Playing with privilege: the invisible benefits of gaming while male

[Ohio Joe]

Over the course of the past two years I’ve had the opportunity to serve as producer on the Tropes vs Women in Video Games web series. During that time, I have been taken aback by the intense and often abusive reaction to the project.

This backlash, along with a number of other recent high-profile harassment incidents targeting women, has highlighted sexism in the gaming community and brought the issue to wider public and media attention.

One particularly astounding theme I’ve noticed running through online discussions surrounding these incidents has been a consistent denial that there is any real problem with the way women are treated in gaming. Despite the abundance of evidence, I’ve seen many of my fellow male gamers, in comment thread after comment thread, dismiss the issue as "no big deal" and insist that everyone is essentially treated the same.

The fact that a great number of women have been speaking out about how they experience prejudice, alienation or worse on a fairly regular basis seems to hold little weight.

http://www.polygon.com/2014/4/23/5640678/playing-with-privilege-the-invisible-benefits-of-gaming-while-male

The author runs through a pretty solid list in the article that anyone reading with honesty will have to agree with. I love gaming... I'm 50 now and I've been gaming since I was a kid but there are aspects that I have always wished would mature in the industry as I've matured... Some have... Some have not... This is one that has not moved even one little bit.

It's a shame.

[Egnever]

1. You would have to have an extremely thick skin

to be a female gamer and admit it. There are thousands of females playing male chars just to avoid being hassled I am quite sure.


It has always been the realm of the high testosterone low empathy crowd.

[eShirl]

2. not really

nobody believes me when I I say I am female in real life, too. It's all "Yeah right" "He's a dude" "There are no females in WOW" etc

[Egnever]

3. there is that

but talk on team speak...

[DavidG_WI]

4. Why would you

Tell anyone what gender you really are? In any of the multiplayer games I've played people playing as female chars are at a massive advantage if they can half convincingly sext idiots as they will literally throw items and currency at them resulting in them being able to not have to grind nearly as much for items an currency.

Gamers playing male chars don't have that option. The only thing you couldn't openly be was homosexual as the masses of 12 year olds would never drop it while the older gamers like myself couldn't care less.

It's like trolling, trolls get bored very quickly and move on if you ignore them. Want to be left alone? Don't give out information. Want to join a group where you you have to reveal your gender? Find a clan of generally older people to join instead of a random clan of kids going for pure numbers. The clans I've always stuck with are small, full of older gamers that wanted to play a more coordinated game with players that actually ha half a clue about what they where doing.

As I tell everyone that complains about sexism in the gaming community, there are a few simple laws of the internet:

1.) All men on the internet are men

2.) All women on the internet are men

3.) All children on the internet are the FBI

4.) Trolls are a fact of life as proven by John Gabriel's "Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory" http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19/

If you follow these rules as the truths that they are then you'll never run into a problem with anyone that isn't directly of your own creation.

[Betty88]

5. I joined an all female guild

Every woman in the guild is there because we are sick and tired of the crap from the kids and when I say this that age can go into the 20's that are just so stupid they will ruin the game for you. One person, in the game I currently play, in Zone chat, does nothing but talk about rape. What the hell? I read it just to get to know thy enemy sort of thing then block like 5 or 6 people for just being complete asses. They think it makes them cool to get a reaction, trolls suck. I know its a game to them but I don't pay $15 a month to be disgusted by ignorance.

[hollysmom]

6. my oproblem even on mild games is that women are rarely given non-sexy chothes

I asked on one game site if they could just give me jeans and a t shirt that didn't' cling and got laughed off - this is a game mostly played by women

But that is a minor issue. I would just not like to look like a prostitute

[retrowire]

9. My wife and I totally agree with your sentiment there.

It's so damn difficult to find a game where women are just portrayed modestly. I'm not against women dressing however they want, but it's not something I care to see all the time and it can make my wife and I uncomfortable.

[JonLP24]

7. If this is about online gaming

I would never even want to talk to anyone, just play the game. I used to post a Yahoo Cisco message board (no one talked about Cisco) & it was horrible. I enjoyed the debates at first but it was just way too ridiculous with all the "KKKlinton" & "lib dem coward" posts I'm certain they experience it & everything else an open online community would entail.

[Odin2005]

10. The GamerGators have made me ashamed of being a gamer.

[KatyaR]

11. I think most gamers don't get it.

I am a 60-year-old woman who doesn't play (except solo Minecraft) but I like to watch gameplay on Twitch. The vast majority of gamers, and I'm including the really terrific ones that I watch, rarely seem to even realize that there could be women watching their streams. I use the same name on Twitch that I do on DU (KatyaR) and pretty much no one acknowledges me as female. That, plus the all of the sexual talk and gameplay (rainbow penises in the air in Minecraft--really?) leaves me really frustrated. I've limited my viewing of some of my favorite streamers because I can't handle the talk.

I think the topper was the PUBG competition during TwitchCon; afterwards, one of the lurkers in a chat commented on "how nice it was to see so many women participating." Not five minutes later, the chat was throwing sexual innuendo around like it was nothing.