1262 Minecraft.

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That moment when they can’t pretend they aren’t into it.

I’ve experienced this a few times with girls. I’m not sure what the resistance to enjoying a game is about. Maybe it’s the nerd stigma, maybe it’s that girls aren’t supposed to like video games, I couldn’t tell you. In my experience however, once a girl finds a game she likes the whole world of gaming opens up like some kind of buffet of insanity. Then, of course they start to see the subtle, and not so subtle, sexism, but that’s pretty much how it is for anything. The long and short of things is that getting people of all genders involved in a culture ultimately improves the culture. Unless the point of your culture is segregation, in which case… I don’t think I have any advice for you. In any event the world at large is a lot less judgmental of a girl who likes “boy stuff” than it used to be. Less so of guys who like girly things, but baby steps… baby steps. The teen unashamedly enjoys video games and, for the most part, is immune to the sexism and whatnot that tumblr is obsessed with. She does notice it sometimes, but for the most part she just wants to serve food to virtal patrons, kill zombies, and have pretend fashion shows. Everything else is just in her way and, therefore, unworthy of attention.

42 Comments

it’s definitely the stigma around nerds in general. Same reason a girl being a tomboy is still kind of shunned, I blame the media portrayal of geeks, nerds, etc for that. But that’s just me.

I see this a lot too. But a lot of the girls I hang with have at least one game they’re really into. It’s interesting to see how they go into gaming and where they end up.

In this situation I think it’s more to her not wanting to admit Thomas could be right.. Happened many a time when my husband has put a game in my hands.

Muahahahaha! You cant resist the mass effect! No one can until you reach the ending then its all myeh….

I never got the chance to play Mass Effect, but a week ago, I found a bundle of the full trilogy at Gamestop for $30, and my friends have been coaxing me for God knows how long to try it, so I said “why not” and bought it. I am 20 hours into the first game, and I regret waiting this long (much like when I jumped on the Skyrim bandwagon 3 years late.).

It gets better in two and three. I love the trilogy. If only the same could be said of Biowares Dragon Age. Dragon Age II had the gameplay down but the story and script was brought down to a disappointing quality.

I have to agree. Dragon Age 2 falls sadly short of the glory of Origins. It’s well worth $9 or so, which is what I got it for used, but if I’d paid full price I’d’ve felt cheated. I mean it’s playable, and the nods to the first game are cool, but it just lacks that magic of the first game.

Im feeling very positive for the next entry. It looks like a lot of effort was put into this one. Im very excited for it.

The teens attitude towards sexism in games made me smile. And I think, the people complaining about sexism in games know that feeling as well. Including me. After all, it would be quite difficult to be into video games, if you couldn’t just ignore the sexism at times.

My neice kicks her brothers’ asses at Modern Warfare 3 every so often. Not because she likes the game, but because if she wins, then she can play Minecraft. Not that she particularly likes Minecraft (well, okay, she does. She adores the game and would probably play it 24/7 if she could), but mostly because she is amassing a small army of pet cats and dogs that each have their own names.

Did I mention that she’s 10, and the oldest nephew she beats is nearing 16? Of course he accuses her of ‘Screen peeking’, (somehow this has progressed from viable part of one’s strategy to cheating over the last twenty some years), and I encourage said strategy, but it’s fun to watch.

Reading this reminds me of the Tetris Phenomenon. Meaning that most guy gamers simply don’t play Tetris because and I quote “it’s too nerdy, even for the nerds”.

However, I’ve been to many a Tetris competition and it never ceases to amaze (and in a good way intimidate) me how many women and girls outnumber the guys not just in terms of participation, but also in terms of leaderboard placement.

I’m not afraid or ashamed to say I’m a guy who likes me some Tetris.

Of course, I shed my “hardcore” gamer ideals and aspirations about a decade ago. I started liking Tetris when I got my Game Boy back in middle school, though.

I am in doubt that I could play it competitively.

Those who say it is too needy even for the nerds is not a true nerd. I personally have seen far too many people claiming to be nerds and geeks, yet when called out on it in true nerd fashion they stumble on their words and come back with the excuse that they are “not that kind of nerd”

I bought Tetris for my ex-wife (when we were married, of course) when we got our first game system…. She wouldn’t let me play it.

