Female Gamers: An Unpopular Opinion

[CargoHold]

Okay. Although a somewhat twisted point, it's still a point. Why can't men hit girls. Girls can hit men, yet it doesn't work vice versa (I've always wanted to say that)... Think about it to yourself. Yes if so, why? If not, why not? Explain your answer. This assignment is due after cla- What?

Because women are GENERALLY physically weaker than guys, and therefore less able to defend themselves. Or so it goes.

What you should have said is that men are supposed to be physically stronger than women, and women are supposed to be more emotionally intelligent than men, so why is it more acceptable for a woman to manipulate a man than it is for a man to hit a woman?

Eh, it's all very stereotyped and not very relevant, anyway.

 

[khaimera]

This debate is going well and its time for me to chime in. I actually disagree with the OP and many of the people here who try to make the argument that gender doesn't matter. In the real world its a fact that female gamers in many games are statistcially less. Thus, their gender becomes something that can stick out in their own mind and ours. Why shouldn't female gamers be proud of who they are. We all do it based on whatever group we identify with.

Those who say that gender doesn't matter are living in this made up utopia where people dont see gender or COLOR. People who look at a black person and say they dont have the automatic thought "that person is black" are deluding themselevs. Its how our brain works and organizes info. We all see color.

I do agree that gender or any singular aspect of a person shodul not be the sole basis of perosnality or even online persona. But to say it doesn't matter, I think is not correct. It matters simply becuase it a major part of who a person is.

Also, in another controversial statement. I think that eaqual rights will never happen. It should, but it won't. Society has been set up in a way that power will remain where it always has, and sadly thats not with women.

 

[khaimera]

half the time i cant tell the difference between the 15 year old boy and the 15 year old girl while playing xbox. they both sound the same on the internet, so i dont care, either way i dont wana be your friend.

personally id like one day where i don't have to listen to some guy from the UK talk down about the USA...

This man speaks the truth. I have had both of tehse thoughts at some point. Its like "is this a girl or just soemone whose voice hasnt changed. While what you are saying is off topic, sort of. It made me laugh alot.

I also agree about the UK thing, its getting old.

 

[ThatStrangeDude]

Psh, they shouldn't be busy playing games - It'll keep them from making sandwiches for us and fetching us beer and stuff.

... Nah I'm just kiddin' - Or am I!?

 

[Wolfram23]

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I agree with this but the OP made more points than just the showing your gender in your name thing. I don't think it's anyway wrong or bad or being an "attention whore" to have a username like WonderGirl or whatever, but a large problem is that many girls (at least in MMOs) use their gender as a tool to get what they want. This is in no way exclusive to gaming, of course. Anyone who's been to a club knows what I mean. I can literally count how many times a random girl has offered to buy me a drink: once. But girls can spend an entire night out get smashed and not spend a dime if they just wear heels and show some cleavage. Unfortunately, that sort of girl is really just perpetuating and aggravating the situation. Then again, so are the boys who faun over these girls. I don't believe in complete equality of the genders simply because we are very biologically different - different strengths, weaknesses and general tendancies. However, I very much oppose using one's gender as a tool to manipulate others. And I don't think there's really anything that is "boys only" or "girls only".

In the end, it is what it is. Just try to make sure you act respectfully towards others and yourself, it makes it a lot harder to be manipulated. And if manipulation stops working so damn well, like most obsolete things it'll eventually die off and go away... but I doubt that'll happen anytime soon.

 

[Jennacide]

I agree, and to be completely honest, most female gamers don't call attention to it. I've noticed there are two types that do: attention whores(I hate that word, but it applies here) and frauds. They're pretty similar actually, both desperately want attention for whatever reason, with one actually caring about games and the other one just caring about them to get people to talk to them. Example of attention whores, the Suicide Girls, that want to look like thier super free spirits and such, but they really just want people to look at them like they are special.

