I’ve been thinking of a way to explain to straight white men how life works for them, without invoking the dreaded word “privilege”, to which they react like vampires being fed a garlic tart at high noon. It’s not that the word “privilege” is incorrect, it’s that it’s not their word. When confronted with “privilege”, they fiddle with the word itself and haul out the dictionaries and find every possible way to talk about the word but not any of the things the word signifies.
There was a bit of an uproar earlier in the year when LEGO introduced a line of modified products targeted exclusively at girls. To provide a little context for that uproar, social media marketer and LEGO fanatic David Pickett has written a great feature breaking down the history and statistics of just how many LEGO characters/figures have been dudes and how many have been ladies.
If you play a video game online, accidentally kill your pals (virtually) and let the word out that you’re female, you’ll be showered with kind words. That’s according to The Oatmeal an online comic that contrasts this experience with that of screwing up online while male. If you do that you’ll be hit with homophobic slurs and hear cries for vengeance.
Publisher Electronic Arts has taken a bit of flak lately over the fact video games let you be, or even be around, gay people in space. Said flak has mostly come from homophobic arseholes, but still, flak is flak.
This week, Maxim launched a contest to find its very own Maxim Gamer Girl. Like a pig hunting truffles in the wild, Maxim will scour the streets of America for the perfect “video game vixen”. Wear your “hottest outfit”, the magazine commands. “First come, first serve.”
How important is an in-game avatar? If given the choice, do you always choose a character from the gender you identify with? A recent study by Macquarie University senior lecturer Michael Hitchens has delved into the role of the avatar in first-person shooters. Having read his findings, we can’t help but wonder: if given a choice, who or what kind of character would you be?
Imagine: You meet a girl, and you get to talking. You talk about your jobs, your neighborhoods; you talk about your interests. As it turns out, the two of you are into a lot of the same things. This is cool! Wow, she likes the same obscure slasher flicks and retro video games that you do. How lucky for you both!
The fighter inside the controversy that stirred allegations of sexism and misogyny in fighting video games says that its community, fans and star performers do not deserve the collective blame they have endured, and vows that she will not leave her sport despite the alienating remarks of the man who once coached her.
