Dante's Inferno ---a brief interlude

Hello hello.
   I must apologize for my laziness. Got a bit overwhelmed with life the past few days and had to put the rest of my post on D.I. on hold. However, I have not forgotten about it.
Not only have I not forgotten about it but I'm hard at work with my trusty pen and notebook taking notes for the continuation of my views on D.I.

   Not only that, but I have run into my old notebook from way back when, so I'll finally be able to complete my Sexism and gaming piece...I know I know, SUPER LATE, but better late than never. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, its ok, I don't blame ya, I tend to forget what I had for lunch yesterday, no way I would remember something from a few months ago.

   So, as a brief refresher....Long long ago when I did my BIG piece on Sexism and games, I closed my "final" post with this:  The final installment will be about  a reversal of the "Hot chicks" with offensively large anatomy in skimpy outfits.
Obviously that never happened so, I really wanna get that out too. I have the pics, I have some notes, so I'm gonna be working on that this week.

   So, I've got a lot of work ahead of me and I'm really excited about getting it up and posted.

   I've got another little plan that is gonna be really really cool so you should stay tuned and check back often. Alas, since I'm not sure how it will all work out, I'd like to keep it under wraps for now.

   So, ya'll come back now ya hear!

Ouch!

So I pop in in a drug induced haze and realized something.
If I ain't talking controversy I get no love!
That's Harsh! come on, you guys can do better than 4 visits. I know I've been boring you to tears lately but still. Do I need to stoop to low tactics like posting boobs every day? Wait, I can't do that. I've been talking about boobs for days now, that was like how this whole mess got started, boobs.
boobs are the enemy, right? I don't know, I like boobs.

Oh well, I'm here, I need page views and I've had you dangling for a while, so, I'll give you a quick crash course in feminism.

Oh but you already know what it is, right? What I've noticed is that the word gets tossed around a lot and most of the time its used incorrectly.
First is the fact that people seem to think Anti-Feminism and Post-Feminism are the same thing and use them interchangeably, on top of that its constantly paired with complaints of Sexism, another word tossed around a lot whether its right or not.

Quick example of that and gaming:

   I want to clarify for people that having a small amount to no females in a game is not, i repeat NOT SEXIST! When's the last time you played a game that looked like a UN summit meeting? Shall we scream RACISM then? Of course not.
   Lets be honest, games portray a certain moment, whether going towards realism or fantasy, a game is a moving snapshot of a moment. A moment in people/aliens/bugs/blobs/whatever bizarre creature the creator conjures up's lives. Its representative of those characters experiences, viewpoints, opinions, -isms. You can not judge that by real world standards...well actually you can but not in a global sense.
    Lets say that instead of being a net savvy hotty born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York, I was born in a tiny secluded village near the banks of the Amazon river in Brazil. In this village my people are completely isolated from the outside world, we live much like our people have lived for hundreds, maybe thousands of years.
    One day the village elder tells us a story passed down through the generations of the time one of the more adventurous members of the tribe wandered a bit further from home and saw something mind boggling. While hiding in the brush he saw these strange things, they walked like us, and they had features similar to ours and they made noises that sounded like some sort of language but their skin, it was bone white! they wore no jewelry and they were wearing clothes that covered them basically from head to toe. He was so scared he ran all the way back to the village where he told his story to the others, who laughed at him. He never left the village again, he was too scared.  No one else from the village have ever seen one of these "white creatures" he talked of but its an entertaining story.
     Because the villagers have never been exposed to people of other races  the villager who saw a white person thought they were some sort of bizzare creature and no one else in the village believed him.does that make the previous story racist? Does that make the villagers racist? Of course not. You use what you know, what you've been exposed to, what's in the moment, in your mind, in your memories. Nothing more, nothing less.
    Now moving back to my sassy New Yorican self, if I referred to a caucasian person as a "white creature-thing" that might be a lil racist cause well, I live in Florida and I'm surrounded by Crackers! Oh yeah, get your pitch-forks, I said Crackers!!!! you know what? I'd leave my husband for Garth Brooks' chubby bald Cracker self! So there you go, make of that what you will.

