A lady gamer's rant: Sexy Videogameland

Phew! Recently I got back from a big birthday weekend. Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy bday and to all who came to help me celebrate it. I had a great time!

I've been slogging through the stuff that's piled up while I was away, and this evening I read this post. It shitted me, and I'll tell you why. But first, I'll show you what made me unsubscribe from this blog and what made me angry enough to come steaming back to my neglected little corner of the web.

Such a novelty is it for [guys] to discover a neighborhood gal who presumably "plays video games all day" that they seem over the moon to find a girl they can talk about games with. This should make me feel cool. It makes me annoyed.

Yes! Gosh, I am totally sick of that breathless shocked tone people use whenever they discover that there are women who play, work on, talk about, and enjoy video games. It's super irritating when people think that lady gamers are so rare that people would actually pay to play games with them.

I imagine any gal who's an avid gamer even for a hobby, not for a living, has to deal with the same thing, endless barrages of breathless shock from guys that can't believe you exist. And maybe gals for whom it's just a hobby find this flattering. I don't.

Um. Excuse me?

I get your point, Leigh, I think. You're sick of people being shocked to find a woman who works in the games industry, and wish that sometimes people would respect your desire to leave work at work. I get it. But why is it only girls who work in the gaming industry that are allowed to be upset by this?

Aren't all women allowed to feel a shade miffed that the gaming and greater public seem to think (incorrectly) that girl gamers are a super rare occurrence? It's one thing to wish people in the outer rings of your social circle to put in a bit of extra effort when it comes to casual conversation topics, and on principle I support greater visibility for females in the gaming industry.

However, I think it is another, entirely unhelpful thing, to exclude regular gaming gals from your eye-rolling. We're just as over the rare unicorn treatment as anyone else, and just because we don't get paid to talk about games doesn't mean we enjoy being oggled by the ignorant.


Picture credits: gruntzooki, Liqueur Felix, ..thomas.. & tracer.ca