This Gamer Girl Manifesto PWNS [VIDEO]

Sexism in video games goes both ways. If a girl is enjoys her videogames, it is no problem. 

Sexism against male gamers;

1) Just go to youtube, there are so many girl gamers getting paid jobs as newscasters when they know so little about the games they present. They are picked because they are hot. There was one case in Warcraft in which an average female player was included in an elite team because she was hot. 

Sexism against female gamers;

1) Girl gamers do not get respect sometimes because, it is wrongly felt that they are always  rubbish at games and only play games because they want to impress boys. This is a bad stereotype.

Overall, I wish more real female gamers like those in the video, show themselves. Also, companies should stop using sex to sell- the female gamers are the ones that suffer at the end.

Your argument about sexism working against men is valid, I’d guess it’s a byproduct of game companies using sex to sell.  Personally, there’s no way I’d want a place on any team, program, or whatever, unless I earned it, but not everyones the same.

It’s a well put together, well thought out video.  If anything, the comments show that it’s valid, otherwise the trolls would have stayed under their rocks.

I’d say that’s more sexism in media/marketing than video games but it’s still a valid concern.

Agreed :)

I agree with you. 

…Well, were you expecting reasoned, thoughtful comments from YouTube?

Fantastic video and message. Thanks for sharing!

I agree that sexism works against men too, but not for the reasons you stated.  I went to youtube and looked for videos of women newscasters talking about videogames, and I didn’t find a lot, but I found the g4 e3 wrap-up, and the girls seemed to be as game literate as the guys 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbcaRxnw9Mg&feature=relmfu.  What clips are you finding?
Also, I think you were alluding to Eve (aka Kim Shee-Yoon) who’s a professional Starcraft 2 player.  But as the Mary Sue pointed out when they covered the controversy http://www.themarysue.com/all-about-eve-the-story-of-starcraft-2s-first-female-pro/ , other male players who were attractive but without stellar records have been chosen over other, more record holding players by teams with very little fuss.

So I don’t see a lot of evidence for “Women who know nothing get promoted beyond competent men,”  Can you direct me to the videos of these newscasters that you were talking about, or  do you have other evidence to consider?

Good point, but there’s an addendum I’d like to make; if attractive women are given more preference for gaming newscasts and gaming teams because they are attractive, that’s just as disrespectful to women as it is to men.  Sexism, in general, tends not to be something that is “against” a specific group so much as harmful to society in general.  Same with all the isms, when you think about it.

I’d say that females getting jobs or benefits in gaming solely based on their appearance is still significantly more sexist toward females than it is males.

In  summary, your argument implies that there is no case of attractive girls given preference over more experienced males in the videogame industry. Seeing that you are a woman, this level of denial of sexism towards males makes me laugh.

The link that you put actually contradicts your point. A sexy female gamer was given preference over better gamers. There is no place in that article that states that attractive males were chosen over other better gamers (not that it doesnt/cant happen, it wasnt stated there). 

Furthermore, lets look at Andrea Renee of Clevergames

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6EGIuWPHKg&feature=relmfu 

if you check out clevergames’s 17 reviews on youtube, you will find that she only does one review. The other reviews are done by guys who seem like good reviewers. The only review she did was not even good….reviewing a simple game called kinect sports.  Now, compare that to the videogame news she presents on clevergames-  she does  of their news section. In reality, she just does the news. Clevergames’ other experienced reviewers can do the reporting. Heck, most people can do reporting if they can read a script. 

“My favorite game at E3 was…DANCE CENTRAL 2″
And that’s why girls often get disregarded, as their interests do not line up with those of veteran male gamers. Doesn’t make them better or worse, but it does make them different.

Besides, how many guys have not been shot down by women for being ‘gamer nerds’ or ‘computer geeks’. Then when the tables are turned, all of a sudden men need to alter their behavior to conform to female presence? Far from equality, if you ask me…

Great message but goddamn it’s a shame about the comments and dislikes. Sadly, it’s kind of par for the course for this sort of thing.

(Case in point: I wrote “Nerds and Male Privilege”, which eventually got posted on Kotaku. Guess what 2/3rds of the comments were about?)

It isn’t as if all girl’s favourite games are stuff like that.

