The Queer Potential of World of Warcraft: Shame and Desire in the Performance of Gender in Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games

Abstract

Fraser’s chapter explores the affective contours of desire in the performance of gender within the online role playing game World of Warcraft. Listening to how youth talk and feel about gender swapping and ambiguous gender identifications within the context of the game, Fraser notices a striking shift in the embodiment of shame as an affective orientation among participant accounts. Theorizing shame as a predominant affective force through which gender is policed within young peoples’ social worlds often tied to fear of social rejection and devaluation, this chapter calls attention to an alternative affective economy of gender relations. Fraser turns attention towards ways in which desires for gender differences spur game play outside the binary lines of identity regulation, opening up possibilities for queer modes of role playing.