So what was my point again? Oh yes, Sexism in games. Anti-Feminism in games. Well, much like my above story, and my above points, Everyone and Everything cannot be in Every Game.
I have not played Modern Warfare 2 yet, though I got it for Christmas but I have played CoD4. It was pointed out on a site that shall remain nameless by a person who shall remain nameless (yeah, like most of you don't know what I'm talking about) that there was only ONE, I'll say it again ONE female in CoD4. On top of that this ONE woman was piloting a helicopter, that got shot down. Note this person claims that the chopper was shot down NOT because its well...A WAR ZONE, but because it was perpetuating the sexist stereotype that women can't drive.
    I just wanna throw out there that being the awesome diva I am I was once complemented on my tight turns (no nasty double entendre intended) at 95 miles an hour in my old Jetta  by an actual race car driver.
   But wait! there's More! (my tribute to the late Billy Mays)
   When the Chopper goes down the chopper the player is on goes back to rescue the female pilot. According to the same person this is NOT because she is a fellow soldier, but because she is a woman.
   WTF??? How do you come up with CoD4 and by extension Infinity Ward are sexist because the one woman in the game is a bad driver that gets rescued cause she has tits? (pardon my french)

 
    My mom has a saying about projecting yourself on others: "The Thief judges by his own condition". What does that mean? it means that in a lot of cases the person screaming the loudest in protest is the one that secretly feels that way, hence they know what they are talking about.
    I'll cover that more in depth a little later right now, I wanna give you a quick crash course in the definitions (there's more than one) of Feminism.

      The First Wave of feminism takes place between the 19th century and the early 20th century. Its the one we all read about in school, Suffragette's. These Feminists protested, lobbied and marched for women's rights to vote but more importantly, they also lobbied for women to have Equal contract and property rights and for the disavowal of the belief that married women and their children were men's property. Basically the  freedom of women, body, mind and soul.
     An interesting side note is that women didn't start off as chattel. The Celts had a more liberal view back in the early centuries. There were famous battle queens like Maeve and Boudicea. Many might not  know who Maeve was, for those I recommend you read the legends about Cucchulain. Boudicea is a bit more famous. She took to her battle chariot after she was flogged and her daughter's raped by the Romans. She gave a hell of a fight and poisoned herself finally to avoid capture. Also under Brehon Law a woman and a man were married for a year and a day. After that year and a day if either party decided they were unhappy they could simply state that they divorced the other party and there was no loss of honor for either, A woman had no stigma attached to her and could remarry again, and if she had a child within the time frame they were married the child was not considered a bastard, also, should the man be so unlucky as to be divorced while outside of his home the woman could keep the property.
     In medieval times it was expressly stated that the wife of a blacksmith, should she become widowed could not only keep the smithy but become blacksmith in order to support herself and her children if she was trained in smithing. Seems like we started off well in the "barbaric" "dark ages" and regressed with progress.
    
     The second wave of Feminism takes place between the 1960's and the mid-late 1980's. Its more of a continuation of the first wave goals. Mostly it was concerned with issues of discrimination and equality in the work place.

  Both the first and second waves had clearly defined goals. This is where it get sticky. the Third Wave.
   The Third wave of Feminism started in the 1990's and its the most convoluted, volatile wave. It has the most interior debates about its goals and beliefs. One example is Psychologist Carol Gilligan who believes that we women are inherently different from men both physically and pyschologically, hence we can't be truly equal  because we are 2 different sexes. Others believe that she is incorrect and that there are no inherent differences between the sexes. That gender roles are due to social conditioning.
   Finally we come to an even more misunderstood group, and one that I personally subscribe to if you haven't noticed yet. Post Feminism.
  
