Jennifer Lufau

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Jennifer Lufau
Born1993 (age 30–31)
Togo
Occupation(s)Digital marketer; consultant of diversity, equity, and inclusion, sensitivity reader
Employer(s)Independent; Ubisoft (former)
Known forAnti-misogynoir activist in the video game community
Websitejenniferlufau.com

Jennifer Lufau (born in 1993 (age 30–31) in Togo) is a gamer, and an expert in digital marketing, who is based in Paris, France.

She is the founder and president of the Afrogameuses, an association which fights against racism and sexism (see: misogynoir) in the field of video games and tries to promote better representation of black women. Active and involved in the field of video games, she is also the author of the blog "Call me Jane Bond".[1]

In November 2020, Vanity Fair elected Jennifer Lufau as one of the "fifty French women who made 2020".[2][3][4][5]

Life[edit]

Jennifer Lufau was born in Togo in 1993. She grew up in Benin, then moved to France around the age of seven.[6] She played a lot of video games during her childhood.[7]

She worked as a Social Media & Content Manager at Ubisoft for two years.[8] She is an expert in digital marketing,[9] and now works as a consultant in diversity and inclusion (D&I) and sensitivity reader in the field of video games. In 2016, she defended her thesis on video games at the Sorbonne for her master's in international project management.[3] She is also the author of a professional thesis entitled “How Big Data is already transforming marketing? », published in July 2017.[10]

As a child, she frequented a cybercafé every day after school to play Prince of Persia.[11][12] Later she played League of Legends, Mortal Kombat and Tekken.[13] Around her, there was no girl to share her passion, and it was not a subject addressed by her classmates. Once she arrived in France, she remained without a computer for a long time, and it was only around the age of seventeen that she began to play regularly again. Once again, she found, that she was one of the few young women to play. As an adult, another question arose for her: “Where are the black women in video games? ».[14] She realized that as a player, she saw herself as a kind of anomaly: female and black. She met extraordinary people on multi-player game platforms, and appreciated the socializing aspect which allowed her to make many friends. However, “this is not the world of Care Bears, far from it”.[13]

For Jennifer Lufau, being a black woman geek, in the racist and sexist world of gaming, was in itself a militant gesture. She suffered through the regular receipt of hateful comments. "Playing black characters is a real “insult magnet”.[13] To avoid this situation, many racialized women evolved in this environment under male-sounding nicknames.[15] Too often a witness, but also a victim, of discriminatory behavior, she reported being often the victim of racism in the world of streaming and deplored the fact that the only possible action to counter insults is to ban, report and block people. However, these people retain “the possibility of endlessly reproducing these same insults". For her, it is up to the platforms to take their responsibilities; for example, she cites Twitch. In fact, the players develop many avoidance strategies to dodge this harassment. For example, by modifying their nicknames, by deactivating their microphones or by playing male characters, because these are “reputed to be stronger, more virile”, the female characters being considered as weak characters.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, she embarked on writing an article on the Afrogamer community,[14] which she published on the "Call me Jane Bond" blog,[1] which she has been running since April 2020. Her meetings with other women in the same situation allow her to discuss their respective experiences. This is how she created, with three other women, on 14 July 2020, the "Afrogameuses" collective,[16] with the aim of remedying this lack of visibility,[17] by contacting concerned women through feminist networks, such as such as Women in Games, and anti-racist groups, such as Black Geeks.[16] Since then, this association has been actively campaigning to make the video game industry more inclusive, denouncing racism and sexism and calling on companies in the sector to take up the subject.

