Chasing the Dragon (Magazine): Gender Erasure Through Discourse in Dragon Magazine,1978–2005

Introduction

Dungeons & Dragons is a premier role-playing game with a wide popular culture presence. Players have been consistent in questioning and challenging the rules and mechanics of the game system, which led for the creation of Dragon magazine. Initially serving as a newsletter that corrected problems in the early game, Dragon magazine developed into a high-quality component of role playing for Dungeons & Dragons and other games. While women have had a presence in Dungeons & Dragons in its nearly 50-year history, the tabletop role-playing game (TRPG) subculture, like many gamer subcultures, is coded as overwhelmingly male and White (Shaw, 2012). This research analyzes a subset of articles written in Dragon magazine between the years of printed Dragon magazines (1976–2005) that discuss issues of those playing the game, particularly focused on players. Through textual analysis, I find various themes that tie directly into a pervading erasure of gender through various means. In the articles, there is a support of a warrior masculinity that men are commonly socialized to exhibit, and a compartmentalization of the role of women in the gaming space. I assert that, despite a persistent presence of women as players, game components such as Dragon magazine adopt male-centered discursive mechanisms to reinforce role-playing games as a male preserve (Dunning, 1986). I further believe this is not deliberate misogyny, but there is something in the very nature of the male preserve seeks to raise up men at the cost of women, even though they are present in the shared subcultural space.

This article expands existing research on topics related to analog gamer masculinity and interpretations of misogyny that exist in the tabletop role-playing world, while also noting discussions of discourses in TRPGs (Cover, 2014; Martin et al., 2015; Stang & Trammell, 2020; Trammell, 2018b). The sidelining of women discussed herein, I argue, was not historically done as a purposeful attempt to create or reinforce a circumstance of “no girls allowed.” The aspect of warrior masculinity that is evident in the Dragon magazine articles serves three functions: It erases women from discourses to affirm the TRPG as a male preserve, they reinforce stereotypes of women as sources of protection or comedy, and they minimize the role of women in gaming to that of sidekicks and aberrations. Through these mechanisms, Dragon magazine served to marginalize women which lead to their erasure in the history of the game Dungeons & Dragons.

Dragon Magazine

Contemporary TRPGs trace their history back to the creation of the game Chainmail by Gary Gygax and David Arneson (Mizer, 2014). The development of Chainmail as a miniature-oriented game eventually gave birth to Dungeons & Dragons, the first advertised role-playing game. The concept became instantaneously popular, with people from all over the world delighting over the imaginary world filled with dragons and elves. This popularity “made it clear that the game had not only separated from its wargame origins but had launched an entirely new industry unto itself” (Alez, n.d., p. 186). Dungeons & Dragons has spawned multiple editions (currently at Number 5) and been the inspiration of hundreds of other role-playing games in the last 40 years.

Since nearly the inception of the game Dungeons & Dragons, Dragon magazine has served as an adjunct for the game and a resource for its players. Part fanzine, part gaming resource, the Dragon delighted role-playing enthusiasts with artwork, stories, and humor tied in with game-specific information both from the creators of the games and independent fans. As it was initially a production of Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) and later Wizards of the Coast, followed by Paizo, the magazine stuck very closely to games the company produced, with most of the resources discussing those products specifically. The magazine remained in production from the years 1979 to 2014, generating over 350 print issues and various “best of” anthologies (Peterson, 2012).

Before Dragon magazine first started, there was The Strategic Review, which was essentially a “newsletter for TSR Hobbies,” a way to get additional information to the existing war-gaming community (Quinn, 2007). However, a new breed of role players centered around Dungeons & Dragons was growing quickly. As time went on, the basic newsletter grew into a glossy, full color magazine with original artwork on every cover, growing exponentially from a few pages. By its last publication in September of 2007, it was over 130 pages with multiple sections and features. It was resurrected later in a strictly online format, driven by the popularity of the resource throughout the years.

In some ways, Dragon magazine was a social locale to reinforce game canon and discuss disputes. As the game developer produced the magazines, minor updates to Dungeons & Dragons character classes and semi-sanctioned “new classes” appeared in the pages of the magazine. Quite a few concepts and character options first discussed in Dragon magazine eventually made their way to newer editions of Dungeons & Dragons and other games produced by TSR/Wizards of the Coast. Inclusion in the magazine provided a way for beta testing ideas that might have merit but also getting feedback from the devoted players of the game on what could work in their individual campaigns. More importantly, the magazine served as locus for deep debates in the role-playing community. Notably, the letters page of Dragon magazine was a space where issues such as sexism in games, Christianity, and the infamous “Satanic Panic” were hotly discussed (Laycock, 2015). While not the original function, Dragon was very much an early “discussion board” through which conversations at the core of role-playing were disseminated throughout the gaming world. It is these articles that discuss the aspects of playing the game that are the subject of this study.

