{"id":10261,"date":"2016-08-16T16:21:25","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T16:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/constricting-knowledge-more-rigour-tone\/"},"modified":"2016-08-16T16:21:25","modified_gmt":"2016-08-16T16:21:25","slug":"constricting-knowledge-more-rigour-tone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/constricting-knowledge-more-rigour-tone\/","title":{"rendered":"Constricting knowledge: \u2018More rigour\u2019, tone policing and white feminism in game studies"},"content":{"rendered":"

mahlibombing<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

I presented three papers at the most recent DiGRA conference in Dundee. I\u2019m
\nan honours student (in Australia it\u2019s an additional year on top of an
\nundergraduate degree, which can work in lieu of a Masters so as to go straight
\ninto a PhD program) and this was my first international conference. Before
\nDiGRA, I had already presented at four other Australian conferences (I\u2019ve now presented
\nnine papers since my first in July 2015). I know I\u2019m young in academia, but I do work very hard and I\u2019m
\nnot completely inexperienced as my age and qualifications might suggest ~(\uffe3\u25bd\uffe3)<\/p>\n

My work and what I care about usually revolves around looking
\nat identity politics in regards to gaming and gaming culture guided by an
\nintersectional feminist sensibility. My training is in philosophy, so I\u2019m most
\ncomfortable with argumentative and theoretically heavy work. But I\u2019ve spent the
\nlast year trying to unravel these tendencies, so as to shape a more inclusive trajectory
\nof research. I\u2019ve extended myself from my arm-chair ponderings into ethnography,
\nand experimented with my writing to garner a more diverse reading audience.
\nDiversity work is not an intellectual exercise and I see academic traditions as
\noften inhibiting to these objectives. I don\u2019t mean that we all should popularise
\nacademic research, but that it\u2019s important to note that sometimes we are limiting
\nourselves in problematic ways if we only consider the white and masculine
\ninstitutionalised understandings of \u2018rigour\u2019 as the be all and end all of what
\nconstitutes \u2018good academic work\u2019.<\/p>\n

People often comment on my very personal style of writing
\nand some have described it as \u2018gonzo\u2019, honest and vulnerable, or as a sort of pilgrimage.
\nI\u2019m happy to use any academic terminology as long as I can get my point across
\n– I guess it\u2019s the philosophy in my blood which compels my work to exist as a
\nconversation which encourages engagement, rather than exist as a static historical
\nartifact. <\/p>\n

Every philosophy student at one point studies epistemology, and
\nso I\u2019ve had the privilege of being trained to think about the limitations of \u2018objectivity\u2019
\n(I align with the school of thought that there are \u2018degrees of truth\u2019), but the
\npoint I would like to draw here is the superficial dichotomy of \u2018objective\u2019 against
\n\u2018emotional\u2019 and tensions of \u2018truth\u2019. Women (http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/health\/archive\/2015\/10\/emergency-room-wait-times-sexism\/410515\/<\/a>),
\npeople of colour (https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2015\/oct\/08\/stereotype-angry-black-girls-racial<\/a>)
\nand feminists (http:\/\/www.bustle.com\/articles\/143248-to-the-men-who-call-me-an-angry-feminist-heres-why-you-need-to-stop<\/a>)
\nand their experiences of pain and mistreatment are consistently dismissed as
\nbeing \u2018overly emotional\u2019. It\u2019s such a common reaction that there\u2019s even a term for
\npeople telling women and POC\u2019s to be \u2018less emotional\u2019: \u2018tone policing\u2019 (http:\/\/geekfeminism.wikia.com\/wiki\/Tone_argument<\/a>).\n<\/p>\n

