Post by leunas on Jan 30, 2007 18:20:46 GMT -5
In A Girl Gamer Diary, Sapphire discusses some of the sexism she encounters frequently as a gaming woman.
This is an example of women being expected to hide a part of herself that isn’t the norm in gamer culture, something so crucial to her identity: her gender. The examples of harassment in her post–being called fat, accused of being a young boy, requests to see her breasts (i.e. demands of sexual access)–are punishments women receive from male gamers for stepping outside of the norm for being women and being open about it. And the people issuing the punishment blame women, like it’s our fault for refusing to behave the ways they demand of us.
In a game where TeamSpeak is crucial to utilizing the game, hiding your gender is a very tangible setback–and another way women have to work harder to prove they’re as good at gaming as men.
I don’t agree with Sapphire’s point that every woman who is “out” about her gender (isn’t that silly we have to come out?) has experienced harassment, but I think this article is pretty on-point with describing one way gender dynamics play out in gamer culture.
Faith also responds to Sapphire’s post on The Girl Gamer, and points out that a lot of the sexist lines come from behind a computer screen where it’s harder to get your @$$ kicked. I agree: the internet doesn’t require the tact real life requires to hide wankery. The hateful things people say to attack Faith really piss me off–people seem like they go after her gender like it’s a weakness or something.
Faith writes:
I disagree here–I don’t think that this has to be the accepted standard for how people act in online games. Rather than develop a thicker skin (which I’m not especially blessed with), I’d rather hold men to a higher standard–I expect more out of them as decent human beings.
www.lake-desire.com/newgameplus/index.php/archives/204
The worst thing I’ve ever been told by someone was that I shouldn’t talk in my microphone if I don’t want that kind of attention, and that it’s just being brought upon myself. I’ve never felt so insulted, because it was like telling me that I’m not aloud to be myself. When I play my video games, I’m not thinking about the fact that I’m the only girl playing on the server. I’m thinking about the objectives, my score, and winning. So I’m going to use my microphone to tell my team mates where I’ve seen the enemies, or where the bomb has fallen, strategies and such. I encourage my team, and cheer when we win. How is that looking for attention? It’s just part of the game.
This is an example of women being expected to hide a part of herself that isn’t the norm in gamer culture, something so crucial to her identity: her gender. The examples of harassment in her post–being called fat, accused of being a young boy, requests to see her breasts (i.e. demands of sexual access)–are punishments women receive from male gamers for stepping outside of the norm for being women and being open about it. And the people issuing the punishment blame women, like it’s our fault for refusing to behave the ways they demand of us.
In a game where TeamSpeak is crucial to utilizing the game, hiding your gender is a very tangible setback–and another way women have to work harder to prove they’re as good at gaming as men.
I don’t agree with Sapphire’s point that every woman who is “out” about her gender (isn’t that silly we have to come out?) has experienced harassment, but I think this article is pretty on-point with describing one way gender dynamics play out in gamer culture.
Faith also responds to Sapphire’s post on The Girl Gamer, and points out that a lot of the sexist lines come from behind a computer screen where it’s harder to get your @$$ kicked. I agree: the internet doesn’t require the tact real life requires to hide wankery. The hateful things people say to attack Faith really piss me off–people seem like they go after her gender like it’s a weakness or something.
Faith writes:
So whether they are bagging on their team for losing and calling them a bunch of f@g5 or bagging on you and telling you that girl gamers suck, its just how they play. Don’t take what they say personally, because they are just saying the first obvious thing they can bag on you about like sexuality or gender.
I disagree here–I don’t think that this has to be the accepted standard for how people act in online games. Rather than develop a thicker skin (which I’m not especially blessed with), I’d rather hold men to a higher standard–I expect more out of them as decent human beings.
www.lake-desire.com/newgameplus/index.php/archives/204