Masculinity and Warrior Masculinity

Masculinity is a topic that has been hotly discussed in both popular culture and academia. Much research still informs an overarching social concept that is the servant of patriarchy and reinforces hegemony. One of the most referenced is the concept of hegemonic masculinity, created by sociologist Raewyn Connell. Hegemonic masculinity represents an idealized sense of what men are to be expected to do, and all actions that are done in men’s bodies (which would be initially considered masculine) are compared with the metric of how close they are to a perfected sense of performed masculinity (Connell, 1999). Even when men are stratified in subordinate or marginalized masculinity, Connell asserts that they still benefit from a patriarchal dividend; at the end of the day, they are still men, and stratified higher in the patriarchy than any woman (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005). Furthermore, Tom Digby (2014) provides some insight into how men develop their connection with hegemonic masculinity. Digby states the needs of a combat-oriented society demand the creation and sustainment of a masculinity form that is able to highlight the “positives” of masculinity: aggressiveness, emotional minimalization, and ability to follow leadership without question. Digby refers to this component of manhood as sacrificial warrior masculinity, a socially performed aspect of masculinity which envelopes most men. According to Digby, to “assure a ready supply of warriors—it is necessary for most of their men to have the emotional prerequisites of a warrior, regardless of whether they ever serve as warriors” (Digby, 2014, p. 131). The system not only builds up potential participants in fields that require sacrificial masculinity but also valorizes warrior acts as the epitome of “manly” experience that is worth the potential risks.

Role-playing games represent a space in which masculinity and manhood is “done” in a rather constraining manner, where one of the purposes of the game is to pretend to be someone you are not (West & Zimmerman, 1987). As noted previously, the traditional role player is not seen through a hegemonic lens and is linked very closely to the “nerd” stereotype (Kendall, 2000). However, while the traditional role player is not considered representative of a hegemonic or “high” masculinity, the role player subculture still prizes techniques and behaviors that are associated with hegemonic masculinity (Martin et al., 2015). This means spaces dominated by role players, such as private games or conventions, could be potentially categorized as what is known in sociology as male preserves.

Eric Dunning (1986) developed the idea of the male preserve through examination of sociological phenomena surrounding sports like rugby and soccer. Dunning postulates there is a culture that develops in these spaces that privileges men, not only because men are the dominant gender that are present in the subculture but come to be expected to make up the vast majority of the subculture by those outside. Spaces that are male preserves gain a lax sense of social norms, meaning the social niceties we could come to expect in the rest of the social world can be ignored because they are understood to be all done in fun. The requirement for participants is they must adhere to a rigid sense of norms with increased negative sanctions toward any behavior that would be deemed inappropriate to the group.

TRPGs have been scrutinized for reinforcing and supporting more male-oriented goals as disseminated by society (Garcia, 2017; Martin et al., 2015; Stang & Trammell, 2020; Trammell, 2018b). Moreover, recent research has investigated the claim of tabletop role-playing as a male preserve (Dashiell, 2020). Gamer spaces additionally function as safe zones, or what Fuist (2012) calls geek universes, “conceptualized as a haven from a world in which one doesn’t fit” (p. 123). Thus, men must use other tools to make certain their masculinity is unquestioned. As Kandiyoti (1994) notes, “their preoccupation with proving their masculinity compelled men to try and maintain their community status by holding on to symbolic gestures of manliness” (207).

I propose the male-centered presentation of Dungeons & Dragons makes it a male preserve, even though there is evidence of women being involved since close to the games’ inception. The reinforcement of combat, glory, and social advancement appeal to men, and these concepts lend themselves to support the idea that Dungeons & Dragons is a “man space.” I further theorize that critical aspects of upholding warrior masculinity will be more visible in a male preserve. Because there is an assumption the male preserve subculture is either (a) all men or (b) predisposed to men, the language that would be used in group would be more likely to fit these characteristics and less likely to be “filtered” for populations that might become offended. Furthermore, because the warrior space is seen as one decidedly male, efforts of gender erasure will be made, as they commonly occur in male-dominated spaces which extol this warrior masculinity.

