Haliwali said:
While we manly boys are ranting here, I'd be interested in a FEMALE gamers opinion on the subject. How are YOU perceived for your hobbies? Are you single? Do you also live in the US? Care to meet me sometime?
In short what do you think about this?
Of course I gotta stick my dainty powdered nose into this shit-storm and take a big whiff. Ah, smells like...victory. Or maybe not.
First of all, despite all evidence to the contrary, it appears that I am actually a boy. Again [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.54023?page=2#386498]. My peenus iz pastede on yay! I even have a hard time finding girls who will sleep with my geeky ass. Except for the chromosomal thing and the Women's Studies degree, I am one of you! Apparently.
Second of all, I'm so tired of having to point out this basic tenet of usenet/mail list/bbs debate: Ad hominem attacks are the lowest form of argument, second only to grammar flames. Seriously guys, when some right-wing cockwaffle decided to open his second asshole and crap out the assertion that Mass Effect was interactive gonzo porn, you were outraged and rightly so. There were assaults on his intelligence, his journalistic integrity *snortcoughchoke*, and the standard wear and tear on everyone's W, T, and F keys. However, there was not an avalanche of, "Fucking fucker is a fucking cross-eyed flipper-baby who's just jealous because he can't play video games! And, plus, also, he's all frustrated because he can't ever masturbate with his stupid flipper hands, and so he doesn't want anybody watching porn! He should die! Somebody should stick a plasma grenade up his ass! He should be teabagged until he suffocates!"
This is a standard pattern, Guys piss people off because they say something stupid and get called dumbasses (because they are) and and told not to talk about things they are totally ignorant about. Women do the same and get called bitches (which is beside the point, since a woman can be dumb without being a *****, and a ***** without being dumb), told they need to get laid (which in my opinion tends to make women MORE stupid with regard to men), and are figuratively threatened with physical violence, assault, and death.
If you object to what she
said, then
talk about what she said. Leave your opinions about her physical attractiveness and sex life out of it. Though I have to give you guys kudos on the absence of !!!!!1!!ELEVENTY!!!1 and CAPSLOCK OF RAGE.
Soooooo, anywayyyy, what were we talking about again? Oh yeah, this woman's complaint that video games are responsible for the extension of male adolescence (add that to the list of everything else they're responsible for, right?) OK, so, passing over the fact that the length of adolescence has been steadily increasing ever since the late 1700's, let's just note the fact that the advertising and marketing industries lovelovelove the unmarried, late adolescent and early adult male consumer and therefore have every interest in extending his economic availability as such, with or without the aid of the gaming console. In my other life, spent largely in the company of hippies, artists, slam poets, and yoga practitioners, I can tell you right now, whether it's Xbox, weed (er, "hemp"), Burning Man, or polyamory, the guys who are going to be Permanent Children are going to be Permanent Children.
So what's her problem? Well, a couple of things. First of all, she's bought into the idea that she's not complete without a man. Do not underestimate the strength of cultural enforcement behind this idea. Second of all, she's bought into the idea that she's incomplete without a child. Do not underestimate this one either. As a woman who has said no to both, I can tell you that even as a level 62 Queer and the with defense bonus applied from my Prestige Class Feminist, I still take damage on this. The only 100% immunity comes from acquiring a Husband (of at least Boyfriend) and Child.
But wait, isn't she supposed to be a strong, independant woman? Isn't she supposed to be a heroine and not a damsel in this game? Yep. Welcome to the Catch-22 of Modern Woman. If she decides to forgo the man-and-baby option, she will forever be subject to the attack that anything she does or says in challenge to just about anything will be written off as the frustrated bitterness of the old maid. Kinda like what just happened here. Toss in the message that the worst thing a woman can do to her child it raise him or her without a father-figure and the situation just keeps getting better.
So everyone and everything around her tells her that she can't be happy, or even morally and intellectually worthy without YOU, and YOU are still playing that goddamn Xbox! No wonder she's pissed. Not that I agree with her. I think it's perfectly possible to live happily without one or the other or both, if you are willing to take the bullshit from all sides and just suck it up. So she's either not aware that it's possible, or she's not willing to suck it up. She'd just rather complain about it. That's my problem with her.
Oh, geez, I almost forgot your question, Haliwali. The answer is I'm definitely considered a weirdo for my hobbies. In fact, I'm a little bit closeted about my gaming, which is nothing like hardcore compared to a lot of you guys, but is definitely beyond the range of all my female friends, now that my one gamer-ish friend has detoxed off her WoW addiction. But people have so many other reasons to think I'm weird, including the amount of money I spend on comic books and manga, the amount of time I spend watching anime, sci-fi, and martial arts movies, the fact that I have a motorcycle instead of a minivan. And yes, they do think it's an immature type of weirdness. And, you may find this interesting, they rather envy me for it.
So there's one more thing to consider - when presented with "gamer" minus all the cultural baggage of The Female/Male split, women seem to be a little envious at the sort of selfish freedom of it. I've played all evening, clear through the night, and into the next morning, and then blew off the laundry and cleaning the bathroon for an extended nap. A lot of women can't even imagine the luxury of that much time devoted to something that produces no material benefit. And that's kind of sad.