I personally am sick of dancing games and when it came on at E3 I gave the biggest sigh xD I was excited by Mass Effect 3, Battlefield 3, Halo 4… even Once Upon a Monster due to it being a Double Fine game xD

It depends on the person too, I personally have tons of friends that are guys and they do not alter there behaviour because they are polite to everyone and do not treat females any different from guys. That is the main point, guys are rude to females due to them being a female.

Geeks and nerds are shot down regardless of there gender aswell.

While the intent of the video was worthy, I cringed somewhat at the “pwn a n00b” jab. What, so it’s ok to victimise new players for the crime of coming to the game later than you?  I dunno, the whole “n00b” thing rubs me up the wrong way.

The amount of gaslighting (look it up) with the “No one cares if you’re a girl” messages on the comments section are YouTube standard trolling.

The motivation behind the video is valid, but the amount of complaints from female users did draw my attention (some of whom actually have videos of themselves, so at least a fraction of those are actually female).

Complaints specifically criticing this stance of self-identification as “girl-[insert activity]“.

Yes, much agreed. Anyone who treats others badly (regardless of gender) should just grow up.

I avoid abusive/aggressive communities as much as possible, as I like to have fun while gaming and not have some snot nose spout profanities at me.

As for the girl liking Dance Central best: it is clearly not every woman’s pick, but it does strengthen prejudice as it is a sight seen more commonly than girls playing Quake, for example. The Wii trying to broaden it’s audience also didn’t go over too well with gamer veterans.

There was a great video that i’ll try to find for you about the booth babes who were interviewed for some game con & were asked 4 questions… Not one of them got one of the answers right. It was quite painful to watch.

Yeah i’m going to have to agree with that second statement. We had to moderate our behaviour when gaming was considered a “boy thing” so we could fit in with normal people & now that gaming is mainstream we have to modify our behaviour so girls can fit in… Hmmmm, it seems like one side is making all the sacrificces here & the other side is taking advantage.

Here i’ll do all the female gamers out there a deal: I’ll respect you as a gamer as long as you all collectively stop using the term “Gamer Girls.” Gamer is a gender nuetral term, you are not special if you can make mario jump will in possession of a vagina (heck many of us have had the ability to make mario jump will in possession of our own boobs :D ).

So drop the gamer girl tag & just be a good gamer. an if some halfwit says something sexist, racist, or homophobic just do what we do: IGNORE HIM!

not really. An unattractive woman can make herself into an attractive woman… An unattractive man can at best make himself into a passably homely woman. :D

Someone who disagrees =/= troll. Alot of the people speaking out against it have valid points… Number 1 is that making a big deal baout your gender in a game is silly.

I agree with the complaints about stance of self-identification as “girl-[insert activity].” Its kind of self aggrandising to say “My gender doesn’t matter, but i am a girl.” I think a lot of the gamer girl complaining isn’t based on gender, but because online your gender DOESN’T count. Everyone is treated equally shitty online.

I agree on both points.  This video manifesto is a reply to those who make a big deal about gender in games, it does actually encourage people to not make a big (or any) deal about gender.

While a lot of the replies come from people who have used reasonable language (and may subsequently hold the ability for intelligent discourse) many other comments are from the school of “OK, OK… Back to the kitchen…” and “Oh gawd they’re all so ugly” (both direct quotes).  If they aren’t trolls I don’t know what is.

No offense Harris, but if its the article posted up on Dr. NerdLove i’ve got to say i wasn’t impressed. Your article unfortunately suffers from essentially every single form of “cognitive bias” that exists, from reporting bias, through poor framing, Fundamental attribution errors galour: In fact i’m trying to figure out which you used more of, Belief Bias or Confirmation Bias.

Not a gamer, I’d just like a little clarity here. When did refraining from saying something like, “Get off this quest and make me a sammich, biatch” or “Show me your tits” become onerous? If you don’t say things like that, fine, but I think that’s really the point of the video here. I’m not sure where the whole “pretty women are taking all the media spots” thing came from.

Acting with respect is a “sacrifice”? Really? Enlighten me.

Picking ditzy “booth babes” is another manifestation of male chauvinism, not feminism gone wild. Good heavens, do you think the MEN running the booth put them there to attract WOMEN?

