When the 5th Edition D&D .pdf was made freely available, like many others I was pleased to see the sidebar on how gender is handled in-game. I missed this, however, and to be honest wasn't even aware of these two individuals (RPGPundit and Zak S). I'm unhappy that our hobby still retains enclaves of people with social ideas like these two. Given that a lot of us in hobby games are both intelligent and experienced with social marginalization, you'd think we'd be a lot farther along on this kind of thing than the general community.
From what I've seen, we've got it better than most here in VT, but we can do better. I'd encourage all of you to take a look at this article, and speak up. Until Wizards makes a real statement addressing their failure here, they won't be getting any more of my money.
And if this doesn't seem like a problem to you, it's because you're one of the lucky ones. Think about whether or not these guys would represent a problem to anyone you care about. It's not enough to ignore people like RPGPundit and Zak S; they need to know that these ideas are unwelcome and damaging to the community that they profess to care for.
http://www.gamer-xp.com/how-dungeons-dragons-endorses-the-darkest-parts-of-the-hobby/ The original content is here.
We deal with negativity in the hobby community on a regular basis. It's just part of socializing, and when your social activity of choice is competitive and contentious, conflict will arise. Nerd rage over rules interpretation is a disagreement on equal footing. Doxing your detractors and having your followers send them late-night phone calls, outing trans folks, publicizing the school your detractors' children attend, these are not the behaviors of jerks. These are existential life-or-death threats. They do not deserve your defense.
Do I think Zak should not work in the hobby at all? No, I hope that's not what came across. It's not up to me or anyone else what he does for a living. However, what he, and by association Wizards, needs to face is the fact that there are consequences for certain actions. One of the consequences of engaging in noxious behavior is being cut out of the social contract; that's how it works pretty much anywhere. If you're a dick, people don't want to associate with you. If he and his ilk find it difficult to find work in a particular industry, then that is a direct result of the action he as a consenting adult chose to engage in. It's not my job to feel responsible to protect the job opportunities of a flagrant asshole. This is 100% about the prevailing social environment and what is wrong with it, in that in feels the need to be more protective of people being assholes than people who are being hurt.
A frequent misapprehension by people who decry "political correctness" is that those of us doing the calling-out are pushing for some kind of policy change through firing, litigation, blacklisting, or whatever. And some overzealous social justice crusaders actually are doing that, but that's far more the exception than the rule. I'm not trying to get these guys banned from anything (they seem to do a great job at achieving that themselves). What I'm trying to do is further the dialogue where we can make the hobby more positive, friendly, welcoming, and open for everyone who chooses to abide by that specific social contract. We don't waste time on those who don't, other than to portray them as examples of a cautionary tale.
By choosing to hire these guys as consultants, Wizards got Asshole on them. As I've stated before, what I'm looking for is for them to publicly admit that they fucked up. Bringing these guys into their house sends a message, intended or not, that there is a place in this community for people being hateful.
Showing posts with label Geek ethics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Geek ethics. Show all posts
Friday, August 1, 2014
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Feminist ethics and hobby gaming
Disclaimer: This is not an article about political correctness. I'm not telling anyone what to think or how to act, and if you have a problem with the notion of feminism in general, either you don't understand feminism, or you are a generally reprehensible human being. Feminism is about social justice and equality for everyone.
It seems like the cultural dialogue has been shifting lately towards a greater awareness of the issues of systemic, casual misogyny that pervades many levels of our lives. That statement might simply be a reflection of my own process of feminism-informed self-discovery, but I think a case can be made that it's bigger than that. The issues surrounding reproductive rights and healthcare reform is one of the strongest catalysts for this change in dialogue, but there are other factors at work here as well.
Briefly, my own history with feminism started in college, but it wasn't until grad school that I actually studied it academically. As an up-and-coming psychotherapist, one of my areas of inquiry was in feminist psychology and psychotherapy. This discipline has less to do with women's minds specifically, and more to do with understanding of gender dynamics and their implications in relationships and societal structures. I worked with a population of young adolescent males who were often survivors of abuse by male caregivers, and the tangled mat of misogynistic values that had taken root in their psyches was often deep and thick. Recently, I've been taking a more sociological approach, rather than a psychological one, trying to understand the implications of gender dynamic in different cultural systems.
To a lot of gamer guys, myself included, women in gaming are seen as some kind of holy grail, and the universally spoken opinion would seem to be that we want more women as active participants in our hobbies. There's a stronger female showing in role-playing games than in tabletop wargames, and addressing why that is probably warrants a few posts of its own. But because I am male, and the population of this hobby is so overwhelmingly male, the main crux of this article is going to largely deal with what I perceive to be the attitudes of male hobby participants.
We want more women in gaming, but how welcoming are we, really? How willing are we to examine our own attitudes and seriously reflect on the subtext we're conveying through action and word? How willing are we to change our own minds about the thought patterns that give rise to these deeds and words? Why do we want more women around in our hobby?