Oh wow, I looked at panel 3 again, and maybe Thomas honestly didn’t know that Carol might react like that. I would have at least suspected the possibility :-)

Hah! Yeah! The hand in the face was probably something he wasn’t watching out for, but I’m pretty sure he meant to antagonize her by trying to take away the controller when he knew she had been expertly baited and hooked.

Ok this whole sexism in games thing is new to me. I mean yes women in games are objectified. But so are the men. One can hardly complain about Jill Valentine’s gravity defying rack and hourglass curves without mentioning that in revelations Chris Redfield wears less than her. Just seems to me like the objectification is a bit on even footing. It’s not like there’s a hyper- realistic call of warfare: modern duty 12 where the white ‘murican soldier beefcakes shoot their testosterone injections while screaming that women belong in the kitchen. Although that would make an amazing satire of the entire argument…

FUND IT!!!!

All I’m saying is that I don’t see any latent misogyny. I’ve got a lot of gamer girlfriends and they never say anything about any sexism in games.

If this is true then I fear you are far, far, beyond my ability to help. I’m very sorry.

After looking into the issue some I think that the disconnect was from the player and the media itself. I accept that there are extremely misogynistic players who say crass and crude things. I’m not sure if the art is precisely to blame for that. Anonymity allows for that kind of behavior. That may also be the reason I don’t play games online. Also because of my general disdain for that kind of behavior under any circumstances I have surrounded myself with like minded individuals. So I personally have never encountered that kind of thing from players.

My problem comes in with the argument that a lead female character has to be made in games to fill some kind of quota. I don’t think that that kind of affirmative action thinking will lead to a good narrative or empathetic character. Man or woman doesn’t enter into it for me when it comes to an engaging story. There very well may be games like the sarcastic comment I made above, but I don’t actively look for that kind of thing. I’ve seen some games like metroid, tomb raider, and bayonetta listed as examples. Metroid other m I’ve heard is pretty bad when it comes to gender roles, and I’ve not played it. I have however played super metroid and metroid fusion and had no problem forgetting anything and any importance about samus’ gender. I’ve never had any interest in tomb raider so I can’t say anything to it’s gender role disconnect. Bayonetta, I liked. I admit it is a bit on the t&a side of the aesthetic, but I also felt as though the game play and story allowed some leeway for a generally gender neutral experience. I have the same opinion of lollipop chainsaw. I marveled at the game play and music that I didn’t even think that Juliet’s gender entered into it.

Sorry if I seemed crass with my comment, but I don’t get trying to start a gender equality argument when one doesn’t exist in my experience.

That’s all well and good, but your argument basically boils down to “since I don’t notice it then it either doesn’t exist, or doesn’t matter”. I’ve never seen anyone actually comit a murder, but evidence exists to prove they happen, that they are a real problem. It would be irresponsible to claim that murder isn’t an issue simply because I’ve never witnessed one.
Not every game needs a female protagonist. Some games logically need to exhibit mysogyny, because they are a mirror we are holding up to ourselves through the narrative. It is important that we, as consumers, are aware of the potentially negative effects our hobby could have on the young and society in general.
There is a middle ground that can be reached on the issue, but being a aware, accepting that there is an issue, has to come first.

And that’s all I’m prepared to say on the subject from a rest room. XD

You have a point crave, but I have a counterpoint. While women are portrayed as busty, nearly naked and sex objects in games, most of the older games that I remember the woman was the fastest, or had the best/most useful skill, blaze for example had a very fast, semi long combo, axel struck maybe twice or 3 times in the time it took her to finish a combo, this may not seem like a big deal, but axel took longer to kill an enemy than blaze, so while her choice of dress was slut-tastic and her attacks were “weaker” she in the end was a better choice, not convinced? Smb2. Princess peach could goddamn FLY over huge portions of stages without worrying about baddies or death pits who else had that? Oh right… none of the boys had that. How about mortal kombat? Mileena: sai throw drop kick and a few more of her moves were free huge distance heavy damagers, kitana: fan lift, fan throw, fan spike, heel kick, and many more stun, and range, sonya blade: blown kiss, heel stomp and in some she had ranged moves that stunned, jade: her damn staff, seriously she had range to spare with that damn thing. Morrigan anesland of darkstalkers: only character with an unbreakable infinite combo, only requiring 2 bars of power at that. Dimetri has an “infinite” combo but it is rather easy to break when he backs up for one of the attack’s range, morrigan doesn’t have that issue. Well how about that I just showed off a bunch of women in gaming that are better than men regardless of looks. Go me.

