Women are judged as women no matter where they are or what they do. When we walk into a job interview, not only are we judged on our qualifications, but on our appearance, voice, and dress. In some cases, like those of airline stewardesses, those latter variables may be the deciding factor on whether or not she gets the job at all. When on the phone, women are accused of sounding “bitchy” or “hormonal.” At no time is a woman judged solely on her abilities – she is always judged on her abilities as a woman.
With the lack of women in game development, and a seeming lack of women in online games, it would appear that even in technology, women are the suppressed minority. Feminists clamor that anything and everything leads to oppression of women: politics, appearance, penis envy, or the all-consuming “importance of cultural influences in the shaping of gender,” stresses Prof. Karen Horney (Gleman, Newsweek. 84). However, it is the newest of cultural influences that has opened new doors to women, erasing an oppressive environment typically seen elsewhere.
The internet, and all its opportunities, has opened up a new, completely gender-neutral world to women, one where people, regardless of race, gender, or ethnicity, are judged on the weight of their abilities, not on their appearance. We see this with elements of the internet like email – anything from JCHahn7766 to DownRiver1 – is completely gender-neutral. Those emails or game names could belong to anyone, the President or the 13 year old down the street.
This anonymity of the internet, while it does have its downsides, offers women the ability to be themselves and more without bias. Short tempered in an email – you can’t be called bitchy solely based on your sex! In a bad mood in an online forum? Nothing “hormonal” here, just a bad mood. These new technologies offer women a starting point that is at the exact same position as men. The internet has done the one thing that feminism and affirmative action have been unable to do: leveled the playing field.
For the first time ever, a woman is not judged as a woman, but as another person in far horizon, discoursing over the internet. She may have a name that is not hers, nor is it remotely female. Her avatar may be the same. As a result, those online may not know the true gender of the person at the other end of that internet cable. Intuitive guessing may occur, but overall, a woman only has to expose her gender when it is in her best interest. The online revolution offers true gender-neutrality.
Karen Lehrman in her essay The Feminist Mystic makes this very point: “Government cannot cleanse society of sexism; culture and time can” (The New Republic, 34, 1992). We see this effect of culture most inherently with the advent of online games. Women play everything from Spades online to World of Warcraft, and whether they present themselves to the online world as a man or a woman largely depends on the woman’s whim. She may play under a man’s name in Texas Hold’em or use a male avatar in EverQuest II. Or she may elect to present herself in a feminine form, but that superficial form holds little sway, as great numbers of men “gender-bend” in game and play a female character for a thrill.
Since there is no actual visual of women in an online environment, only the one that a woman chooses for herself, the stereotypes and assumptions based on appearance and gender are lessened. Games like Sims or Second Life, where body image is malleable, or even an animal, or Horizons, where one can play a dragon, gender becomes moot. A woman’s ability to acquire skills and earn levels in game are on par with men.
Women are even discovering fresh inroads into gaming through said games by creating their own reality through the game. Women can acquire rare items and drops and sell them for real money through a variety of websites. In some games, like Second Life, women can form their own businesses. MMORPGs have a decent female following as well; “Women took to fantasy landscapes of sword and sorcery like World of Warcraft, sometimes wielding weapons, but also inhabiting characters who seemed nurturing or bewitching,” writes Dickey and Summers in Newsweek (E20, 2005).
The idea of knowing that a woman is playing a game by her ability level (or lack thereof) is also becoming a logical fallacy. Women hold their own in online card, arcade, and MMO games, reaching higher levels of game accomplishments alongside their male counterparts. In an online forum at GamerGod.com, Grimwell posted some interesting insight on women gamers. Using gamespeak “pwn” to mean “own” or “kick your butt,” he commented that in ten years, his daughter will “pwn you” in a game, and that a female gaming friend, Rhyssa, “will pwn you now” (gamergod.com 2005). Don’t be surprised to learn that the husky Paladin, slaughtering the creature next to you, is a young woman just trying to level.
As more young girls begin to play more online and PC games, the line between men as better players blurs. The average 5 year old, regardless of gender, knows how to play, and beat, a number of videogames. In fact, several developers now create games specifically for kids, especially little girls. While the boxes may be pink and purple, with Hello Kitty and Barbie on the cover, the content is game nonetheless. These girls are growing up gaming and quickly becoming a gaming force to be recokoned with.
To level the playing field, all a woman needs is her internet connection. There is no longer any learning curve between men and women in gaming, and the nature of the internet had allowed women their full voice in gender neutrality. A woman no longer has to shed her femininity, dress like men, or act unfeminine to play with the big boys. Online gaming empowers women because it breaks the gender bias. In online games, the only thing that could hold a woman back or thrust her forward is her own ability, her computer hardware, and her broadband.
Works Cited:
Dickey, Christopher and Summers, Nick. “A Female Sensibility.” Newsweek.
Gelman, David. “A Fresh Take on Freud.” Newsweek.
Lehrman, Karen. “The Feminist Mystique.” The New Republic.
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