Why Girls Can’t Handle Video Games - Girl Against Feminism

InWadeTooDeep · 2015-03-12T17:28:54+00:00

[permanently deleted]

Electroverted · 2015-03-12T17:30:26+00:00

One of the best flipsides I've read about sexual harassment is that men don't necessarily harass women so much as they try their best to treat them equally like their male friends, and when they end up teasing them – just like they'd do with other guys – then "oh no he hurt my feelings, report him!"

A lot of video games take place in hostile environments. If women can't handle that, stick to Farmville.

xNOM · 2015-03-12T15:57:01+00:00

Well she figured it out. Women hate being treated like men.

baserace · 2015-03-13T06:44:13+00:00

Great article.

Also, Karen Straughan hitting the ball out of the park in the comments...

karen straughan AUGUST 26, 2014 AT 5:11 PM Hi there! Very interesting and thoughtful blog post. While your arguments were anecdotal, I do have a bit of empirical evidence that backs up what you’re saying here. https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/handle/10012/6958/Yeung_Amy.pdf;jsessionid=FB488C1B98BC7A23439F156E7F99D5C1?sequence=1 It has generally been the case that whenever women make inroads into any male-dominated sphere, there are demands to adjust the space to the women, rather than having the women adjust to the space. These calls tend to come from both men and women–workplace safety laws didn’t exist to any real degree until women started getting hurt and killed on the job during the Industrial Revolution. Lifetime alimony in Florida remained unchallenged for a century, until the “mancession” put enough men out of work that a tiny minority of LA payers were suddenly women, at which point, a bill was introduced to put an end to the tradition (a bill that was vetoed by the governor, despite overwhelming support from both the male and female electorate, under pressure from the National Organization for Women, of all people, in part because it didn’t “grandfather in” the women currently receiving lifetime support from their ex-husbands). A century of men yoked like slaves to financially support ex-wives until death, and no one cares. The moment you treat a tiny fraction of women in the exact same way, and suddenly people want to change how we do things. I fear that the psychological dynamic exposed in the paper I linked is all too pervasive in EVERY facet of our lives. And one of the most terrible aspects of it is outlined in this YouTube video (from a conservative libertarian, just FYI, but still informative), in that the less unpleasantness a person has to endure, the less it takes to evoke a negative response to it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBVjbYMG6dE

There is a reason why boys relate to each other the way they do–insults as affection, roughhousing, giving each other a hard time, etc. There’s a reason girls have never had to be that way–because women have historically been protected by the very masculinity those boys are cultivating in one another when they give each other the gears. As Bill Burr once noted in a brilliant bit of stand-up on the topic, “Anything that can get you killed only makes you more of a man.” Honestly, women have relied on that for millennia–the willingness of a man to stand in front of a cabin with a rifle while she and the children hide inside. How much of it is biological and how much is cultural is an open question, though I suspect it’s a little from column A and a little from column B, and I am very aware of how culture can impact biology (for example, amygdaloid function, which Bill Whittle discusses in the above video). On the other hand, culture has had a noticeable impact on biology over time (adult men’s tear glands and ducts, unlike women’s, are “designed” to inhibit weeping, for instance). Anita Sarkeesian once (in)famously claimed that the idea that women are inherently weaker than men is a “social construct”. This is absurd on its face, even if one ignores the very real role of testosterone in muscle/skeletal development that ranks the top 10% of women on par athletically with the average 15 year old boy. If we’re talking about psychological mettle, women have failed miserably to measure up, again and again and again, as they consistently demand that every space they enter be made “safe” for them–safe from judgment, safe from insults, safe from hurt feelings, safe from the “trial by fire” criticism that boys are subjected to even by teachers in elementary school classrooms. And instead of demanding that women who “pass the tests” be given the respect they deserve, which might encourage other women to “man up”, they demand the tests be made easier so more women will pass, and safer, so more women will want to take them. Whether women are inherently weaker than men is a question open to debate. Whether feminism has done one damn thing to encourage women to become stronger is another thing entirely. And the men in these spheres only exacerbate the problem, by caving into their benevolently sexist instincts to protect women from the very trials they endure daily, and presenting women being treated like men as misogyny.