Blaze and axel are from streets of rage 1 and 2 by the way, I don’t think axel was in 3.

While it’s great that some games give females desirable characteristics it doesn’t magically make up for the fact that females are generally used as props or cum dumpsters.
Fire Emblem Awakening takes making females better than men to a level that’s almost ridiculous. Apart from one DLC character only women can learn galeforce. The only way a male can know that skill is if it is passed along to him FROM HIS MOTHER. It allows a unit to take another full turn if they successfully incapacitate an opponent. It turns the women into nearly unstoppable killing machines. If not for the ability to pass it to male children there would be no tactical reason to have men on your team at all. In addition to that every female character is written as a fully realized human being with goals, preferences, friendships, and flaws. It’s one of the best examples of gender equality in all of gaming going right back to the start of the franchise. Still, in spite of the existence of this shining example of equality in gaming I am capable of understanding that IT DOESNT FIX THE FUCKING PROBLEM. Cite examples all day long, but the problem will continue to exist.
The real issue here is this insane need for fairness that people are fucking obsessed with that is supposed to somehow make everything better. It’s not a one to one, this fixes that, mathematical thing. In addition to that a lot of people seem to take even the idea that maybe we could treat women a little better as a personal fucking insult. Like just because they don’t do that we shouldn’t examine our culture from time to time and see if maybe, just maybe, we could be doing something better. That is the real obstruction that doesn’t help the conversation.
Appreciating a sexy man or woman is not inherently wrong. Using sex to sell something or get attention isn’t either. It’s when you start implying that women are a series of holes to stick your dick in that things start to go awry. When a women gets death threats for daring to even suggest we could do a little better that is a fucking warning sign.
So list as many female characters that are mechanically better than their male counterparts, because it is just a distraction from the actual issue. (He replies from his phone, in bed, at five thirty three AM…)

Whoa now man, I wasn’t saying it fixed it, I was just saying there are good examples and companies could learn from said examples, your fire emblem example is a great one too, I actually like games where gender is a non issue or the females outclass the males, because they have a good reason to outclass them. Another good example is the male and female gunner (launcher class specifically) in dungeon fighter online, and with an actual reasoning, the male can wail on aerial targets with the flame blaster, and a couple other moves, but the female has weaker upper body strength so her heavy weapons are held lower, making her able to waste low to the ground/short targets way easier, and by the way, males can’t even hit those targets with anything but slide and bbq, it may not seem like much, but there’s a lot more low targets than aerial, and fg can take out aerial in other ways.

as I said, it is not a fix, but I am happy that there are women in gaming that aren’t tits, ass and fap material. And for the most part I will choose the woman over the man because in my experience gender is a non issue or the woman is somehow better tactically, I am not saying women being mistreated in games is a non issue, but I am saying that there are companies that care, and use women well, … that didn’t sound how I wanted it to…, but there are also women in games that are basically made to be fap material too. Juliet of lollipop chainsaw has some semblance of personality and character, but in the end she is a stereotype dumb cheerleader, they could have done a lot and failed, where as the beauty and the beast corps in mgs4 had real backgrounds, trauma and all believed killing snake would end their pain, sure they had the skintight suits, and I wish there was more done in their backstory rather than just a telling after the fact and some sounds during the fight, but again, it hasn’t fixed the issue, but there is huge potential with things like the b&b corps, if konami made a tetrology about them and what happened to them I would buy the hell out of it. Nintendo still screws up too, super princess peach was the wrong way to go. That game probably set us back, it was fun but seriously woman fighting with emotional outbursts? Uh… yea… not a good idea.

Again I do not advocate mistreatment of women in games, I am however happy that there are examples to quote of women in games that are not just fap material… no matter what the internet wants you to think. I agree with you crave, I didn’t mean to make you think I didn’t.

