
a
number
of
game
nights
with
an
emphasis
on
teaching
women
how
to
play
and
create
games.
They
hope
to
expand
their
offerings
to
include
more
workshops
for
women
in
gaming.
The
GI
Janes
website
is
also
used
to
talk
about
games
from
a
female
perspective.
The
researchers
were
inspired
after
taking
a
class
on
adaptations
of
Lord
of
the
Rings.
The
series
didn’t
resonate
with
them
so
they
created
a
machinima
–
a
short
film
recorded
inside
of
a
video
game
–
entitled
Lady
Hobbits.
They
created
female
characters
in
Lord
of
the
Rings
Online
and
reenacted
the
first
four
chapters
of
The
Fellowship
of
the
Ring.
“We
wanted
to
show
that
you
can
change
the
gender
of
the
main
characters
and
still
be
true
to
the
text
without
reinforcing
stereotypes,”
said
Vist.
“Being
able
to
rewrite
the
story
for
ourselves
created
a
sense
of
empowerment
as
women.”
With
Frodo
and
Sam
portrayed
as
women,
the
two
felt
a
stronger
attachment
to
the
narrative,
says
Vist.
Is the gaming community aware of women’s concerns?
Although
academics
and
scholars
have
identified
the
problem,
the
conversation
hasn’t
gained
traction
in
the
gaming
community,
says
Vist.
“Scholars
in
the
field
are
looking
for
solutions
but
the
conversations
outside
of
academia
are
still
largely
about
identifying
whether
there
is
a
problem.”
As
a
second
year
PhD
student,
Vist’s
research
focus
has
shifted
to
the
world
of
fan
studies.
She
is
looking
at
how
fan
fiction
writers
position
themselves
in
opposition
to
dominant
forces
in
the
literary
world.
Many
parallels
can
be
drawn
between
this
and
her
work
with
the
GI
Janes:
many
women
gamers
and
developers
frequently
have
to
carve
out
and
defend
spaces
for
themselves,
much
as
fans
do.
Vist
says
she
will
continue
to
work
to
carve
out
a
space
for
women
in
a
culture
that
is
still
dominated
by
men.
“The
GI
Janes
are
more
about
activism
than
research,”
says
Vist.
“It
is
important
that
we
remain
an
on-the-ground
organization.”