Male Spaces and Gender Erasure

Spaces are not gendered automatically, but Western society does have a tendency to ascribe spaces in the binary. Particularly in gaming, as Shaw (2012) points out, there is host of research to address the acceptance of gaming subculture as male dominant (p. 34). This belief is only exacerbated in analog/tabletop settings. Further traditional presentations of role players as unkempt, overweight men have served to conceal female involvement in the game and discourage new women from joining (Trammell, 2018a,b). More deeply, fantasy role-playing game spaces allow for a safe harbor to enact the type of sacrificial warrior masculinity that Western society prizes. As Martin et al (2015) note, “manhood acts can be understood as an interpersonally constructed form of self-enhancement” (p. 310). Warrior masculinity is exhorted in corners of the social world, and the fantasy gaming space is rife with stories and concepts of masculinity performed by legendary figures (Digby, 2014). Warrior masculinity is, by nature, dismissive of women, or at least it can be seen as limiting the agency of women as a group. In the Player’s Handbook for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, one of the principal early gaming texts, the authors belittle and dismiss women’s participation by noting “even a fair number of women are counted among those who regularly play the game,” implying it is a rare event (Gygax, 1978, p. 2). If we can come to understand the subtler influences on manhood in spaces such as gaming, discussions about “toxic gamer masculinity” can be mediated by a knowledge of the structural systems that encourage problematic behavior in men, a “hooliganism” that is recognized in male preserves and gaming spaces (Dunning et al., 1988; Mortensen, 2018). As such, situations are created in spaces where discussions surrounding warrior masculinity persist that downplay and subordinate the role of women (Cooke & Woollacott, 2014).

In addition, in gamer spaces, men often employ “purity tests” that assess whether individuals are indeed “real gamers” or “casual” (Vanderhoef, 2013). “A true gamer knows every little detail, or at least that is the test” for those who might not be real, a group that includes women and minorities (Anderson, 2018, p. 80). Efforts such as these allow for women to be seen as adjuncts in gamer subcultures—guests or abnormalities that are present but not active participants. Kirkpatrick (2017) argues that in gamer subculture, this was exacerbated by gamer magazines, which took a culture that initially implied anyone could be a gamer, but provided a medium that, through what was printed and who was portrayed, appealed to what he called “masculine virtue.” Particularly in the latter part of the 20th century, then, magazines did a great deal to set the tone of a “branded masculinity” to imply these were places where men could learn without being seen as feminine (Alexander, 2003).

Gaming Culture and Women

Dungeons & Dragons grew to popularity because it was seen as an escape for many individuals in the final quarter of the 20th century. The act of role-playing was presented as a mental exercise, where dice and paper were necessary, but imagination and ingenuity were privileged. As such, like the nascent home computer surge of the 1980s, TRPG attached itself to a “geek” or “nerd” mentality which prized brains over brawns (Kendall, 2000). Popular culture played into the idea of tabletop role-playing attracting this stereotype, which only helped boost the love of the style of gaming among outcasts (Garcia, 2017; Gillespie & Crouse, 2012).

However, the stereotypes provided—for both computer gaming and tabletop gaming—were male in their origin and centered these activities as pastimes consisting of—and for—men. For example, early Dungeons & Dragons saddled those who wanted to portray female characters with more limitations than male characters (Stang & Trammell, 2020). Female monsters in Dungeons & Dragons were commonly depicted as predatory, seeking men to mate with to create more monsters (Stang, 2021). In computer games, protagonists were more likely to be male and, when female, displayed in a manner that oversexualized the characters (Lynch et al., 2016). Women were relegated to positions of support and objectification, encouraging a minimalization of participation. Based on the poor or nonexistent portrayal of women, an assumption about a lack of female participation in game design and gameplay could be easily assumed.

The erasure has led to numerous issues for women in the gaming space. Most notable is #Gamergate, where women deeply associated with the gaming community found themselves victims of vile attacks (Chess & Shaw, 2015; O’Donnell, 2020; Todd, 2015). Women are often recipients of symbolic violence through comments that assail their womanhood as somehow misplaced in gaming (Gray et al., 2017; Kuznekoff & Rose, 2013; McKinnon-Crowley, 2020; Salter & Blodgett, 2012). Gaming has been perceived as a locus for the performance of a gamer masculinity, which implicitly gatekeep women (Braithwaite, 2016; Condis, 2018; DiSalvo, 2016).

Method

I employ textual analysis as the method of which to analyze the articles of the Dragon magazine. The method allows the researcher to review the aspects of the magazine as a whole and “to examine social phenomena occurring in their own context” (Spalding et al., 2010, p. 206). By looking at the documents as “whole cloth” texts, they can be viewed in light of their temporal place in a subculture and not be subject to over-examination based on issues of today. Furthermore, utilization of textual analysis allows an examination of the phenomena studies as windows into pieces of subculture that might not have been previously considered. Moreover, textual analysis “focuses on the underlying ideological and cultural assumptions of the text” allowing for it to be recognized as “a complex set of discursive strategies that is situated in a special cultural context” (Fürsich, 2009, p. 240). Having access of the complete run of a magazine, for example, demonstrates how the culture surrounding the magazine may have (or have not) changed over time.

