on Angela Washko

In early 2012 Angela Washko founded "The Council on Gender Sensitivity and Behavioural Awareness in World of Warcraft" as a performative intervention within the misogynistic environment of World of Warcraft, the most massively popular multiplayer role playing game of all time. Instead of continuing to follow the quest structure of the game—killing dragons, getting better equipment, joining more competitive guilds—while performing as "The Council on Gender Sensitivity and Behavioural Awareness in World of Warcraft," Washko facilitates discussions with players inside the game about the ways in which the community therein addresses women and how players respond to the term "FEMINISM." Washko is interested in the impulse of the community/player-base to create an oppressive, misogynistic space for women within a physical environment that is otherwise accessible and inviting. Furthermore, WoW is a geographically, politically, economically, socially, and racially diverse community (a much more varied community to engage with than she has in physical public space). Consequently, these discussions within the game space create a much larger picture of the American opinion of the evolving roles of women in contemporary society. In Playing A Girl Washko (as Washclothes) focusses on two topics: the male impulse to play female characters within WoW and why a woman would choose not to be a feminist (conversation meanders into discussions of inherent gendered qualities, homophobia, separatism, and rape).