Comments on: Yes, there are women in gaming… and some of them have Y chromosomes

By: ftfisher

ftfisher — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:16:39 +0000

Jayle Enn:

I honestly fail to see how this view of the author’s intent makes any difference in how I should view him and his document?

It relies upon ridiculous, sexist assumptions about women, their general competence and effectiveness, and their presence in geek and gaming culture. And rather than combat those stereotypes, the author of this document says, hey dudes, *you* can use these to your advantage! If your avatar’s female and you act helpless, you can get people trade with you that wouldn’t otherwise.

There is a very interesting discussion to be had over using sexist assumptions against those who have them vs. combating and challenging them. But frankly that’s a discussion that women should be having — and this isn’t a discussion at all; what is described is the outright and unreserved advocation of the use of sexist assumptions in such a manner as to perpetuate them. And it further sounds as though the sexist assumptions being used are explicitly carried by the author of the document: of *course* if a woman were playing the game, she’d be helpless and confused! So convince men you’re actually are a woman being being helpless and confused.

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By: Jayle Enn

Jayle Enn — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 15:01:51 +0000

“The author of this particular document didn’t seem to realise either that some of the players might actually be female or that females are not generally helpless and pathetic.”
Not to defend the author of that guide, but it seems to me that he’s advising the trader to manipulate a common (and ridiculous) assumption among the player base, rather than showing an insight into his own psychology. That whole ‘no girls on the Internet’ meme has its roots in the assumption that computers are still a boy thing, and too complicated for Little Suzy Bank-Sitter to handle effectively. The (presumed) boy gets a chance to open a metaphoric pickle jar for the (presumed) girl, showing off his ability to virtually provide.

By: Jonquil

Jonquil — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:57:24 +0000

Well said. The bit about voice and gender must be the cherry on the cake.

Tell me about female @ in rogue? The letter “e” looks female to me (it’s a Wicked Queen), but “@”, not so much.

By: Cesy

Cesy — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 10:57:15 +0000

Thanks for posting this. It highlighted some intersectionality issues I hadn’t really thought about before.

By: Meg Thornton

Meg Thornton — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:19:50 +0000

I tend to stay out of the social aspect of MMOs, mainly because timezone issues (Zone GMT +8) mean I tend to be playing when most of the other participants are either asleep or at work, but certainly I can speak about the whole “there are no girls in gaming” thing. I’m a cis-woman who plays mostly female characters, and I occasionally get annoyed with being presumed to be male in chat (I can remember one episode in WoW where a trash-talking nitwit tried to insult my assumed masculinity by calling me “gay” and got disconcerted when I revealed, no, I was female, and my choosing to ogle masculine characters was absolutely heterosexual all the way – cue idiot retiring, metaphoric tail between their legs, as the rest of zone chat bursts out laughing). It doesn’t happen very often for me (I tend to solo – see timezone issues above) since I try to avoid the question of gender identity online most of the time (cis- privilege, I know). I’ve never attempted to hide the fact I identify as female (and that I have all the physiological features which cause society at large to agree with this identification) in any of my online interactions, so I get just a little bit annoyed when someone I don’t know tells me I’m wrong about my gender.

Then again, I’m 38, and have been playing computer games since about the age of 18 (and got hooked on them a good three years before that), so I suppose I’m used to being regarded as non-existent by the gaming industry (as a woman, as a woman who plays computer games, as a woman who buys computer games, and as a person over the age of 18 who admits to playing and buying computer games). I keep a half an eye on the blogs of a few friends who are more seriously interested in gaming than I (I like it, but not enough to read the gaming websites or buy the magazines) and try to avoid the more egregious examples of overt sexism in gaming.

By: koipond

koipond — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 04:44:53 +0000

*applause*