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POSTED BY: NecroticNymph on Jun 8, 2007
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Girls Gone Gamer
This is an article I wrote a little while ago. It was posted in my school's online newspaper, on the PolkVoice online paper, and printed in last week's issue of the PolkVoice, a local paper of mine.
A soldier checks his back before settling into his newly found hiding place. Silence. Nothing else is in the room but an overturned couch and a tattered mattress. He rests his sniper rifle, a scoped Kar-98, on the windowsill, and peers through the scope. Though the sight is shaky, he can make out a small group of American soldiers squabbling with a lone fellow German troop. The German Scout shows no emotion as he levels the barrel of his gun. There is a quick inhale of breath, and the sight of his rifle steadies before the deafening sound alerts all that are near.
Bang!
The soldier pauses to cock his gun, takes another breath, and fires again.
Bang!
The soldier makes to cock his gun again. Having downed the first two Americans, he goes for the third. But something stops him. Four words flash across the screen:
Game Over
Axis Wins!
He has done well, scoring his team the game-winning kills. As the gamers are taken to the spawn-screen, they begin chatting, complaining, gloating and commenting about the game. The soldier whose final kill won the game is at the top of the score list, and receives compliments from the Axis team.
“No problem.†The gamer states, and it is evident in the voice that this soldier is not a male at all. Before anyone can comment, a new game begins, and she takes command, barking orders at her team. Only her voice reveals her gender, which her male character conceals. She is a girl gamer, and she’s on par with the best of the boys.
“So what?†Most parents would say. Is it so odd that girls play video games? The answer is no, but it is certainly uncommon. Not many teen girls enjoy playing console or PC games as much as males their age. Why? It all goes back to the stereotype of little girls with their Barbies and little boys with their GI Joes. The girls had their girly toys, and boys had their manly toys. That was just how it was. Well, girl gamers are picking up that stereotype, pegging it out the window and taking pot-shots at it with their assault rifles. Nothing is off-limits anymore, and it is more common than ever to hear a female voice barking orders or shouting warnings over the roar of gunfire.
However, this new trend is not all fun and gore for these ladies. They often have to endure quite a lot of stereotyping and insults from anti-girl gamer boys. Some girls will be ridiculed during game-play, their strategies purposely sabotaged or they will even be kicked out of the game, just for being female!
In addition to being discriminated for their gender, girl gamers also face other obstacles, of which the most prominent would have to be the fact that they are facing male gamers. Not because of the boys’ supposed “superior skillsâ€ÂÂ. Oh no. It is instead because of the perverse tendencies some of them possess, the most common of which is for them to question very rudely about girl gamers’ personal information, appearance and otherwise. Not only is it irritating, it is distracting and just plain vulgar.
So, boys…the next time you sit down to play a round of “Warzone†or “Capture the Flagâ€ÂÂ, please be courteous, respect your fellow gamers of both genders, play as you would with your friends…and remember; video games aren’t just for boys anymore.
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An Earthman's Poet~Reap Satan on Them
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