Girl Gamers for Female Gamers everywhere – Honorary Oakley

Last month we highlighted one of the coolest female protagonists to appear in the survival horror genre (Resident Evil’s Claire Redfield). This month something a little different and somewhat of an umbrella Oakley; yes, this month we’re making an Honorary Oakley of girl gamers, not one particular gamer, just all the ladies out there who love gaming.

You know who you are; you know the untold hardships you’ve endured for your hobby; you know that, at some point, you will get some form of abuse from an idiot who doesn’t feel it’s your place to game. Sure, times have changed, but just how much? Let’s hear it for all the girl gamers out there as September 2006 sees Thumb Bandits’ Honorary Oakley celebrate the very reason of our being: the girl gamer.

Boys Only, No Girls Allowed!
Gaming has been around for decades, its roots actually running back as far as the 1940s—though these ‘games’ were generally academic blips that told researchers something relevant. However, in the 1950s the first videogames were born—or computer games as they were called back then due to the fact that they ran on huge computers. These archaic ‘games’ were nothing like the modern equivalent, but we mention them because this is the birth of gaming and there were no female researchers to be found. By the 1970s true arcade gaming had come of age and this was also the decade that would see the birth of the home videogames console. But, just whom exactly were they marketed towards, and was this the beginning of the struggle of the female gaming fan? Surprisingly, many of the older advertisements are non-gender specific (where no players appear—though this changes dramatically if players are present in the imagery), with many using the words ‘family and friends’, as opposed to gender specific pronouns. This didn’t stop gaming from becoming the realm of boys however, as, due to socialization and the varying aspects involved in gaming (technology, computing etc), it fit more freely within the realm of the male.

Girl Gamers – Where Are You?
It’s hardly surprising that girls/women didn’t flood the world of gaming in greater numbers, given that human imagery in advertising was obviously slanted towards the young male gamer. It’s not the fault of the industry as such, because this was who they saw as their bread and butter audience, this was the demographic purchasing the games. It was a sort of catch 22 in many ways, because boys were interested in gaming, so advertisers began increasingly to single them out as the target market. This obviously put girl gamers on the periphery, and so the cycle continued, as it still does today (at least to a much lesser extent) as gaming companies realize there’s a huge untapped market out there. This is without even looking at the sexual imagery used within gaming media, advertising, and magazines, which helps to employ a male-driven hegemony with the realm of gaming.

You Must Be A Tomboy Then
Yes, many girl gamers may have been considered tomboys in their youth, given that the term ‘tomboy’ could be slapped on any young girl who climbed a tree, wore jeans instead of skirts, rode a BMX instead of a pink and tasseled girl’s Chopper or decided to pick up a game pad for the NES console her brother got for Christmas. So what! So what if tomboys had more fun; the world was their oyster, so what if they were given this label; boys had an equivalent label of their own, it was ‘sissy boy’. No negative connotations there at all for the poor lad who opted to play with Barbie instead of GI Joe. It’s a shame the world does this to kids, pops them in their ‘rightful’ hole, ensures they know what they should and shouldn’t play with. Although much of this is gross generalization (sure, we admit it, this isn’t a thesis, it’s a one-page article!) many girl gamers found themselves hangers on at the local arcades and given strange sideways glances if they happened to have a quarter that lasted longer than the boys standing around.

Girl Power
Those girls that went against the grain before gaming became truly hip and they learnt a lot, not just about gaming, but also about how to deal with sexist morons of all shapes and sizes. Rarely has a young boy heard the words “Hey! Shouldn’t you be playing with Barbie?” or upon a friend seeing the NES they got for Christmas, the statement: “How come that’s in your room?” Yes, it’s all very amusing, but we’re glad to say that things have moved on and now all girl gamers have to put up with is the odd sexist comment on Xbox Live, or lovely typed messages of sexual prowess, size, stature, etc, from all those mature *cough* males that still find it odd a woman might like to kick a little ass in Halo, or play a formidable warrior in World of Warcraft. Thankfully, those more mature males out there love gaming with girls, they don’t find it strange any longer, they don’t mind getting beaten or beating a girl, they’re in it for the same reason girls are, for scant little more than fun and enjoyment. So whilst we are here celebrating the girl gamer, let’s give a little shout out to the male gamers who understand why it is that girls like to game too—we salute you.

Sisters Doing It For Themselves
Despite the ebbs and flows of where gaming has come from and where it’s going, things for the girl gamer do appear to be gradually getting better. Girl gamers now have a voice, though that’s largely due to the power of the Internet, since some print magazines do still like to marginalize girl gamers into non existence. There’s been the stark ‘revelation’ that a lot of women play games, they play games that have bloodshed in them, they play shooters, war and non-puzzle titles. Sure, there are plenty of women out there that remain confined within the realm of ‘female favorites’, as stated by dopey marketing firms who look no further than what might interest their wives, but there are plenty who don’t and they can now, as it’s okay. The world of gaming is opening up and finally letting women in, it’s still got its problems, but the more women that game, the more these myths will fall and women and girl gamers will finally be on equal footing with their male counterparts. The time of being able to open a gaming magazine without some sexist dribble leering out at you is still probably a millennia away, but at least the girl gamer can enjoy her hobby now, more than she’s been able to do in the past. If a young girl asks for a Nintendo DS for Christmas, the world is not going to fall apart.

A Salute To Girl Gamers Everywhere
Yes, that’s what this is all about, a salute to all the girl gamers out there; for their love of the game; for their steadfastness in the face of adversity; for listening to that moron comment on your breasts on Xbox Live or World of Warcraft and thinking, “What an almighty jackass!” For also respecting those male gamers out there who appreciate the fact it isn’t as easy being a girl gamer as it is being a male gamer, and for knowing that you as a female gamer are inevitably going to have to put up with more crap than he does, JUST for being female. This is for the girls, as it always is in the Honorary Oakley, because sometimes it’s nice to hear about the heroics of women, even on a small scale.

Girl Gamers…we salute you!

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