   Post Feminism is NOT as is commonly believed Anti-Feminism. Post Feminists believe women have already achieved the goals they set out in the first 2 waves. They also question third wave goals and issues, feeling that Feminism is no longer relevant in today's society.
     Believing that Feminism is not relevant does not make one anti-feminist or anti-woman.
     I mentioned in a previous post that a woman once accused me of setting feminists back 50yrs because I liked being a stay at home mom and cooking for my family. I say that its the contrary. The woman who said that is the one setting feminism back. Huh? are you scratching your head in confusion? Ranting at my ignorance to the computer screen? Snickering at my idiocy? If you are, scroll up and re-read the part about the 3 waves of Feminism, then come on back here and continue reading, go ahead, I'll wait....
  
     Did you reread? Did you see where I'm going? No? Well then, stop reading and begone cause you're never gonna get it. For those that got it or that think they got it, I'll give you the answer.
     Feminists in the past fought for a woman's RIGHT to vote, work, own property, be their own person. That means they also fought for a woman's RIGHT to NOT do these things. They fought so that I could work outside of the home like I did from the age of 16 to the age of 24 just like my male counterparts, but hey also fought so that I could stay home and take care of my family if I chose to. There's the rub. That's the part that "Feminists" today forget. That's why Feminism as a whole is irrelevant nowadays. We women, can work, can play, can think, can vote, can act in any way we choose. What the hell are we fighting for now? I will not deny that there are still places where feminist goals have not been achieved, but for the most part in most non-third world situations that glass ceiling women cry and scream and rant about is in their own minds.

    One final goal of original Feminism was a belief than in equality we would also bring the sexes closer together.  We would come to a better understanding of each other. These days it seems that the sexes are drifting farther apart and it is due to women. yeah Yeah, you're pissed at me again and think I'm an idiot. Keep reading.

   Women want men to understand them, to be sensitive, to take on a type of role reversal; stay at home dad's, men doing more of the cooking, cleaning, child rearing, shopping, gardening, whatever the hell they deem "feminine". However, we also expect men to be strong, manly, capable, hard working, intelligent. This has led to men being in 3 groups. The metro-sexual, the neanderthal and the wuss.
  
     The Metro-Sexual, neat, clean, gets manicures, spends more time on his hair than a woman with floor length hair. Women don't want him because well, he gets manicures, spends more time on his hair and is prettier than them.

      The Neanderthal, burps, farts, watches sports, drinks beer, asks you to go make him a sammich. Women don't want him because well, he's a pig that keeps them repressed.

        The Wuss, maintains himself but not as much as the metro-sexual, however he has repressed any and all "manly" behavior. Women don't want him because if they were ever mugged he'd push her towards the robber and run off.

   Now I know I'm generalizing and not all men and women fall into these categories but what the hell, we live in a world of generalizations...they are called stereotypes, and they aren't going anywhere any time soon whether we want them too or not.
   
   Where do I fall into this? Post Feminist all the way and proud of it. I believe Feminism's goals hve been achieved. I also believe that men and women are fundamentally different in both physique and mentality.

      And my husband? Well, he started as a metro-sexual throughout our 10yr friendship. Upon our marriage he has now completely reverted to the Neaderthal, at least in terms of cleanliness and appearance. and I love him just the way he is and wouldn't want him any other way. We can both be crass and admire a girls boobs but we can also both cry at a chick flick. For all our differences and arguments I think we are a very good balance of male and female and the essence of Feminism.

So that's it for this installment of Feminism, Sexism and Gaming. The final installment will be about  a reversal of the "Hot chicks" with offensively large anatomy in skimpy outfits.

Finally! Let's talk about scantily clad women

  One of the biggest complaints women make about games is that the women in them are all scantily clad, big breasted, cheap looking, unrealistic depictions. They ask "where are the strong, capable, and perhaps a tad more proportionately even women?" you know what? I can't argue that most women in games are scantily clad eye candy. Does that automatically discard them as strong capable characters?

  The portrayal of women as sex symbols is nothing new. The depiction of unattainable beauty is one that still haunts women everyday. However, can we blame it all on men?

