Must Watch: Feminist Frequency's 25 Invisible Benefits of Gaming While Male

 
Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

A new Feminist Frequency video is typically the highlight of my day. Even if I don't always agree with every single item presented, I believe strongly in Tropes vs. Women's message and above all (and unlike an alarming number of people) its right to exist. There's a new video up on Feminist Frequency's YouTube channel today and although it isn't the next installment in the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series, it's no less worth watching. 

In it, prominent men in the games industry (developers and press) read points from a list presented previously in an opinion piece for Polygon by Tropes vs. Women in Video Games producer Jonathan McIntosh about the invisible benefits of gaming while male. Some of them may be obvious, like the disproportionate amount of abuse that women receive regularly in the community. Others may be less obvious. For example...

One of my favourite points is this:

I can openly say that my favorite games are casual, odd, non-violent, artistic, or cute without fear that my opinions will reinforce a stereotype that "men are not real gamers."

As someone who enjoys shooters, RPGs, twee indie titles and The Sims in equal measure, that resonates more than I wish it did. If brick-and-mortar game retailers want to know why so many customers are going download only, in my case it's not purely about the convenience of shopping in my PJs. it also has a lot to do with the condescending attitudes I used to get when I walked up to the register with a game like Harvest Moon in hand. The idea that every choice I make in my play habits is either a mark for or against my gender's presence in a hobby? That's trash.

Be sure to watch the full 25 Invisible Benefits of Gaming While Male above, or read the original article over on Polygon.

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Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart on Twitter, Iris Ophelia in Second Life) has been writing about virtual worlds and video games for nearly a decade, and has had her work featured on Paste, Kotaku, Jezebel and The Mary Sue.

Comments

[Facepalm]

More preaching to the quoir and not having any comments on the youtube vids I see.

I gotta say most of these come off as a joke, guys rambunctiously taking the mick out of eachother and if you're a woman those people will go for the most obvious thing, most sane women seem to give as good as they get but apparently there's a certain brand of woman (feminist) who are just wholly devoid of a sense of humour.

Most of the reasons are either a joke, or they do not apply only to women and hence it all sounds incredibly entitled or whiny, and hence really do not belong anywhere near a gender debate.

I wonder if any of these fellows will pull their head out of their ass one day and think of the double standards and the equal mistreatment you could so easily find on guys in the gaming industry.

''One of my favourite points is this:

I can openly say that my favorite games are casual, odd, non-violent, artistic, or cute without fear that my opinions will reinforce a stereotype that "men are not real gamers."

Except that's not entirely true because guys aren't necessarily more free to enjoy the artistic and cute games either without being branded a sissy. Most men will not do that, they are open minded and probably like them too but you get the odd meathead who is obsessed with testosterone just like you will get some tarted up female gamer who just genuinely uses her sexuality/ gender to get ahead.

Most of that statement is actually people making the simple factual point that easily touted stats about female gamers being 50% go come from the likes of candy crush.

I repeatedly find these articles stupid and offensive because you actually make a mockery of women, pretending that all women are like you are: childish and petty. Men, the gaming industry, women who enjoy games are not against women, they are against the ridiculous ideology that feminism has become. At least be honest, it's not about women at all, it's about feminism, or rather the 21st century's unaccountable version of it today, and no those two words are far from synonymous!

You need to pull your head out of your ass and stop calling anyone who ever disagrees with any feminist idea a mysogynist.

All feminists for the most part can do these days is preach to the quoir these days. People are getting less and less sympathetic with this victim narrative.

[Galatea]

Thanks, Facepalm, for your excellent diatribe against straw-feminism and the usual tactic employed to fight against real change. First, pretend feminism is something it isn't, then point out what's so horrible about the pretend feminism, thus allowing you to dismiss it. Accuse people of saying and doing things they aren't saying or doing. Repeat for each article you see. Of course, as you ironically accuse others of doing, you're just preaching to your choir -- no one who hasn't already closed their minds falls for your oft-repeated tactic.

[Ugh]

Facepalm makes really good point here. Back in the day feminists fought to bring equal rights to women. Now it's achieved(more or less, because our raging feminists tend to keep their heads down when women rights in islamic countries brought into discussion), and since there are no more rights to give, those restless ladies found themself a new toy called "let's find a hip thing and bend it to our will". You know, every civilian movement is like a factory. When production is over, you better disassemble the buildings and sell the land, otherwise there will be graffiti, bums, pests, and criminals, and your company will be known not for some product you made back in the day, but for giving home for all this filth. "Five bodies found at abandoned plant". Let's face it - feminism did its job, time to move on, in its current state it just contributes to entropia.

