Post by leunas on Oct 27, 2006 14:19:24 GMT -5
Real Girls Don’t: The invisible minority of female video game players: a wonderful article by E. Cabell Hankinson Gathman. She recalls her experiences in the role-playing club at her high school. She was mistaken for being in the wrong room when she first joined, but her being there made it easier for other women to join the group. She also writes about how casual games, played by many women, are ignored by men.
Sometimes girls are told that they can’t or shouldn’t play RPGs or video games. But more often, I think, they are told that they don’t. The cultural message is sometimes wrapped in hand-wringing and good intentions, but the underlying assumption beneath “Why don’t girls play video games?” is still “Girls don’t play video games.” Technology in general, but game technology in particular, is viewed as a masculine domain. Girls use computers to word process, send instant messages, make a MySpace profile—but they don’t use them to slay dragons. They just don’t. And it’s a lot harder to see what’s wrong with that argument than a straightforward claim that slaying dragons is not ladylike.
Great point about how technologically savy we are. I won’t spoil the rest of the article: go read it.
www.lake-desire.com/newgameplus/index.php/archives/177
Sometimes girls are told that they can’t or shouldn’t play RPGs or video games. But more often, I think, they are told that they don’t. The cultural message is sometimes wrapped in hand-wringing and good intentions, but the underlying assumption beneath “Why don’t girls play video games?” is still “Girls don’t play video games.” Technology in general, but game technology in particular, is viewed as a masculine domain. Girls use computers to word process, send instant messages, make a MySpace profile—but they don’t use them to slay dragons. They just don’t. And it’s a lot harder to see what’s wrong with that argument than a straightforward claim that slaying dragons is not ladylike.
Great point about how technologically savy we are. I won’t spoil the rest of the article: go read it.
www.lake-desire.com/newgameplus/index.php/archives/177