the play girlz gaming blog

The Escapist Got Me Thinking

by Ingrid on November 3rd, 2005

The Escapist Magazine’s latest issue focuses on girl gamers [thanks, Dan, for the link], and I spent my morning reading through the featured articles, which include titles such as, “Women in Games,” “Confessions of a GameStop Girl,” “What Is a Galaxy Without Stars: Drop the Sexism, Bring the Women,” and others. I enjoyed them all, as they were particularly insightful, but I think the one that touched home for me was “Confessions of a GameStop Girl.”

“Confessions of a GameStop Girl” is an interview with veteran girl gamer, Rachel Chai, conducted by Pat Miller in an outdoor plaza in L.A. The interview is casual, but touches on a lot of issues that I could relate to and I’m sure I’m not alone in that:

“At Gamestop, I was the only [girl] working there. That was frickin’ weird. I’d get hit on like mad if I was wearing something cute to work. They’d always try to get away with paying less, too - you know, ‘Could you do this for me, just this one time?’ and all that.”

She pauses to sip her water and continues, “You always get those guys who just wouldn’t think that you know anything, so they’d just be like, ‘Oh, can I talk to the assistant manager, can I talk to that guy over there instead of you?’ And then they’d be confused when you, you know, actually knew something. Everyone was astonished when they found out I played roleplaying games - ‘Do you play Final Fantasy X? Final Fantasy X-2?’ - and get surprised when I started listing Illusion of Gaia and Soulblazer.”

It’s sometimes amusing when I overhear guys talking about games, and I can instantly throw myself into the conversation, pointing something out, or commenting about something or another. Conversation usually screeches to a deafening halt, and they stare at me all doe-eyed and confused. At least in “real-life” I don’t get presented with the increasingly-annoying, “You’re probably a guy” comments, or the ever-infuriating, “Prove that you’re a girl.” There’s only so much rampant stupidity a girl can take.

So many guys wish that girls took up the controllers, and joined them in playing. But why should they, when the very games, the very industry, the very guys that we continually encounter in the online games do nothing but insult, degrade, and harrass us? Sometimes I just pretend I’m a guy when I team up with other players just so I don’t have to put up with the usual, “Do you have a boyfriend?” and, “What do you look like?” and “Do you want to chat outside the game?” questions that usually arise two seconds after I reveal I’m female. Assuming, of course, they believe me in the first place. And that’s only when they’re nice guys. The assholes are far less poetic.

Guys consider themselves ‘hardcore’ gamers, but I propose that there’s no one more hardcore than the female gamers. We’re the ones who put up with all that crap, just so we can play the damn games.

What’s more hardcore than that?

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POSTED IN: Culture, Links, Musings