Slashdot Mirror
The Daily Harassment of Women In the Game Industry
An anonymous reader writes: Brianna Wu, leader of a game development studio, has an article exposing the constant harassment of women in the games industry. She says, "I'm not writing this piece to evoke your sympathy. I'm writing to share with you what prominent, successful women in the industry experience, in their own words." She goes through the individual stories of several women targeted by this vitriol, and tries to figure out why it happens. Quoting: "We live in a society that's sexist in ways it doesn't understand. One of the consequences is that men are extremely sensitive to being criticized by women. ... This is why women are socialized to carefully dance around these issues, disagreeing with men in an extremely gentle manner. Not because women are nicer creatures than men. But because our very survival can depend on it. ... Growing a thicker skin isn't the answer, nor is it a proper response. Listening, and making the industry safer for the existence of visible women is the best, and only, way forward."
From what I hear, death threats are quite normal in the video games industry. Certainly the vitriol flies on gaming forums (can't imagine how busy the moderators for official game forums must be). This article seems to boil down to "but women get rape threats too". OK, sure, men don't often get those, fair point. But in an industry thick with death threats, how many developers or commentators have actually been lynched by angry fans since the beginning of time? Roughly zero? It's not rational to actually be creeped out or worried about this stuff.
For goodness sake, Jack Thompson is still alive and well. If any of these threats of violence could be taken seriously, he'd be the first casualty. Think you're more hated than that guy?
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
I'll grant you all your points. Women are singled out.
Until there are too many women to single out.
The same thing happened when women went to work, when they went to medical school, when they went into politics, as you said. And eventually, they become accepted by their peers, and any hate they get from the public is just like the hate that their male counterparts get from the public. Except that instead of "Go fucking smoke some pole, you Kenyan Muslim faggot", they hear "Get your bitch-ass in the kitchen, you stupid cunt."
I'm a little segfault, short and stout.
Why does she get to stereotype men? Why do women get to put all their problems on men? When men do this, we're misogynistic. When women do this, well, men need to be more sensitive.
I think you have a point, but I also think you're confusing two issues.
She may or may not be making a valid generalization. I haven't read her article, so I can't say. But issue #1 is whether or not her complaint is worth considering.
Issue #2 is whether or not it's hypocritical for a women to paint men with a broad brush. But that issue can be treated entirely separately from issue #1.
Melodramatic? Have you ever listened to the audio chats of FPS co-op games when women are playing with men? I've heard guys who threatened to hunt down their female opponents so they could rape them and murder them just because they got their ass handed to them in a game. That is not juvenile "boys will be boys" behavior. That's somebody who might violently act out if the right circumstances (alcohol, drugs, peer pressure, stress, etc..) were to happen.
That's just gaming. You should read some of the stories about women who get involved in politics. Some people get really unhinged when you attack their personal values. Then you have some guys who go completely off the deep end when it is a woman doing it. Threats of murder come quickly and often. It is sadistic and it is ugly.
That's why I don't do voice chat. Letting random strangers whisper in your ear is a terrible idea.
I'm male, I've had men threaten all the same bullshit you just said. I think what women mis-understand about men is that men do this to men as well. I've been violently assaulted by other men before. In highschool I was put into the hospital. The "perpetrators" didn't even get suspended. I've had my tires slashed, guys show up at my house with baseball bats wanting to fight only to find out I'm armed to the teeth and that bats not going to do them much good.
I know a lot of guys don't get that sort of thing, but a lot of us do. Women aren't the only victims, and turning male violence into a womens issue is somewhat insulting. Men don't talk about it like women do because of social stigma, but it's a real problem. In the workplace if a man even smiles funny at a women he's walked out the door. The same man threatens violence against another man and it's treated as a joke. At least women have some legal and social protections. If you don't think it's true, here's a thought experiment for you... a Man shows up at work with a black eye... what's your first reaction? Now a woman shows up with a black eye... why should your reaction be any different based on their sex?
As a straight male, I've been called Noob, loser, moron, fag (though it doesn't apply), n*gga (though it doesn't apply), whatever.
As much as I hate internet tracking, something I wish it was a little better in terms of these losers. Maybe if the game corps could better track the useless trolls and accept feedback then things would clean up.
DOTA2 had a $10m tournament this year. It's big news. Yet the only real categories they have for reporting are the broad "communication abuse" and then feeding/etc. Maybe if had better ways of identifying (and warning/enforcing) the racist, sexist pricks we could clean some of this crap up. Steam and Origin capture most of the non-console game market, so getting a perma-ban from multiplayer on both platforms (not just the game, but the whole thing) would go a long away to showing that this shit isn't acceptable.
"I have a guy who’s writing fan fiction starring me and him. It’s a pornographic fanfic, and he's on chapter 6. He anonymously submits chapters through my website"
That's hardly unique to women. Richard Stallman once replied to someone who anonymously submitted a pornographic fanfic involving himself and Stallman. The reply was rather thorough in describing how unrealistic the fictional situation was. I'd look for the full text but I'm at work.