Trying to help clear out some backlog for Jade Reporting (we’re looking for volunteers, by the way), I came across these recent titles from articles on Destructoid:
New Destructoid wallpapers are hotter than your best friend’s mom
Sexy No More Heroes footage makes me feel special inside of myself
Auto Assault shuttered, ruining future for “Autoerotic Assault” jokes
Dragon Quest Swords TV ad; why is there no Sexy Slime?
WoW pedophemale fails in her quest to get a 17 year old knobbing
Not all of these are sexist; they are just the ones that jumped out at me that had unnecessary or inappropriate references to sex in the titles. Also, I don’t mean to single out Destructoid with this little exercise; it was just their bloglines that I was reading, and I know for a fact that Kotaku is worse.
But, really, with Destructoid being one of the major players in video game news and entertainment, what kind of message to titles of those send out? That the gaming industry and community is mature and worthy of respect? Please. It says to the world that gamers are immature, horny little nerd boys who are so sex starved that they have to talk about it even when it isn’t remotely relevant, and jazz it up even when it is.
Sick of the stereotypes, boys? So am I.
If you want gaming to have a better image (and from the articles, I know you do), then it all starts with you. Stop putting “humour” above clarity, and stop trying to insert sex references where they obviously don’t belong. It’s childish. It’s stupid. And it makes gamers look bad. It’s really not that hard to show a little professionalism in one’s journalism. Seriously.
omg thats liek, so sexist against men. whut do u have aginst guyz??
Thought I’d get that out of the way. 🙂
In the meantime, though — right on. It isn’t doing much for gamer culture to reinforce the stereotype that we all live in our parents’ basements watching porn in between pvp battles, which is exactly how gratuitous sex references come across. Additionally, it does nothing to even give the appearance of being female-inclusive. If you want women to stop accusing you of sexist behaviour, maybe you should, you know, stop being sexist? Just a thought.
Whenever the issues about women gamers come up, many men gamers divert attention from women gamers by saying, “We’re stereotyped, too!” Well, who’s to blame for those stereotypes about gamer men and women? It’s not all the mainstream media’s fault. Much of the fault lies a little closer to home.