** Warning there will be a long ramble through history that is seemingly unconnected with gaming but  bear with me, I have a point.**

  Since the beginning of time women have jumped through (and at some point worn) hoops to idealize their form and figure. At different points in history (and some still around today) women have bound their feet, their necks and their waists. They've put on makeup and straightened their hair. They talked in a breathy whisper and looked demurely at the ground. I'm not denying this.
However, there are quite a few things that people do not know, or have chosen to forget about many of these practices.

  Though 2 wrongs don't make a right I'd like to point out something women tend to forget, they are not alone. What I mean is men have subscribed to a lot of the same beautification tortures that women have.

Make-up!

  Both Egyptian men and women wore Kohl eyeliner and contrary to popular belief, it had nothing to do with beauty. The Egyptians believed that rimming the eyes with Kohl would ward off evil spirits and improve sight. I'd say that now women wear it for appeal but they aren't the only ones, men rock the guyliner every once in a while too. In ancient Rome female slaves called Cosmitae produced  cosmetics, and in China around 3,000BC  high born women stained their fingernails with a mixture of gum arabic, gelatin, beeswax and eggs.
   Why am I talking about make-up? If you haven't noticed yet these trends, these standards of beauty have been perpetrated by women, not men.

Now on to Garments!

  I'd like to quickly mention as well that in Ancient Egypt most women went bare-breasted, their traditional garments being either a skirt or a tunic that could be worn just below or above the breasts. Obviously the Ancient Egyptians were a lot less repressed than us.
  In both 7th century BCE in the Minoan era and in 1st Century Egypt there are depictions of women athletes wearing a bra/bikini type top. Interesting how far back these things go.

  Personally I feel that the Middle Ages followed by the Renaissance had it right. In the middle ages women wore high necked, full skirted dresses with a straight bodice, functionality over form. The Renaissance of course favored the full figured woman.

  All this wonderful practicality in clothing went out the window in the 16th century. Corsets. heck they are still around today. 
 
  In the 17th century the fashion was a tubular corset, straight up and down which flattened the breasts and made them swell over the top of the gown, this was paired with a Farthingale (a cage like undergarment) that gave women that wide flat look, Think Marie Antoinette and the like.
  Moving on to around the 1820's-1830's the fashionable thing was a Wasp waist for...wait for it...
BOTH men and women.
   our final Corset stop is the Victorian Era. This is the time that doctors started to realize that hey, corsets aren't good for you! They urged women to stop using them, but what did women do? They ignored the "unfashionable" advice.

  Though this has nothing to do with garments I'd like to add one more torturous practice.

Foot Binding.

  I, like a lot of  people have at one point or another for some odd reason heard of the practice of foot binding. Like those other people I was quick to blame men for the barbaric practice of torturing girls for aesthetics, that is until I actually read a bit about it.

  You see, the binding of the feet began with wealthy well-born women. It was a way to flaunt Status not appeal, though of course that came into play as well. The binding of the feet was a way of showing the world that these women didn't have to do manual labor. It also demonstrated the fact that their husband didn't need their wives to work. They could afford to take care of them, while the wives' only duties were to serve her husband and order the servants, never lifting a finger herself. I won't go into the gruesome particulars that go into the process of foot binding, but I would like to share the fact that the ideal foot size was 3 inches. Balancing on 3 inch feet made women take small steps and walk unsteadily on their heels, this necessary walk made them sway alluringly, however, men weren't stupid. Though they liked the effect most of them never let their wives remove their shoes and bindings in their presence.

   As it happens with everything, once the wealthy or popular start a trend the masses will eventually follow. By the 17th century most women had their feet bound, even the poorest.

Ok, but what the hell does this have to do with anything?

  If you haven't noticed by now, I ramble, a lot. I also go off on all sorts of tangents. Sorry, that's just my way. However, all that talk about make-up and corsets and feet ARE related to scantily clad women in video games and the people this offends.

  First it shows that in many cases women themselves submit themselves to these tortures and also that men are not immune to the pressures of an idealized mate.
  Still don't see where I'm going?

