Being a woman in geek culture

[Primalex]

This Week In Video Game Woman-Hating

Oh, great, you don't even get the most simple marketing tricks.

All her screenshots are not from Steam, but from wizardchan.

The wizardchan FAQ:

"This site is Wizardchan, an anonymous community for male virgins.

If you pass the age of thirty as a virgin, you become a wizard.
This site is for wizards and wizards in training. Our definition of "virgin" can be found on the rules page.

Can females be wizards?
No."


So, she goes to wizardchan, a male-only community and posts there that she made a game about female depression. What do you expect that happens?


That's like me going to the GLBT forum, trolling there and then using those responses to show how intolerant the GLBT community is.

 

[KoPilot]

poop jokes are funny and I'm angry that I don't have the drive or talent to work in the gaming industry

oops I just crapped myself for the 2nd time today damn

why am I even in this thread

I'm a sad man someone love me

That's a very brave admission, Lex. Maybe take some time to think about your life. We'll be here for you when you get back.

 

[Primalex]

We weren't. You were.

You were not?

YOU wrote that there are a lot of female L4D players and YourCaptor just wouldn't recognize them. So obviously YOU were discussing L4D.


Goddamn, you deny that you've written something despite it being visible for everyone. How stupid can a single being be?

 

[Netzach]

WE we discussing "games."

YC made a very interesting and welcome observation WITHIN that discussion.

You're the only person who seems to think this is an Official Change of Topic. You're the person who can't manage to keep up with an A story and a B story at the same time, so who's stupid?

 

[Primalex]

an A story and a B story at the same time

Ah... and you decide who writes about what, instead of the person who writes the post?

Fascinating.

People talk about collective intelligence, but there is really only collective stupidity.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Ah... and you decide who writes about what, instead of the person who writes the post?

Fascinating.

People talk about collective intelligence, but there is really only collective stupidity.

Calm down. No need to become irrational and emotional here. grab ahold of your sense of proportion, and maybe some good faith, and speak rationally.

You know that will get you much further than these specious sideline rants.

 

[KoPilot]

I love having people on ignore. They go on typing, thinking that I'm actually seeing half of what they post.

 

[Netzach]

So I played a round of depression quest, and sorry, but it's kind of suck. It trivializes the illness, its a tl-dr game - maybe it'll help a few people, but I'm not sure it will convince someone of the value of therapy who isn't sold on it, basically it is problematic. Go off your meds and fall right back into the black pit, because Depression Is Always Chronic! wha?

Which isn't to say being treated the way she's being treated isn't problematic, but its....quite problematic.

 

[Primalex]

Calm down. No need to become irrational and emotional here. grab ahold of your sense of proportion, and maybe some good faith, and speak rationally.

You know that will get you much further than these specious sideline rants.

Come on, we both know that the very moment I speak rational arguments, you dismiss them anyway - then I'm just a troll. Been there, done that and we both know it. Take your fake friendliness and use it to fuck the next sissy boy, but pretty please, don't try this on me.

 

[yandere]

can't believe we're talking about wizardchan in this thread, haha.

i post there sometimes. they get so mad if you tell them in threads on other sites that you're a woman and you post on their boards.

 

[MeekMe]

Oh don't worry, there are just as many dudebros in comics (and science, and computer engineering, and programming, and SF and...) it's just that it's easy to be into comics and not have to interact with anyone else about it.

I tend to get my comics from a really welcoming shop. Actually, I drink in the bar in the back of the shop quite often. ^_^ Maybe I'm just lucky to be part of a more friendly community. Same for table top RPGs, the groups I've joined have always been pretty welcoming.

I'm not saying there aren't douche bags roaming Geek Land, but I've chosen to give my business to the places I'm welcomed.

 

[KoPilot]

I tend to get my comics from a really welcoming shop. Actually, I drink in the bar in the back of the shop quite often. ^_^ Maybe I'm just lucky to be part of a more friendly community. Same for table top RPGs, the groups I've joined have always been pretty welcoming.

I'm not saying there aren't douche bags roaming Geek Land, but I've chosen to give my business to the places I'm welcomed.

I had good stores in NYC... and then the one closest to me when I moved turned into a shitfest. After being lied and talked down to by one of the employees (talked down to on many occasions actually), I wrote a bad review for them on Yelp. The manager wound up getting into an argument with me in the reviews, trying to tell me I was making stuff up, and the aforementioned employee went through their subscription system files to find my personal email and write me an essay on how sorry he was.

I get my comics from TFAW now. :I

 

[KoPilot]

So I played a round of depression quest, and sorry, but it's kind of suck. It trivializes the illness, its a tl-dr game - maybe it'll help a few people, but I'm not sure it will convince someone of the value of therapy who isn't sold on it, basically it is problematic. Go off your meds and fall right back into the black pit, because Depression Is Always Chronic! wha?

Which isn't to say being treated the way she's being treated isn't problematic, but its....quite problematic.

The game itself was "meh" but I personally liked the idea, even though yeah, there is No One Kind of Depression. She chose to talk about a kind of depression. And personally, as someone who's been told for the past 18 years that it'll get better it'll get better it'll get better it'll get better and then get frustrated and mad at me when I think hey, maybe it won't get better on it's own? It's refreshing to see. No, depression isn't always chronic, but the fact that chronic depression existing is still wildly controversial to some people (a lot of people?), makes me happy this exists.

