Part 3: Resentment and Rejection
There's a whole stew of simmering resentment inherent in the whole “fake geek girl” argument, and a lot of it has bubbled, ugly and stinking, to the surface, embodied quite neatly in this image. It presumes that women haven't been in the gaming trenches, with all the social stigma that once entailed (and may still entail), and only now do they want entry into the hallowed Land of Geekdom. Whereas male gamers have suffered the slings and arrows of a culture that named them uncool since the dawn of gaming (circa 1995, apparently?), we girls only hopped onboard rather recently, when gaming had become more mainstream and accepted by the jocks who once cruelly tormented them.
Secondly, it figures women as being responsible for the rejection and mockery of male gamers for their hobby, calling them “losers” and, obviously, rejecting them as as potential romantic partners. Women, to the author of this charming illustration are of the stereotypical Mean Girl archetype, the shallow but pretty girl from every after-school special ever who taunts the geeky hero of our tale.
I am sorry if, at one point in your life, a woman rejected you because you are a gamer. It seems a poor, and lonely choice, to resent an entire gender and their enjoyment of a shared passion because of it.
In high school, a very Catholic boy broke up with me because I played D&D. He thought it was unbearably geeky, and his parents were convinced it was Satanic, and so after a brief romance he dumped me quite unspectacularly. I'm hardly going to resent every table top gaming man because of it for the rest of my life, even (especially!) those who came to it later that I did.
Next, it assumes that all women came to gaming late (apparently when Portal was released, as that apparently marks the moment that Women Discovered Video Games in the master gaming timeline).Then suddenly, the floodgates opened and the girls came pouring in. We suddenly got the jokes, and wanted to be a part of the culture they had shunned so long. And the poor male gamers, so used to their private bastion of gaming discourse, did not want to share.
Finally, it assumes that once women suddenly appeared on the scene in the middle of the aughts, they looked around at gaming and decided that Things Had To Change. There is so much resentment dripping from those final lines I can smell the toxic fumes. The suggestion that games should “cater” to women is levied as a grave insult, a completely unreasonable demand placed on the industry. It positions men as the de-facto owners of video games, the ones who have loved them the longest and best, and therefore the only ones qualified to dictate the form and content games take on in the future. Women who presume to ask for games that appeal to them are simply overstepping their boundaries, as newcomers who should simply respect how things are and not seek out growth and change.
The argument is so petty and small that, as soon as you can see it clearly, it seems to shrivel up in shame.
Part 4: Move The Hell Over
Once those fallacies are cleared away, and we can see that women becoming interested in gaming is in fact a positive thing, that there have always been women interested in gaming to begin with, and that pretending otherwise is the very definition of small and mean, we can begin to see exactly why making room for women gamers is the exact opposite of an unreasonable request.
It's not about whether or not women exist in the gaming community; it is about acknowledging that they exist. According to this image (and the point of view that is represents) the reason to keep all these women out is simple: they want to change things. They want games to “cater” to them, games that reflect their interests and aesthetics and values, games that are fun for them as well.
So bloody what? What horrors will this wreak on the gaming community? There may be more games, different games, different kinds of narrative and gameplay and imagery available. The genre as a whole will branch out and evolve, exploring new territory. The needs of different types of gamers are considered. Why does this have so many male gamers quaking in their boots?
Aside from any social, cultural, or political reasons, it just makes good sense for gaming to evolve, and in a way that is more friendly to women. According to the Entertainment Software Association's game player data, not only are 47 % of all gamers women, women over the age of 18 are the fastest growing demographic. In addition, women over thirty who game now outnumber boys under 18 who play (30% and 18% respectively). If we take a larger account of gaming, and when we look at the demographics for mobile social gaming, according to Flurry, more women than men play games overall.
And yet, most games are still targeted at the same demographic: 18-34, straight white male. Why are you so afraid for games to branch out a little? Why is the idea that the entire industry isn't made for you any more (and trust me, the vast majority of it still is) such a terrifying one?
More over a little; learn to share. Some of us have been here all along, playing next to you, and we deserve some space. Equally deserving of that space? Every new gamer, whether they're a 15-year-old boy with his first gaming rig or a 40-year-old woman with hers, deserves that space and consideration too.