Textual analysis is best when paired with other streamlined techniques, so I decided to tie it to critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2000). Ahmad and Shah (2019) briefly explain the function of critical discourse analysis

[Critical Discourse Analysis] explores the relationship between linguistic choices within the texts and talks with regard to particular socio-cultural contexts in which these texts and talk function. Thus CDA, according to Van Dijk, is mainly concerned with investigating the ways dominance, social power abuse and inequality are reproduced, enacted and resisted by text and talk in different social and political contexts. (p. 9)

The creators of Dungeons & Dragons constructed a vast world with complex possibilities, and the conversations in Dragon magazine represent the discourses that spring out of the framework of the game. These conversations serve as “diverse representations of social life which are inherently positioned—differently positioned social actors ‘see’ and represent social life in different ways, different discourses” (Fairclough, 2013, p. 123). Through the collection of similar ideas and determining them as themes, a researcher can develop deep insights into the subject of work. Overall, given its wide use in qualitative analysis, critical discourse analysis proves itself to be an accessible form of research with a high potential for the analysis of trustworthy data (Braun & Clarke, 2006; Nowell et al., 2017). Because articles in the Dragon magazine represent various authors from different backgrounds, and history caused various changes in the editorial direction of the magazine, using qualitative analysis to examine each story as its own cultural artifact provides a freedom from the potential errors in other forms of study while enabling a full, unfettered view of what is available information that could be gathered from the pieces.

Generally, articles in Dragon magazine discuss mainly four common areas: role-playing games and their elements as products (e.g., product reviews and discussions), in game concepts (e.g., play types, rules, characters, and monsters), fiction, and player-centric issues (e.g., advice columns or deep discussions about player issues). I chose to center on the final category and search for articles that specifically speak to player issues and concerns. These articles were most likely to refer to the players collectively and speak in an active voice to the readers as a participant in gaming. Furthermore, I selected articles that were longer than a page column to provide sufficient text for qualitative analysis. Throughout the decades-long run of Dragon magazine, I noted 45 articles that fell into this category, with the information about these articles listed in Table 1. Selected articles were read and themes from the articles emerged, directly connected to issues of the nature of conversations that would occur in a male preserve. Extracts were grouped in terms of how they aligned to the ideas of gender presentation and discussion, interpreting efforts of gender inclusion.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Table 1.

Research Sample of Dragon Magazines.

Title	Author	Issue
“A Compendium of Diverse D&D Player Personalities”	Mike Crane	019
“Wargaming: A Moral Issue?”	Theron Kuntz	035
“Painted Ladies & Potted Monks”	Larry DiTillio	036
“Women Want Equality. And Why Not?”	Kim Mohan and Jean Wells	039
“Reflections of a Real-Life Cleric”	Arthur W. Collins	041
“Apples, Oranges, Role-Playing and Morality”	Larry DiTillio	043
“When Choosing a DM, Be Choosy!”	Fred Zimmerman	048
“What Is Gaming’s Role in Life?”	Karl Horak	048
“Players Don’t Need to Know All the Rules”	Ed Greenwood	049
“To Err Is Human, to Repair Divine”	Lewis Pulsipher	052
“The Best DMs Will Look Further Than the Book”	Tom Armstrong	052
“Adventuring With Shaky Hands”	Judith Sampson	053
“Dungeons Aren’t Supposed to Be ‘for Men Only’”	Roger E. Moore	057
“Beyond the Rule Book”	Lewis Pulsipher	075
“Five Keys to DMing Success”	Mike Beeman	080
“The Way We Really Play”	Tom Armstrong	106
“The GM’s Ten Commandments”	Rig Volny	122
“Dungeon Etiquette”	Jody Lynn Nye	130
“When Game Masters Go Bad”	Sherri Gilbert	135
“The Game Wizards: Angry Mothers From Heck”	James M. Ward	154
“Rules of the Game”	Thomas Kaine	158
“The Game Wizards: Angry Mothers Part 2”	James M. Ward	158
“The Pitfalls of Game Mastering”	Steve Maurer	170
“You Again?”	Scott Sheffield	184
“The Referee’s Code of Honor”	John Setzer	184
That’s Role Not Roll	George T. Young	188
“Be Nice to Your Referee”	Stewart Robertson	188
“Breaking Them In”	Neil McGarry	194
“The Art of Storytelling”	Lisa Stevens	196
“Organization Is Everything”	Richard Hunt	196
“Consider the Consequences”	Renee Stern	212
“Tricks of the Trade”	George T. Young	212
“The Beginner’s Game”	John Nephew	215
“Two Heads Are Better Than One”	Joshua Siegel	217
“Improve With Improv”	Jason Strasser	226
“Dungeon Mastery”	Troy Daniels	235
“Dungeon Mastery”	Ed Carmien	239
“Taste Test”	Robin D. Laws	284
“Gamers vs. Girlfriends”	Herndon and Stark	294
“Killer Communication Problems”	Robin D. Laws	296
“Trouble at the Table”	Robin D. Laws	298
“Who Plays This Game?”	Stuart Pearson	300
“Negotiating With Your DM”	Robin Laws	303
“How to Make Players Do What You Want”	Penny and Skip Williams	306
“Reading Between the Lines”	Marc Tassin	322

