Tag : gender

Alan Alda for Atari

I recently stumbled across a series of Atari advertisements featuring actor Alan Alda. I have a soft spot for Alan Alda, partially because of his feminist politics, and partially because of a deep love for the series MASH — which Alda agreed to star in only after gaining assurance that surgery scenes would feature in every episode.… Read the rest

The Simple Genius of the Gamer Girl Manifesto

I saw “The Gamer Girl Manifesto” (embedded above) by Sexy Nerd Girl Presents thanks to Geekquality. The brief video features a number of young women gamers who identify themselves by their on-screen identities (which range from notable characters like Mario to the more subtly constructed identities from games like World of Warcraft) and by the game systems they use.… Read the rest

I Said Diamonds: the Aubrey Plaza WoW Spot

The first time I saw the TV ad above, which features Aubrey Plaza (best known for playing April Ludgate on “Parks and Recreation”) explaining in her trademark deadpan how she became a World of Warcraft player, I was rather charmed.… Read the rest

Are we not women? The problem with “Geek Girl”

Today on Kotaku, there is a piece on “Nerds and Male Privilege.” I saw it go out on Twitter, and I took the bait. And, I was greeted with an article that talks at length about the nasty effects male privilege has on “geek girls.”… Read the rest

Women Gamers as Social Animals in the GameHouse Survey

By now, you have probably seen some of the data from the GameHouse infographic above [source]. Collected by Harris Interactive for GameHouse, the data includes a few particularly sexy statistics.… Read the rest

This Week in Feminism and Gaming: Tits, Chicks, and Casual Sexism

This week saw the publication of two sharp pieces on the casual sexism of much of video gaming culture. At Kotaku, LaToya Peterson responds to comments a Comic Con panel titled “East Meets West, Art Direction for a Worldwide Audience” in “The Tits Have It: Sexism, Character Design, and the Role of Women in Created Worlds.… Read the rest

What Video Gaming Does to Women

One of my all time favorite quotes about video gaming comes from Nikki Douglas, Grrl Gamer, in the classic From Barbie to Mortal Kombat:

Maybe it’s a problem … that little girls DON’T like to play games that slaughter entire planets.

Arcade Machine as Object

I was digging around the ever excellent Arcade Flyer Archive earlier this week looking for some images of men and women playing video games together. While I found quite a few of what I was actually looking for, I’m most fascinated by an image I wasn’t looking for.… Read the rest