Now that the pretty hate machine known as "consultant-gate" is dying down, a new machine is being built: the Anita Sarkeesian hate machine. Unfortunately, this one is not nearly as amusing as the manufactured outrage over the last one. This one is actually pretty frustrating, because it's so against what I do as a gamer, myself.
I'm all about inclusiveness. If you read this blog even casually, you'll know that my number one goal as a tabletop gamer is to bring as many people into the hobby as possible. And when I say "people," I mean people. Not white people. Not male people. Not heterosexual people. Just people. I will do whatever it takes. If, for example, a woman told me "I have a hard time getting into Dungeons & Dragons because of the way women are depicted," my first thought is "What can I do to help you not feel that way?" I've held games in public libraries to bring people out of the woodwork. I refuse to use accents in my games because I'm afraid of sounding rascist. And you know what? It's not hard. My games aren't any worse off.
That so very few people in the videogaming hobby seem to feel that way is truly disheartening. That they can't even entertain the thought that you can love something but still take issue with parts of that something, is crazy. I hear gamers on the WoW forums all the time, bitching about some of the most inconsequential shit. But a woman says something about the way her gender is depicted in game? Oh HELL no...
Okay, so, I'm not trying to say that I'm some kind of pillar of equa....screw that; you know what? I am. I AM fucking saying that. I don't care if you are male, female, white, black, blue, green, turquoise...I don't care if you're heterosexual, homosexual, transsexual, whatever-sexual...come sit down and play some goddam games with me! If somebody doesn't feel the same way? I am better than that person. There. I said it. It's been said. More motherfucking people...especially people into videogames...should be like me.
Whatever makes you a special little snowflake is not to be found in how you spend your spare time. It's found in how you spend time with your fellow human being. So stop acting like the Big Evil Feminists are trying to cut up your favorite binkie. Play nice, for Christ's sake.
I was JUST reading about this. There is a saying that the necessity of feminism is proven whenever someone posts an article regarding feminism. I read a good article about how Joss Whedon supported Anita Sarkeesian's work. And so did other guys. They got told they were stupid or whatever but Anita and other women got rape threats. You can disagree with her or whatever but disagreeing should start with the simple, neutral, "I disagree because..." there. And she doesn't have to respond to you or maybe she will. It is just so basic!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. You don't have to agree. You just have to not be a fucking monster about it.
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