As one of the founders of the Iris Gaming Network, I’m no stranger to the resistance to women-oriented gaming organizations and groups. Whenever the subject comes up, it is inevitably followed by the protest that such spaces are not necessary, or that giving women “special” rights will only serve to exacerbate the problem.
Since, as I said, I am the co-founder of both Iris and of this magazine, I am obviously in disagreement with the idea that women-oriented organizations are counterproductive. It’s not that I think that the arguments have no validity, but rather that after having had years to observe gaming culture — both offline and on — I have come to the conclusion that the only way for women to be equal partners in mainstream gaming culture is for us to stand up and make people pay attention. And, frankly, that can’t be accomplished strictly on an individual basis. We need the help of visible groups to dismantle the stereotypes surrounding women gamers.
Ultimately, my goal is not to tell anyone that they have to support or like female gamer communities, but rather to introduce people to (or reaffirm, as the case my be) the other side — the positive side — of these communities and to encourage people to think beyond the “why can’t female gamers just be gamers?” type of arguments. I hope by the end of this article that readers who were previously dead set against the idea have, at the very least, been given some food for thought.
Pro #1: Standing up and being counted
When Cerise first came out it got linked in various places. The reactions, of course, were mixed. On one forum (the thread, unfortunately, has been long since pruned) someone created a thread with a link to Cerise and the explanation that it was a magazine aimed at female gamers. It took only a couple of replies before someone piped up with the comment, “Yeah, all three of them.”
Despite controversial groups such as the Frag Dolls and the PMS clan, other well-established organizations such as Women Gamers, not to mention research such as the 2006 Active Gamer Benchmark and the older ESA Gamer Player’s Data, which shows that women are clearly a force in the gaming world (if significantly less of one in the traditional console market), the myth that women just don’t play games is still going strong. I’ve had people pull out a mythical “90% of gamers are male” figure which either has no source or is attributed to a GameFAQs poll. Although my grounding isn’t nearly as solid in non-electronic games, having been involved in Iris’ forums has taught me that the same exact problems occur in those areas as well (for some demographic info please refer to John Kim’s Who Are Roleplayers? article).
Which brings me to the argument at hand: the only way to stamp out the myth that women don’t play games is to have enough of a visible showing of women for it to become ridiculous to keep dragging out the same tired old argument. While a lot can be accomplished by individual women being visible participants in general gaming culture, if it stops there then those women become exceptions that prove the rule, rather that evidence that supports the reality. This is where women-oriented and women-only groups come in: the more groups you have with large userbases the harder it becomes to stick to the “women don’t play games” line.
Pro #2: A place to call our own
Have you looked at the titles of posts on the popular gaming sites lately? What about surfed their comments? How often are inappropriate sexual references made? What about sexual threats towards female characters, or (even worse) real women who happen to be known in the industry? How often are issues pertinent to women shot down as “not important” and the protests of real women drowned out by those who disagree?
I have to say, if that kind of thing didn’t happen, Iris wouldn’t be here. Cerise wouldn’t be here. We simply wouldn’t have a userbase, because they wouldn’t come to us after realizing that it’s impossible to have a mature discussion about things that are important to them on mainstream sites. From where I’m sitting, gaming sites have a right to discuss things that they want, how they want, and allow whatever kinds of comments they find appropriate. But, in doing so, the mainstream sites follow the status quo, and that status quo is, unfortunately, actively hostile towards women and femininity.
Which brings us to another positive aspect of women-oriented/women-only sites: issues important to women can be discussed without interfering with or interference from disinterested parties. While I think it’s rather unfortunate, the facts are that the average gamer isn’t interested in how to broaden the market by inclusive game design, or that the boob physics of their beloved game are so wrong that they make most women’s breasts hurt in sympathy to just look at the game. And most of those gamers vocally and actively resent anyone who tries to bring up those kinds of conversations in their space. Which is their choice. A choice I disagree with, but until the majority of gamers feel the same way as I do, I have two potential responses: 1) stay there and fight tooth and nail to be heard, or 2) go somewhere where being heard is a given and I can go as in-depth as I need/want into the discussion.
I chose the latter, both for my personal blog and for Iris, and the conversations that I’ve had have been amazing and thought-provoking. I can sit down and have a conversation about race relations in a game without the discussion being bogged down with people challenging the very premise that games can have racist components. We can talk about what design elements spoke to us as women without people shouting us down for daring to mention that we are not like the “normal” (read: male) gamers. We can complain about wardrobe malfunction and impossible costumes and have others know what we are talking about because they have similarly shaped bodies. And, in general, we can just relax and have a good time with each other knowing that our gender truly and honestly doesn’t matter.
Pro #3: Networking opportunities
It’s often said, it’s been clearly studied, and I will repeat it here: the gaming industry is still very much a boy’s club. Don’t get me wrong, it is changing (slowly), but the barriers that women face entering the industry are, in general, more than what men of similar class, race, etc. face.
Although there are many ways to get a foot in, networking is one of the ways to ease your way in. While one can obviously network with anyone in the industry, it is always a good thing to be in touch with people who have experienced the kind of work environment that you will likely face. This is where mentoring programs and networking opportunities come in, like the one sponsored by Women in Games International, which offers both a mentoring group and an online career center to help companies find qualified women with which to help increase their company’s diversity.
In a more personal sense, the networking offered by women-oriented groups is that of knowing that you aren’t alone. When you spend your time only in a mainstream (which all too often means male-dominated) gaming community it’s easy to believe the myth that female gamers are few in numbers, and that can be a very lonely thing. Having a space in which people like you are the majority can help to ease that loneliness and even renew one’s interest in gaming as a hobby.
Pro #4: Helping to build a better and stronger community
Women-oriented communities – and this point especially applies to any kind of special-interest group within gaming – offer a place where new and different ideas can take root and grow. While there are many voices within the mainstream community, the loudest ones tend to speak in unison, sometimes with the unfortunate side effect of drowning out diversity. Women-oriented communities, which are by nature separate from the core of the whole, offer a place where those differing ideas can find fertile soil in which to grow and gain power.
Through this consciousness-raising-like activity, the gaming community as a whole is given the chance to grow in a direction previously unknown to it, thus strengthening it and preventing it from stagnating.
Conclusion: Sisterhood really is powerful
No one is suggesting that women-oriented communities exist in a wholly separate space from other communities, and indeed most of the time members of one site will also be members of many others. What the specialized communities have to offer the whole, however, is the strength that diversity brings both to the individuals and to the culture of gaming in general.
Many of the users at Iris’ forums use it as a base to test out their ideas, weighing which ones are worth broaching to the greater community and which ones are best left to the niche ones, or not worth pursuing at all. Most organizations, especially the bigger ones, use their spaces as a sort of tutoring ground that will help more women gain the resources to successfully pursue a job in the industry that they love, as well as giving companies the same opportunity to find these driven and dedicated women.
In the end, what women-oriented communities have to give is the power of sisterhood, which is the power of working together to improve ourselves and in the process improve the culture and industry of our beloved hobby.
For those readers interested in checking out more sites by female gamers, both woman-oriented and not, please check out Iris’ Directory, which is a growing resource of bloggers, LiveJournalers, and organizations organized by and for female gamers.
Article © September 2007 by Andrea Rubenstein.
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