Erasure Through Use of Pronouns

As a male-dominated subculture, gaming has a tendency to frame topics in terms of masculinity, or at least discursively, in the masculine. Particularly in TRPGs, most gamebooks and sourcebooks use “he” as the principal, and generic, pronoun. For decades, Dungeons & Dragons followed this practice and defended it by noting the subject “is fantasy—what’s in a name? In all but a few cases sex makes no difference to ability,” not so subtly engaging in an inscription of masculinity into its games (Gygax, 1978, p. 9; Trammell, 2018a). White Wolf, a competitor company, started modulating between “he” and “she” in the 1990s, much earlier than most other major TRPGs (Cate, 2018). At the same time, Dungeons & Dragons doubled down on its explicit use of male pronouns, citing “centuries of use” and denying any sexism or misogyny (Garcia, 2017, p. 238). While recently Wizards of the Coast started to change its pronoun use, evidence shows the creators of Dungeons & Dragons were aware of the potential harms use of the universal “he” could cause (Johnson, 2020).

Particularly, pronoun modulation did not register throughout the much of the history of Dragon magazine. Out of the 45 articles that were observed, all except for five engage in near-exclusive use of the male pronoun (“he”). In the 40 articles that demonstrate a preference, only two take occasion to offer circumstances of differentiation of gender (specifically using “he or she”), whereas the other 38 exclusively use “he” when referencing players. Of the five that do not use “he” as a dominant pronoun, one is an article where the author deftly uses almost no pronouns; the author constantly refers to individuals in the game as “the player” or “the DM” and does not use a more simplified pronoun system. The other four articles (titled “Painted Ladies & Potted Monks,” “Be Nice to Your Referee,” “Two Heads Are Better Than One,” and “When Game Masters Go Bad”) were blunt about making references “she.” Particularly in the piece “Painted Ladies & Potted Monks,” the author goes to lengths to situate his inclusion, noting “the ERA happened in my universe,” referencing the Equal Rights Amendment, which failed to pass in the latter part of the 20th century that would have codified equal rights for women. A constant use of “he” as a pronoun of reference to the game participant instills the idea that the vast majority, if not all, of players are male. In most cases, when the author is discussing a hypothetical player or referee, they unmistakably use the word “he.” However, examining the mere incidence of female examples or use of “she” and “her” becomes significant given how absolutely rare it was through time, as this had shown little evidence of improving by Issue 322, 28 years after the first issue. While it is true most of the authors of these pieces were themselves men, the lack of inclusion of female examples and pronouns has a cascade effect on attracting new creative writing from women who are gamers. As Ahmad and Shah note, when individuals who are of a “silenced sex” do not see their discourses represented, they “participate less in dialogues” (Ahmad & Shah, 2019, p. 13). What matters is representation, and the ways in which women see themselves in Dragon magazine.

Men as Leaders

In the game Dungeons & Dragons, the Dungeon Master (DM) represents a position of leadership. Part storyteller, game coordinator, and referee, it is the DM (sometimes referred to as game master or GM) who is responsible for focusing the collaborative process, that is, role-playing games. Of the 45 articles that were selected for this analysis, 21 of them speak either directly or indirectly to the DM, meaning this person is the principal audience for the article. In those articles, 18 only characterize the DM as male, using the “he” and “him” pronouns when referencing the person in that position, or providing an example.

