Female/male
gamers … women’s/men’s haircuts … women’s/men’s wages … women’s/men’s looks.
Why do we make a difference where it’s not necessary, instead of only making
one where it makes sense?
Let’s
step away from #gamergate, and instead look at gaming as a such. Why is every
woman who plays computer/video games considered a ‘fake?’ I know most companies
which make the big AAA titles have young men as their target audience, but so
what? The target audience for “My Little Pony” are young girls, but there’s
loads of Bronies (adult men who love the show, in case you haven’t heard about
it) around. A game can have other fans than the target audience it was
originally developed for. Why should a woman not enjoy playing an FTP game or
an RPG?
The
percentage of female customers for the computer/video game industry has been
rising for years. The more women use a computer regularly, the more women
potentially also play games. Yet, it seems the industry still has to realize
this. And apart from the industry, men also have to realize that women just
play games, too. Not to hook up with a gamer (for, seriously guys, why should a
woman fake interest in computer games just to meet you online?), but because
they like playing. Every human likes to play, men and women alike.
There
is the whole topic about games either showing women as objects (the ‘damsel in
distress’ trophe; basically, a lot of female characters could easily be replaced
by inanimate objects without changing the story much) or drawing them as overly
sexy (look at those MMORPGs and explain to me how female amour would in reality
protect any body part of the woman wearing it).
A
little rave from my side here about “Tomb Raider.” I liked the series, I really
did (apart from “Angel of Darkness,” naturally). Okay, so Lara has a pair of
boobs that would make standing straight a serious problem for her in real life
and anyone dressed like her would come back from her adventures basically
without skin on her legs or arms, but at least she was one tough woman. I liked
the reboot she got in “Legend,” too. I liked the remake of the first game, the “Anniversary”
one. I don’t like the new game, not just because of the changed game mechanics.
I’m aware it’s supposed to show how Lara became an adventuress. But why make
her a soggy, little girl who spends a horrific amount of time crying like a
baby? Why throw out all the back story she got in the past, with her surviving
that airplane crash as a girl and making it through the snow and the mountains
to safety? It shows Lara grew up prematurely, she chose her destination in life
early. That’s okay. You don’t see Indiana Jones crying like a baby, because the
cross was ripped from his hands in the ‘origin story’ in “Indiana Jones and the
Last Crusade,” do you? Why? Because he’s a boy, not a girl? That’s where it
becomes annoying. Lara was a tough character for years and people liked her
like that (ok, most guys probably liked her boobs, but there was a female in a
computer game that was not annoying or just standing in for a trophy). Then she
was basically reduced to a crying, little girl, just like the annoying
sidekick/love interest/person to save you see in too many computer games. And
what was even worse: you played her. I like playing the ‘original’ Lara, the
one with the two guns who jumps, runs, and climbs through ruins, who fights
animals, bad guys, and the occasional demon. I like having a badass character
who, for a change, is not a muscled guy (although I have spent my share of
hours with Wolverine as well). I always thought she was a logical choice for
all that running and climbing and jumping, because I would guess a slender woman
to be more agile than a guy with muscles on his muscles. Rant over…
I’m
not sure whether the next one is true in every country, but over here, you pay
more for a haircut, if you happen to be a woman. Yes, I know what you’re
probably thinking now … more hair, more work, so more money. Let me counter
that. I have a short cut, have had one for years now. My hair isn’t really
longer than that of a guy. I like it that way. But I pay more for a cut than a
guy does. Why?
It’s
well-known by now that there’s a pay gap between the wages for men and for
women doing the same job. Again, there’s no real reason for that. If two people
do the same job, they should get the same money for it. (If the person getting
less weren’t female, but instead a person of colour or from a religious
minority, there would be a lot of trouble coming from that.)
And
there’s people who even suggest women shouldn’t ask for a pay raise and instead
be happy with what they’re given. Seriously, people, WTF?
Social
freezing has also been through the media recently, the offer by some of the big
companies to pay for their female employees freezing their eggs and getting
children later in life. (In case you’re wondering why they should freeze eggs,
if they want to get children before menopause: the younger the person, the
better the eggs/sperm, normally, so it makes sense.) Why do they offer that
instead of making sure a woman can be both a mother and a successful employee?
Many companies basically expect male employees over a certain age and above a
certain position in the company to have a nice family with a wife and one or
two children. It’s good for the company image, if the managers can pull out
their happy, little family for photo sessions. Why doesn’t the same go for
women? Because they’re supposed to stay home and raise the kids, even if (and
that’s rare enough) the husband makes less? Because it’s too difficult to build
and maintain an on-grounds childcare where they can drop off the kids in the
morning and pick them up in the afternoon?
There’s
a couple of small companies in Germany who do exactly that. They maintain a
childcare centre on the premises where mothers can leave their children during
work, where older children can come in after school (school in Germany often
ends around 1 p.m. already). Their experiences with it are good on the whole.
Parents work more concentrated and effectively, knowing their kids are cared
for and they don’t have to juggled their workload to fit with the opening hours
of the kindergarten.
And
then there’s the ‘looks’ thing. What is the most important thing bosses look
for, if a potential employee is male? His qualifications in all likelihood.
What does always come in, if a potential employee is female? Potential
pregnancy and looks. I can understand it, if a company wants someone with a lot
of customer contact to adhere to a certain look. I can also understand it, if a
model or an actor is judged by appearance to a certain degree. That’s part of
the job for them.
Women
are often reduced to looks, even while being trolled on the internet. It’s been
confirmed by a recent study. Trolls to inflict a lot of insults on both men and
women, yes, but in case of men, most insults take the direction of the person’s
knowledge. Of their actual right to comment on something. With women, it takes
a different direction. Either women are insulted on their looks, called too
ugly to even comment, or they are sexually insulted, something like ‘she needs
to be fucked, so she sees things right.’ Apart from the fact that sex usually
doesn’t change opinion too much (unless it’s the opinion on the sexual partner’s
actual sexual abilities), you can see where this is going. It’s not about ‘not
knowing,’ it’s merely about being a woman. A woman, the trolls suggest, has to
look good, be good in bed, and keep her mouth shut (unless she uses it for sex).
Which is probably a reason why some trolls will never get close to any woman in
real life…
There
are physical and metal differences between men and women (even though it can be
argued to which extent the mental differences are a question of upbringing).
Strangely
enough, a study found that women have a higher potential for aggressiveness, if
(and that’s the important part) they are not judged for it, because it’s anonymous,
like in a computer game. If you don’t believe that is possible, check out
several of the Rejected Princesses.
It
might be good for society as a whole that women usually are too well-adjusted
to let their aggressiveness flow freely. Most of the actual differences between
men and women, however, are based on their different jobs during propagation.
That should not be a reason to completely treat them differently.
There are few things which
are truly different for women and for men. Society needs to stop treating us
like two different species.
