Labeling Space

Did you miss me?

Gaming and the internet have more than one thing in common. Today I want to talk specifically about inclusiveness. These arguments can also extend to other groups of people, but for the sake of brevity I'll try to stick to the case of women.

If you've traveled along the internet or gamed online with strangers, you will have noticed a lot of hateful language being spewed forth. There are a great deal of misogynist slurs thrown out over open internet forums. The usual arguments I hear are "if you don't like it, don't read it/go to that site/don't game online or on xbox live". The problem with that reasoning, as Melissa McEwan has pointed out at Shakesville, is that it doesn't solve the problem but instead lets it fester and create an environment which fuels the hate speech of some and excludes others.
"Telling women that they should merely abstain from reading and/or participating in YouTube threads—or other places online and offline plagued by unfettered misogyny—is akin to telling women their choices are to tolerate sexual harassment in order to participate in it, or segregate themselves and necessarily limit their opportunities in the public sphere."

Some gaming and internet communities suffer from a "tits or GTFO" syndrome in which cases of sexism will force women to either participate in sexism or leave entirely.

This brings me to something which has really irked me as of late: The Girls of Gaming at GameTrailers.com. I visit GT several times a week to watch new footage and see their original shows such as Bonus Round and GTTV. When they unveiled The Girls of Gaming (which on the surface seems to have nothing to do with gaming and almost everything to do with nearly nude women, usually white women) I felt slighted. This was a site that I felt succeeded in giving me the gaming news and footage I wanted and left out the staff commentary (especially off-putting commentary from the staff that can be found at some other major gaming news sites). However, once GT opened up the Girls of Gaming, featuring a portal icon that was a disembodied pair of breasts in a bikini top and displaying advertisements with women wearing string bikinis and boy-cut shorts on the site, I couldn't help but get the message "you don't belong here". I realize the site is owned by Spike and therefore MTV, but I doubt there was much of a reason to add this portion to the site besides a cheap ploy to increase traffic by appealing to the demographic who would prefer soft core, objectification, and voyeurism to an open, non-gendered space for all gamers to enjoy. Did I mention that all the women I've seen so far on this site are white? Are all gaming men straight and white now? I didn't realize.

The point is: Why should women feel empowered and desire to join gaming sites and communities if they are forced to join with sexist activity which degrades them? I stopped going to one particular gaming site because I felt the discussion was one-sided, sexist, and obstinate, making comments unreadable and some writers obnoxious. I would like to boycott GT as well, but I feel that if I continue to boycott places for game news, events, etc. then I will no longer have a place to exist in gaming communities and that these communities will revel in the absence of women so much that they stop thinking to include women and to accept their validity as gamers (and as human beings in the extreme case at large).

So how does one go about creating spaces where women gamers can exist and co-exist? This blog is a part of a movement in the right direction, I suppose, but larger sites with money, sponsorship, and advertising can appeal to and use a prevailing attitude which will accept sexism and maintain a large audience at the expense of the minority (really, anyone who isn't a straight white man).

Has anyone else had experiences with regard to being excluded from areas of gaming and gaming communities because of sexism, racism, etc.?