One notable standout is the article “Two Heads Are Better Than One,” written by Joshua Siegel. In this article, the author in reference to the main DM (GM) alternates between “she” and “he.” When the author is referring to the apprentice GM, the author only uses “she” and “her.” Note this excerpt:

Maybe she is a new player that does not yet know all of the essential rules, or perhaps she just lacks self-confidence . . . The GM should seek as much input from the apprentice as possible and let her look up rules, even if they are already known . . . She is not someone to sweep the floor or fetch popcorn for the gaming group!

This article particularly characterizes the apprentice DM as a woman and having a potential of esteem issues. Moreover, unlike other places where the author modulates, the apprentice GM is only referred to with “she” and “her” pronouns. Not surprisingly, as indicated in the excerpt, the apprentice GM role which includes organization, logistics, and support, roles, must be discouraged from cleaning and fetching things for other, presumably male, members of the group. Interestingly, these are tasks that fall into the “second shift” that are commonly relegated to women and female professions (Hochschild & Machung, 1989).

While the process of tabletop role-playing gaming is collaborative, the DM or GM has a significant amount of power. The articles’ assumptions that these roles are commonly, or only, filled by men reinforce elements of hegemonic masculinity, affirming men as natural leaders (Connell, 1999). The lack of consideration of women as players, much less leaders, in the paratexts and supplemental works demonstrated in Dragon magazine only augment beliefs that the gaming table is a male only space, and that women have not historically been present, even though there is significant evidence of women’s participation throughout the history of the game (Dashiell, 2020).

Women as a Protected Anomaly

In spaces of warrior masculinity, women are seen as present but not aggressive participants. Kanitkar (1994) discusses this in her work examining “imperial masculinity,” noting women’s participation in spaces of danger “would be unlikely, even improper, in real life” (p. 185). Moreover, men are constrained by masculine ideals asserted in warrior masculinity as heroism “remains Western cultures highest model of masculinity” (Wheeler, 1992, p. 17). Women in gaming are seen as having a more ancillary role, “relegated to subordinate positions [and] assumed that their participation was in support of their male romantic partner” (Martin et al., 2015, p. 309). In 14 of the articles emerged a theme I labeled as female protectionism, which manifested in two forms. First is the idea of women portrayed in a traditional sense needing to be protected or sheltered, with gaming imagery in the articles that allude to the “damsel in distress.” The second type of protectionism involves female players, highlighting a sense that male players, and most notably male DMs, have a responsibility to look after players who were women.

In terms of gaming imagery, 10 of the articles detail images of “damsels,” “princesses,” or women in a position where they need to be rescued. Notably, these characterizations are not of players, but of nonplayer characters (supporting characters played by the DM) used in articles to provide examples of gameplay. An example would be the article “When Game Masters Go Bad” from Issue 135, where the author cautions the reader from falling into the “maidens in distress” trap as a redundant trope, highlighting the commonality of this challenge. Dungeons & Dragons has a history of minimizing women in the game, whether it was female characters unable to have some of the characteristics of men, like great strength or stereotypes of prostitutes and odious women populating random encounter options (Trammell, 2018a,b). By embracing the logic of the original game, Dragon magazine perpetuates the idea that women are present mainly to be saved, as expected in warrior masculinity (Digby, 2014).

In the case of protection of female players, imagery served as an encouragement to make female players feel comfortable and to be cognizant of the things that male players might say around them. Men are encouraged, both explicitly and implicitly to be “nicer” to girls and to in some way “overcompensate for all the stigma that female gamers go through” (Madden et al., 2021). Overall, the four articles called upon what was assumed to be male DMs to overthink the problems that might be encountered by a female player, with the assumption that she would be outnumbered and uncomfortable, reflective of an internalized sense of a male preserve at the gaming table. In the end, however, these techniques reveal men who write these protectionist pieces have what Kandiyoti (1994) calls a novel male agenda, which “did not necessarily have as its main concern women’s liberation, but rather their own” (p. 197). For instance, in the article “Be Nice to Your Referee,” the author interchangeably uses “he” and “she” pronouns for GMs but uses “she” much more. This becomes problematic given the tone of the article, which is akin to showing appreciation for invisible work in the space of leading a game, a circumstance that women are more likely to encounter in Western society (Daniels, 1987). The most glaring example of female protectionism comes in the article “Dungeons Aren’t Supposed to Be ‘for Men Only’” from Dragon magazine #57. While the overall topical information speaks to some level of equanimity between male and female players, which is remarkable given it was published in 1982, there are distinct messages of protectionism. In one section of the article, the author cautions readers that “some female characters enjoy having their characters flirt a lot with the other male characters,” and that behavior could lead to unwanted in game pregnancies. The article proceeds to offer guidance on how DMs should manufacture “in game abortions” so pregnancy does not occur. Pregnancy is commonly discussed in detail in early Dungeons & Dragons texts tied to monsters identified as female (Stang, 2021; Stang & Trammell, 2020). The article implies the end result of women flirting is pregnancy, and then assumes that the female character (and other gamers) would want to “take care of” the pregnancy by aborting it. To that end, the author provides several ways to do “magical abortions” for lack of a better term.