[Tavish]

What the heck is a quoir? Whenever I see basic spelling errors in someone's rant, I immediately ignore whatever they have to say. If one cannot spell, or even use a spell checker, why should I give any credence to anything they have to say? They have revealed themselves as uneducated, so what follows is sure to be tripe.

[Facepalm]

@Ugh

You know I would have to agree that most of feminism's job is done, legally, economically, the softer and less pressing part is a cultural shift, things like treating women as grown up and wholly accountable for their actions, yet feminism only drives this narrative even deeper. Not only is no woman accountable, but they suggest women as a mass of people never had any influence on history lol thanks to patriarchy theory. It's the ultimate ideology that can demonise men and paint women as angels, let's forget the fact that women do just as much to oppress themselves or their men.

That said the reason feminists haven't bothered much tackling the genuine problems in the third world is that they are not really interested in helping people anymore, they are interested in power. That incredible campaign to get politicians to wear a shirt saying 'this is what a feminist looks like' . . . . oh dear those shirts were made in a third world country by women who earn less than a dollar an hour, classic. Fair criticism? No how dare you misogynist!

For me it's less that I disagree with any particular feminist idea but the sheer childishness in taking no responsibility for their actions and being invulnerable or militant against any kind of criticism. There seems to be a mismatch between feminism in academia and the general public. Something like 20% of women consider themselves feminists presumably because in the last decades it has become a cesspool of unquestioned ideology rather than a rigorous discipline.

The recent Times pole when as a joke they put 'feminist' in a list of words to ban in 2015, only the public voted it something like 75% in favour to get rid of it out of a list of 20. Then to prove my point a few feminists whined about the popular opinion and Time apologised. Apparently they forgot the backing of their own readers in favour of an elite vocal bunch of hen pecking feminists. The public increasingly dislikes feminism hence Emma Watson's UN speech trying to shame men into white knighting the cause rather than the movement taking an honest look into itself.

[shirc desantis]

"..elite vocal bunch of hen pecking feminists.." eh Facepalm? I am sure you could have used your penchant for straw-person (oh dear, too much?) rickety structures to build something rather more original. Mayhap your 'quoir' needs a new opinion 'pole'?

[Arcadia Codesmith]

It is difficult to engage constructively with anti-feminists. Recent work on phenomenon such as the worldview backfire effect and disconfirmation bias demonstrate that merely countering them with facts and logic only makes them more intransigent.

Long term, some of them can be brought around just by exposure to strong women in positions of authority. I think 2016 will be the start of a good period for that.

[Facepalm]

Thing is though Arcadia I could just as easily show this 'backfire effect' and 'disconfirmation bias' to show just as equally how immune feminists are to facts and logic. The gap in wage is one example that has been disproven since the eighties but y'all still like to blither endlessly on about it: 'we need more money! I don't care about the facts la la la not listening'

I've been in the presence of strong women in positions of authority who got there on their own merit. Good leaders I had no problem following presumably because they were not bossy whining children who use their pussy card to rally up empathy for the slightest hardship. All the while shouting rhetoric about how unsympathetic society is to women's needs, how wonderfully neurotic western feminists are. Greater empathy for women is as old as humanity, feminists use the oldest trope their is though the sympathy is starting to wane because people have a limited threshold for being asked for help while being belittled, insulted, and suspect to the most insane degrees of narcissism.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Any inclination I might have to respond to that diatribe evaporated with the realization that it quite effectively destroys itself under the weight of its own frothing irrationality.

[Ciaran Laval]

The 25 points in many cases go way beyond gaming circles. Many females in Second Life complain about the type of harassment mentioned, we also see it in social media circles and outside in our real life streets.

The most interesting and engaging commentary comes after the 25 points have been made.

[Facepalm]

LOL

Way to make up a pretend consensus Ciaran. And if it is true, it would be equally true for men. But then feminists don't care about men, they don't count, so they don't see the ridiculousness of minor slights to their wellbeing as opposed to the monumental ones men face. It's the middle class white woman moaning at the homeless man or the manual labourer who's sweat is an inconvenience to her while she stops into Starbucks after her board meeting.

