It’s true. We girl gamers should just go back to the kitchen.
Well, just for one last mission. We have to set fire to our proverbial sandwich knives. We’ve got to shove our feet into our favorite shoes — the ones that make us feel amazing and empowered — and demand to be treated as equals.
We cannot let the barefoot sandwich jokes continue. We do not deserve to be marginalized.
Let our generation be the one that calls for huge changes in gaming culture. We might not be able to stop people thinking that we female gamers are not equals, but there are enough people on our side of this fight that we can end it being okay to slam women.
We can also end it being okay to make gay or rape jokes. We can make the worlds of our games safe places if that’s something we want.
This won’t be a fast change by any means, and it will probably take much longer for certain sub-cultures of gaming. Game companies also need to be on-board, wanting to provide a safe space for their players.
I’m putting forth a call to action for all those who want this kind of change. It’s a goal that can only be reached through the efforts of the many.
Report offensive behavior if your game of choice offers the ability to. Remind people that you’re human. It can be as simple as a, “Hey, that’s not cool” over Guild chat. You don’t have to throw yourself to the wolves.
More than anything, we need to embrace and support each other.
Let’s stop letting the games that we choose to play divide us. It doesn’t matter if a gamer leans FPS or Solitaire. She is still a gamer. And she deserves, as much as a man does, a safe place to enjoy her game.
No matter whether you choose to call yourself a girl gamer, a woman who games, or just a person with interests just like anybody else, we should be standing together. We should be tearing down the walls that have been and are actively being built to contain us.
Eventually the market may even hear our cries and understand that we are a quickly growing demographic and not a demographic that requires pink, sparkly things to be encouraged to grab a controller.
I demand that this equality takes place during my lifetime. What do you demand?
Hear hear!
Agreed.
This times infinity. Pretty tired of the ingrained sexism, and wet noodle arguments that those who get called out on it try to use in their defence. Bring on equality!