Cerise Magazine

Pietoro, or Pai, as she is known elsewhere on the internet, has been a regular poster on the Iris forums almost since their creation. When she created a gaming blog, The Pensive Harpy, in August of this year, I immediately added it to my list of blogs to follow, and haven’t been disappointed that I did. I knew she’d have some interesting things to say in an interview, and I’m sure our readers will agree.

Robyn Fleming: Can you tell our readers a little bit about the focus and content of The Pensive Harpy?

Pai: It’s basically my feelings about whatever gaming or culture tidbits set me off on a particular day.

RF: What made you decide to start the blog?

P: I got dumped headfirst into Feminist thought thru a radfem blog, early this year. Before that, I had little idea about or interest in Feminism, although lots of things about the gaming community had irked me over the years, in ways I couldn’t really express. Generally I chalked it up to my being oversensitive, and because I had no idea how to coherently justify my feelings, I kept quiet about it. But once I was given a vocabulary and framework to see the big picture about gender issues in our society and culture, it was like I’d had my eyes opened. I figured that lots of other girl (and guy) gamers were like me, who just needed to see the connections explained — and that making a blog that tried to express feminist egalitarian concepts to gamers who may have never have thought about these deeper issues and why they’re important, would be a useful thing.

Also, I’m naturally a ranty person. I needed an outlet. =)

RF: Did you have any particular goals in mind when you started writing at The Pensive Harpy? Do you feel like you’re achieving them?

P: I try to provide a basic feminist perspective on gaming issues and events. I try to keep things at a level where someone who has zero familiarity with Feminism, could see where I’m coming from, and maybe understand why some people feel these things are serious and worth talking about.

RF: What has the reception for The Pensive Harpy been like?

P: Positive so far. I’m glad whenever someone says I made them think, or helped them to clarify the reasons behind their feelings on a particular issue.

RF: Feminism and gaming definitely intersect in the bulk of your blog posts. How does your feminist perspective impact your gaming?

P: I don’t think it has impacted what games I would or would not play… but I’m much more aware of certain themes or concepts I would have been clueless of before I “found” Feminism.

RF: Does this affect your interactions with other gamers, both on your blog and in other venues? How?

P: I’m a lot less tolerant of bad behavior than I used to be, once I realized how really insidious a lot of it is. I used to want to be accepted as a “true gamer”, which meant I had to put up with a lot of the “guy’s club” stuff my whole life. Now, that’s not a priority for me anymore, because I see how toxic so much of that culture really is.

RF: Something that comes up pretty frequently in your posts at The Pensive Harpy is the prevalence and normalization of bullying and disrespect regarding female gamers in the larger gaming culture. Can you explain a little bit about why you feel this is an important topic to discuss?

P: Mostly because I’ve seen and experienced it firsthand. I was very naive when I first got into MMOs with WoW, back when it first came out. I was really shocked the first time I spoke up to say that something was not okay with me, and saw that people’s reactions became very dismissive or hostile to me. A lot of things were written off as “normal” that really blew my mind. I felt silenced and pressured to go along with things or else lose my friends and status in the guild. I feel there must be other female gamers out there that have had similar experiences, and I want to show that it’s okay to stand up and say “this behavior is out of line.” And that not everyone thinks they’re in the wrong or expecting too much for saying so.

RF: Do you think there’s a connection between gaming companies’ treatment of female characters and gaming culture’s treatment of female players?

P: I think a lot of dev companies honestly think they’re not being overtly sexist. Advertising, however, is a totally different story, and I think a lot of ads blatantly go out of their way to alienate women. Because I was always a tomboy growing up, I was largely desensitized to most of it until very lately, either that or it’s been getting worse in some areas.

RF: How long have you considered yourself a gamer? What are some of your favorite games?

P: Probably since I played The Secret Island of Doctor Quandary, SimLife and El-Fish for the PC, back in the Windows 3.1 days. But it wasn’t until Secret of Mana for the SNES that I really discovered my passion for gaming (and rpgs in particular). I always loved to read, and the strong storylines of games like ChronoTrigger and Final Fantasy 3 really appealed to me. Even now, I prefer games with a lot of freedom to explore and create, and games with strong storylines. Before I had played Secret of Mana, I had never experienced that before in a game. It started a long history of console-gaming for me, though recently I’ve become mostly focused on PC MMOs.

RF:Is there anything else you want to share with our readers?

P: The more of us that speak out and make our voices heard, the more we can make a difference in the gaming world. It’s important for us likeminded folks to connect and support each other, and I feel that Cerise and Iris are great steps toward making an alternative to the current climate of gaming culture. =)