You're funny Arcadia. I should collate your comments and just copy and paste them every time I want to pretend I'm superior while really I've said nothing. I could use your comments against literally anyone on any subject because they are devoid content. The classic thesaurus who sounds articulate but is actually a parrot of the worst of post-modernernism, full of buzzwords who can't see depth for all the confusing relativity.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

Awww, I'm sorry, to what response does the poor little victim of straw feminism feel entitled? I can't really speak on behalf of your imaginary boogiewomen.

[Ciaran Laval]

@Facepalm the points they raise after the 25 do mention men but no, not all the points are applicable to men. Men generally don't get catcalled, asked to speak on voice to prove their gender or get asked the size of the bra by random strangers online.

There are definitely issues for females that males don't face, pretending they don't exist isn't helpful. However many of these issues go way beyond gaming circles.

[Ugh]

What's wrong now? Feel free to catcall men on streets, request a voice chat session for gender proof, or ask strangers about size of their junk online. It's your right, please, use it. Just don't deny rights to others because you personally don't use them.

[Facepalm]

You must live in a fantasy land if you think women regularly face this kind of thing online in video games. The only place these things take place in are high octane adrenaline games where everyone goes crazy like call of Duty or Dota 2, or on the most vicious of forums, but then every time that happens men get it worse.

Most of these games I've not heard a woman voicing and the few times I have I have never seen these kinds of things happen. More to the point, I have heard far worse abuse by guys on guys who will not hold back where they would for a woman because they may hold out a little more empathy for them. But then it's joking, it's aggressive banter and competition, the kinds o women whining need to toughen up and face what men face, which funnily enough most women do but there is this pathetic steam of millennials that have no humour or backbone and if you say good morning to a woman on the street and she doesn't like you it's lumped in with 'rape culture'. 'Straw feminism' you must be blind or as stupid as the worst in feminism to not see how ridiculous much of it has become these days. I believe in women's equality, and ironically feminism these days for the most part has turned into women's worst enemy.

There was a study with online harassment that showed guys get harassed more than women, so when women hoard all the victimhood it is bizarre and bratty to also blame men for it. The fact feminism wants to pretend this is some rampant slight on women just shows how this is not about protecting women but getting an increasing voice on the games industry.

'Oh no we're not here to take any games away gamers haha how paranoid of you.' Except fellow companies that are owned by Kotaku branches of KMart and Target in Australia have been convinced by a load of feminists whining in Australia to take down GTA 5 f their shelves. A game that made billions in the first day. While it's slightly less dramatic when you know they are in collusion with Kotaku someone is clearly trying to start a tend and it's pathetic. GTA is awesome, hilarious, and cathartic in this age of PC correctness and is extremely popular. And again shows a bizarrely narrow view by feminists when the tiniest proportion of the game exposes women to violence whereas the other 99% has men being used like canon fodder. 'Oh but they're not sex objects' You can debate whether or not you are on object if your vocation is taking money for sex, but more importantly, So what?! Why on earth does that trump everything else?

[Wagner James Au]

"The only place these things take place in are high octane adrenaline games where everyone goes crazy like call of Duty or Dota 2, or on the most vicious of forums, but then every time that happens men get it worse."

That statement is incorrect. Actual researchers tell a far different story:

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2014/10/pew-women-suffering-online-harassment-worse-than-men/

Young women in particular reported hostile experiences online, according to Maeve Duggan, a research analyst at Pew and the main author of the report. I talked to Duggan recently in an interview for PBS MediaShift.

“What was really striking was the differences and experiences between men and women,” said Duggan. “Men experience it [online harassment] more, but when you drill it down, men experience less-than-severe forms, whereas women, and young women especially, experience more severe forms like stalking and sexual harassment.”

[Rogue Thoughts]

I really wish I didn't have to see these videos. I'm all for feminism, surely, but games are a privilege. It's not a right, men and women are allowed to play and make their own games.

The fact that this has been spreading so much has been an indicator of how rich and spoiled and privileged some people can be. They don't actually have anything to complain about anymore, so even the little things are a big deal.

Microaggressions, as tumblr calls it, are a result of being sheltered. When a baby is born it cries because it has literally never experienced anything more uncomfortable than being outside the warm cocoon.

[Emperor Norton]

"I really wish I didn't have to see these videos.,...When a baby is born it cries because it has literally never experienced anything more uncomfortable than being outside the warm cocoon. . " @ Rogue Thoughts

Ah, the irony of the gamer dudebro.