The sad fact that I've observed, both as a participant and a game store employee, is that a lot of guys' appreciation for a woman in the shop starts and ends right around chest-level. If a pretty lady is in the store, guys get excited because boobs. That's okay, that's reasonable, that's expected. If she has a well-painted tyranid army, it's that much more exciting because now she has something in common with us, a shared interest that makes her conversationally accessible. But it's startling how frequently the assessment stops right there, and the cognitive picture created of this woman is boobs and tyranids. This is a form of objectification, and it is a type of casual misogyny. It is not bothering to be open to the human potential of this person specifically because of their gender characteristics. It is relegating them to a role in your life on a strictly hormonal level, rather than allowing your social dynamic to be informed by this person's thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or other social characteristics.
This is how women leave the hobby. When they are at a tournament or pick-up game night, or otherwise just in the shop, they observe these attitudes in action. They see guys talking to other guys about the hobby, and they find that their ability to participate in that conversation is limited by the men that listen with half an ear. Or the men that listen insincerely, enjoying the attention of a woman without bothering to enjoy the content of the interaction.
As a psychologist, I learned that the amount of information we have to process in order to have even the most basic social interaction is absolutely staggering. Gender figures into that quantity in profound ways; it is not simply one simple piece of data. It is years and years of social information, absorbed and reprocessed by a constantly-active subconscious. There is no way for your preconceived notions of gender (or race, culture, appearance, ability, etc) to NOT inform your social interactions, it's simply how our brains are wired.
The first and most simple step is to spend some time really thinking about how your own mind approaches gender issues. Self-awareness and being willing to critically think about where you could stand to grow a bit is a useful personal exercise regardless. If you're uncomfortable with a topic or idea, challenge yourself to determine why.
We share this hobby because it's something we love and enjoy. The ultimate goal is pure, honest, innocent fun. I believe that the noblest calling in the hobby is helping someone else deepen their enjoyment of this thing that they love to do, and helping to create a warm, welcoming environment for everyone is where that all starts.
It seems like the cultural dialogue has been shifting lately towards a greater awareness of the issues of systemic, casual misogyny that pervades many levels of our lives. That statement might simply be a reflection of my own process of feminism-informed self-discovery, but I think a case can be made that it's bigger than that. The issues surrounding reproductive rights and healthcare reform is one of the strongest catalysts for this change in dialogue, but there are other factors at work here as well.
Briefly, my own history with feminism started in college, but it wasn't until grad school that I actually studied it academically. As an up-and-coming psychotherapist, one of my areas of inquiry was in feminist psychology and psychotherapy. This discipline has less to do with women's minds specifically, and more to do with understanding of gender dynamics and their implications in relationships and societal structures. I worked with a population of young adolescent males who were often survivors of abuse by male caregivers, and the tangled mat of misogynistic values that had taken root in their psyches was often deep and thick. Recently, I've been taking a more sociological approach, rather than a psychological one, trying to understand the implications of gender dynamic in different cultural systems.
To a lot of gamer guys, myself included, women in gaming are seen as some kind of holy grail, and the universally spoken opinion would seem to be that we want more women as active participants in our hobbies. There's a stronger female showing in role-playing games than in tabletop wargames, and addressing why that is probably warrants a few posts of its own. But because I am male, and the population of this hobby is so overwhelmingly male, the main crux of this article is going to largely deal with what I perceive to be the attitudes of male hobby participants.
We want more women in gaming, but how welcoming are we, really? How willing are we to examine our own attitudes and seriously reflect on the subtext we're conveying through action and word? How willing are we to change our own minds about the thought patterns that give rise to these deeds and words? Why do we want more women around in our hobby?
The sad fact that I've observed, both as a participant and a game store employee, is that a lot of guys' appreciation for a woman in the shop starts and ends right around chest-level. If a pretty lady is in the store, guys get excited because boobs. That's okay, that's reasonable, that's expected. If she has a well-painted tyranid army, it's that much more exciting because now she has something in common with us, a shared interest that makes her conversationally accessible. But it's startling how frequently the assessment stops right there, and the cognitive picture created of this woman is boobs and tyranids. This is a form of objectification, and it is a type of casual misogyny. It is not bothering to be open to the human potential of this person specifically because of their gender characteristics. It is relegating them to a role in your life on a strictly hormonal level, rather than allowing your social dynamic to be informed by this person's thoughts, feelings, attitudes, or other social characteristics.
This is how women leave the hobby. When they are at a tournament or pick-up game night, or otherwise just in the shop, they observe these attitudes in action. They see guys talking to other guys about the hobby, and they find that their ability to participate in that conversation is limited by the men that listen with half an ear. Or the men that listen insincerely, enjoying the attention of a woman without bothering to enjoy the content of the interaction.
As a psychologist, I learned that the amount of information we have to process in order to have even the most basic social interaction is absolutely staggering. Gender figures into that quantity in profound ways; it is not simply one simple piece of data. It is years and years of social information, absorbed and reprocessed by a constantly-active subconscious. There is no way for your preconceived notions of gender (or race, culture, appearance, ability, etc) to NOT inform your social interactions, it's simply how our brains are wired.
The first and most simple step is to spend some time really thinking about how your own mind approaches gender issues. Self-awareness and being willing to critically think about where you could stand to grow a bit is a useful personal exercise regardless. If you're uncomfortable with a topic or idea, challenge yourself to determine why.
We share this hobby because it's something we love and enjoy. The ultimate goal is pure, honest, innocent fun. I believe that the noblest calling in the hobby is helping someone else deepen their enjoyment of this thing that they love to do, and helping to create a warm, welcoming environment for everyone is where that all starts.
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