Does this new gamer magazine about female gamers is wrong?

[KronicReaper]

Another question that might offend people who are women who are gamers in this community. Does the new magazine Gamer Girls offends female gamers? What do you think?

http://canadianonlinegamers.com/feature/gamer-girls-magazine/

[Juissi]

Gotta be honest on this one (and harsh with my language), but the amount of sluts in this magazine - too. DAMN. HIGH! :brickwall

[Knux_Chaotix]

Woah, slow down a bit. Define "slut"?

While I fully disagree with the highly unrealistic image this portrays of female gamers (they way they look dress, act and their general lack of knowledge on the gaming front, cause lets face it, the majority of female gamers are nothing like this), if these women are happy posing and showing themselves off in that way then thats fine by me. If it makes them happy and they are comfortable doing that, then good for them. That in no way makes someone a slut...

[zero3growlithe]

This looks more like a porn magazine with gaming theme
https://scontent-a-fra.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/10361061_10152436747513529_4693220971366856126_n.j pg
Edit: image gets too big lol

[Jonny]

While I fully disagree with the highly unrealistic image this portrays of female gamers (they way they look dress, act and their general lack of knowledge on the gaming front, cause lets face it, the majority of female gamers are nothing like this)

Well, I think this is using stereotypes on the same level as any anti-gamer...äh...guy . For example in Germany we have this Let´s Player (Der Hardi), he´s quiet crazy and I guess a hardcore gamer. But this guy has muscles en mass and shows them...

[Knux_Chaotix]

As I said not all female gamers are like that. The vast majority of female gamers are nothing like the ones I seen in this apparent magazine. Im well aware there are a small number who are, but as I said, its still a highly unrealistic image of the female gamer.

[Snakenator1]

Modern society is sadly run by stereotypical thoughts these days, its gotten to the point where it seems normal and major companies can earn money off it. I really hate people being stereotypical, drives me nuts especially if they don't know the person but are just judging the book by its cover (I constantly get called lazy since I play games by people, despite the amount of cleaning and DIY work I do for my parents).

[Jonny]

The real mean thing is, this is not a magazin for gamergirls, it's for the male gamer. It's like this bastards think a normal gamer gets wet when he reads the good statistics of a femal gamer.

[Juissi]

Woah, slow down a bit. Define "slut"?

... if these women are happy posing and showing themselves off in that way then thats fine by me. If it makes them happy and they are comfortable doing that, then good for them. That in no way makes someone a slut...

Right now when I think about it, I really did shoot myself in the foot. Sadly, since I'm still growing with not much knowledge in my possession and wanting to grow mature as a person, I guess the media in general got the best of me. Yup, that earlier comment of mine was a bit of a longshot.

But all angry rantings besides, I still generally see these people as "humans" (not that I am not aware what is human, but this is how I constantly remind myself in the midst of bad days), even if their interest to gaming are either miniscule or none at all. Sure, they get paid for what they do, so there's nothing I can say as a "poor" student.

Well, thanks for the lecture Knux :)

[Jonny]

Well, this article is right, it the Playboy, in gaming version...

[vincoof]

As I said not all female gamers are like that. The vast majority of female gamers are nothing like the ones I seen in this apparent magazine.Because you think women in other magazines are more realistic? x)

[Knux_Chaotix]

Far from it actually. The way women are portray in the media in general is just as unrealistic, as is this supposed standard we are almost expected to live up to, but Im not about to get into a massive riot on here about how I feel on that matter.

And @Jussi I honestly didnt mean for that to come across a lecture. I have a very strong opinion and Im not very good at making my points without sounding overly harsh.

[KronicReaper]

My opinion is this people, its all about money. Nothing more, nothing less. Its all about the money. The more male gamers want to buy it, its sells like pancakes in your morning diner.

[vincoof]

Or maybe it’s a fantasy they wanted to achieve since they were kids or whatever and they had the opportunity to do it.

Media tend to criticise other media without knowing the whole story. But what’s the problem with having a magazine with an unusual approach? Diversity is generally a good thing. If you* don’t like this magazine, don’t buy it. If you don’t like that other people like this magazine, that’s another problem.

*I mean "you" in general, a bit like "anyone", I’m not speaking to someone here specifically. Don’t be offended x)

[Steve1234]

i have just go through your article and there are some senseable points, so i am agree with you on some points..

[stinkleroy]

Ha of course this magazine is wrong, but then so many things about the crazy society we live in are wrong when it comes to the perception of women...this is just another example in looooong line of examples. Truth is I thought something like this would have existed already as teenage boys (and to some extent girls) are possibly the easiest market to exploit, add the gamer tag to that and you have an even more exploitable market. As long as it's understood that this mag has absolutely no place in reality then I suppose people can do what they want. They generally do anyway, much to my displeasure ;)

[Oryx Crake]

This mostly strikes me as cynical... on the whole though, it seems to just be another in a long line of soft core pornography magazines... I'm sure there are a million arguments, good and bad against that as a phenomenon(that is to say pornography in general), but the clincher for me is that it turns, gamer girls in this case, into things. It dehumanizes the group known as Gamer girls, which to begin with is a group about as homogenous a group as humans. But then that's the issue with all pornography, it's instant gratification of sexual desires, cynically constructed in such a way as to make the people pictured in it into nothing more than objects of our fantasies.

