Ok, so we're supposed to post on this blog before Sunday, and, quite honestly, I have no idea what to write. Anything that I feel I could bring up would either be something people have already mentioned/thought about/discussed before, or it would be judged by the hardcore gamers in the class. And I think I get enough of that judgement from my brother (a software engineer that stays up until at least 3am gaming every single night).
I do have to wonder, though, if I have a greater fear of that judgement BECAUSE I'm a girl, and I'm more than aware that, as a girl, I'm more likely to be more harshly judged than a man. I bring this up mostly because I heard two people discussing this earlier today before class. I was also speaking to and IT professional friend of mine about the same thing just the other day. She claimed that, in order to be respected by the IT community, she had to make herself part of the 'boys club', and couldn't come to work with a little extra make-up, heels, or a skirt without being mocked by her colleagues. It made me think about all the posts I constantly see on reddit about girl gamers. Half of them describe male redditor's wishes of 'wifing' a girl gamer, while the other half criticize pretty girls who call themselves 'geeks' or who claim they like 'geeks' for being phonies. Most of the time that just makes me think that these people need to figure out what they really want.
On a more positive note, I have begun to see more and more women seep into sites and communities like reddit, and a lot of them have been gradually wandering outside of r/aww, and have even begun proudly proclaiming themselves as gamers.
It's interesting to see a community that loves to pronounce itself as tolerant and open-minded, suffer through the same issues as our contemporary society had to, in order to reach it's current level of development (which, of course is still far from ideal in many places). Just a thought.
I do agree with your ideas on women in the world of gaming, simply because many people on the internet (Reddit.com, 4chan) state that there are no women on the internet or in the gaming community, and that 'women' are simply men posing in order to gain an advantage off hordes of sexually frustrated teenage boys. This does project a certain level of negativity towards girl gamers as a way to level the playing field. Playing online as a female results in either inappropriate questioning or dismissal as a player because of a lack of a male gaming skill set. Maybe this is all just talk resulting from my last encounter with XboxLive. Hmmmm.
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that video games are anothet thing in society that women are excluded from. Like sports too. And in sports women have to dress in particular clothing that seems to be aimed at a male demographic. Like the volleyball sportswoman. Women should feel free to be involved in video games and online play.
ReplyDeleteSomething I've found interesting about sexism in relation to gaming is the fact that, in my experience, some of the worst comments I will get about being a female gamer are the comments coming from other women.
ReplyDeleteI keep my gender 'secret' (to a degree, I use a cartoony picture of myself as an avatar on online services like Steam, but this is generally assumed to be unrelated to my actual human self) when I play online, which seems to help me dodge any negative remarks on the topic-- but this doesn't work in reality, for obvious reasons.
When the topic of me gaming comes up in person, I often get very confused or negative responses from other women, far more often than men. 'Isn't gaming for boys?', and the like. I have several female gamer friends who deal with the same reactions-- one recently went into an EB Games store in Wellington and was nearly declined service from a female clerk who said that the two games she was purchasing, Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Skyrim, weren't 'meant for girls' and that 'she shouldn't be playing them'.
Sexism in and surrounding gaming definitely isn't just a male thing-- women perpetuate it too, which is more than a little disheartening.
I definitely agree that a lot of women help perpetuate the sexism. Female gamers are ostracized as much by the male gaming community as they are by other women for being 'tomboys', which is rlly quite sad.
ReplyDeleteIt's even worse that, as a girl, you're forced to actually use these cartoony avatars and such, or, in the case of my friend, 'boy herself up', just to be accepted. Kind of makes you think if even WE are perpetuating this sexism by 'accepting' the terms imposed on us.
The cartoony avatar thing is actually just a stylistic choice on my part-- it's the one I'm using here. A friend of mine drew it for me, and I really love her art so I wanted to show my gratitude by using it anywhere I could!
DeleteBut yeah, I'm a little conflicted on how I choose to engage with online gaming. On one hand, I feel like I'm just adding to the notion that 'girls don't play games' by acting the way I do, but then there's the fact that if I was open about my gender, I'd be told I can't be an actual woman, just a man pretending to be one-- or, in the case of mic chat in games, a twelve-year-old boy. Why even bother saying 'hey I'm a lady' if the overwhelming response is going to be 'no, you're a man'?
On the topic of reaction to female gamers online, here's an interesting website to look at: http://fatuglyorslutty.com/. It's a site where women post screenshots of experiences they've had while playing games and being open about their gender, and it showcases fairly well why there are so many people who choose not to. The very fact there's a 'death threat' section says it all.
As neither a female or gamer myself, reading through this post was quite enlightening - and I'm keen to engage with the sexuality & gender content of the course even more so due to this.
ReplyDeleteWomen's exclusion from the face of videogaming is odd. The social connotations of the gamer stereotype aren't 'typically' masculine in my view. While gaming is surely dominated by males and therefore constitutes SOME KIND of masculinity, it isn't hyper-masculine, it is typically masculine even though it's commonly taken up by males. Its activity that mostly occurs domestically, most (social) interaction is mediated rather than face-to-face and is therefore arguably caught between public & private.
Yet at the same time gaming and game content isn't typically feminine. From the space and sport themed pioneering texts, to the popularity of car related and war based games of more recent times, videogame content is occupied with action, movement, exploration and obviously, competition. In the realm of GENERALISATION AND STEREOTYPING, these aren't connotations of femininity. My point is that despite the judgement and discrimination upon female gamers, even from other Women as commentators have described, gaming isn't clearly associated with either masculinity or femininity alone.
It's a tricky one to get your head around, and makes me wonder what has led to this entrenchment of gamers as guys.
As a note, please forgive my caps-lock shouting, I'm trying to be clear that I'm referring to circulated connotations of sexuality that uphold gender discrimination, they're not expressions of my own opinion.