Thanks for adding your voice to the discussion. Again, very interesting read.

Tmomp · 2015-03-12T17:13:47+00:00

Well thought out and well written post.

GeorgeOlduvai · 2015-03-12T23:35:25+00:00

This situation reminded me of complaints feminists have of male-dominated work environments. I can’t help wondering if the scenarios are similar – are women just refusing to adapt to masculine environments and try to change them under the banner of misogyny?

Well yeah.

Zacky007 · 2015-03-12T22:27:25+00:00

You should x-post this to /r/truegaming as a debate topic on whether games are inherently sexist or if the spaces are as the writer of the page says just a male space where females are often treated like men.

2015-03-12T15:23:33+00:00

This one makes some extremely valid points.

MotherFuckin-Oedipus · 2015-03-12T21:07:55+00:00

The proper response is to fight back, not throw your hands up and get upset about it.

My wife isn't a gamer, but we have a fantastic system set up. If someone is being a dick unnecessarily, I beat their ass in whatever way I can (killing them, higher score, whatever). I pass my wife the headset and have her talk shit on my behalf.

It's priceless, but more importantly, she wins so much respect from (most) of the audience in the game that people don't target her for being a "girl gamer".

The author really hit it on the nose that the only power bullies have is directly proportional to how hot and bothered you get by it.

fruitjerky · 2015-03-13T04:07:47+00:00

It's definitely true that women are used to gentler treatment than men. For centuries we've been precious and protected, while men have been expected to be aggressive. I'm not here to say she's completely off base, but I want to point out two things I think she's failed to acknowledge:

1) The majority of harassment women who play video games experience is not in the form of trolling. I would say it's probable that the majority isn't even consciously malicious.

2) If a team is playing with a mic, and there are four white-sounding males and one female-sounding female, and the other team has a troll on it, you are lying to yourself if you say the troll is equally as likely to go after any one person on that team. Sexism doesn't cease to be sexism just because it's easy.

I also feel like noting that she's implying that, in order for everyone to be equal, women need to be more like men (aggressive, resilient) but men most certainly do not need to be more like women (kind? I don't know). I see the opposite in a lot of feminist writings, obviously. It's a definite trend for each side to claim the road to equality is for the other side to be more like them. I think that's something to keep in mind always--especially when reading a piece that you would consider "your side."

Also, if I can rant for a second: I am kind of sick of boys acting like gaming is "their thing" when I have been gaming since before they were a twinkle in their father's ball and trying to quiz me to see if I'm cool enough to enjoy "their" hobby. The author refers to gaming as a "masculine environment," and that's not a ridiculous thing to say at all because girls have been kind of cast aside as a profitable demographic since the early 80s, but it does make me want to headbutt them. /tangent

I agree with the rest of her points, though there is something to be said about justifying sexist attitudes and behavior as if it's just the way male spaces are. I understand the guy who has "a chip on their shoulder when it comes to girl gamers," but that doesn't excuse a poisonous attitude towards women. Also, if I can go on a tangent again, I have to be honest and say I really resent being stereotyped as soon as I use a mic because of my gender. I'm an old married mom--I don't want attention or special treatment; I just want to play a game without someone immediately responding with "Ooo, gamer girl," and immediately trotting after me like a cat who just spotted a mouse.

Fair or unfair?

ajahanonymous · 2015-03-12T22:30:30+00:00

Guess they can't handle the bant.

rudelyinterrupts · 2015-03-12T20:47:43+00:00

This is something that didn't even take much research. It's common knowledge. It mostly stems from people understanding that men and women are different.

2015-03-12T21:01:25+00:00

/r/TumblrAtRest

typhonblue · 2015-03-12T15:12:20+00:00

[permanently deleted]

Title	Why Girls Can’t Handle Video Games - Girl Against Feminism
Author	blueoak9
Upvotes	146
Comments	50
Date	March 12, 2015 3:10 PM UTC (11 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/MensRights
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/2ysu0k/why_girls_cant_handle_video_games_girl_against/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/MensRights/why-girls-cant-handle-video-games-girl-against.985978 https://theredarchive.com/post/985978

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