Phasmal said:
Boudica said:
I don't really know what someone could be doing to garner the attention. Just a hypothesis. I remember in an episode of Law and Order: SVU (my second favourite show) a detective said that women that are raped, are twice as likely to be raped again by a different person, so something must be up. Her partner took offense and retorted, telling her she was blaming the victim. No, she said, but if some people are targeted more than others, there must be a common behaviour present among them.
Whether it's intentional or not, genuine or idiotic, something some women do must be the reason they are given so much more negative attention than others in the same situation. It could be something reasonable, like just being overly chatty and annoying others. Or it could be something silly, like their username. I'm pretty sure all the women reporting this problem aren't raging hooligans, going out of their way to be spammed. No doubt there's some people out there that just treat the opposite sex differently. If we could work out what the women do have in common, we could best devise a way to fix it ^^
You seem to be trying really hard to argue that it's gotta be our fault somehow, and that's just depressing. Nobody asks to be harrassed.
As I said before, I have been harrassed literally just because someone referred to the fact that I'm a woman. I was not even involved in that exchange, so I'm not sure how there was anything I could do.
I'm pretty sure I would 100% avoid harrassment if there were no people harrassing anyone.
No, mam. As I said, it's unlikely everyone being harassed is harassed because they deserve it (if that's even possible). But a certain aspect of their behaviour online is clearly the trigger, if you will, to the issues. For a silly and extreme, but simple example, imagine someone talking to their friends about their new car, when all of a sudden someone starts shouting insults at them because they hate cars. It's not the person's
fault the angry person went off and they didn't deserve it, but their actions caused it.
I don't really believe simply being a woman is a good enough reason, because it doesn't explain why other women in the same situation never receive the attention. It seems fairly cliche to assume the sole motivation for the instigators is you being female, too. I don't particularly accept that women have it as rough in the community as some suggest. There's certainly evidence that seems to suggest girls are targeted, but with no one I've ever personally known having been the target of such attacks (friends, family, guild mates, etc.) it's hard for me to believe said evidence.
I'd also argue men have it worse than women, as I've seen and heard many guys insult, ridicule and otherwise bash other men. In fact, I'd be willing to bet at least half of the time spent in certain games, is backdropped by men bullying one another. Either there's much, much fewer women to explain the difference, or guys are assholes to guys more often than to girls. I've also known of many women getting special treatment because they're women. It's even spawned something of an internet cliche, with men playing female characters to "get free stuff."
Ultimately, while I have my share of issues with the gaming industry, all my personal experience and research rebuffs what I hear in forums like this. Again, leading me to wonder if my friends and I are doing or not doing something that's keeping us harassment free.
