Indarys

@PopBot: Congrats--you're the worst type of person. It's the system that's responsible for the way people act on both sides of the spectrum. Putting all the blame on one group of victims is going to make the problem worse. Do you really think racist whites in the 50s just became racist because they were assholes, or because they were brought up knowing no other way to behave? You think that men like swimsuit supermodels because that's just how men are, or because that's the standard of beauty fed from every angle by society? All you're going to do by posting the drivel you do is provoke comments like "

Which I'm sure reinforces your self worth because then you can think about how much more "enlightened" you are than "the typical sexist pig", but doesn't do much to help heal the inherent animosity between two groups of people.

@gogosox82 said:

@Indarys said:

Oh, and please, stop using the tired "You can never understand this because you're a MAN/WHITE/CHRISTIAN/STRAIGHT" line. Being a bigot is not just a white male thing. It's a human thing. If I, as a man, tried to get a job in child care, you bet I'd run into the same kind of discrimination that women in games do. There are whole areas in Japan where it's not only legal, but common, for stores to refuse service to anyone who isn't Japanese. Of course I can understand discrimination. Just because I don't run into it right now, in America, doesn't mean I never had, or I can't.

Then you should have empathy for what some women in the industry go through but you'll never fully understand b/c your not a woman. People look at you and treat you differently b/c of it and therefore can't totally understand what they go through but having being discriminated against will help you empathize with them.

What are you talking about? Are you saying that the way a woman feels for being discriminated against in her vidya game job is somehow different than the way a man feels for being discriminated against in his kiddie care job? It's literally the exact same thing. Women doesn't get some special "super discrimination" that only they ever get, in certain places, it's quite possible to get the exact same thing as a man.

Saying stuff like "You'll never understand" just marginalizes people for no reason at all. It's divisive and dismissive, and hurts the issue more than it helps.

@Gordo789: This is the equivalent of saying "only white men can be bigots" just fyi.

@ManMadeGod: Women and men are primarily different because they're indoctrinated by the media to be so from age zero. If a man tried to get a job in, say, women's fashion or skin care, do you think he wouldn't face similar issues that women do in video game industries? You're going to have these issues in any industry that isn't diverse, and they aren't diverse because their products only appeal to one group. One way to get around this is to have one company, one department that makes things that cater to two groups, but it's all coming from the same place, so the industry itself isn't plagued with these issues.

Oh, and please, stop using the tired "You can never understand this because you're a MAN/WHITE/CHRISTIAN/STRAIGHT" line. Being a bigot is not just a white male thing. It's a human thing. If I, as a man, tried to get a job in child care, you bet I'd run into the same kind of discrimination that women in games do. There are whole areas in Japan where it's not only legal, but common, for stores to refuse service to anyone who isn't Japanese. Of course I can understand discrimination. Just because I don't run into it right now, in America, doesn't mean I never had, or I can't.

The issue with fighting sexism is that most people focus on the wrong thing. Something different from the norm, for 99.9% of people, will get different treatment, instinctively. It's the same reason people can't help but look at someone with a deformity, even though they know it's rude. It's human nature. Treating women differently in the video game industry is a product of the fact that women, as a rule, don't generally -want- to be in the video game industry as much as men do. On the flip side of the coin, try being a male child care worker, or a nurse.

Rather than blaming people for something that they usually can't help, the solution is to make multiculturalism and diversity the norm. I was lucky enough to grow up in an incredibly racially diverse environment, and as a result, racial difference doesn't phase me. Someone growing up in a completely homogeneous environment, when the "one" racial family moves in, is going to be "racist," hopefully not in a harmful way, but will certainly treat the new family differently than their peers.

The solution, thus, is to stop making products that appeal to only one gender. If all games appealed equally to both genders, both genders would likely be interested in being in the industry. The a whole new set of issues crops up, of course, in turning a homogenous industry into a diverse one. That's a whole different ball of wax, of course, but we aren't even at that bridge yet. You'd think that games like The Sims or World of Warcraft that do a good job of appealing to both genders would be what the industry -wants- to go for, since you're basically doubling your market, but as it stands, we still have the industry dominated by shootan games and D&D nerd battle babes. Instead of blaming men as a whole for something that's a product of their environment, the focus should be on changing the environment. Telling someone "If you like scantily clad women you're part of the problem" is going to hurt more than help--men like scantily clad women because they've been indoctrinated from birth to do so. They're as much victims of their environment as women who feel the need to diet and preen like supermodels. Fix the environment, you fix the problem. Get angry at people, and you are not only victim blaming, but making the problem worse.