![\"\"](\"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/sexist-ad-pic-1.jpg\" "\\"Women")
<\/a>You mean women can play it?<\/p><\/div>\n
This had to be a mistake. I went back to my Google search results and literally every site was more of the same. Well, I had to at least give it a shot. First things first, register a nickname. I needed to clearly communicate I was male, without sounding like a weirdo or jumping every time the doorbell rang in case it was the To Catch A Predator film crew.<\/p>\n
I went for the cool, innocuous, \u201cCoolGuy884\u201d; that was bound to get me an inbox full of harassment. Amazingly, that was taken. I\u2019m not sure how to feel about that, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s anything good. I grudgingly went with “CoolGuy994” instead.<\/p>\n
The first game I played involved putting various creams on a woman\u2019s face and then washing them off. I cannot describe how insufferably boring this was. I would rather play Big Rigs on a Macbook than lay another cucumber slice on that idiotic moon face. In order to get my sweet nickname out there I posted a comment about how totally awesome the game is before making a hasty getaway.<\/p>\n
The next top Google hit had me trying to seduce my \u201chot babysitter\u201d. With a yo-yo. This game was so vapid I actually wondered if any of these games\/websites are even created by females, or just creepy men whose market research consisted of skimming through the Twilight novels for the sex bits.<\/p>\n
At this point it had become apparent that there was no such thing as a real gaming environment for girls, or any kind of decent female-marketed game, so I was forced to turn elsewhere.<\/p>\n
The next port of call was to find a gaming community just for girls, which was more successful \u2013 I quickly found a pretty active forum-based community. I decided to be more direct with the nickname this time, and cleverly went with \u201cNotAGirl\u201d, then added my trademark \u201c994\u201d for good measure.<\/p>\n
<\/a>This is the type of man who can rock a \u201c994\u201d.<\/p><\/div>\n
I opened up proceedings with a thread proclaiming that I wasn\u2019t a girl (in case my clever choice of nickname was overlooked), and that I was interested to hear their thoughts on the total bundle of flash-game crap that was to be found spread across the internet. I figured this would kill two birds with one stone \u2013 open me up for a tidal wave of inappropriate inbox messages, and get a genuine female perspective on \u201cSweet Kisses in the Park\u201d. I decided to let my two aliases simmer untouched for a couple of days, and come back later to an inbox stuffed with sexual harassment.<\/p>\n
Nothing. Not a single picture of someone\u2019s genitals. Not even a thinly-veiled creep message. Nothing at all. As for the thread, I got a lot of reasonable, well-thought out responses, and not one person even made mention of my gender. Here\u2019s the very first reply:<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all suck. Sexist undertones aside, they’re either not fun or not challenging. But they’re all free, silly flash games anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the same forum however, there was a thread several pages long in which several female gamers shared stories of how they\u2019ve been abused and harassed online. Here\u2019s an excerpt from that particular thread:<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I would never play xbox live. Ever. I’ve listened in over my friends conversations on there before and it makes me sick sometimes just how bigoted people are online.\u201d<\/p>\n
It should be noted that there were one or two other threads floating around, started by guys, who say they \u201clike to play with girl gamers\u201d. I\u2019m sure that\u2019s true of some people out there, but it was patently obvious that these were a bunch of creepos whose genital pic approach on Xbox Live hadn\u2019t been working out, and were taking their \u201cgame\u201d to the next level.<\/p>\n
<\/a>They\u2019d also \u201ctried their hand\u201d at Chatroulette.<\/p><\/div>\n
All jokes aside, as males we can be very dismissive of this issue. On the very forum I\u2019m talking about, one or two males were lurking around (which seems odd, but I wasn\u2019t in a position to judge), saying stupid and ignorant things about the sexist crap girls who game deal with daily. Here\u2019s a real gem: \u201cMy issue is with this whole \u2018girl gamer\u2019 culture. Why is it needed? Why don’t women just let their actions speak for themselves by buying and playing video games? Why do they need special websites like this one?\u201d<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s another. One girl said, “It’s just nice to have girl friends to play games with. What’s not to get?\u201d To which another guy responded, \u201cEverything. I don’t understand that mentality. Do you have a phobia of men or something?\u201d. Even when gamer girls form their own, private groups, nasty boys show up to kick sand in their faces.<\/p>\n
The problem is these sentiments are widely echoed throughout the gaming community. The joke of it is that gamers are really good at forming exclusive groups themselves. Xbox, PC and PS3 players do it. RTS players and Fighting game players form closed groups. So do those who play Battlefield and those who play Call of Duty. These groups are formed out of preference and difference of opinion, whereas girl gamer groups are formed out of necessity.<\/p>\n
If you think it\u2019s stupid that girl gamers identify with each other and form groups, you fail to realize that you\u2019re the one who made them do it. Maybe you\u2019re polite and respectful to girls online, a true gentleman – but if you do that while screaming at your other teammate that he\u2019s a noob who should be shot at dawn, you\u2019re at fault too.<\/p>\n
For every guy aggressively trolling a girl online, there\u2019s always the white knight who tries to defend her. For 95% of male gamers, it\u2019s impossible not to treat a girl differently, and the girls are sick of it. That\u2019s why they form their own groups, or don\u2019t play games at all. Even those with the best intentions are at fault here.<\/p>\n
I set out to try and get an inkling of an understanding of what these girls experience but I can\u2019t, nor will I ever be able to – and neither will you. As males in the gaming community, we can\u2019t understand what girls trying to game deal with daily. It\u2019s okay to try and understand, it\u2019s okay to want to – it\u2019s not okay to think we do.<\/p>\n
Sexism in gaming, and elsewhere, is a real issue, one that needs to be dealt with \u2013 and the first step in doing that is to admit to ourselves and others, as male gamers, that we know absolutely nothing about it.<\/p>\n
Related Articles<\/h3>\n
Bitch-slapped in the face<\/strong><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n God of War director responds to allegations of sexism<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Armour expert calls female boob armour a \u201cdesign flaw\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Techland apologises for \u201cfeminist whore\u201d code found in Dead Island<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n