Posted by: Kurosaki_Kun
I know, right?
Jay acts like she's better than everyone else simply because she's a chick.
I hope she chokes to death.
I think this is within the rules. If it isn't, I guess I'll find out. But it's not about politics or religion, so here goes.
Female gamers are not actually rare - I believe estimates run as high as 50% of gamers being women, which makes sense when you consider that women also make up slightly more than 50% of the planet's population. But online, they're treated as a rarity or a novelty (at best), or as a kind of freakshow (at worst). Why?
Plenty of Floodians have made threads in the past bemoaning the lack of women online; however, this is not, in fact, the case. There isn't even a dearth of "geeky" women online - they just congregate in different kinds of fan spaces, where the discussion is less polarised, more intellectual, and perhaps, dare I say it, less blatantly sexist than what you might find on forums like this. Which is not to say that female geeks don't love talking about games - they do! But by and large, they do it in spaces where they don't have to deal with their gender becoming more of a talking point than, well, their actual talking points. And there's a good reason for that.
Now, I like this community, and I like plenty of other communities, both online and offline, that are predominantly male. But every girl who chooses to participate in such a community knows there's a trade-off - an increase in discussions that might be more exciting, more polarising, in nature for the instant surrender of one's personhood as a new point of discussion and debate. There are ways to avoid this - not declaring one's gender, for example, or not posting photos or video online. But both of those only go so far (for example, it's hard to hide who you are come PAX time) - and besides, why should any girl have to hide?
This is a question I've been asked many times - if I don't like the heat that comes with revealing my identity online, why do it? The thing is, why should that have to be a consideration? Shouldn't girls be able to reveal just as much of themselves as boys do - which, yes, sometimes includes posting photos or videos! - without having to face scrutiny that, let's face it, male gamers just don't have to undergo? Some guy can post a picture of his wicked awesome Chief cosplay and nobody will comment on whether or not he's big and muscular enough to properly play the part, but if a girl posts a picture of her Cortana cosplay, that suddenly opens her up to commentary about everything from her appearance to whether or not she's really a hardcore fan or just some girl tagging along with the boys for attention.
Stop for a second and ask yourself - even if that is her intention, who cares? Plenty of guys post online for attention. People do that all the time. People like attention - that's how people are. If a girl chooses to dress up because her costume will get attention, why is that even a talking point? Do you think guys cosplay with the hope that nobody will notice the care and effort they put into their outfits? Attention is nice no matter what gender you are. So if a girl posts for attention - and sure, plenty of us do, guilty as charged, whatever - does that automatically make any of her contributions invalid, or mean she should be fair game for the kinds of commentary we'd deem socially unacceptable in real life?
Girls in male spaces online are a kind of commodity - their identities are considered fair game for discussion, speculation, analysis and straight-out dragging through the mud. It doesn't seem to matter what they look like or what they post, whether they're after attention or just want to play some [insert game here] - for some reason, their girlhood (or womanhood, either way) is seen as something with intrinsic value, either good or bad, that somehow supersedes a lot of their contributions. I'm trying to think of a female gamer I know who hasn't at some point had to weather some kind of criticism based solely on her gender, and I can't. Maybe some of them get it more than others, but they all get it. And whatever you think about those girls as people - and I'll admit, there are some I like more or less than others, that's just how people are - do they really deserve a huge part of their identities to be used as a kind of online barter chip, just because they happen to be girls who like games, instead of guys who do?
I guess someone's going to tell me I'm taking this too seriously, or that I'm not allowed to have this kind of opinion because I post for attention. You're entitled to that opinion (though you're wrong, sorry!). I do think gender politics are something worth examining and discussing, especially when they skew so heavily in one direction. A thread about the attractiveness of male posters just wouldn't get that kind of traction - except maybe for its novelty value. I'm not saying that I condone the objectification of men to match that of women - actually, I'm heavily opposed to that, nobody deserves to be treated like an object. I'm asking why we so readily objectify some people over something that is an intrinsic part of them that makes them no more or less valuable than anyone else, when doing so actively detracts from the contributions those people might have to make - and from the quality of the communities in which they choose to engage.
Just a thought.