Seeing that you are a woman, this level of denial of sexism towards males makes me laugh  What a rude, ad hominem attack. 
The Mary Sue coverage of the Eve controversy, (which was the story you were referring to with the professional Warcraft woman, correct?) pointed out that A) Men were also based on looks ( In Korea, pro gamers … have to be good at their game, but it doesn’t hurt if they look good. This isn’t some kind of gaming Olympics we’re talking about, based purely on ability. … It’s not fair, but it’s the nature of the beast, and in this case, it has nothing do to with gender.) B) other male players had been chosen over more “qualified” applicants (SlayerS_Alicia .. is one of the team’s best players. When trying out for the team, he showed up an hour late and lost. However, BoxeR thought that he had potential and picked him up anyway. Is that fair to the guys who showed up on time and won? No. But the team saw something they could use, and to my knowledge, there wasn’t any fuss made about it, not on the level we’re seeing here.)   

 It seems to be tacitly acknowledged that to that being chosen by a pro-team is more than about rank or proven skill, but attractiveness and potential.  No one seems terribly upset about this system until it is a girl that is picked on attractiveness and potential.  Then her selection is unfair–women should be picked out by rank!  I haven’t read any commentary that anyone is upset that that Eve was picked over better ranked women. Eve was the best ranked female player–at least Kim ”aphrodite” Ga Young at masters level, ( and after Eve was picked she was added to a team Startale  http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Aphrodite. )  When women enter into a male dominated field, they are judges on a stricter scale for competence than their male counterparts.

Returning to your critique of Andrea Renee.  She only did one game review of a simple game, which you seem to imply proves that she knows nothing about games.  Why?  Was the review inadequate?  Do you think that she had the opportunity to do other reviews but turned them down for lack of knowledge/interest, or that she turned in other reviews but they were poor in comparison to her male counterparts?  Or maybe her job in Clevver games is do the news, and she helped out once with a review.  There are many plausible explanations of why she only reviewed one game that have more to do with politics and how their site is structured a lack on her part.

  Clevergames’ other experienced reviewers can do the reporting. Heck, most people can do reporting if they can read a script.  The accusation she isn’t writing for herself seems really unfair.  You don’t assume her male counterparts aren’t writing their own reviews.  Clevvergames isn’t so big that they have interns (right?).  Why wouldn’t she be writing her own news?  And why would writing news for games be any less demanding than writing critiques?  You have to be knowable about all types of games (instead of just one niche), as well as be able to contact people to verify info and interview, as well as being able to write and present.  Unless you have proof that someone is writing the news for her, I would take that as a good sign that she is knowledgeable about the video game industry.

“rude”…..lol…..is it because my username is “rudeboy”? (sorry, you’re not the first to call me rude unnecessarily). 
Ad hominems are perfect only when exposing hypocrisy. You were denying one form of sexism while exposing another. 

As for the Eve controversy, it was not STATED that handsome males were given preference; it was SUGGESTED/IMPLIED as there was no clear example given in the ARTICLE
Also, the guy that came late had potential. Coming late does not mean that he is a bad gamer. The last time I checked, potential is not = looks/handsome.

As for Andrea Renee, I’m sorry that it looked like I was stating that she was reading scripts. What I meant to imply/state was that reporting is straightforward if you can memorize your words or know what to say (It doesn’t matter to me if she writes/doesn’t write her scripts).
The point is that why is she only used for easy reviews (one simple review of an easily describable game)or news? What is her main asset to clevergames? Answer the questions and you will see……….

Anyways, we are on the same team. I come from a country where women are not always treated equally and I hate sexism to both genders. 

Your points about the preferential treatment attractive women get are self-defeating. Attractive women get preferential treatment in some circumstances precisely because of male dominance in gaming. Thus, the attributes that appeal to men are valued, as opposed to the attributes that appeal to women.

Certainly and at the very least it should be clear that men get vastly more preferential treatment than women in gaming.

My problem with this is that both “girl” (when applied to a grown woman) and “gamer” are stigmatizing labels.

So, an attractive male getting preferential treatment is a sign of female dominance?

I think it’s an important message, but they went about it in a really strange way. Being all “ha ha get it I said pwn” seems more like attention-seeking behavior than what someone would say if they really just wanted to play games without being harassed. I don’t know if that’s what they were going for or not.

