Back now from mud-soaked Glastonbury and as I washed the caked dirt out of my hair, I was directed to this excellent and in-depth interview at gaminatrix.com with the US Frag Dolls, a team of female gamers who whoop the boys across a spectrum of online deathmatches. They've had to put up with a heck of a lot of cynicism since they joined forces, and this article gives a good idea of what kinds of obstacles they've come across. The UK women who want to become part of the British Frag Dolls team should take heed; while it's the boys who openly challenge you to competition, it's the women who give the most flack.
In fact, it seems incongruous to many girl gamers that an attractive woman can also be a good player. Instead, there's an assumption that they've been handpicked by a PR company to promote products and are simply eye-candy for the intended male audience. Pah! The interview argues otherwise.
There will always be detractors to anything so we remember not to take it personally and just keep doing what we're doing. We've also discovered that most people who are opposed to us haven't done their homework. Anyone is welcome to talk to us about games or come play us at any time. The truth about us as gamers is obvious once you've done either of those things.
Says another:
One day I'll feel like we're doing the right thing and being good representatives of women in gaming, but then the next day I'll see an article bashing us because we look too "sexy." It's hard not to take those articles to heart, but we're just trying our best to be ourselves.
It is awfully difficult to be a female gamer in a boy's world (here's a great example of what we have to put up with from 1up), particularly if the community you're part of gets bitchy because they think you're just a piece of fluff. The answer seems to be to adopt a hard-core image, but this isn't necessarily welcome or possible.
How to solve this? Does it have to be as dramatic as revolutionising the concept of "gamer" to include those who are less hard-core?
Read more here.