  Lets start with some visual aids.
  I know that there are a ton of games out there with scantily clad women and content that offends most people. However, I wanted to keep it more well known so I'll be using some common characters from games like Soul Calibur, Final Fantasy and Dynasty Warriors to name a few.

We shall begin with one of my personal favorites:
     Are those flotation devices?

Meet Ivy Valentine from Soul Calibur. While Ivy has been rockin' a pretty big rack since the first Soul Calibur game she really caused an uproar when her character model was..uh...enhanced for Soul Calibur 4. Both men and women were offended by the bodacious brit and her top heavy look. Me? I said to myself "damn her back must really hurt" and went back to life as usual. Obviously Ms. Valentine's design is intended to titillate (no pun intended). On top of this fact is the fact that a sensible person might want to wear oh...I don't know...clothes, armor, something more than floss and thigh highs if  they were going to battle. But, does her lack of practical clothing and insane body proportions make her just a character for men to ogle? well, if you are familiar with Soul Calibur you already know that Ivy is one of the hardest characters to master. Should you master her moves however, you'll be pwning a whole lotta noobs left and right. So....Ivy? Sexy, overly sexualized, unnecessarily over sexualized but also a good fighter an expert swords-woman and an alchemical genius if you follow her story (which is admittedly not that deep but come on, its a fighting game). As a woman, you can be offended by the character design or you can get over it, use her alternate costume and enjoy your game.

Meet Taki, another Soul Calibur lady with deadly skills and built in airbags. Again, I know a lot of women would find the character design offensive. Personally, I just wonder how she doesn't knock herself out with those when she's doing her ninja flips. Yet another character who you can either dominate with or be destroyed if you don't know her moves well. Her weapons have short range, but she compensates for this failing by being extremely fast and acrobatic. Again, another woman who would kick your ass in a heartbeat. Her looks don't offend me, and her skills put her in the strong capable woman category.



  You see, its all in how you look at it. You can choose to be offended because men will be attracted to her character design, or you can see it as a plus. Nothing like distracting an enemy in order to stab them from behind.
   Ivy and Taki are but 2 of a bevy of kick ass females in Soul Calibur. They come in every flavor and size, from the young cute Talim (who will destroy you with her elbow blades) to the the small breasted Seong Mi-Na and her Halberd. My personal favorites however are Tifa (the psychotic with the razor sharp ring blade and split personality) and Sophitia (as if that weren't obvious) the blonde Greek mother of 2 who fights with a short sword and shield and some bitchin' kicks.
  To me these characters are a very strong female presence in the game world. Strong independent kick ass fighters. Its not the characters themselves that offensive its what people do with said characters, how they choose to exploit them. For example, when Soul Calibur 4 was released it didn't take long for someone to exploit and degrade them.

Where are your clothes? Where is your dignity!

See, that IS offensive. That is sexist and mysoginistic. Its insulting and only serves to support and strengthen the negative views about games and the people who play them. It does gamer's a great disservice because as they say, One bad apple spoils the barrel.




Now the following lady in this list is a newcomer but due to her looks and abilities has gotten a lot of attention.

Meet Bayonetta

And her perfectly sculpted rear.

Bayonetta has been the talk of the town since the game was announced. A librarian-ish looking witch with a killer body, guns on her feet and clothing made out of her hair. Aside from the fact that her creator is most proud of the time and skill it took to render her derriere to his satisfaction there really isn't anything all that offensive about the character model, is there? Her outfit while tight is pretty conservative, her breasts are a normal size and her face is attractive yet nerdy. What's the drama?
  Not only does Bayonetta duel wield pistols, she also duel feet's them. Her walk is sexy, her voice is sultry, her special attacks require her to undre- wait what?
  Yes, aside from her impressive arsenal of weapons and abilities Bayonetta can use Torture Attacks. These are special moves that can summon Iron Maidens into which she flings her enemies, Guillotines to which she kicks her enemies repeatedly until she finally drops the blade on them, but wait, that's not all (I feel like an infomercial). Bayonetta can also magically turn her hair shirt I mean catsuit into an assortment of creative attacks which leave her in a shocking state of mostly undressed.