Most of us call little to no attention to it, as it's more trouble than it's worth. In WoW I had to go through 3 raid guilds before I found one that didn't have guys hitting on me after I said two words in Ventrilo. The same reason I never talk on XBL.

Oh, and for those wondering about the slightly obvious female screen name I have, it was mostly taken as a joke when my brother made fun of names like the ones used by the Frag Dolls and such, and made this one up. It got a chuckle out of me so I used it for a while, and it stuck. Jenna isn't even any part of my name, lol.

 

[The Maddest March Hare]

Yep, in the same way as racial equality has slipped the other way and we now have to sing things like "baa baa rainbow sheep", gender equality has slipped into forcing one gender or the other into the spotlight. They just won't share, it's either male focused and disgustingly chauvinistic, or female focused and horrifyingly feminist, and gamer girls are now being told that it makes them somehow better than men just because they game when it's just not true, they're no different, unless of course they're actually more talented than the men they're facing in a multiplayer match >_>

The problem is, put a girl in a bikini and hand her a controller and a large number of lonely gamer men will put her on a plinth and hail her as queen of their culture within seconds. There's no way of getting around the fact that when you hand a lonely geek stereotype an attractive woman in skimpy clothing he's going to be thinking with his pants, and until we can find a way to calm the libido of 80% of the populace, this gender imbalance will continue.

 

[AgentNein]

People who go out of their way to advertsise their gender, are contributing to the problem. If you are a 80 Troll Hunter named "Femalegamer"... then youre not lobbying for equality. Youre making your gender a part of who you are.

Reality check, your gender is a huge part of who you are, and if a female wants to andvertise it thus, it is her expressed right to do so. You speak of wanting equality? Then would you go and accuse a male gamer for making an avatar or character called CoolGuy5000 as pushing his gender.... probably not. It's people that feel the same way that you do that are bringing issues like this to the surface and making them seem like some social disorder needing to be fixed. It honestly doesn't, and I think poeple who feel this way are just uninteresting individuals with lives that are not what they wanted them to be.... so they go out and create these problems to feel like they matter as an individual or use it as a way to reach out to others just as equally uninteresting.

Also, being a gamer has nothing to with with women being hounded by men. They are approached and hit on by guys all the time, whether it's in a game, at the mall, in a bar, or at the bookstore, men are going to flock to them no matter the setting. We guys are in a constant state of arousal all the time, it's biological.... and no amount of bitching and pointing the spotlight is going to change that. It's our lot dealt by evolution.

Lastly, men and women aren't equal anyways. Neither is better or worse then the other, we're just different, you know this.... I know this.... everyone knows this, and the people that deny it are just delusional. Because If we were completely equal, we wouldn't have the intensity in the interaction between the sexes, we would be able to predict one another all the time and life would be boring and people would be lame and uninteresting. It's our differances that make us so intriguing to one another, it's what makes the whole battle of the sexes so interesting and exciting. And the people that want these great things to be no more are just sad people not willing or brave enough to put themselves out there and embrace life the way it is.

QFT. This guy knows what's up.

 

[r3er]

The real problem isn't the attention whoring girls, it's the pathetic guys who feed them. This is due because most of the hardcore gamer guys are filthy fat losers who, cannot talk to women in real life, and thus with their pseudo anonymous persona can act out all their fantasies. In short, get a life guys. Chicks online aren't going to give it up, and frankly most of them are ugly/fatties and masters of the myspace photo angles.

 

[khaimera]

Those who say that gender doesn't matter are living in this made up utopia where people dont see gender or COLOR. People who look at a black person and say they dont have the automatic thought "that person is black" are deluding themselevs. Its how our brain works and organizes info. We all see color.

I agree with this, but mainly, I wanted to quote this, so I can expand on this further. I think we all know people label things. That ball is bright red. The car is a Honda. That man is black. She is white. And so on. But I feel when people say that gender doesn't matter, they don't mean it in a literal sense; I know I don't! I think what they are trying to say is that they don't judge a human being based on their gender or color. Certainly I don't think it is delusional that I do not make assumptions such as:

"Oh, she is a very pretty girl. I bet you she's stuck up!"