 

[unregistered]

 

[Primalex]

I think it's born of insecurity and maybe even a fear of interaction with women.

Fear of interaction can only be due to the experience of interaction, they've made. It's not like male geeks are genetically engineered to fear women.

 

[Dyslexicea]

Fear of interaction can only be due to the experience of interaction, they've made. It's not like male geeks are genetically engineered to fear women.

Are you absolutely sure?

 

[IrisAlthea]

Feeling stabby...

Writer spills on why execs refuse to make superhero shows for girls

And it's not easy to avoid all that shit without turning into the strange sect family.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Fear of interaction can only be due to the experience of interaction, they've made. It's not like male geeks are genetically engineered to fear women.

agreed. And it's not like male geeks are born knowing how to harass women in the particular flavors of harassment that are becoming common enough that we can discuss them at such length, either.

These guys aren't learning this from interacting with women; they are getting this from interacting with other dudebros. They are feeding their 'fear' etc with each other.

 

[YourCaptor]

Would you say woman hating by geeks is any worse than average woman hating?

 

[YourCaptor]

I'll "come out" as it were as an old school gaming geek; give me a dice bag over a game controler any day of the week. That said, there's a lot of truth to the sexism of most of my fellow geeks; I think it's born of insecurity and maybe even a fear of interaction with women. Most geek guys are not exactly chich magnets.

I'm raising a geek-chick, my youngest daughter's idea of a perfect day with dad is a trip to the comic shop for "new comic book day", a term she has stolen whole cloth from the Big Bang Theory. Thank god she takes after her mother and it always amazes me how guys at the comic shop, the game shop or a con sort of go into vapor lock around her. It's worse when she goes to a con in some new Cos-Play outfits. If she's lucky, she gets left alone; she's not lucky often. All she wants to do is game and there's some geek trying to impress her. I've felt sorry for a few of them.

Truth is, geeks are missing out when they judge a fellow geek by their gender. I've been lucky enough to add a couple of very creative young ladies to my regular weekly gaming group and I've never been in better games,

I think maybe the problem is that with guys, sex always comes first. It takes will power to expedite a secondary interest.

Even newton wanted to fuck women first, math was second. I suspect if it wasn't for the plague and the culture at the time, the dude would have been mouth breathing as well... if he wasn't.

So heres a question. Why don't women just take advantage of this fact.

Geek "Eww a girl that is so gay"

Geeket "If you shut up for one game I'll show you a boob."

 

[BiBunny]

I think maybe the problem is that with guys, sex always comes first. It takes will power to expedite a secondary interest.

Even newton wanted to fuck women first, math was second. I suspect if it wasn't for the plague and the culture at the time, the dude would have been mouth breathing as well... if he wasn't.

So heres a question. Why don't women just take advantage of this fact.

Geek "Eww a girl that is so gay"

Geeket "If you shut up for one game I'll show you a boob."

Ew. Please tell me you're joking.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Would you say woman hating by geeks is any worse than average woman hating?

Does one have to be worse than the other? Both are horrible. There's certainly a flavor here, though; Because she says that women have sometimes been harassed in geek culture, they make sure to prove it on her ass. That'll show her!

And an internet to express it with-- not to mention IP searches so that a woman can receive phone calls at home from a thousand absolute strangers-- or, her boss can get them. Thing about geeks hating women-- they have access to some very modern tools to drive the message home.

I think maybe the problem is that with guys, sex always comes first. It takes will power to expedite a secondary interest.

And men should never be expected to develop willpower? That's kind of patronising, don't you think? What are they, stupid animals?

Even newton wanted to fuck women first, math was second. I suspect if it wasn't for the plague and the culture at the time, the dude would have been mouth breathing as well... if he wasn't.

So heres a question. Why don't women just take advantage of this fact.

Geek "Eww a girl that is so gay"

Geeket "If you shut up for one game I'll show you a boob."

0) Because that would be rewarding an asshole for doing nothing.
1) because she hates her boobs and wishes they didn't exist on her body.
2) Because she loves her boobs and wants them to be seen only by people of her own choosing
3) because she knows that won't shut the dude up for more than a minute.
4) Because she knows that he'll send the picture to Reddit and invite his fellow dudebros to call her a sleazy slut and rate her for rape appeal.
5) Because she knows that he just might send it to her place of work if he feels like it, and she'll be blamed for showing it.

 

[unregistered]

 

[Stella_Omega]

IMO, one of the solutions would be to make female characters much more numerous, more varied, less dependent, less side-kick-y. Let them be a natural part of the gaming world. Some of them can be sex fantasy, some can be badass, some can be single and adventurers/superheroes/whatevs.

The guys really become toxic when we talk about that. Why is that?

 

[KoPilot]

IMO, one of the solutions would be to make female characters much more numerous, more varied, less dependent, less side-kick-y. Let them be a natural part of the gaming world. Some of them can be sex fantasy, some can be badass, some can be single and adventurers/superheroes/whatevs.

The guys really become toxic when we talk about that. Why is that?

I dunno, but they do it to RL women too.