I've been reading through this thread and a previous one and there seems to be a lot of talking past one another.
Unfortunately, that's quite common in online discussions.
By and large it seems that virtually everyone agrees on the important parts. Harassment does happen, it should not be tolerated, the targets are disproportionately female and the perpetrators are mostly white men. These seem like uncontroversial facts.
I'd say that's probably an accurate assessment of the most fundamental facts that virtually everyone in the thread agrees on.
Now there are a few points that explains some of those facts. One, harassment happens, unfortunately, just about everywhere, so RPG gatherings would be no exception. And Two, white men are a majority of RPG players and females are a minority. So not only are there more potential harassers among white men, but also they have a position of strength as a majority group. Likewise, women, as a minority group are easier targets.
I think that adequately explains the basics of environments that either foster or harbor harassment: one group has more influence than another, often because of majority status. The members of the more influential group feel they can behave however they wish because they are part of the more influential group, and they feel the rest of the group would support, or at least not admonish, their behavior.
Of course other than the demographic of RPG players none of this has anything to do specifically with role-playing games. The same could be said of sporting events, business conventions or political rallies.
Note: I bolded the part I wish to address.
I'm going to have to disagree that this has nothing specific to do with RPGs. There are a few RPG specific factors, particularly related to fantasy RPGs like D&D, that would seem to me to be relevant.
1) Most fantasy RPGs take place in a pseudo-medieval setting.
There's nothing wrong with this being the default for most frpgs. Indeed, some frpg settings even make a point of mentioning that there is a greater level of gender equality in those settings than would have existed in our medieval era. Thank God for that: the medieval era (to my understanding) was not particularly kind, especially to women.
This can really become an issue when DMs try to inject a more authentic feel to the setting by adopting more of the aspects of reality and of our medieval world.
2) Sexualization of women in gaming art.
Note: This is not going to be a rant about art in gaming. However, I am going to address it because it is a relevant topic.
All art is subjective, and I like some of the pin-up style art (regardless of the gender involved). However, for a long time there was a trend in gaming art to sexualize the females presented therein. There are many examples of this:
(a) The overused chain-mail bikini. This is fine as part of a pin-up style picture, but we really shouldn't pretend that it provides any real protection when men wearing chain armor are draped in entire shirts of the stuff. Also related to this is female armor that covers more than the CMB but fails to cover as much as the equivalent armor does on a man. Depending on how it's done, I can see this as being more forgivable outside of the pin-up style than the CMB is, but it does establish that even female armor is intended at least as much to make a woman look good as it is to protect her.
(b) The dress of casters. Most female casters seemed like they were wearing what amounts to the slave Leia outfit, with some see-through cloth hanging from it. By contrast, male casters wore robes raging from the simple robes we see Gandalf wearing in the first LoTR film to elaborate robes befitting royalty, or the ceremonial garb of priests, bishops, popes, etc.
I could go on, but I think those two example make my point about the art (and I don't want to belabor the art issue any more than is necessary). The main point of the art example is that the art already, on a subconscious level, sets women in the gaming sphere up to be seen as sexual objects.
3) The virgin and the harlot.
A lot of fantasy has a kind of two-faced view of women, with all women either being frail virginal flowers in need of protecting, or being harlots or seductresses. This also potentially sets up a subconscious expectation that I've seen time and time again in gaming, mostly expressed in the belief/assumption that a female character (PC or NPC) who expresses any interest in sexuality is a harlot and not just a rounded out person.
The disagreement really comes in when people try to characterize the problem as either a systemic problem of RPG gatherings or that it is less common at RPG gatherings than any other gathering. I don't think we have any conclusive evidence either way. A study or survey would probably be a good idea if GenCon or some other large gaming convention would do it.
I would like to see more studies/surveys myself, if for no other reason than it calls attention to the existence of the problem (regardless of how widespread one may think that it is or is not).
That said, this is not just about the problem existing in the RPG community, but in the overall gaming community (of which rpg players are part), and female cosplayers are often faced with significant sexual assault and battery.
Of course I also believe that all gatherings dominated by males (of any race) needs to do better at respecting women. It is not a gamer problem or a RPG gamer problem, it is a societal problem that needs to be addressed.
I agree with that.