  Though none of her naughty bits are shown, I'm sure there will be a few people (if there aren't already) who will not be pleased with the wily witch. Personally I find the idea of her clothes being her hair and her weapon particularly cool and different from the usual gaming fare. I also wish I could rock the librarian look as well as her.
  I've only played the demo as the game won't be out until Tuesday but I can honestly say that far from being an exploitative, sexist take on a female character, she's an awesome asset to the game world females, hell, from the bit I've played she'd give quite a few male characters a run for their money in bad-assery.

Hot chicks, scant outfits, much ass kicking, lots of fun

(historically relevant..sort of)

Making a female character sexually alluring does not automatically invalidate them as positive female characters. To illustrate this point I'd like to show you a few characters from one of my favorite gaming series' Dynasty Warriors. If you aren't familiar with Dynasty Warriors,  its a game based no the Three Kingdoms period of China. It takes the real life people who fought in the many wars between Wei, Shu and Wu, makes them super pretty and then pits them against wave after wave of nameless foes as you wade your way through the famous battles they fought, sort of, I mean its not really accurate, but it is fun.

This is Diao Chan, considered one of the 3 fabled beauties of China. A dancing girl who captures the heart of one very big, but not very bright and extremely scary man named Lu Bu.
She's beautiful, scantily clad and carries a whip. If I was a guy I'd probably need to take a break right now. (damn I'm a sexist pig.)

Meet Sun ShangXiang. The daughter of Sun Jian, the Tiger of Jiang Dong and ruler of Wu. Despite the fact that her game model looks like a young girl in a skimpy cutesy outfit, her skills with her bow are deadly.  Historically she was a skilled fighter as were her 100 handmaidens. In an attempt at alliance she was married to Liu Bei, Ruler of Shu. Its said that Liu Bei was terrified of her servants.

Finally we have Yue Ying, wife of the great strategist of Shu, Zhuge Liang. She's my personal favorite because she can decimate a fort full of enemies easily with her bow. She's also one of the characters (along with Diao Chan) that is almost completely fabricated. Historically not very much was known about Zhuge Liang's wife except that he was impressed by her wisdom and that she wasn't very attractive. Glad they changed that for the game, seriously, I don't wanna be an ugly chick.

Wait, that's just it. No one wants to play an ugly character. Games are escapism, games are role play, you can be pretty much anything in a game so why would you choose to be ugly in a world where you can be anyone? You can't judge in game characters with real world logic. Its just ridiculous.
    I know, you might be saying "yeah but you contradict yourself when you posted the crotch shots from Soul Calibur and claimed to take offense".
    Yeah, you're right, guess I'm a hypocrite, but its still my blog  ;) I kid.
  
   Ignoring my hypocrisy, you might say, "but wait! you've just made me read this never ending blog post about stuff that has nothing to do with gaming followed by pics of cute/hot/big breasted game characters that you claim don't offend you and that you enjoy playing as but..we're not talking about a woman playing games with these characters. We're talking about men drooling over pixelated women." (and if you did say that you better take adeep breath and get a glass of water, your mouth must be dry)

     To this I say, yeah, you're right...what was my point again?

  Oh, now I remember.

I've written this post assuming a few key points.
1. Women play video games
2. Men play video games
3. Game characters are made to appeal to the player.
4. There's a difference between a sexy character model and placing said character in degrading positions that serve no purpose but to strock a few messed up libidos. One is A-ok and the other is sexist and insulting.
5. Tomorrow is another day and I'll be putting the shoe on the other foot.

    hmm....I guess I could have just written the last paragraph and called it a day huh?

well tomorrow I'll wrap it all up with a brief history of feminism, post feminism and flippin the whole damn game chick argument around.

Women and gaming- Sexism. Update

So, I'm a day late as usual. I apologize, I'm lazy.
Ok, its only partly laziness. As you know (cause I mention it ad nauseam) I have kids. 3 of the little buggers, and they are home on Winter break. Its cold out and its been rainy so I have 3 kids pent up in a house getting restless.

