I recently asked my twitter
followers to describe girl/female gamers in one word.
The majority of the responses that I received were positive:
Others certainly emphasized gaming as a gender neutral term:
Others I didn't quite know what to think of:
So, what to think of these responses? Well clearly from this small sample of my Twitter followers (the majority being male) people think female gamers are pretty damn cool. Overall it would seem that female gamers generally have positive interactions with male gamers.
In my experience 99.9% of the time I receive praise and support for being a gamer. But there has been a handful of times where I have been insulted, degraded, and put-down simply for being female.
In part two of this blog post I will explore the typical negative perceptions of female gamers, why I believe this occurs, and how we can discourage this negativity.
For now...
Game On!
This blog post is featured on Future Retro Gamer.
The majority of the responses that I received were positive:
"Badass"
"Unique,
endangered species"
"Sexy!"
"Rare"
"Unconquerable"
"Dedicated"
"Gamettes"
Others certainly emphasized gaming as a gender neutral term:
"Same
as male ones i guess?"
"Gamer"
Others I didn't quite know what to think of:
"If
a girl gamer states her gender then you can't help but judge them for wanting
attention."
So, what to think of these responses? Well clearly from this small sample of my Twitter followers (the majority being male) people think female gamers are pretty damn cool. Overall it would seem that female gamers generally have positive interactions with male gamers.
In my experience 99.9% of the time I receive praise and support for being a gamer. But there has been a handful of times where I have been insulted, degraded, and put-down simply for being female.
In part two of this blog post I will explore the typical negative perceptions of female gamers, why I believe this occurs, and how we can discourage this negativity.
For now...
Game On!
This blog post is featured on Future Retro Gamer.
i don't see a need to bring up being a 'girl' gamer. why not just 'gamer'? as in recognizing that first and foremost you are a person instead of a male/female? this might be where the dude that said, "If a girl gamer states her gender then you can't help but judge them for wanting attention." is coming from. at least it's my take on it.
ReplyDeleteIMHO the coolest thing about gaming is that males and females can compete on an even playing field.
Thanks for the comment!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what you said. I'm never one to bring up my gender while gaming but naturally it comes up. It is a part of who I am and therefore something I'm proud of :0)