[Commlist] 2025 ICA Precon - Toxic Masculinity

ICA Game Studies 2025 Preconference Call For Papers

Draining the Swamp: A Game Studies Preconference on Toxic Masculinity as 
A Threat to The Media Industries and Beyond

Event Date: June 12, 2025

Location: Onsite, Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center 
(please note we are simply near the convention center, we are not using 
the convention center itself)

Submission deadline: February 09, 2025

Toxic describes disruptive, chaotic, and frequently illegal behavior in 
games and social media. Since the reactionary Gamergate movement in 
2014, users have weaponized the ‘gamer’ identity to harass women, queer, 
and people of color who call for more diversity and inclusion in games. 
These strategies originated in multiplayer games, frequently directed at 
journalists, game developers, and other professionals. We seek 
submissions interrogating toxic behaviors, identities, and strategies to 
understand better how anonymous and misogynistic speech shapes online 
environments in games and beyond.

As more of our professional, social, and recreational networks are 
mediated on digital platforms, it is imperative to consider which 
identities are celebrated and which are contested and harassed. Feminist 
game studies scholars discuss harassment and how it prevents 
marginalized identities from fully participating in online spaces (Gray, 
2020; Cote, 2020; Consalvo, 2012; Marwick & Caplan, 2018). In this 
climate, some have argued that “the future of media studies is game 
studies” (Chess & Consalvo, 2022), suggesting that game studies scholars 
have valuable perspectives, methods, and insights toward understanding 
the relationship between toxic masculinity that privileges cis-gendered 
white and Asian men, and networked harassment that allows people to 
harass their targets both online and off. This presents valuable 
opportunities for analog and tabletop game scholars to contribute their 
expertise on how these versions of games may challenge or reinforce 
aspects of toxic masculinity in gaming industries and communities.

Game studies is well positioned to organize and host a conversation 
about the harmful effects of toxic masculinity in online games and 
social media, but is by no means the only communication discipline that 
can meaningfully contribute to the study of toxic masculinity. Most 
fields and disciplines within the big tent of Communications can 
meaningfully engage with toxic masculinity in some capacity. Political 
scientists may take interest in the recent increase of reactionary 
politics or the self-described ‘incel’ ideology. Whereas public 
relations, crisis communication, and journalism scholars may consider 
how news coverage can reinforce toxic masculinity, while media studies 
scholars can contemplate the representations of toxic male characters 
throughout history. Regardless of the specific discipline or tradition, 
communication scholars must continue studying how toxic men develop 
harassment strategies to use against journalists, academics, 
politicians, game developers, and anyone else who must use social media 
and the internet as part of their job.

This preconference aims to bridge disciplinary divides and emphasize 
collaboration by bringing together practitioners and scholars whose work 
highlights the intersection of digital and analog games, media 
(including but not limited to games), communication studies, and online 
harassment. We aim to offer specific evidence of where and how some 
identities can be toxic and how that shapes how people can participate 
in online life. Openly interrogating the relationship between video 
games and toxic masculinity is an opportunity to showcase how game 
studies can be a helpful mechanism for taking seriously what many take 
for granted, but more importantly, to shed light on points of resistance 
against these pervasive forces of toxic masculinity.

We encourage scholars and practitioners, especially our junior 
colleagues, to consider contributing their expertise to our conversation 
about the harmful effects of toxic masculinity and harassment in online 
spaces in and outside of gaming. Toxic masculinity is not just an issue 
in media studies and game studies, so we emphatically encourage scholars 
from various traditions and disciplines to consider applying. In this 
way, we foster interdisciplinary connections and open up conversations.

Taking place before the plenary session, the preconference will also be 
an opportunity to draw as much from the past connections between games 
and communications as the present and the future.

Please direct all questions, comments, and concerns to: 
(icagamespreconf2025 /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(icagamespreconf2025 /at/ gmail.com)>

Topics might include (but are not limited to!):

             •           What similarities and differences are there 
between“toxic”, or abrasive, destructive, potentially illegal behaviors 
that occur in video games compared to other online spaces?

             •           Examples of effective resistance and 
strategies against toxic masculinities from gaming communities

             •           Exploring effects of toxic masculinities 
across different gaming genres (e.g., FPS, Simulators), types (e.g., 
esports, Cozy games), and within both analog and digital formats

             •           Communities supporting and subverting toxicity 
in game adjacent platforms (e.g., Discord, Reddit).

             •           Developing taxonomies, conceptual models and 
theories around toxic masculinity behaviors both within and outside of 
gaming

             •           The negative impact (economic, emotional, 
social, etc.) that toxic masculinity can have on games, and other 
popular media industries

             •           Unpacking the systemic factors that contribute 
to toxic masculinity in gaming and other workplaces as well as 
affiliated in fandoms

             •           Investigate the relationship between toxic 
masculinity and (gaming) platform governance

             •           Unpacking the relationship between toxic 
masculinity and extremist  ideologies and the potential threat for 
violence they pose  and how men use them to inflict different kinds of 
harm (red pill, black pill, siege pill, rape pill, etc.)

             •           Investigating incel culture (both within and 
outside of gaming) to understand this community better, to hopefully 
prevent even further radicalization

             •           Investigating the individual influential 
creators who profit from, and popularize, toxic masculinity (Ninja, Dr. 
Disrespect, Andrew Tate, IDubbz, NickMercs, etc.)

             •           Analyze the relationship between various 
‘manosphere’ platforms, subreddits, and websites, to highlight specific 
instances where platforms enable toxic masculinity

             •           Which platform features and affordances enable 
toxic masculinity? Which prevent it?

             •           Propose solutions for combating the spread of 
toxic masculinity

             •           Highlighting strategies and tactics that 
people use to challenge instances of toxic masculinity or misogyny

Types of Submissions (abstracts only):

–       Research papers

–       Theoretical papers

–       Pedagogical works (e.g., teaching about/with games)

–       Short papers / roundtable presentations

–       Panel proposals

–       Industry presentations

–       Creative submissions

–       Research-in-progress showcases

–       Games-in-progress showcases

How to Submit:

Please email anonymized abstract submissions of no more than 1,000 words 
in length (inclusive of references) as a PDF attachment to 
(icagamespreconf2025 /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(icagamespreconf2025 /at/ gmail.com)> and 
include your name, role/title (i.e., independent scholar, graduate 
student, postdoc, assistant professor, etc.), affiliation/institution if 
you have one, and preferred email address in the body of the email. In 
the subject line please indicate submission type (e.g., Theory Paper, 
Creative Submission, etc.).

Submissions may be organized into themed panels outside of submission type.

Deadline for Submission: February 1, 2025

References:

Chess, S., & Consalvo, M. (2022). The future of media studies is game 
studies. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 39(3), 159-164.

Consalvo, M. (2012). Confronting toxic gamer culture: A challenge for 
feminist game studies scholars.

Cote, A. C. (2020). Gaming sexism: Gender and identity in the era of 
casual video games. In Gaming Sexism. New York University Press.

Dibbell, J. (1994). A rape in cyberspace or how an evil clown, a Haitian 
trickster spirit, two wizards, and a cast of dozens turned a database 
into a society. Ann. Surv. Am. L., 471.

Ging, D. (2019). Alphas, betas, and incels: Theorizing the masculinities 
of the manosphere. Men and masculinities, 22(4), 638-657.

Gray, K. L. (2020). Black gamers’ resistance. Race and Media: Critical 
Approaches. NYU Press, United States, 241.

Marwick, A. E., & Caplan, R. (2018). Drinking male tears: Language, the 
manosphere, and networked harassment. Feminist media studies, 18(4), 
543-559.

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