Take the boys-club crap of the video game internet, put it in a time machine and… you get a funny/sad comic that might just make it a bit more clear just how awful it is for the women who suffer the harassment of unenlightened dudes.
By setting this strip in the early 20th Century, cartoonist Shaenon K. Garrity subversively drives home just how outdated the attitudes behind sexual harassment and hostility are. I chuckled at the sly Yellow Kid cosplay and Nintendo Playing Card Co. jokes in the background and winced at references to recent headlines. But, mostly I was struck by the loneliness the protagonist must feel at not being able to really enjoy a thing she loves.
Comments
23 responses to “Terrible ‘Girl Gamer’ Sexism, Imagined As Even Worse 1900s Sexism”
Loved it 🙂
Funny because true.
That was rather excellent.
Also I am giggling at Mumblety Peg for some reason.
As clever as it is sad/frustrating. Nice work.
I can appreciate the creativity in the comic, but I wouldn’t say it’s funny. It’s actually quite depressing and one of the few things I’m not proud to call myself a gamer for.
Yeah, its really ridiculous. I’m really loosing interest on playing games online simply because of all the rubbish people say when you try and talk to them. Gaming community just seems more and more messed up when compared to 10 years ago. Or are we just talking more about it and it’s coming more to light?
I’m not messed up >:
Sad and funny.
The ending sparked me to learn something new
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Magie
You reminded me of a blog I read a while back on the history of the Landlord’s Game to Monopoly that was utterly fascinating.
Some quick googling allows me to share it with you if you’re interested: http://harpers.org/blog/2012/10/monopoly-is-theft/
I lived with a girl gamer who was quite hot and not too shabby at most games (mostly COD2 but i don’t count that as a real game) but she refused to play with a mic and her tag was usually her surname and first initial. She said using a mic turns the entire experience into a bunch of 12 yr olds insulting her, shouting lewd comments about breasts or them PMing her over and over asking to play with her, send pics or ask where she lives. i didnt fully believe it until i got both girls (other housemate too) to play with a mic on my account. Holy shit is all i could say. My account was flooded with revolting crap for months.
I tend to avoid multiplayer games for just this reason and stick almost entirely to single player. It’s easier to just avoid it than to deal with all that crap.
There’s this story about this chick playing WoW (Man I wish I had the link but that was a while ago now) where she was a healer in a guild and usually had no problem with her job. During a tough raid she got so caught up in the moment that when a tank requested healing she acknowledged him through her mic and the result was everybody forgetting they were under attack and making comments about her being a chick, some denying her existance as real and some demanding her tag. The entire group was wiped out.
It then got weirder after that.
I’ve had a similar experience to that in WoW, halfway through a raid a guy had to leave and somebodies friend joined in. The moment the woman playing with us all night spoke he became immediately obsessed with her panties and getting a picture of her and tried to explain all the fights to her. She was better geared than his main was on her alt, she stood in the less fire than him and she was topping the charts in DPS. And yet here he is explaining how to do a Boss we’d had on farm for months.
Up until this clown joined her gender hadn’t mattered to anyone, after he joined it dominated the conversation. Oh and he had an in with one of the Guild Leaders whose TS server we where on so he couldn’t be muted.
You could understand it a bit if it was some 14 year old kid, but this dude was 30.
I just try to treat everyone like a person, I wish more people did that.
i only play multiplayer games with friends now because of the bullshite blasted into my ears by creepers and 12 year olds. if i havent met you face to face im not going to spend time gaming with you. its so rare to find a good group online and actually enjoy my time with other people
Of course the same jerks who behave like this are perfectly respectful towards other males.
In some cases yes, in other cases no, but nowhere near as bad.
Some guy might say something but if you ignore him he gets upset or finds somebody else to pick on who reacts. But when it’s a woman it’s like a bleeding seal being surrounded by sharks, the quiet guy who barely whispers to anyone suddenly starts screaming profanities like the rest of his vocabulary was deleted.
I really don’t understand it.
‘Graphial’ diversion huh…
Great comic, shitty world.
The world isn’t so bad… there’s just some shitty people in it.
The reference was pretty good towards the end.
While I appreciate the majority, they lost me with the Dickwolves thing and taking a shot specifically at the PA guys (rather than the sick bastards that used the Dickwolves as an excuse to be vile) as I believe that PA were largely victimised by the Tumblr SJW brigade, and unfairly so, in that instance.
I liked the reference to that guy who harassed the reporter the other day: http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/01/she-was-harassed-by-a-games-reporter-now-shes-speaking-out/