"That black man is listening to Clipse; he must be a drug dealer! I'd better cross to the other side of the street to avoid potential conflict!"

"That Asian guy looks smart. I bet he's good at math!"

So yes, I agree with what you are saying; I just think when people don't mean it in a literal sense when they say that gender (or color) doesn't matter. Perhaps I am stating the obvious? Perhaps, but I see this being said a lot, so I thought I'd finally add in my two cents on the matter.

Many thanks to your post, good sir! I usually don't participate in slight deeper discussions like this one, but I figured since I'm sitting at 99 posts, I thought I'd make the 100th a little special.

Thanks for teh kind words. I think you're right about me taking the arguments too literally. I just get frustarted with all of this color blindness and PC junk that people delude themsleevs into thinking is possible. This makes sense psychologically though since it helps us feel better about ourselves and I think its unconscious atonement for past racial injustices.

Also, yesterday we had a training on multiculteral compentency at work so this is all fresh in my mind. My supervisor, an older balck lady said, "I don't want you to see me as just a woman, but as a black woman, its who I am and Im proud of it". This really changed the way I was looking at race and helped me understand that the world is not colorblind or genderblind (word?).

So I still think that female gamers are entitled to feel proud of being a female gamer, they just shoudln't make it the basis for who they are and should be treated equally. Should being the key word.


Congrats on post 100. I'm working my way to 1000. I need to plan something for it

 

[Hattman]

I just realized that the screen name I use the most is Hattman/Manhatt. But I don't really think that just that enforce the "no gurls on the internetz lololol" idea. Hell,one of the people I have played alot with is a girl. And she kicks ass as Scout in Tf2.

Also,the OP might have one the best first posts I've ever seen!

 

[CheckD3]

The problem with the whole "women in gaming" thing is that any woman IN a game is actually hurtful to them most of the time. Sure you have Samus Aran, a woman who most guys didn't know was a woman until they beat the game, and throughout time she's proven she can fight just as good as anyone while still remaining true to her gender, and is considered pretty to most with a reasonable sized body, even if she's recently been depicted in a skin tight suit, that's beside the point. You have her, but then you have Laura Croft. The problem with her is that she's got unreasonable large curves that were meant to draw in the male demographic, so much that men sometimes will hold a light to her and say that's what women need to look like.

The problem is that women in gameing are either unreasonable looking to the point that you say to the women in gaming "why don't YOU look like that?', or you have a character who tries to play "tough girl" but ends up being just an obnoxious ************ who is unlikeable in any way in the least.

The reason it gets attention is that games are designer for the male demographic. Most games out there involve some sort of killing, and a lot of war games. I'm not saying that women are all flowers and sunshine and peace, but not all of them want to be hardcore gun enthusiasts with an ego that is only matched in size by their gun.

Gears of War is an example of a game with NO playable females. However, I read an article in the latest Gameinformer that had the creators of Gears explain that the reason no girls are fighting along side the men like they used to in the Pendulum war days is that the men fight as a gear and the women make more. When you have a dying race, the gender that carries and has the children is most important, and there you have a reasonable explanation why there are no girls

It's always going to be a topic with debate, because no matter what, men will always be a little more equal in the grand scheme of things than women (I'm not trying to be sexist or a jerk, it's the truth over). Sure, in the overall in most areas we are equal, but there are still problems that have difference occur.

In summary, gaming girls are out there, and we need to be sure to welcome them in with the praise they deserve. I agree that we need more co-ops in games, with women that aren't total bitches or only serve to be the male leads slut. There is need for change to make the industry co-op without sacrificing anything to do so. The problem is, for every kick-ass girl gamer out there who is just as strong at a game than the guys are, there are about 3 girls who would rather play tea set and sew while wearing almost no clothes and shoving their curves in the faces of males...to exaggerate the analogy

 

[Nemu]

This post is meant to say... Youre a female gamer? Who cares? Dont break sheep pls.

