Sexualization, Compromise, and Bodily Strain: The Hidden Gender Labor Practices of Female Game Companions

Abstract

ABSTRACT China's esports game companion industry has evolved from informal companion game practices into a distinctive form of digital labor that combines technical performance with emotionalized and gendered expectations. This article examines the concealed forms of labor embedded in female game companions' practices. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with 15 female game companions and participant observation, the study employs and extends the concept of gender labor to analyze the positioning of female game companions within platform‐mediated employment relationships. The findings demonstrate that under conditions of scripted livestreaming and collective imitation, male employers mobilize female companions' gender labor through practices of devaluation and domination, thereby constructing and affirming hegemonic masculinity. In response, female game companions adopt compensatory, avoidance, and feigning‐weakness strategies, reflecting a broader pattern of compromise. Rather than reducing male employers' additional demands for labor, these strategies further intensify the sexualization of companion gaming. Under the joint orchestration of platform mechanisms, such dynamics perpetuate self‐alienation and contribute to embodied distress, including physical pain. Furthermore, this study argues that gender labor is not confined to unpaid domestic or intimate contexts. Within digital labor environments, gender labor not only persists but becomes increasingly obscured under the guise of remuneration. Female digital workers thus face intensified gender bias and gender exploitation, highlighting the urgent need for more robust regulatory frameworks to protect women's labor rights and to promote gender equality in digital economies.