I had fully intended to work on this last night but by the time everyone was in bed I was too tired. Now my 4th child is home as well (that would be my husband) and I've got a million distractions.
Right now I'm gathering up the images I want to post between breaks to help my son play Elite Beat Agents, refereeing my girls and watching Torchwood with my husband, not exactly Ideal working conditions. Of course its all part and parcel of being a mom, especially a gaming one. Thank god for wireless controllers, Pause buttons and autosave!


Update: Hard at work right now. somehow a little quest for pics led me to wikipedia which led me to start some research which just made me get all ambitious, which has led to more research which is gonna lead to one helluva long post  very soon.


SO I swear and Promise that if you come back tonight I WILL have this damn thing written.
There will be boobs, there will be upskirts (probably), there will be scantily clad people. See, I'm already using low woman-insulting tactics to get you to come back.

Before other women find me and bludgeon me to death with a copy of Queen's Blade. (speaking of, anyone speak Japanese? can you translate the game menus for me? I really want to play the game) I guarantee there will be pretty boys and burly men as well, because though women hate to admit it, Sex sells to BOTH genders and its no different in games.

I must go now because I've had multiple DSs shoved in my face for help with levels on multiple games but come hell or high water, even if I have to stay up all night I will write this because it needs to be said and I want to say it.

There are Women and Girls who play Games

 Now that we've got that out of the way we can move on to the messy little details: the stereotypes and the mocking, and the surprising group they come from most.

 The gaming industry is usually on the receiving end of the righteous anger of people (I won't say women because there are plenty of men who feel the same) who feel most games are sexist and/or exploitative. The games who don't fall into those 2 categories, the games that developers create to try and split the difference, those are the Girly games, which are also considered sexist because they are silly and frilly and pink and insulting to female gamers.

 Where does that leave Developers? Damned if they do and damned if they don't. Here's the question, is it really all the gaming industry's fault?

 I mean, Nintendo sells Pink DSs and DSis. Sony recently released a Lavendar PSP, and not just ANY purple PSP, but one bundled with a Hannah Montana game.Then there are those games, the ones that clog the shelves of your average Target or Wal mart. You know the ones that say Imagine and the ones that end in the letter Z. The ones about the caring, nursing, feeding and petting of all sorts of animals. the ones that offer stereotypical female roles to play out, like Teacher and Ballet Dancer, Babysitter and Cook. Who are they marketed towards? Women and Girls. why? Because supposedly we like babyZ and PuppieZ and tu-tus.
I'll come back to the games geared for girls in a bit because there's another thing I want to mention before we delve deeper into this mess.

**This is where it might get offensive**

 First in order to help you see where I'm coming from I'd like to share a couple of things about me.

  My husband says he's more of a feminist than I am, he's right. My views on being a woman are complicated and sometimes contradictory. I feel that women and men are fundamentally different. We are different not only in looks and anatomy but also in thought. Since we are different there is no way we could ever be equal. Now, before women jump down my thoat, I don't believe or think women are lesser. We're just different. These differences are what lead to the "traditional" division of labor and power between men and women. I'm not saying that relegating women to the kitchen without a vote was right, I'm merely stating why I believe it happened.

 Now, I'm a live and let live kind of girl. I'm the first one to tell my daughters to be whatever they want to be, however, I have my own personal opinions and philosophy that I live by and feel strongly about. A woman once told me that "Women like me set feminism back 50 years." Why did she say this? Because I said I was happy being a stay at home mom, that I enjoyed taking care of my husband and children. Of course this woman also prided herself on the fact that the extent of her cooking experience was pressing start on a microwave.

 At this point you're probably wondering what the heck does any of this have to do with gaming? Well, I can't help but think that part of the problem with women and gaming is, well, women.

 In our quest for equality we separate ourselves even more.

 What do you call a man who games? Gamer.

