T3h GurLz 43rnt l33t... Gamestop and Women
Working at Gamestop has taught me a few things that I'd thought I'd share:
1) Many (not all) of our customers are not going to believe what my (mostly female) coworkers say. More often than not, they will refuse to speak directly to me even as I am ringing them up because somehow my ovaries negate the value of anything I have to say. When they ask to speak with a man, I tell the male or female customer that the man who may be working will say the exact same thing I just told them and if they actually want to speak with the MANAGER, she is a woman. To be fair, I know of at least one customer who doesn't like me ringing her up because I am black, but haven't really considered this to be a color issue. If I try to give them advice and they can't find anyone else around to address, they look at me carefully before saying "Oh, YOU play?" Why the crap else would I be working here.
That's fine, I deal. I see sexism in many facets of the game industry and when I can do something about it I try to... But ... this blew my mind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BqkPm0owi4
I saw a corporate video that has been making the rounds of the internets (thanks to Kotaku) that is about as outright horrible as it gets*. My store didn't have to watch this (it's almost completely women who work there and we're one of the top five in sales in the region), THANKFULLY but it's basically a film about how dumb women are and how you can cajole their simple minds in the scary world of games. I will give my company some undeserved credit and say it is an obvious parody but them putting it out for employees suggests that it is meant to be taken seriously to some extent. Am I crazy or is this just plain offensive?
1) Many (not all) of our customers are not going to believe what my (mostly female) coworkers say. More often than not, they will refuse to speak directly to me even as I am ringing them up because somehow my ovaries negate the value of anything I have to say. When they ask to speak with a man, I tell the male or female customer that the man who may be working will say the exact same thing I just told them and if they actually want to speak with the MANAGER, she is a woman. To be fair, I know of at least one customer who doesn't like me ringing her up because I am black, but haven't really considered this to be a color issue. If I try to give them advice and they can't find anyone else around to address, they look at me carefully before saying "Oh, YOU play?" Why the crap else would I be working here.
That's fine, I deal. I see sexism in many facets of the game industry and when I can do something about it I try to... But ... this blew my mind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BqkPm0owi4
Click to viewI saw a corporate video that has been making the rounds of the internets (thanks to Kotaku) that is about as outright horrible as it gets*. My store didn't have to watch this (it's almost completely women who work there and we're one of the top five in sales in the region), THANKFULLY but it's basically a film about how dumb women are and how you can cajole their simple minds in the scary world of games. I will give my company some undeserved credit and say it is an obvious parody but them putting it out for employees suggests that it is meant to be taken seriously to some extent. Am I crazy or is this just plain offensive?