게임 스트리밍 공간의 여성 스트리머 경험 연구 : 심층인터뷰를 중심으로
초록
이 연구는 게임 스트리밍 플랫폼을 중심으로 활동하는 여성 게임 스트리머들에 주목하여, 이들이 게임 스트리밍을 수행하며 겪는 다양한 경험과 정체성의 구성 과정을 살펴보았다. 이를 위해 여성 게임 스트리머와의 심층 인터뷰를 실시했다. 그 결과, 여성 게임 스트리머가 플랫폼의 사회기술적 어포던스에 자신의 수행성을 최적화시켜 가는 과정에 기존 젠더 문화의 관습이 영향을 미치고 있다는 점을 발견할 수 있었다. 웹캠의 시각중심성과 외모 중심의 여성성이 만나면서 젠더 정체성에 기반한 친밀성 수행이 나타나고, 이 과정은 ‘여성’을 향한 독성문화(toxic culture)와의 관계 속에서 여성 게임 스트리머를 취약하게 만들고 있었다. 또한 여성 게임 스트리머는 플랫폼의 수익 구조와 끊임없이 협상하며 자본으로 치환될 수 있는 정동 노동을 수행하였고, 이러한 과정에서 여성 게임 스트리머의 자율성과 이들의 기업가적 실천은 주어진 사회기술적 어포던스에 의해 제한된 선택지를 갖게 된다는 것을 발견할 수 있었다.
Abstract
This study attempts to look at how women become game streamers, how they build their identity as streamers, and how those practices are shaped by the social-technical affordances of streaming platforms and gendered culture. For this investigation, in-depth interviews were conducted with women game streamers. The findings show that platforms’ affordances, in conjunction with existing gendered conventions, affect the ways in which women game streamers present themselves and have relationships with their viewers. Webcam’s visualism induces women to be concerned about their looks and femininity, and platforms’ social affordances facilitate their performativity to vie for viewers’ attention, which tends to make them vulnerable to gender discriminatory and toxic culture. In addition, women game streamers constantly negotiate with the revenue affordances of platforms that allow their affective labor to be monetized, and try to pave their way for self-employed entrepreneurism, but only with short-term visions. Based on their experiences, the study shows that women game streamers have limited autonomy and that their entrepreneurial practices are constrained by the given social-technological affordances.
Keywords:
game streaming platforms, women game streamers, social-technical affordances, in-depth키워드:
게임 스트리밍 플랫폼, 여성 게임 스트리머, 사회기술적 어포던스, 심층 인터뷰, 능력주의Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF-2019S1A5C2A02082683)(이 논문은 2019년 대한민국 교육부와 한국연구재단의 지원을 받아 수행된 연구임(NRF-2019S1A5C2A02082683))
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