Misogyny at the onset of the ‘walking simulator’ videogame.

Abstract

Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital explains how some disciplines, issues, or objects (in the broad sense of the word) are regarded as culturally valuable. Pertaining to these disciplines or having knowledge of topics endowed with cultural capital provides status, so controlling access to cultural capital is key to maintaining power structures. An art in infancy is usually not yet invested in cultural capital. Marginalised groups, be it in terms of gender, race or class, find room for participation as long as the discipline in question is not yet actually considered art, or even worthwhile. This is how female directors or screenwriters were more common at the very onset of cinema rather than later, or—changing fields radically—the first computer programmer was famously a woman, Ada Lovelace, as it was deemed insignificant, mechanic work, and then turned into a male-dominated prestigious and high-paying field.