Polygon - No skin thick enough- The daily harassment of women in the game industry.
The problem with sharing these stories in broad terms is that people think men and women receive the same harassment online. They do not. I’m not writing this piece to evoke your sympathy. I’m writing to share with you what prominent, successful women in the industry experience, in their own words.Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Game Names Are Almost Universally Terrible.
Seriously it’s not that hard why are you all so bad at this aauuugh.
Verno wrote on Jul 23, 2014, 11:10:UHD wrote on Jul 23, 2014, 10:50:
The presence of "GAMERGURLs" doesn't make it okay to be a sexist asshole. The existence of sexual harassment outside the Internet doesn't make it okay inside the Internet too.
Where did I say it makes it ok? Straw man. It's not an excuse for the behavior itself, its a contributing factor in a complex situation. We have a society dominated by the culture of worship based on appearance, the internet which provides casual anonymity and vastly different genders. It's not as simple as "men r dicks". Many, if not most men are not contributing to it. Some women contribute to the problem and I don't see them being called out for it.
Advances aren't inherently harassment either. I think it sucks women have to fend off hoards of lonely nerds online but that's a reality of the gender spread in gaming right now. It is certainly a different landscape now than 10 years ago and will change even more as time goes on. People who harass women after the fact are a different matter and that is a problem without a bullet point solution, I can't really do much to influence that. If it is serious then I would call the police.
Kind of a loaded point designed to make any answer seem insensitive.
I don't think its ok that the average MOBA player calls me a worthless waste of life if I miss an assist or threatens to kill me either but I accept that these things happen when dealing with the public and do my best to enjoy the game despite that. I don't like the idea of anyone being harassed but I'm not convinced that this is really an issue I can do anything to influence anymore than the aforementioned. Beating me over the head with it and associating all men with this behavior isn't going to help either.