I really want to smack the person who came up with the term Gamer girl however... it's as if a girl or a woman can't be a gamer without being specifically categorized as one, both apart from the rest of society by dint of being a gamer, but also apart from other gamers because she is of the female persuasion. I don't imagine the person who coined the phrase thought about it in those terms, but the simple fact that the phrase exists reenforces gender separation into the norm(male) and the other(female) which is truly a sad state of affairs.

She doesn't need me to fight her battles for her, and I think her skin is a great deal tougher than mine, but if anyone ever called my partner a "gamer girl" i'd be liable to punch them.

[vincoof]

I think you give a bit too much credits to words. Expressions like "Gamer Girl" is categorization for sure, but so does pretty much every expression with a noun and an adjective because that’s what adjectives are for, isn’t it? For instance when you talk about "soft core pornography magazines" you’re definitely categorizing the magazine into a convenient model where you would put all magazines of the same kind (or, more exactly, of the kind you ~think~ they belong to). However every magazine has its own style, its own articles, writers, photographs, … its own style in general. Categorizing it like all "soft core pornography" magazines were the same is pretty much offending for the people who made it.

I’m not trying to defend the magazine for what it is, I am not interested in buying it and probably won’t even read a page, but please don’t overreact to what is probably nothing more than a mere fun thing.

[Oryx Crake]

the problem vin is that mere harmless fun for some equals to oppression for others in some cases. Also I'm not putting credence into the words "gamer girl" but rather the fact that someone felt there needed to be a specific term to describe a girl who plays video games, is there a need for such a term? And there is plenty of evidence for the idea that we invent idioms and phrases to describe things that are "other" compared to the norm, I.e homosexual instead of normal (the word heterosexual original meant over sexual and was thusly also a term describing otherness) nerd instead of normal, foreigner instead of normal.

It is a fact though that whatever else it does the magazine does promote itself using a sexualised stereotype aimed specifically at males in the ages of 15-35.

words have meaning, a lot more so than we generally think they do.

Also one hurt isn't equal to the other, a lot of women are offended by over sexualised and unfair stereotypes, ones which they have done nothing to deserve having thrown at them, if I call a magazine that sells itself by perpetuating those stereotypes, a soft core porn magazine, and that offends it's creators, I rather feel that they brought that hurt on themselves by actively doing something that placed them in my crosshairs.

Might be I'm taking this a bit too seriously, might be, but I really do think that a shrug of the shoulders and a "meh" just wont do in this case. Who would we be if we didn't try to be better. Also I'm not trying to say we should be puritanical about sex, we should however be very aware of how perpetuating gender and race stereotypes keeps us from having a truly equal society.

[Jonny]

*butthurt detected*

[Snakenator1]

Stereotyping views of how some people should be portrayed is an increasing problem in todays societies. But also perhaps one of the biggest problems is the media today. Things like newspapers and news channels are increasing the use of biased views as well as over exaggerated stories that are not true. They do this to attract more attention to themselves and in-turn make a profit. This then means that these stereotypical views aren't just limited to horrid magazines and those that read it, but now all over the world. What's even worse now is that these people are not able to justify their point of view as the stereotyping is now just overwhelming.

I'll give you a example: British people like me are now globally viewed as alcohol addicts, violent and low life idiots. Why? Because of the media and programs such as sun, sex and suspicious parents.TOWIE and more (I hate these programmes with a passion) portraying Brits consuming copious amounts of Alcohol and then ensuing violence and anti social behaviour. But because the companies want people to see us in this specific manner it means now that really nice people such as me cannot prove that we really are nice people. Also not helping us is how despite we are being portrayed and how Brits will argue against these views is the fact they still behave in the way we are being portrayed. IT DRIVES ME MAD!!

Even my local neighbour hood has a reputation now because people are behaving in these sterotyped ways and the news continues to broadcast it. GOD SAKES IDIOTS YOUR NOT HELPING US!!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH HUMANITY THESE DAYS?!!

Right rant over :P I have strong views in case nobody noticed

[vincoof]

I do agree that many women suffer from unfair stereotypes (though some women may like it and/or learned to exploit it) but I’m not sure that banning every form of sexism is a solution. As creatures of nature, we tend to be lazy and since stereotype is a form of simplification, we *biologically* can not get rid of them entirely. What we can do, however, is learn to live with them positively. If we can turn this human "flaw" into a strength, everybody wins. That’s something that we see for instance when nurses talk to disabled people. They don’t ignore the disability nor do they try to make disabled people think they can live their life like "normal" people. They rather accept it and talk openly with them and laugh with them about it.

As for buttheads who use stereotypes to oversimplify everything around them, like reading Gamer Girls and saying to themselves "Girls. Are sexy. And like video games. Me excited. Gwaaaah.", maybe if the magazine didn’t exist they wouldn’t be tempted. You could argue it’s dangerous to allow weak-minded people to buy this kind of magazine but here’s the thing: you can’t control everybody’s mistakes. You shouldn’t even judge them for their mistakes, I mean, who are we to tell people what’s best for them? History taught us that trying to put restrictions in place is sometimes even worse than letting the thing go. I think the Prohibition is a good example.

TL;DR: don’t fight against stereotypes because nobody can, use them instead. Don’t buy the magazine if you don’t like it, and please don’t try to prevent other people from buying it (unless s/he’s someone under your responsibility, like your children).

[Oryx Crake]

I agree with you vin: I wouldn't fight this magazine's right to exist, I would fight against the views it portrays though. like you said I couldn't and wouldn't want to make laws making this kind of magazine illegal, I do feel it important to speak out against it though.

It's really all about being aware of the world around us, what saying something means etc.