  What do you call a woman who games? Depends who you ask. We've got Girl Gamers and Gamer Girls (apparently there is a difference). oh and my personal favorite " I'm just a woman who plays games." Is that like Kevin Costner who "Dances with Wolves?" Rarely do they go by the simple term "Gamer"

  But its not just different names, each name has a different definition. Its like a Feudal Caste System I keep waiting for the day when I come out of a Gamestop with a newly bought game only to have  some random woman yank it from my hand and claim the right of Prima Nocta.

 Thank god this is a blog and not an article because I'd be hard pressed to find a link to the specific post/article I read long ago by another female gamer which actually describes everything  I've said above. The only difference being that she herself fell into the whole judgemental caste thing. I recall reading this and ranting to my husband about it. She claimed that Girl Gamers gamed not because they liked it but for attention. Attention from men as in order to A) get special treatment during gameplay and B) to pick up guys or C) they don't play REAL games. Whereas Gamer Girls gamed because they enjoyed it. She herself fell into the latter category she claimed though she preffered Female Gamer in the Style of Kevin Costner.

 Now, I might have agreed with at least some of her points except her post was filled with vitriol against "Girl Gamers." As to the claims of gaming to pick up guys or get special treatment, yes, there probably are girls/women who do this. This is different from guys hanging out in the bookstore coffee shop with a Jane Austen novel or talking about a chick flick how?  The second claim, Special treatment? why should gaming be any exception. How many women use their looks to get their way, or things they want? I'm not saying its right or wrong, it just is. And finally they don't play REAL games.

 What's a Real game? Aren't all games pure fantasy and therefore unreal? Then again, I dropped $60 on Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 and that was pretty Real in a physical sense (and a painful one to my bank account and later my Xbox but that's another story.)

  I know! The non-real games of girl gamers end in a "Z" and usually have the word "Imagine" on them. Shovelware for little kids and casual gamers. I've been on that bandwagon too, ready to storm the gates of Ubisoft for implying women who game are fru-fru idiots. That Ubisoft is part of some nefarious plot to indoctrinate little girls to grow up to be pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen with all their babysitting and boutique owning and ballet dancing. Not only that but they are also stealing the money of the parents, the teens, the women who buy these games.

   We women are quite capable of playing the same games as men. Invariably we women will name drop the "hardcore" games we play. The Halo's and Gears, Bioshock, Silent Hill. Oh we can name drop for hours and then we mock the Imagine players. I mocked my daughter when she wanted Imagine games. I told her "Real gamers don't play that garbage. come here and watch mommy play Devil May Cry."  Then I decided, who was I to tell her that her interests are silly? So I let her play them. Then when I started writing this I decided to finally try  one. Well, I didn't try 1, I tried 4.

 What did I find?

  I found out that babysitting is really hard, being a vet is kinda boring, Cheerleading was slightly annoying and modern dancing was really damn fun.

  So I asked on a few different sites I go to "What do you think of Imagine games?" "Ever played one? if so, which one?"  The replies were invariably some variation of "I've never played that crap."

My personal favorite was this one:

From a sociological POV I think it can be detrimental just because it reinforces core gender stereotypes (boys play games with guns etc, girls play games with horses and other euqally "girl" like things).

  Fancy talk for "its telling girls to get their ass in the kitchen and make me a sammich" But of course, they've never played one. I guess ,I should ask another question. How many people, male and female played Elite Beat Agents?  Thoughts on it? If you liked it, you'd probably enjoy some of the Imagine games. SHOCKER! BTW....Girls play with Horses? Horses are Girly? Wow, I think there's a whole history book of Cowboys that want a word.

But I've dedicated enough to the joys of Imagine.

Let stop here and regroup.

Tomorrow I'll tackle the Sexist gaming industry and their big boobed half naked heroines.

I'm going to go play Imagine Modern Dancer now, maybe a little puzzle quest while I smoke...and just to prove I'm HARDCORE when I'm done I'm going to shoot a few guys in the crotch in Stranglehold and pop a cap in a ghouls' ass in Fallout3. Cause I'm a Woman Who Games (but I've never danced with wolves :( )