SpawnPoint - Where Game Begins

A Gamer Girl's Diary - Attention-whoreism?

As most of you know, I've been a gamer for most my life. I started my passion when I first received my Nintendo when I was seven. With the years, I eventually became more active in what is known as online gaming, mostly through first person shooters, such as Counter Strike: Source and the Call of Duty series. I have learned that there are alot of different aspects of today's gaming culture that are considered controversial, and which affects me directly as a woman in the gaming world. The one that interests me the most, and that I've written alot about is still the same old argumentative topic: Girls and Gaming.

I've read a fellow gamer girl's article, where she speaks her mind about how bad some girls have been segregating themselves in the gaming community, and how they are making a bad image of women, the ones considered gamers. I feel a great need to address this article with a response, because there are some things mentioned that I feel strongly about, both good and bad.

The first thing she attacks in her article is "girl gaming leagues, clans, websites, or anything that really does out line female gamers". In her opinion, they're all about looking good and bringing attention upon themselves through that. As a member of the biggest all girl clan, PMS ("Pandora's Mighty Soldiers"), I beg to differ. Sure, there are alot of members who are very beautiful and attractive girls. But honestly, these girls work very hard at what they do as gamers to be recognized internationally. It's got nothing to do with their looks. The point of having a group of girls form a clan is and was never to bring attention to themselves, but rather to show girls not to be scared to be part of the gaming community as themselves. What attracted me to joining them in the first place, was nothing to do with attention; it was the fact that there are no prejudices, and it's all about making friends and playing games together. A place where girls can be themselves, and play in a respectful atmosphere.

Who cares if PMS Athena and her twin sister PMS Athena Twin are hot enough to bring boys down in their own puddle of drool?! Just because they are pretty, it doesn't make them less of WHO they are and how good they play. And I can testify from personal experience that most, if not all the girls in our clan are very good at gaming, and genuinely have a passion for it, pretty or not. Blaming looks is just another way to point out your own insecurities, and lack of integrity and is very judgmental. What's so wrong about teaming up together to have some fun? If anything, it's nice to play with other girls for a change (since the gaming world is dominated by guys). And never has the PMS girls posted indecent photos of themselves anywhere. They are not about promoting sex. If you think you know anything about them, just do your research before attacking them.

Who said anything about being cutesy? lol God, there are girls of ALL AGES who game. Sure, I can see the younger teenagers being cutesy, because that's the part of the age they are at. Older teens tend to be slightly careless about revealing too much about themselves: but seriously... that's a normal tendency at around that age. Think psychology. You're 17-18, your body's become grown up, you crave boys' attention (even though they give it to you already), you want to feel sexy, appreciated etc... Yet, you haven't figured out what that really means, and will make a few attempts, maybe mistakes, to get that attention. We've all done it, you can't deny it. Why? because it's a stage in life where you're building a sens of individuality, and don't always understand that it's not about how you look. There are alot of girls out there , who unfortunately do things like take revealing pictures of themselves, or act a little "slutty", because they don't know how to express themselves properly, and think it's the best way to try to fit in. Yes, you can consider it "attention-whoreism"... but comparing this to girls who are just naturally beautiful, and who don't cross that line is so wrong and prejudice.

It pisses me off, sooooo much, when people stereotype and don't look at all the facts. Thinking that girls are all about looks, and not what's inside... sounds like shallow thinking to me, maybe even projection. Each person you encounter in life; in game, or in RL; is an individual. Each and every one of them have a family, friends, life events, feelings, a personality, life experience, and an intellect that is specific to him/her. It would be stupid for someone to take a group of people who have common traits: such as their sex, their appearance, ethnicity, religion, lifestyle or whatever, and label them, just because there were a few individuals who lacked the maturity to set good examples. That is considered slander and discrimination, and is not acceptable thinking.

The other thing that really pisses me off is girls who'll get naked and cover their parts with nintendo controllers and post them all over the internet. There are only a few of them, but omg... People please don't associate gamer chicks to that! argh... here's an example of what I mean. It's demeaning to women, and gives people a tainted image of those who play games. This is a prime example of the bullshit that makes us look bad for no reason. We are not all sluts or attention-whores.

Now, another aspect of the whole popularity issue with gamer girls, is the part the guys play in all of it. The nature of things goes like this: boys like girls, girls like boys (occasionally boys like boys and girls like girls, but that's besides the point I want to make lol). Now, if you look at things in reverse, you'll understand what I'm trying to say.

Lets look at Ballet. First thing that comes to mind is girls dressed in pink tu-tus. There are many men, who are exceptional ballet dancers too. I'm not familiar with the actual ballet dancers today, but lets make a faux-scenario. Lets take Brad Pitt, Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom, and lets take away their celebrity status, and throw them in as professional ballet dancers. Almost every ballerina out there who dreams of becoming pro, will go ga-ga over the idea of becoming one of their dancing partners. Why? because they are men, they are good looking, and they are good at what they do.

So take that, and come back to gaming. You're a guy, you're playing CS:S with a bunch of random guys, and suddenly, a cute voice starts talking strats to you and has a pretty decent score. You're thinking "well hello you!". Why? because it's in your nature. And guess what!? you're not the only guy thinking that, about 90% of the other players are too.

My point in all this is the following: don't blame girls for the attention they get in games, because it's only a natural response that the ones with testosterone will give to them anyways. It's up to the girl to act with decency in her gaming, and that defines her character. Not the fact that she has tits and looks like a model. Yes, we live in a world where sex sells, but it doesn't mean that you have to do that to obtain anybody's approval. Just be yourself, respect yourself and other, and you've got it all.

So in conclusion to my rant, I'd like to say that people are idiots sometimes. I'm not attacking anybody specifically, just everyone who thinks they're right when they use prejudices and convert them against others. We need to understand that not everybody's perfect, but also acknowledge that others are better at certain things than we are. People need to be more understanding about each other, and need to respect themselves better. We all make stupid mistakes, and we all learn from them (hopefully). Nobody's better than anybody, but don't make yourself worst than you should be.

-Sapphire