I struggled to make this little box sound insightful, witty and philosophical all at the same time. I think we all do that. But it honestly boils down to this: I have an opinion and I like to share it.
Ex-”Girl Gamer”
February 3rd, 2010 by snowkissed received 1 Comment »
For many years, I identified myself as a “Girl Gamer”. I wrote opinion pieces about female game characters, being a girl among gamers, girl gamer stereotypes and a number of other topics. I viewed my approach to games as a unique one because of my femininity. I viewed myself as part of some kind of secret club. A club where I didn’t actually want to meet the other members, but rather wanted to associate with them from afar. I wanted to maintain my special status in my circles. No girls allowed. Except me.
Then I started connecting more with other women in the industry: developers, gamers, enthusiasts. Bitches, whiners, strong individuals, innovators. I realized something so fundamentally obvious that it struck me as odd that I tried so hard not to see reality. While we are all individuals, we can not be labelled with a pretty pink bow or a blue ribbon. Who we are, especially as gamers, is not defined by our gender, our age or our role in this amazing industry composed of so many unique people. Rather, who we are is defined by one very large and liberal label: Gamer.
As I read more game news regarding girl gamers and regarding women depicted in games, I realized that there are people I agree with and people I strongly disagree with. One of the latter is actually a girl in game journalism. She’s gotten quite a bit of positive and negative reinforcement for a recent piece examining Bayonetta. A piece that I vehemently disagree with. Her writings, among other female writers I’ve encountered, led me to question my association with such a specific sub-category of Gamers. The dramatic difference in opinions solidified the fact that just because we share a label that is both loved and hated by so many, we are not kindred spirits. We likely will never be.
This made me re-examine the label I so proudly applied to myself. I am still happy to associate with the Xbox Gamerchix as I have found some amazing people through it. I am now just happy to label myself as a Gamer, but I have to make this clear: this is not because I agree with all of them, this is not because I am like all of them and this is not because I feel compelled to back them up. This is because we all share a passion which is so intimately intertwined with our lives that many of us don’t know what we’d do without them: we love to game.
Tags: gamers, girls in gaming, labels
Posted under: Featured Articles, Gaming
Labeling people can only be used one way; to isolate. We can isolate others from society, or we can isolate ourselves.