‘Oh you’re really good for a girl’: Sexism, Stereotypes & Subcultural Capital in Board Gaming Culture

This study explores gender dynamics in hobby board gaming culture through 43 semi-structured interviews with women who play these games. While recent scholarship indicates potentially decreasing toxicity in geek and video game spaces, less in known about gender relations in analogue gaming communities, and specifically, hobby board games. Similar to other geek spaces, this research demonstrates how women are often stereotyped as having particular interests and competences and are thus frequently relegated to lower status positions within the community. Some women were, however, able to elevate their status through demonstrations of subcultural capital, even if these instances served to reconfirm the established, male-coded status quo. Finally, this research highlights how sexist encounters were sometimes reframed as individuals with poor social skills and being no different to wider societal experiences rather than be understood as board games culture itself having a problem with sexism. Accordingly, this research provides important insight into how sexism is experienced and understood within these gaming environments as well as providing deeper insight into how women make sense of and navigate sexism more broadly.