I am particularly tired of being told to make my work
\n\u2018more theoretical\u2019 (trust me, the theory is always there, even if I\u2019ve chosen
\nto make it unpronounced so as to focus on something more important). I realise
\nthere\u2019s meant to be a role of \u2018guiding\u2019 a younger academic to improve her work
\n– but these \u2018make it more rigorous\u2019 suggestions are extremely unhelpful and upholds
\ninstitutionalised whiteness and hegemonic masculinity. Like suggestions of \u2018more
\nnuance\u2019 (https:\/\/kieranhealy.org\/files\/papers\/fuck-nuance.pdf<\/a>
\n< I really love this paper), \u2018more rigour\u2019 works on the cross-section of \u2018connoisseur\u2019
\nelitism and restrictive ideas of \u2018knowledge production\u2019. \u2018More rigour\u2019 can be
\nasked by anyone regardless of the quality or style of research in question – you
\ncan always ask someone to be \u2018more rigorous\u2019. \u2018More rigour\u2019 is a positioning of
\na senior to dominate a lesser scholar – it acts to serve nothing but to establish
\na violent power dynamic. As women and POCs are already socially dismissed as incapable
\nof \u2018being objective\u2019 from being \u2018overly emotional\u2019, I observe the \u2018more theory,
\nnuance and rigour\u2019 criticisms as another form of discouraging and policing women
\nand people of colour in academia. <\/p>\n

So, I presented a paper at DiGRA about Vivian James (Gamergate\u2019s
\navatar) co-authored with my supervisor. I had been terrified to present this, since
\nI am fully aware of the reaction Gamergate has had to women, feminism, and to criticisms
\nmade against their \u2018movement\u2019. So I went into this knowing I was going to step
\non some big angry toes. Furthermore, being a WOC feminist games
\nstudies scholar meant that I would eventually pop up on Gamergate\u2019s radar. Depressingly,
\nbeing a target was inevitable (after briefly uploading the paper, it was
\ndogpiled by Gamergaters: http:\/\/imgur.com\/a\/TB5nP<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It was the second paper I had to present at DiGRA, back-to-back, without caffeine and wicked
\njet lag. During question time, a well-established feminist scholar suggested to
\nadd \u2018more theory\u2019 so as to give the paper \u2018more substance\u2019. Exhausted (physically
\nand emotionally), all I could muster was a firm \u2018thank you\u2019. I\u2019m not hostile
\ntowards constructive criticism – I welcome it (as seen in how much I value making my work \u2018engaging\u2019). But I was a little shocked that someone who promotes feminist game
\nstudies glossed over the fact that she was talking down to a young woman of
\ncolour presenting a paper criticising Gamergate. I felt the months of affective
\nlabour of preparing for a Gamergate paper reduced into merely being another \u2018intellectual exercise\u2019 of academia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moreover, relying
\nextensively on theory is only one approach to feminism. One of my favourite scholars
\nonce said that she was excited to see us in game studies moving beyond \u2018the feminist
\npaper\u2019 and how young scholars were integrating feminism as simply second nature.
\nProducing feminist work doesn\u2019t always have to be reliant on feminist theory –
\nit boxes in the work feminism aims to do, by maintaining a singular (rather white and classist)
\nideal of feminism.<\/p>\n

We are well aware of the toxic
\nmasculinity of gaming and the devaluing of feminist work by wider academia (https:\/\/mvlindsey.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/09\/journal-of-broadcasting-media-chess-shaw-2015.pdf<\/a>).
\nThose who want to make game studies a welcoming space for diverse voices need
\nto be more thoughtful and reflexive of the institutionalised racism and sexism
\nstructuring academic practices. New and diverse voices need to be given the room
\nto explore what it means to be \u2018new\u2019 and \u2018diverse\u2019 – they immediately stop being \u2018new\u2019 and \u2018diverse\u2019
\nvoices when they are required to be indoctrinated into traditional and
\nhegemonic styles of knowledge production.<\/i><\/p>\n

(\u0e51\ua4aa\u25bf\ua4aa)*<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

big ups to @mahlibombing<\/a> ! 👍🏾 \u00a0 \u00a0 ✌️❤️💡<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

mahlibombing: I presented three papers at the most recent DiGRA conference in Dundee. I\u2019m an honours student (in Australia it\u2019s an additional year on top of an undergraduate degree, which can work in lieu of a Masters so as to go straight into a PhD program) and this was my first international conference. Before DiGRA, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[172,132,174,173],"class_list":["post-10261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words","tag-game-studies","tag-humane-games","tag-i-need-diverse-game-studies","tag-ineeddiversegames"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6PWot-2Fv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rafaelfajardo.com\/portfolio\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}