Why You Don’t See Many Female Gamers
You know, I find it to be the most idiotic thing known to man when people ask themselves (mostly males) why there aren’t many female gamers? Why?…
WHY?!?!!!
THINK.
Gaming has always been predominately male, even today. Yet those few that are actually women have to put up with more than they were hoping for when they logged in to play a game and have fun. For some, they get the total opposite.
I’ve been gaming for seven years, from first-person shooters like Counter Strike and Half-Life to MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Guild Wars. Teamspeak and Ventrilo are both something you’ll always find me on and I’m not afraid to reveal that I am a female.
…but that doesn’t happen without a price.
Being a female gamer in the gaming world with mostly men of all ages is extremely difficult. First of all, its almost always assumed that female gamers are bad. With my experience, about 95% of the female gamers I encounter are actually very skilled players, if not better than most of the male gamers in the clan or guild (mostly MMORPGs, not so much first-person shooters). No matter how long you’ve played with such person, or clan/guild, its hard for people to accept that we’re female. We’re not aliens, we’re normal people who want to play and have fun just like you do.
Secondly, we get constantly made fun of and are seen only as a sexual bonus to the world of video games. Female gamers are constantly messaged and harassed either in the game or verbally through vent, mostly very inappropriate sexual statements. Men of all ages are constantly hitting on us, constantly asking our age, where we live, and to describe how we look and what we’re wearing. Others constantly degrade us for being a female gamer, accusing you of being a nerd with no life and “if you’re a girl, you must be fat as hell” and the only way to prove otherwise is to provide a harmless “pic” that almost always escalates to higher and higher demands where they are almost screaming at you for naked pictures. Sadly, most females feel so pressured and hopeless that to fit in their gaming world, they succumb to these pictures and are addressed as the local clan/guild whore. Most males prey on this insecurity of females to be pretty. Female gamers are practically shown zero respect, its disgusting.
I can blame men, I can go on and say males are dogs and there are some real geeks that need to get a life and stop harassing women to appear cool and manly… and GOD FORBID be pwned by a chick.
But no I don’t blame the males, I blame the females who are too lazy to stick up for themselves. I blame the females who are so needy and have such low self-esteems that they have make seductive-looking characters crawling around local cities and towns pleading with the nearest male with “omgZ look @ my pic, I’m such a needy, lonely whore and I neEd 2 kno if u think I’m pretTy or I’ll diee”.
I looked around the web a bit, there are several websites with women clinging together and patting each others back while they share sad sad harassment stories, but they are mostly always bashing those sexist male pigs. The blame goes both ways in my opinion.
I never really was a fan of all-female community websites. If we want to establish identity and fit in within the gaming world, the last thing we want is to separate ourselves into clingy little groups and have all-female guilds, all-female this and that. Female organizations are stupid, one in particular really makes my blood boil - GirlsofCS.
GirlsofCS has been around for a bit, back when I was into the whole Counter Strike deal, GirlsofCS are just that - a bunch of a girls who band together, kick ass in Counter Strike all while posing naked in pictures or in very sexually provocative and dare I say “slutty” poses that they have the NERVE to stamp “this is beautiful art” all over. GirlsofCS are nothing but a bunch of needy motherfucking attention whores and they seriously embarrass the fuck out of themselves and all other female gamers out there.
Hey! We’re GirlsofCS! We pose naked and in very masturbate-material poses to get rid of female gamers stereotypes! Because that makes a shitload of sense, right?!
You hear that?! We’ll pose naked and lay on rocks by the beach with the waves in the air, the breeze blowing through our hair and my breasts basking in the sun to show you that we’re not really fat and ugly after all - TAKE THAT YOU STEREOTYPING MALE PIGS!
Really. Since when does anyone care what someone else says… especially in an online game. I knew a girl from GirlsofCS and I’ve also played against them. They kicked ass. They fucking owned my clan in some scrim matches. But did they ever really get rid of the stereotypes and harassment? Of course not, they made it worse. The photos never made the males’ perspective any better. All the males I played with were all truly convinced they were guys playing as girls because they were just too good and never spoke on vent.
The girl I knew from this organization had a IGN of Sarah. Sarah had a professional photo taken for GirlsofCS in which she was dress in an camouflaged/army themed outfit in which the top displayed her bulging cleavage that looked like her breasts were about to pop out in surprise, but the real focus of this photograph was her ass in which her hands were slowly pushing down her booty shorts to display half her ass. She was standing on a huge granite rock along the beach with waves crashing against the rock and into the air which was the background behind her. Sure the background and scenery was beautiful but she wasn’t. She gets on ventrilo to play with us in a server (Sarah and I are currently the only females in ventrilo and on the server). All the males on ventrilo had been drooling and jacking off to Sarah’s photo at that moment and for hours they asked her a bunch of questions regarding the photo, if she has anymore, and asked if she would take a another photo in a different pose or with different clothing. She flirted with them and dragged it on but ultimately said no and then later said she’s just a normal female gamer and she wants to be taken seriously.
I don’t know Sarah, with half your ass in a photo, dressed in army clothing (themed just for Counter Strike) with a nice big fat GirlsofCS logo on it (which if you’ve seen it is a side view of a woman with her breasts and nipples puckering out), you’ll never be taken seriously. In fact, if you’re not putting out after taking that photo, that’s just cruel.
It’s seriously not rocket science, its ridiculous. You shouldn’t have to start an organization and practically add to the local G33ks pr0n archive with your “art” to prove that you are in fact “pretty” and not “fat and ugly” like 90% of the male gamers accuse us of. Who seriously gives a shit?
I’ve made a reputation on the games that I play based on my personality and skill. I’ve never provided picture but I get the respect I deserve and ignore others that don’t want to respect me. Have I been put accused of being a fat ugly bitch because of my refusal to provide a picture? Sure I have. Have I been accused of not having a life and being a complete geek with glasses bigger than my face? You bet. I’ve made it a clear that I could give a flying fuck what someone thinks of me over the internet, I’m here to have fun, not prove myself to anyone. Keep that attitude and gaming will be less of a hassle for the those women who struggle to fit in.
And if all else fails and they still give you shit, just kick their ass, that usually shuts them up.
FYI GirlsofCS, this is art, this sure as hell isn’t.
Stupid whores. Get off my interwebs.
Categories: Rants, Games, Frustrations, InternetThings to note
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