Warning: I'm about to get all feminist on this blog.
*sigh* So, I'm watching tv. A commerical comes on. Some girly pop song singing, "Girls play toooooo!" plays on repeat, while little girls are seen playing Hannah Montana on the PSP. Oh yes. Girls play video games too, so hardcore are these girl gamers, they play Hannah Montana. And since these are GIRL GAMERS they have packaged an exclusive Hannah Montana skinned PSP, you know, something that the girl gamers want. Because they play too.
What.The.Fuck.
I know it's for marketing purposes, but I'm SICK of the whole thing. In order for a girl to LIKE video games it has to be Barbie games,HSM, Hannah Montana, etc. etc. ETC. These stupid games are pushed on every little girl, and no higher up actually takes in to consideration that...hmmm. Maybe girls like playing the same games guys do? BLASPHEMY!
Guy gamers know it, they know we play WoW, Halo, Grand Theft Auto, all of those exceedingly boyish games, and yet the media/executives/designers are still under the delusional that 'Girl Gamers' is still a myth.
Take G4 for example. It started off as a channel directly targeting video gamers, and well, 17-30 something men. It had everything there that you ever needed to know about video games. Buuuut, the only female presence(s) on the show were young slender gorgeous women that had NO IDEA what they were talking about. They weren't gamers, they were there for the eye candy. Because girls don't play do they? Why would they watch a channel dedicated to video games? NOW, G4 is losing it's video game edge and is almost entirely targeting the male audience now, appearing more like a 2nd Spike Network for the younger/tech-savy generation. Thanks guys, I really did like watching shows on that channel, but it's getting exceedingly annoying when my presence is CONSTANTLY ignored.
Comic-Con just happened, and you know what the main focus of female presence is there? You got it. Booth Babes. Girls don't play games, they stand there half naked by a booth with 40-something hairy mangeeks salivating all over them and the designers and producers of the game company sit there proudly knowing that anyone coming to their booth for actual knowledge on the development for their newest title will remember them fondling because of their hot hot blonde busty blonde twins.
It's like one big fucking joke. What's the image of a girl gamer anyways? Is she overweight? Devastatingly UNATTRACTIVE? Ungroomed, boyish, weirdo crazys that know one wants to talk to? Oh, and the smell of FUNK?
Why the hell can't a normal girl play video games without being force feed High School Musical for the Wii? Why are we constantly seeing Carrie Underwood, Liv Tyler, and so on playing the DS as another standard of unrealistic aspirations of a girl involved with video games? WHY CAN'T BOOTH BABES KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE GAME THEY ARE MODELING FOR? Why can't they even be intelligent for that matter? (Speaking entirely based on all of them being interviewed by G4 on Comic-Con Live, all together the total IQ of all of them can't reach double digits).
I am a girl gamer. I am a girl geek. I am an Internetz savy girl. I am a Star Wars girl.
I am no different than any other guy who likes the same things that I do, and the higher ups better get that damn straight.
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When girls play games online, they have to play as guys. Cuz if anyone gets wind of their femininity, every guy who lives in his mom's basement starts hitting on her, because there is such a huge guy to girl ratio when it comes to games.
ReplyDeleteSources:
http://ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20030526
This has pretty much nothing to do with your post, but it has to do with girls and games. Personally, I'm an Age of Empires/Mythology gamer, myself. I just like building an empire and then going and killing everybody. With BALROGS.
You are also an informed girl.
ReplyDeleteReading this tickles my feminist tendencies.
Absolutely, girls get the short end of the stick when it comes to the entertainment world. Game companies rarely dish out heroines unless they have an unnaturally bountiful bust size for fear that all the little boys won't want to buy a game... Clueless booth babes are an unapologetic marketing scheme that sets up a human being, a woman with a socially desirable figure, as a prop. A PROP! It demeans the person behind the Booth Babe booth as a tool for marketing purposes, and, not only that, but a tool to appeal to the least respected carnal fantasies of MEN.
The stupid marketing execs don't care about the girl gamers that know stuff. They're not concerned about girl gamers who game faithfully and frequently... the girls they want are the young ones... fresh ones who have never touched a game before. They want more girl gamers, but they're shallowing out the video game selection and genres to appeal to an audience that has never held a controller in their unworthy hands in their entire lives!
And what about that girl-gamer stereotype?? I suppose the stereotype for gamers in general is grimy and lazy and fat... but why the hell is that stereotype acceptable for guys? We should be held to the same rigorous hygienic standards as the girls!
The problem with societal standards in Western cultures, though, is that all the aesthetic standards are made to cater to the tastes of MEN. We've existed in a weird implicit patriarchy for such a long time that we can't even see that the standards of beauty for a woman were set up by a bunch of guys in their boxers waiting on another chance to whack off. Of course women's standards for beauty were set up by the men in our society! It's really clear men set up those standards for women and for themselves because women have a full-time job trying to meet the impossible physical standards they are bombarded with, while men can be total slobs and get away with it.
I was watching TV the other day, and according to a recent statistic, 30% of women admitted that they'd leave their dude if the guy got fat, while a whopping 70% of men said they'd leave their girlfriends if their girls got fat.
That's horrible!
I always knew that the entertainment industry was unfair to women, but I totally forgot about video game entertainment! This is totally not cool!
We all know you girl gamers got as much game as any drooling mangeek out there... I'm just happy you, specifically you, Soaps, can game with class like a real gaming lady.
Awesome blog post ^_^
I start this comment with the preface that I'm a guy, but I want you to know that I know what you are talking about. I happen to know a lot of girl gamers, and I don't understand why marketing for games is predominantly geared towards males.
ReplyDeleteThe few times games are marketed towards girls they are just cutsey games that really don't make a lot of sense. And, I'm ashamed for pointing this out, but this particular commercial makes even less sense as the "Girls Play Too" song doesn't fit with the game pack they are marketing, why aren't they marketing a Hannah Montana game pack with a Hannah Montana song, instead of this silly chant of "Girls Play Too," then at least they would be marketing towards a target audience at least of Hannah Montana fans.
However I'm going to play devil's advocate for a moment and point out that while marketing for games is almost entirely towards males, I don't think that the industry has a bad view of female gamers in general.
1) There's a WOW based Mountain Dew commercial out right now showing a completely normal looking guy and a relatively normaly looking girl, neither ugly or fat, but not models. Halfway through the girl turns into an Elf and the guy an Orc and they battle in the store.
2) Not all girls on gaming shows, even on G4 are "dumb." While they do tend to pick attractive girls, they don't pick ugly guys either, but Morgan Webb of G4's X-Play certainly knows her games, and she doesn't gravitate towards cutsey "Girls Play Too" Hannah Montana games.
3) There are even premium platform specific gaming shows that are hosted by women who know their gaming, Qore on the Playstation network is hosted by Veronica Belmont, and actually charges for download, their free show Pulse is hosted by Christina Lee and she seems a little less game knowledgeable, but she doesn't seem dumb to me.