This weekend I ran across this article, which says among other things “Vita owners are serious game buyers.” This seemed a strange and almost elitist comment to me; one that suggests Vita owners are the most hard core of the hard core gamers. I’m a Vita owner, but I don’t consider myself a “serious game buyer.” (Even though, admittedly, I do buy way too many games.) I started to wonder what other people think about this. I typically buy games on whatever platform they will work or work best for me on, but I know I do favor the Vita. Is there a larger perception of “this console is better than that console” (other than the typical fanboy Xbox vs Playstation arguments). If people see me playing a 3DS would they think I was a less serious gamer than if they see me playing the Vita? Is there a game console that has a reputation for being more female friendly, for example?
So, I went to Google and typed in “best game console for women.” I was just curious what the Internet would recommend for women gamers (who may or may not also be serious gamers; the Vita article doesn’t mention gender). I can be mildly cynical, and I sort of expected to find someone saying something like “women don’t need consoles, don’t they just play Facebook games?” Or even something dealing with the “I’m not a gamer” 3DS ads targeted at girls.
Instead, I found this (And, it’s NSFW). This is the worst video I can recall seeing on the subject of women gamers. I hesitated to even link it here because I didn’t want this kind of mess getting even more page views. (Because of the licensing on the video, we were unable to simply embed it.)
In the end, I decided to link it and invite page views because this is why we do what we do. This is why we talk about the gender issues in video games and the video game and tech industries. I can hear defensive responses in my head, along the same lines as “but, it’s just a parody,” “see, it’s even listed as comedy,” “it’s just meant to be funny.”
But, it’s not funny. At all.
It’s degrading and insulting. The video starts with two females who seem to be terribly bored watching their boyfriends play the Wii. (They could just be irritated that the boys are hogging the Wii, but that I suppose would ruin the joke (point) of the video). So, the boyfriends present the females with the Shii. A pink game console for women. Things quickly go downhill from there with the females playing games involving ironing and cooking (and much, much more sexually explicit games).
Talk about feeling excluded from the gaming community and, if I’m honest, I also felt personally degraded. Why in the world do people think women like to iron? I mean, if you dig ironing, that’s great, but a general perception that women like to clean, as a HOBBY is bizarre and insulting both to myself and the many accomplished women I am proud to call friends. And then there is the sexual degradation. I struggle to even comment on the sexual game depicted in the video because I can’t understand why anyone would think that’s what women would want to play. I realize that the video is not about what women want, it’s about what men want, which just makes the whole thing that much worse.
I don’t think that any game console is strictly for a certain group. Certain types of gamers, perhaps, but not groups. I recently bought a 3DS because I wanted access to the Nintendo games. (Again, I may be proving the point of the original article that suggests Vita owners are “serious buyers.”) And, I’ve found games across pretty much all consoles that I love. But what if you are a parent of a young girl (or even the young girl herself), and you want to buy what you think will be the best console for a young girl? Maybe you go looking for female friendly games (whatever that means). Or, maybe you go to Google and type in “best console for women.” The third hit is the video about the Shii. Unfortunately, videos like this cannot simply be viewed as harmless fun because all the attitudes and expectations depicted in the video often extend to real life with some men expecting their womenz to iron and make them a sandwich, etc.
