What It's Like For a Gamer Girl

[Buttercup]

Their excuses: guys will be guys and if the girls can't take it, then they don't deserve to play.

That is a steaming pile of horse manure. If anyone ever tried that crap at my table, I would halt the game and order them out of the house. If they didn't move quickly enough, I'd throw their books and coat and backpack out the door, and they could scramble for it. Disgusting.

edit: typo

 

[Kichwas]

I've been a first person witness to it many times...

Take a look at this post:
http://azure.bbboy.net/niftymessageboard-viewthread?forum=9&thread=29&postnum=25#post46
For three directed at my own PCs.

Which is by no means an exhaustive list of my experience with this scenerio.

I also agreed earlier to the comment on bigotry. I grew up in Berkeley, CA so I was used to thinking of gamers as liberal minded people. I got quite a shock when I hit adulthood and started moving through other circles.

Even here in the Bay Area. But largely, some of the things I've seen said online have just shocked me over the years. And quite a few of them were said here at ENworld.

 

[Teflon Billy]

I've seen it.

I won't bother recounting the tale of "Rape Boy" again. It's on the board somewhere and a pretty funny read

 

[LuYangShih]

Arcady:

I haven't finished reading the posts in that link yet, but I just want to thank you for posting it. Absolutely hilarious, I have not laughed this hard in a while.

 

[Henry]

Arcady, while your comments floored me, I can't say I've ever seen this treatment in any of the twenty-some odd gamers I've been involved with locally, and certainly not at any conventions I've attended. The female gamers we've played with have been treated with just as much respect as the next person - which may mean a little ribbing if they are "one of the group," but nothing as degrading as the experiences you've alluded to.

I dunno - I still hear stories like this and they boggle me - but then, "stupid crook stories" still amaze me too, and they fall into the same category of lunacy.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

In the 24 years I've gamed, I've never run across players like the type arcady posted about. I've heard about this on message boards like this one, but I've never actually witnessed it. When the group I've gamed with has been all guys, it's never degenerated into anything like what is detailed above, not even close. When the group includes a female, she's treated like any of the others in the group, which is to say like you would treat any friend. Either I've been extremely lucky, or folk like arcady have been extremely unlucky.

 

[fusangite]

One "encouraging" note: I think it's pretty fair to say that for every misogynistic nutbar who treats women in gaming poorly, there is a desperate gynophobic nutbar who defers obsequiously to female gamers solely on the basis of their gender.

 

[Teflon Billy]

One "encouraging" note: I think it's pretty fair to say that for every misogynistic nutbar who treats women in gaming poorly, there is a desperate gynophobic nutbar who defers obsequiously to female gamers solely on the basis of their gender.

At the very least. So the scales balance

...-ish

 

[Celtavian]

re

Ooookkkk!! That was some severely strange roleplaying. Someone's mental.

 

[TalonComics]

I've met a fair number of people who treat RPGs as a way for them to "let loose" with psychopathic behavior and suffer no consequences (in their mind at least). It truly boggles my mind that anyone would think horrible behavior is okay to do just because it's a "pretend" game world. Never the less, these are the same guys who think doing horrible things to female characters, played by actual women or otherwise, is also okay.

Who are these people and why do they think this way? How could anyone game with these people much less be their friend? Does anyone personally know someone who is consistently this type of person?

~D