In the article “Women Want Equality. And Why Not?” in Issue 39, Kim Mohan and Jean Wells call out this protectionism that occurs with women who play the game, noting some male players “expect females to wait obediently by the door while they (the males) sort through the treasure.” The authors cite one of the reasons why women are sidelined in many gaming spaces is because of the weakness of female characters, being limited in a level of power. Rather than argue against this, the authors concede this circumstance is “based in reality and cannot be logically argued against,” accepting physical limitations but encouraging readers to prize other aspects. Not only does this manner of thinking absolve any male players of responsibility but removes agency from women players (and characters) in terms of making a decision about what may happen to their bodies, albeit in character.

Women and Comedy

Sociolinguist Jennifer Coates (2008) sees humor as a common way for men to frame their discussions. Humor “is something that is possible at any moment: any topic can be switched into a non-serious frame if all participants co-operate” (p. 55). In addition to allow men the ability to talk about sensitive circumstances, humor is a way in which men can express otherwise unpopular or inflammatory ideas, such as sexist remarks. Jokes, then, are a common way to accentuate a point and to encourage engagement between men in a nonthreatening manner. Moreover, the use of humor could have power implications. Willis (2019) writes about geek humor as useful because it “serves as a way to display insider knowledge” (p. 99). To understand this humor, one needs to be centered in a background of the popular culture and social situations that make the joke funny. Being able to participate in these conversations, part of what is known as metadiscourse, bestows a level of capital to the participant (Dashiell, 2021). However, in male preserves, this capital is much more easily accessed by men rather than subaltern populations.

Of the articles examined in this research, 21 used jokes or humor at some time in their presentation. Often humor was used as an “icebreaker,” where the article would start or end with a humorous quip or anecdote to relax a potentially more serious discussion. However, at times, the articles used humor to present thoughts and ideologies could be seen as questionable or offensive outside of the male-dominated gaming community. For example, in the article, “Dungeon Etiquette” by Jody Lynn Nye, there are uses of traditional masculine humor (bathroom humor) and geek humor involving the movie Star Wars. There is an effort in this article and most of the examples of humor to appeal to the geek in the effort to demonstrate something as funny. If individuals are “on the outside” and not attuned to the subculture, there is the potential of not understanding the joke. While this is not comedy directed at women, or using women as the butt of jokes, it is comedy that speaks to the space as a male preserve, highlighting a warrior masculinity inspired gallows humor that some players, particularly women players, might not register or appreciate. Moreover, it highlights a geek humor where one needs to be “in the know” to comprehend, lest they be relegated to the position of “other” (Willis, 2019).

There are times, however, where women are centered at the locus of humor. One particular social position is that of girlfriends. This was evident in four of the articles, specifically one called “Gamers vs Girlfriends” in Dragon magazine #294, which openly used satire to explain to (clearly male) players how they should deal with their girlfriends. At the end of this article, the writer noted that he said things that might offend “51% of the population” (incidentally, the percentage of the U.S. population that identifies as female). He encouraged those who were offended to “count back from 10, take a deep breath, and eat a box of bon bons while watching ‘Sleepless in Seattle’ for the 47th time.” The advice clearly is related to behaviors stereotypically aligned to women, and the author uses humor to preempt what he would assume to be women getting upset over his advice. Whereas the entire article is satire, with none of the advice meant to be taken seriously, the tone of the humor reinforces male-centric norms, even if only meant as a joke.

Conclusion: Gender Erasure as Discursively Enforcing the Male Preserve

Discourse and its relation gender has been a topic that has been discussed over the decades. However, given that gendered communication is not monolithic with absolutes indicating men “always” speak a particular way or women “mostly” communicate in a certain way, it is interesting to see what discursive features commonly attributed to distinct genders ring true, and in a culture with greater awareness of structural inequalities, what efforts are used to mute or modify these features. Power interactions and relations, then, “are exercised, reflected, maintained, and resisted through a variety of modalities, extents, and degrees of explicitness” (Lazar, 2007, p. 148). Dragon magazine represented, for decades, a major outlet and point of connection for players of the game Dungeons & Dragons. With few other resources and the scrutiny of role-playing games during the “Satanic Panic,” the articles in the magazine provided guidance and connection appreciated by many gamers. While recent efforts have pressed the issue that gaming spaces have been open to all genders and were not a space for only men, research notes the male preserve privileges male stereotypes and behaviors. To that end, I analyzed articles in the magazine throughout the decades-long run of Dragon magazine looking for thematic elements of gender erasure. Themes emerged regarding male pronoun usage, objectification, and the diminishing of women, with comedy as a common means of expressing ideas that might be perceived as sexist or inappropriate.

