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The Same Old Gamer Biases, Next Generation — 8 Comments

  1. I hate this so much, as I’m the father of an awesome 5-year old daughter who likes video games, Spider-Man, and race cars…along with Sofia The First, pink, and playing house.

    Assigning roles to genders that young is disturbing in so many ways. I (and other parents) shouldn’t have to reassure our kids they can do any/either/all of these things.

    I join you and add my DadRage to the cause.

    • I totally understand the spiderman AND Sofia thing. I came home one day and Batman and Barbie were having a tea party. The Teen Titans are living in Hello Kitty’s lego clubhouse. And minecraft involves just as much decorating as building. That’s totally ok. I really hate the idea that a little girl must be a “tomboy” and eschew all traditionally “female” things entirely to enjoy superheroes.

  2. Sadly, I’m not at all surprised. I mean, I’m a grown-up woman and I can still see people talk about how women don’t play video games if I click enough links on the internet. All you can do is keep fighting the good fight for the next generation.

  3. I’m a 26-year-old male, so I’m not part of the newest generation, but my sister (24 now) and I grew up gaming together so I never understand this viewpoint. These days she’s got more playtime in Skyrim than I do.

    It’s very strange to me that a contingent of guys who always complain about girls not talking to them instantly attack any who have the same interests.

  4. I’m always amused when people say girls don’t play games. My late wife would have been 67 this year. She and I met because of our love of the old single-player Ultima games. Some foolish people need to learn that embracing the opposite gender in our little hobby can have positive, life changing benefits. ^_^

    • Ultima IV and V FTW!

      My wife and I play, but in her case we play board games such as Settlers of Catan and Wii games like Mario Kart. I’ve never thought of her as anything other than a fellow gamer.

  5. I’m not surprised.

    When The Clone Wars came to Cartoon Network, my oldest was in Fourth Grade. The kids at school were agog at the stories, and she naturally chimed in. She was told by several of the boys that since she was a girl, she wasn’t allowed to like Star Wars. She stood up for herself, but it was only after a few other boys spoke up in her defense that the problem boys relented and allowed her to join their SW discussions.

    I find this all the more ironic since she’s pretty much a walking Star Wars encyclopedia, and she ended up being the judge whenever two kids at school had a disagreement over SW lore.

    But I find this sort of thing, that girls can’t be geeks, all the more annoying because when I was my kids’ age, I would have loved to have had anybody –anybody!– to discuss geeky stuff like Star Wars, Star Trek, D&D, and other SF&F things with. And when I got to high school, it was like a page out of Revenge of the Nerds in terms of the isolation I felt. But I simply don’t get how some guys (and boys) can treat women so badly for being geeks. I mean, isn’t this what you wanted, to have a geeky girlfriend who loved the same stuff you did?

    /sigh

    Enough ranting. Not good for my blood pressure.

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