Actually I would like to hear some of your examples of misogyny in games, I would like to get an idea of what to avoid.

I actually rarely play games where misogyny is a problem. I’m not drawn to that type of thing, and some of the games that are held up as examples of it I disagree with. Super Princess Peach is an example of that. I mean the emotion mechanic is a bit much, but in the grand scheme SPP seems pretty harmless. On top of that Peach Has been shown to be capable over time in several games. She just seems to like being girly. It’s not the best game in the Mario franchise, but I had fun with it. I wouldn’t have done it that way, but at the end of the day it didn’t feel like an affront to women. I actually really like Peach’s personality. Especially her sort of obliviously royal grace in Smash Bros Brawl Emissary.

As far as examples go I can barely name them off because I lack familiarity. GTA comes to mind, but in many ways it’s one of those games that mirrors the underlying problems in the real world. You’d have to go to someone with more familiarity on the subject to actually get a researched list of things. I know Red Dead Revolver has some questionable stuff in it. Yakuza is one I’ve heard bandied about. Apart from that the names just disappear from my head because I didn’t have much interest them to start with. I’m actually better at listing games that are good examples of gender equality.

In any event I don’t claim to be an expert on this sort of thing, but I do feel like casting a critical eye over things is good, just to make sure were trending the right direction.

Sorry if my language is ambiguous. I don’t clap my hands over my ears and don’t see an issue. I just choose to live my life as an example. I’m not some monarch or dictator that can assume absolute power, I can’t make other people see my side. But maybe they will observe my behavior and want to act differently.

‘S funny, but what Iusually see women playing on their phones is Bejeweled or Candy Crush. One woman on the bus is addicted to Boggle. I do see some Tetris, now and again.

The guys usually play FPS games. Me? I stick with Solitaire and Mah Jongg.

It’s got to be the stigma. My wife loves the Sims, but I’ve introduced her to a couple of other games and it’s like her mind’s been blown that A: there are modern video games she likes and B: I have a good handle on what she likes and can make a legit recommendation.

perhaps it’s where I grew up, but there wasn’t any stigma to girls playing games. Nerds weren’t ostracized, and when I aaw it in movies I kind of figured it was all hollywood hyperbole, or America was different. The sexism in nerd culture, or video games, never became evident to me till my late teens to early adulthood.

I’m prone to liking rpgs, preferably the classics. I’ll muck around with the Sims, Roller Coaster tycoon, and Civilization.

Then my boyfriend bought me Crusader Kings 2, and I have now racked up more hours on it than he has. I would strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys long term dynastic Strategy. Or really anyone ever.

I would probably be reluctant to express an enjoyment of video games to a guy for fear of the “oh god, I’ve turned you into the perfect woman, you are the ultimate fantasy, you play video games now SO HOT let’s just fuck and play video games all the time!” reaction. This just happened to a friend of mine and while she seems to enjoy the attention, I would hurl. My ex boyfriend tried to get me to play Skyrim (which I was actually interested in doing but he ended up doing “all the hard parts” for me and not letting me do shit) and when I agreed he definitely pulled some of that grossness.

That’s a reaction I see from guy gamers a lot and it embarrasses me as an outside observer. The tantamount philosophy I love my life by is freely give respect to everyone, until it is betrayed. That kind of fetishism is one of the most disrespectful things someone can do. Especially top someone they don’t know.

The idea that video games are for boys is patently absurd, but like most things that come off the gender binary, it’s arbitrary, divisive, and a whole lot of people take it as religion.

Of course, there are a lot of video games designed and marketed for a male audience because the male video gaming audience is bigger, but it isn’t overly difficult to find games that are right up a feminine girl’s alley (RPGs and action adventure games being the obvious candidates here). Of course, girls can play whatever they want, and do. Even games we think of as masculine aren’t THAT gendered, and society really needs to get over itself about it.

Gender can be a terrible thing. In my opinion, girls playing video games in equal rates as boys is an incredibly important step toward remedying that.

I do believe that The Teen might be the wisest of her generation Jackie. Try chucking a couple of the Yakuza games at her if she enjoys story plots by the way.

It is a good thing You delineated Thomas’ hand in the third panel, Crave;
Otherwise it looks like He grabbed Carol’s breast…

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