At the end of September, the FIFA 23 football video game will be launched on the world market. Among several novelties, the inclusion of women stands out: the English and French women’s football leagues will be able to be played. In addition, it will be possible to play in the World Cup that will take place in Australia and New Zealand in 2023. Another important novelty is that Sam Kerr, an Australian player for Chelsea, will be on the cover, who will accompany Frenchman Kylian Mbappé. According to data published by EA Sports (the company that created FIFA), from 1993 to early 2021, the game sold a total of 325 million copies. Therefore, the progressive presence of women in the most played sports simulator in history is a relevant fact.
“The inclusion of women’s clubs is important for the reference and representation it builds for the new generations. For a girl, turning on the TV and seeing a football player is not the same as seeing a male player. Likewise, turning on the computer or the Play Station and seeing a woman strengthens the girls’ authority to compete for the console with the brothers and being able to play the same game”, highlights the genre specialist Ludmila Fernández LopezThe UNQ science news agency.
Women’s representation in FIFA began in 2016 with the creation of teams to play friendlies. However, it had fewer game options than teams made up of men. In 2018, EA created Kim Hunter; in story mode, she was the avatar that represented women to reach the top of the football world. The following year, the simulator offered the possibility of playing in the World Cup in France and, in recent editions, it has incorporated technical directors and female voices for the stories and commentary in English.
play in a corner
“From its roots, as a practice and concept, sport is masculine; it is the sublimation of war and a way of regulating competition. War violence and masculinity are the same thing, one cannot be thought of without the other”, says Fernández López.
In this sense, the Masters in Gender Studies highlights that women were “opened to the back door” to enter the sport. From their point of view, they constructed the feminine categories as an alterity to play in a corner. “We must not believe in the categories of men and women to be safe. Sure of what, would be the question”, he maintains. Without a new concept of sport, with other logics prevailing, parity between men and women will only be a matter of numbers.
In silence and with nicknames
According to a study carried out in 2019 by the organization France esports, women make up almost half of amateur video game players in France. The New Zoo, a portal dedicated to the information and analysis of the gaming market, adds that over a billion girls consume, play or spend time with virtual games.
However, the percentage drops sharply in professional esports. Globally, they make up just 22%. In turn, a survey carried out by the Association of Electronic Sports and Videogames of Argentina (DEVA) highlights that more than 90 percent of the people in the Esports world are men.
As in other social fields, eSports has a high misogynistic component. While there are no physical differences when it comes to playing, stereotypes that are reproduced from childhood persist when boys are given consoles for competitive video games and girls are given dolls and care-related issues. Although the situation is slowly changing, there are still many women who need play silently or use male or neutral nicknames to avoid receiving hate from male players.
Women’s esports leagues
Faced with this scenario, women’s electronic sports leagues were created around the world. In fact, an Argentine team reached the final of the Girl Gamer Festival for the first time, an international tournament held in Brazil in 2021.
However, Ludmila Fernández López highlights the segmentation between men and women: “Measures to protect women necessarily have to be provisional, because otherwise violence continues to be endorsed in some way.. Will they keep looking out for us eternally from the ‘irrepressible’ violence of men or are we going to do something to defuse this violence? Unfortunately, having safe spaces in this world is having a space free of men.”