Myth

First off, I'm a healer, I don't break sheep.


Also, girls are only "special" in games because, for years, you boys were so dumbfounded by the notion of girls even knowing what a video game WAS, that you made us special.


Seriously, I don't call out the fact that I'm a woman when I play MMOs, in fact, I'd rather you not know, cos god knows I'm tired of getting "hi, wanna cyber?" tells/whispers/wtfever.

95% of the time, people find out I'm a woman when they hear me on vent.

 

[Raikov]

I think some of you may be thinking about this in the wrong way. It's not the differences in people that are being discussed, it's the privileges people get just for being what they are.

All humans are different, are perceived differently from different persons, and perceive the world differently. I sure don't want to be considered and labeled the same as a professional black female tennis player, and I'm sure she does not want to be labeled as an unemployed white guy that likes games. We are totally different persons and will make different choices in life and have different opportunities.

It's when one persons are considered to be of more worth (this sounds really ugly, but is is the hard truth) than another just because he/she, black/white, young/old or homo/hetero is part of a minority.

As far as I know, the only place this is not a very real issue is in sports. If there is a white guy in an all-black basketball team, do you think the white dude is playing just because "It would look better if we had more diversity"? Hell no! In sports, you earn your place by skill and hard work.

Outside of sports, everyone that is not part of the 'general population' of any given area is getting special treatment, never mind if that person fits in or have the right experience or whatever.

And it's pissing me off.

 

[Eggsnham]

As a male, its genetically written into my code to have a certain interest in the "fairer" sex.

Orly? Link to article supporting your assertion plz.

It is genetically written into *most* guys to like girls. He wasn't wrong to state that. If you're gay, then your DNA is slightly diferent and his statement doesn't apply to you. No harm done. OP: I can't say I agree with you on saying that we hold girls at a higher standard (at least not on The Escapist) on the internet. Or maybe I just don't pay attention to things like that.

If you are going to claim that homosexuality is even partially caused by your genome then you need to support that, too.

I should have guessed by 'Eukaryote' that you're a biology buff. Well, most leading theories for why homosexuality occurs have something to do with a slightly different genome. I'm not going to cite sources, because you obviously have a working internet connection.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I think a huge part of the problem stems from the unworkable idea that we're all equal.

We're not all equal, we're different and have different desires, needs and natural abilities.

However we should all be seen as equally valuable, and of course that means not pushing women or minorities forward, but allowing them a fair chance along with the pasty white guys.

As for my personal experience, as it's not really something that can be argued, except that maybe it's not a typical one, I've never met a female gamer that tried to use that fact in any way. As a gamer of about 20 years and a WOW player of 4, my time in WOW has gained me some great female guild members, who, if anything, just seem to be calmed and more willing to take it easy and help others than the males. (not knocking you guys in my guild btw, some of you are great too!)

 

[Chaos-Spider]

Is this really an unpopular opinion? Because I completely agree with you.

I'd prefer to think of myself as a gamer, not a girl gamer - because, really, it doesn't matter.

As long as we (read: women) set ourselves apart as being different, or special, from men, we can't possibly hope for equality (on that topic... why does there have to exist an "International Women's Day"? That actually kinda bothers me)

I think that the international women's day is meant to be a day celebrating the rights women in developed nations have achieved so far as well as an acknowledgement of the work that still needs to be done in order to achieve global gender equality.

I don't think I've seen the culture that the Op describes on the escapist though.

 

[Babitz]

Personally, I don't give a crap. I hate it when guys are drooling like they've never met a girl before. This applies both ingame and on forums (though I haven't seen it on this one).

 

[wildpeaks]

It's funny how the OP doesn't like attention whores yet does the same within his first two posts on the site.

So, you're a guy gamer. So what ?