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.


Note - This is a cross post from Gaming:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12113611

[ismnotwasm]

1. I like this

Showing how the original list can be modified to point out privilege, is an excellent idea. Privilege is apparently, a difficult concept for many people, when it's race or gender.

It's NOT interestingly enough, a difficult concept when it comes to class or wealth. The whole 1% movement is based on wealthy privilege, yet many of those who rail against inequities in economics systems, refuse to see it in gender or race. This is something that has baffled me for some time-- although it shouldn't, not really.

Gamers, the ones I know, seem to be 'nice guys' so when this came to my attention a while back, again I was baffled, and again, I shouldn't have been. Hearing the stories of women games breaking into the boys room and what they encountered just shows how insidious it all is. How sexism and racism is threaded into the culture of our society, until it considered a 'norm'

That's not to say we haven't improved, but we have a very long way to go.

[ismnotwasm]

2. Then of course there's the comic book rock that's been turned over

The Murrieta, California-based company was thrust into the spotlight this week after a photo taken at WonderCon Anaheim of one of its T-shirt designs — “I Like Fangirls How I Like My Coffee [...] I Hate Coffee” — was posted on Twitter, drawing intense criticism from fans and creators alike. Allison Baker, MonkeyBrain Comics co-founder and a CBR columnist, pointed to the image as an example of “what chauvinism looks like,” while writer Greg Rucka unleashed his fury on both the person selling the shirt and those who support its sentiment: “What in the name of everlovingfuck is the matter with you?”

In a Facebook post responding to “some bad word on our fan girl shirt,” Tankhead insists “a certain few bloggers” who have accused the company of sexism “completely ignored our other variant shirt on display or didn’t even bother to ask our take on it.” The statement is accompanied by a photo of a similar T-shirt that replaces “Fangirls” with “Fanboys.”


The design has been available since May 2013, according to this Facebook post, which states “text can be changed, it does not necessarily have to say fan girls. It can be changed to anything you want.” However, only the “Fangirls” version appears on the company’s website, alongside several other shirts featuring guns, soldiers and gorillas with guns.

“Apparently it’s only sexism if it is insulting to one gender,” Tankhead states. “Woo double standards.”

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2014/04/company-defends-fangirls-t-shirt-claims-double-standards/

[TBF]

3. Interesting article -

I've encouraged my tween with her gaming - she loves playing Minecraft in particular. She has her PC setup, a You Tube channel, and is quite an extrovert so she is often on-line interfacing with other kids about the game. I actually like her preference for Skype because we can just walk in her room and see who she is playing with (it is nice to see other 10 or 12 year old faces rather than worry there is a 45-yr old on the other end or something) - and my husband has gotten into playing w/her when he gets home from work.

I was thinking win-win in terms of her being able to enter this field as an adult because she has a very positive attitude "I want to have my own gaming company mom" - and it looks like the wave of the future. I guess I shouldn't be surprised to see these gender issues pop up though because we do hear that a lot of the current gaming execs (like Zuckerberg for example) may give to some progressive causes but at heart they are libertarian. So I will have to prepare her for what she might face.

As you might expect she is no shrinking violet though - she has a little bit of my personality in her

[seabeyond]

4. " I will have to prepare her" i hear more mothers, never a father, more mothers say this when

talking about mens issues. mens issues, that girls have to be prepared for. mens issues, that girls have to learn this is what a man is.

that makes me sick. literally. makes me sick. every time i hear a mother say it

i get that you have to PREPARE your daughter. i get that. it is disgusting that we have to PREPARE our daughters for mans abuse.

[TBF]

5. I agree -

we say it because we fear that the environment will not change. But I hear you and you're 100% correct - it is the environment that these men (and sometimes women) created that needs to change.

[seabeyond]

6. and sometimes women. i am really just staying in fist raised mode, the last

handful of days.

in our face

so fuckin

in our face

the upside, cause i always live in the upside. it makes it damn clear. damn easy.