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Masculinities in Games for Gay Male Audiences
Title
Masculinities in Games for Gay Male Audiences
Creator
DeAnda, Michael Anthony
Date
2019
Description
Games offer a unique site to understand how culture operates and works upon us. With the recent push for more representation of LGBTQ bodies...
Show moreGames offer a unique site to understand how culture operates and works upon us. With the recent push for more representation of LGBTQ bodies and experiences in AAA games, queerness provides a necessary framework to critique the politics of these representations. In this project, I question the extent to which games marketed to gay men challenge or reify problematic values of heteronormativity and hegemonic masculinity. I argue that discussing representation in games necessitates interrogation beyond visual and narrative elements to include mechanics, constraints, rules, and systems. Here, I emphasize understanding how these components of games allow players to play with bodies or limit interactions in games and what these affordances/constraints relay about gender identity and sexuality. In my second chapter, I investigate how a game played on RuPaul’s Drag Race with male underwear models codes male/female binaries into gay sexuality. In Chapter 3, I analyze Drag Bingo through participant observation and oral histories with drag queen hosts and discuss how these hosts develop a liminal space in which players can joyfully play with gender and sexuality. I “close play” Robert Yang’s Cobra Club in Chapter 4, locating the game within the history of surveilling homosexuality. A design discussion of Bulge Lab, an Alternate Reality Game I developed that focuses on body image, masculinity, and viruses, comprises my fifth chapter.
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Testing a pilot intervention aiming to increase transgender allyship among future healthcare providers
Title
Testing a pilot intervention aiming to increase transgender allyship among future healthcare providers
Creator
Yoder, Wren
Date
2021
Description
Transgender individuals often experience poor health outcomes related to a lack of provider knowledge and comfort around transgender issues. ...
Show moreTransgender individuals often experience poor health outcomes related to a lack of provider knowledge and comfort around transgender issues. Ally identity development and cultural humility theories have been used to develop interventions shown to improve attitudes, knowledge, and skills related to being an ally to the transgender community. Additionally, healthcare providers have reported a desire for online tools related to transgender healthcare, and online interventions can be more cost effective than traditional in-person trainings. The current study developed an hour-long online intervention composed of six activities aiming to increase attitudes, knowledge, skills, and identification as an ally to the transgender community. Tests were conducted to assess whether these domains increased significantly from baseline to post in the intervention condition compared to the control condition and whether the increase was maintained at 2-week follow up. The sample included cisgender (i.e., male or female) students studying a subject related to healthcare recruited online through Prolific (N = 78). Results indicated that knowledge and skills increased significantly from baseline to post in the intervention condition compared to the control condition, and increases were maintained at 2-week follow up. However, this was not the case for attitudes and identity. These findings largely replicate existing research on knowledge about transgender individuals and provide new insights into skills, attitudes, and identity related to transgender allyship. Findings can inform future research on transgender allyship intervention design and allyship theory as well as support improvements in clinical practice and policy related to transgender healthcare services.
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