Tuesday, May 22, 2012

The Fight For Equality in the Gaming World

 


I’m sure most, if not all, of you have encountered situations like these at some point in your gaming career. The worst part of this is that this type of behavior isn’t restricted to in-game chat only, but can also be seen on social media sites, such as Twitter. At what point will gamers be accepted across all boards, regardless of gender? 




Now the boys/men who say these things cannot be blamed 100% for this problem. The fact that in most games female characters are rarely portrayed as strong, personable characters, but instead as sexual objects, reinforces this ignorant point of view. In fact, when you search for a list of female characters in video games you will most likely encounter top 10 sexiest lists more than anything else. Male characters are represented in almost the exact opposite way. Sure, we have our Chris Redfield’s of the gaming world that are very pleasing to the female eye, but even characters like these have more depth to their character than their female counterparts. 

 
And then comes along the girls who reinforce, and even crave, this sort of attention by proclaiming to anyone who will listen that they are a ‘girl gamer’. Congrats, would you like a cookie? Emphasizing that you are a girl that does something that is supposed to be a ‘boy hobby’ is a great way lose respect for not only yourself, but your fellow gamers who happen to be female. And while we’re on the subject, there has been a contest recently to find the ‘Maxim Gamer Girl’. Personally, I wouldn’t want to be known in the gaming world simply because I have boobs and a hot body. Morgan Webb and Felicia Day are both well-known and respected in the gaming industry. And imagine this; they did it through hard work and creativity! Amazing! 

In order for equality to be achieved there must be a change in the way girls that game are perceived. They shouldn’t be treated as some rare commodity, but instead as a normal gamer, because they are, after all, just gamers. Until that happens, the ‘fem sheps’ and Alyx Vance’s of the gaming world must continue to bring respect and equality to female gamers and fight the good fight!

2 comments:

  1. In most cases people just like to piss other people off. Some people know you can easily piss some females off by telling them to get back in the kitchen, repeatedly asking for boob pics, and making generally rude remarks. Males get disrespected all the time its just in a different way most of the time because trolls know how to piss people off. With males its typically insults about our mothers, about the size of our dicks, about us being fatasses or generally ugly(although I do know females get those two as well. So there's some equality xP ), ect.

    Female gamers are hit with the "Hey! Send me tit pics!", "Get back in the kitchen", and "Shut up you fat slut" because those are the types of insults that people think typically hurt the worse for females.

    Honestly. If you were trying to piss another female off would you say "Shut up you tiny dick bastard" or would you say something closer to "Shut up you fat ugly slut".

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  2. I agree with gmg about changing gender perceptions, but I'd go further and say it's important to do that beyond video games. When you can treat males and females the same, it opens up the possibility of doubling your potential friend pool. Life is more fun when you're not "on the prowl" all the time.

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