Then, for all of the (admirable) talk about treating female gamers as gamers first and females second, it was uploaded by “SexyNerdGirlPresents” and one of the women in the video apparently runs “nerdgirlpinups.com”. I don’t mean to launch some ad hominem attack or anything, but they’re sending some *very* mixed messages.

Also, I refuse to not judge people by their usernames.

Could you be more specific?

because this is just as often said to people who aren’t women… We have to accept that there really are fuckwits in the world & there is nothing we can do about it. In fact the people who are fuckwits online are not going to be phased by this little PSA.

because this is just as often said to people who aren’t women… We have to accept that there really are fuckwits in the world & there is nothing we can do about it. In fact the people who are fuckwits online are not going to be phased by this little PSA.

Sure thing.

The article starts with a hypothesis & then aims to prove it without presenting real data, but instead a subjective world view (thats belief bias), it only reports things that agree with the hypothesis, even when there are sections it seemingly skips where it should mention things that would disagree with the hypothesis (thats reporting bias).

It then takes a single game (Batman Arkham Asylum) & then takes specific female characters out of that game (but only the ones that back the hypothesis) & uses it to prove the above point, while ignoring the ones that don’t (both poor framing & confirmation bias). It then tries to expand that idea to silly proportions akin to: Because A, then B, where A is the existance of pokemon & B is death of all of mankind.

As for fundamental attribution errors… Well i’ll just give you the wiki definition: fundamental attribution error (also known as correspondence bias or attribution effect) describes the tendency to over-value dispositional or personality-based explanations for the observed behaviors of others while under-valuing situational explanations for those behaviors.

The best example would be the “creepy comic book guy” example, which i would say is a completely fictional account (they usually are).

Did that help, any?

Yeah, thanks for elaborating. I mean, I don’t think it’s supposed to be a research paper or anything; the specific instances and anecdotes seem to be meant as examples more than support. But yeah, like a lot of similar writing, it could use more support aside from the author’s own worldview.

The issue isn’t about flat out sexism, it’s about female
gamers asking for undue attention. While many women are able to play
without issue, it’s the girls who actively bring up their gender as if
it matters at all.
When you sign on to a server as ‘~TEENgurlWARRIOR~’ we’re hating on
you because you’re giving us information that isn’t appropriate. You’re a
gamer. Your gender is not important to us. The fact that you’re
bringing it up annoys us the same way that names like ‘xXx420ST0NERxXx’
do.I take issue with the name of the video uploader.  ‘SexyNerdGirlPresents’  A username like this implies the first information the user wanted to transmit was that they were sexy, nerdy and female.  Its the exact same dick move that every other obnoxious internet loser uses to get attention. We don’t mind that you play games and are also female, though you’re the ones acting like its something special.  A username like ‘SexyNerdGirl’ doesn’t impress anyone. It doesn’t get you respect. It gets you hassle.

umm, so, you’re a female who plays games, that’s not something special, stop pretending that having a vagina means you’re special just because you play games

stop

I’m getting tired of this stupid mentality that people have that makes women seem to be super “Unique” and “Different” just because they’re a woman and play games. That’s as retarded as a female being smug about being a cop… BECAUSE SHE’S A GIRL, and that’s it, or a ginger being proud of being a teacher just because they’re a ginger. You don’t have this magical thing stopping you from playing games daily, so whats so special about it? I’m tired of this psychotic over-one sided double standard in society as well in general. Stop flaunting gender like it means you’re better than everyone, it’s pathetic, immature, and is exactly why people hate ‘gamer girls’ so much. Because it’s a stupid attitude.

just stop

gender means jack shit

yeaahh….it’s also annoying why “girl gamers” are suddenly cooler than guy gamers and non-gamer girls just because. “wow, you play that awesome game the dudes do! you must be super cool and fun to be with!” blech! it really doesn’t matter what your gender or race is. A gamer is a gamer. If xe’s bad or good, that’s where he should be judged. But the bottom line is “Just enjoy the game!” As for the characters, it *is* easier to market the Mary Sues and Gary Stu’s (sexy, strong, kick-butt). I don’t know how I got on this site but hey-’twas worth it reading the points of view of you guys…and girls. World Peace everyone!…and peace out! XD Alright!

search hex its from good game the original guy got fired because they wanted a girl and it would attract more viewers