It might seem inconsistent that men who engage in TRPGs practice a warrior masculinity that is on par with what is “done” by men who are in the armed services. However, when one considers the dominant elements of role-playing games, notably Dungeons & Dragons, it makes sense. The sacrificial nature of the warrior masculinity clearly delineates the idea of the hero and villain, and it is the desire of men who wish to fulfill a warrior masculinity to strive to be the hero in visible spaces. TRPGs provide an approximation of the hero’s journey, as individuals go through multiple tests to face a powerful enemy for the sake of what is deemed right. Expressions of some types of gamer masculinity are, in many ways, a form of warrior masculinity. TRPGs allow men to “do” warrior masculinity without the inherent risk that is a possible outcome of an embodied (and enacted) warrior masculinity (West & Zimmerman, 1987).

The textual analysis demonstrates Dragon magazine began with a process of erasure, using male pronouns and specific imagery of women, highlighting either their uniqueness or their supplemental roles as objects of protection or foils. The trajectory of the articles in Dragon set a precedence for women to be perceived as absent from the male preserve of the TRPG. In truth, women have not been absent—There has been a process in cultural artifacts associated with TRPGs to prioritize men and diminish the role of women. Moreover, it must be stressed this textual analysis stretches over the run of Dragon magazine, a period of nearly 30 years. There is no evidence of a reduction of the components of gender erasure and characterization of women as time went on. As discussed before, while other TRPGs confronted the issue of women’s representation, it is not until very recent time that we see a concerted effort from Wizards of the Coast to visibly demonstrate gender (and racial) parity in a variety of ways. Recent investigations on the “girl gamer” and diversity in tabletop role-playing might work to reverse the historical circumstance in contemporary discussion, but what is researched in the tabletop role-playing subculture demonstrates how male preserves can subtly disempower women without direct efforts of discrimination. Vossen (2020) notes that “lack of exposure and access to games for women, different play styles, [and] issues with sexualized representations” are still issues in gaming spaces, something evident in the infancy of tabletop role-playing.

TRPGs are not strangers to evolution. Because there is a more visible and vocal number of women involved in all levels of role-playing games, such as design, conference organization, and play, there might be some shifts in the nature of the “male preserve” in terms of Dungeons & Dragons. Although recent arguments about changes in the newest edition of Dungeons & Dragons of being too “inclusive” and “PC” still rattle around the role-playing community, this commentary may be reflective of a persisting male preserve evident through research. In understanding the culture of tabletop role-playing as a male preserve, affected by warrior masculinity, disentangling patriarchal notions might prove more involved.

While it might seem like the issues detailed here are historical and limited to a single subculture, the phenomenon speaks to broader issues of the cultures in fandoms in general and gaming in specific. On their surface, many fandom cultures present an outward sense of inclusiveness. Particularly in fandoms like gaming, which nod to what could be seen as geek and nerd culture, there is a relative sense engendered of recognition of bias and stereotypes faced by those who populate these groups. Thus, the shock at experiences like Gamergate and poor treatment of women in gaming spaces are regarded with surprise, as there is an implicit assumption these spaces would be both more open and less likely to engage in what Connell (1999) calls displays of hegemonic masculinity.

The truth, however, is more complex. As the analysis demonstrates, gender erasure is an implicit reflection of the male preserve. Men in fandoms regarded as male dominant engage in explicit and implicit gatekeeping to encourage the practice of norms they are familiar with—norms that incidentally benefit men and critique women (Švelch & Sherman, 2018). Thereby, the gender erasure and sidelining of women that occurred in Dragon magazine throughout its print run is neither rare nor antiquated, as it is a muted textual form of what occurs in fandoms to this day. Marking misogynistic actions perpetrated on women in fandom spaces as aberrant or new is a miscalculation; the textual evidence of this research shows how these behaviors have a history as old as these fandoms. While women have been present since the inception of these subcultures, they have sadly suffered continual displacement even in liberatory-assumed spaces (McKinnon-Crowley, 2020). In cultural sociology and cultural studies research, we would do well to see the poor treatment of women in fandom spaces as a historical pattern, rather than as a series of new manifestations.