In August 2020, the Swiss television channel Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) devoted part of its program "Vertigo" to her, in a report entitled “Being a racialized woman in the sexist universe of video games”.[18]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Lufau, Jennifer. "À propos de Jane Bond de l'auteur" [About Jane Bond from the author]. CallMeJaneBond (in French). Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  2. ^ "Les 50 Françaises les plus influentes en 2020" [Society: 50 French women who made 2020]. Vanity Fair (in French). 2020-11-30. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  3. ^ a b Dor, Fabiola (December 13, 2020). "Jennifer Lufau, une afrogameuse qui vuet changer le game" [Jennifer Lufau, an afrogamer who wants to change the game]. Nanas Benz (in French). Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  4. ^ "Ces 50 femmes qui ont marqué 2020 selon Vanity Fair : Despentes, Marine Serre, Assa Traoré..." [These 50 women who marked 2020 according to Vanity Fair: Despentes, Marine Serre, Assa Traoré...]. RTBF.be - Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française (in French). Brussels. 2020-12-01. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  5. ^ "Les Françaises de moins de 35 ans qui ont fait l'année 2020" [French women under 35 who made the year 2020]. Les Echos Start (in French). 2020-12-02. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  6. ^ Viala, Océane (2020-08-19). "Dans le jeu vidéo, une photo d'une fille noire, c'est un motif de harcèlement" ["In the video game, a photo of a black girl is a reason for harassment"]. Madmoizelle (in French). Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  7. ^ "" Afrogameuses ", l'asso qui combat sexisme et racisme dans le jeu vidéo" [" Afrogameuses ", the association that fights sexism and racism in video games]. 20 minutes (in French). 2022-03-08. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  8. ^ Lufau, Jennifer. "Jennifer "Invincible Jane" Lufau".
  9. ^ Dadrit, LF (2020-11-29). "Jennifer Lufau, Afrogameuses : "Les discriminations n'épargnent pas le monde du gaming"" [Jennifer Lufau, Afrogameuses : "Discrimination does not spare the world of gaming"]. JEU.VIDEO (in French). Archived from the original on 2020-11-29. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  10. ^ Lufau, Jennifer (2018-02-08). "En quoi le Big Data transforme déjà le marketing ?" [How Big Data is already transforming marketing?]. INSTITUT LÉONARD DE VINCI; Responsable e-Business / Responsable e-Marketing.
  11. ^ "Rencontre | Jennifer Lufau". Institut français (in French). 2021-04-02. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  12. ^ Pons, Heloise (2021-08-21). "Jennifer Lufau, la gameuse qui combat les dérives de l'industrie du jeu video" [Jennifer Lufau, the gamer who fights the excesses of the video game industry]. Maddyness - Le média pour comprendre l'économie de demain (in French). Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  13. ^ a b c Molinari, Helene (2020-10-19). "Les Afrogameuses : un mouvement pour inclure les femmes noires dans le jeu vidéo" [Afrogamers: a movement to include black women in video games]. Les Éclaireurs (in French). Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  14. ^ a b ""Comme le cinéma, le jeu vidéo est là pour faire rêver. Tout le monde devrait pouvoir s'identifier" (Jennifer Lufau)" ["Like cinema, video games are there to make people dream. Everyone should be able to identify with them"]. La Dépêche (in French). 2020-11-20. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  15. ^ Coca-Cozma, Miruna (2020-09-01). "Femme noire dans le monde des jeux vidéos, un acte militant" [Black woman in the world of video games, a militant act]. Radio Télévision Suisse (in Swiss French). Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  16. ^ a b Simon-Rainaud, Marion (2020-12-13). "Le combat des Afrogameuses pour être visibles dans la communauté gaming est un combat pour la réalité" [The Afrogameuses' fight to be visible in the gaming community is a fight for reality]. 01net.com (in French). Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  17. ^ Dillenseger, Corinne (2020-11-30). "Afrogameuses veut valoriser les joueuses et streameuses noires" [Afrogameuses wants to promote black players and streamers]. Les Echos Start (in French). Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  18. ^ "Être une femme racisée dans lʹunivers sexiste des jeux vidéo" [Being a racialized woman in the sexist world of video games]. Vertigo (in Swiss French). Radio Télévision Suisse. 2020-08-24. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
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