Well, it’s official, Kotaku blogger Crecente has done his homework and decided that women just don’t blog about video games! This, of course, on the wake of Kotaku link blogging Guilded Lily’s post on covers she wants to see without giving any sort of nod to the meme that inspired it, or the other female video game bloggers who participated. Guilded Lily was not one of the women video game bloggers mentioned, by the way.
Of course, when Kotaku regularly inserts sexist turns of phrase into their posts, especially in ones that have little or nothing to do with gender, I am not exactly at a loss for an explanation as to why they would overlook resources like Women Gamers (the first hit when you google “women gamers”, just so you know) or Killer Betties. But, I mean, it’s us “gamer chicks” who have the “treat me better because I am a girl gamer attitude” according to one Kotaku commenter.
Let me put it another way. When bloggers like Faith, who put up with a lot of sexist shit being flung at them every time they post, say you’ve gone too far, your chances for getting a woman to blog for you, even if you find them with your severely lacking internet searching skills, is probably pretty low.
You want diversity at Kotaku? You want to add a woman to your staff? Then take down your damn “White Boys Only” sign and, at the very least, stop shoving your contempt for women down our throats in any post that even remotely can relate to women.
We are not your “whores”.
We are not your “bitches”.
And we are not going to sit down and kiss your feet for your half-assed attempts at including us.
Amen.
(It’s like a bad spin on the whole “where are the women bloggers?” horribleness.)
I only got about a third of the way down the page and into to some of the comments before I gave up, because I’m sure I have heard this talk before, only in slightly different situations. I find it odd that the article is about how the writer (this Crecente bloke) has decided women just don’t blog about games (instead of the truth; that he apparently cant step outside of his own ignorance, and did a piss poor search for women blogging about games). Then following that, the comments burst into explanations on how female bloggers and gamers act and why they shouldn’t blog in the first place. But surely the article suggests they have no clue on how they act? Apparently when women play games, they do it for attention. When they blog about games, they’re doing it to bring attention to the fact that they are playing games…….
It sounds like the Kotaku folks have the same problem that a lot of geek guys have when trying to find women who play games/read comics/etc. – they’ve spent so much time spewing misogyny around that women have long vacated their area. They then read this lack of women who put up with their shit as a lack of women period, and use it to justify continued sexism, because “women don’t do this stuff anyway!”
I find this attitude particularly interesting, because in all my geek hobbies – role-playing, comic books, anime – I see either a majority of women, or at least an even split. Of course, that could be related to the fact that I’m female myself. But then I look at some of my male friends and acquaintances, and while there are some who remain with a core group of (mostly male) fellow geeks, there are a few whose geek groups include many women, because these latter men are far less (overtly?) sexist than the former. It should also be noted that these men have been successful in bringing in new people to geek activities, both male and female. Really, it’s all about being welcoming and not being an asshole.
It’s our fault no matter what we do; we just can’t win.
Thanks for this post, Tekanji – I knew something was up over at Kotaku since they were playing so nice with my post yesterday. Very funny how Crecente claims there are no women bloggers, so close on the heels of featuring my post. Guilded Lilies has been around for over a year and has been referenced by Kotaku three or four times now I think, but that must not be enough to cure my invisibility yet. Ah well, it’s always interesting!
Yeah, well, on the plus side it finally pushed me into making that feminist-oriented community I’ve wanted for ages. It’s in alpha right now, but assuming I can get off my butt and do some design it should be ready to launch in not too long. If you’re interested in alpha testing it (anyone here, really) e-mail me and I’ll give you the link to the forums.
I actually briefly met Crecente at the 2006 Game Developers Conference. I didn’t have a chance to mention my blogging activities or speak to him for any length of time, as he was rushing off to something or other, and had only stopped to say “Hello” to Alice Taylor who I was having a conversation with.
I don’t think he’s looking in the right places.
Wow, talk about misunderstanding a post. I didn’t say there aren’t any women bloggers, in fact I said the opposite. What I did say is that women blogger need to be more OUT there. I’m a little surprised you’ve turned that post into a negative when all I was doing was trying to find a female blogger to write for Kotaku.
To highlight what I was saying:
So I know they’re out there, but why aren’t there more of them out there, or more specifically, why aren’t they, you know, more out there.
While I think that strong woman writers who cover gaming are not proportional to the number of women playing games, the bigger issue it seems is that there aren’t a whole lot of immediately recognizable female writers on the net. I think the ones out there now need to be more vocal perhaps, or maybe I’m just not reading the right sites.
Crecente: You may not have said that there aren’t any women bloggers, but that sure was the content of your post when you claimed that we aren’t “out” there without doing your homework.
And as to why we aren’t more “out” there to people like you — look to your own site. Look at all the sexism that you all put into your posts. “Hot flashes” in the title of a PacMan post? And that’s just one of the more tame ones.
Look to your commenters. Women gamers are called attention whores, reduced to what sexual pleasure we can give to men, and harassed if we ever speak out against the treatment we receive online.
Look to the women who are “out” there. Look at Faith, who blogs at Destructiod. She tows the party line of “men rule, women are attention whores” pretty often and she still gets verbally abused, and she got it from your site, too.
Look to your own damn comment, where you hammer on your point again without reading what I said after the first line.
Where are the women gamer bloggers? They’re right here.
crecente: The issue that Tekanji is raising is not so much your individual post about finding a female blogger, but rather the history of ignoring and insulting women that precedes it. To draw a random and somewhat clumsy metaphor: if someone spent the last fifteen minutes flicking your ear, and then turned around and offered you a handshake, it would be hard to focus on the handshake as a positive gesture. Rather than dismissing Tekanji’s viewpoint as simply “misunderstanding” your post, perhaps you could consider why she would be skeptical about an attempt to include women that fails to acknowledge the atmosphere that excluded them in the first place.
The “diverse” perspectives you solicit from women and people of color will most likely deal with the sexism and racism that pervade both games and gamer culture. And there are bloggers already talking about these things – problem is, much of the reaction to that blogging involves having shit flung at them rather than the respectful attention that would encourage more blogging by them. Consider that as a possible answer to your question of why there aren’t more non-white/male gamers who blog. Without at least acknowledging that context, your invitation comes off as lip service at best.
It’s difficult to want to post at the mainstream gaming sites like Joystiq or Kotaku because of the sexism previously mentioned.
Woman gamers who blog yet don’t comment on mainstream sites aren’t hiding. They just don’t want to spend their time on sites that are hostile to women.
I have to agree somewhat with 100littledolls’s second comment. Kotaku commenters are routinely sexist, often misogynistic, and disrespectful. Even posts on Kotaku have exhibited sexisim. There have been quite a few times when I wanted to comment on a post there (at least before I stopped reading), to debate points that asinine commenters bring up, but am unable to — because of Kotaku’s commenting policy. If I am barred from debating an issue I have an opinion on, then why bother reading the site?
I’ve found Joystiq to be a bit better, though.