New GP Correspondent Goes Ballistic on Sexist Game Blog
Perhaps Kim Rom's attempt at humor was lost in the transatlantic fiber optic, but to myself and one would expect, all female gamers, the Danish blogger's rant Female gaming my ass is mightily offensive. It's hard not to take things personally when Rom (seen at left) is so brutally direct in his assessment of women gamer teams:
...the real problem with female gaming is that female gamers in general have the same ambitions as men - but they lack the dedication and the drive to fulfil those ambitions... Male gamers outshine them in every way imaginable... So, for the audience, female gaming isn't interesting at all. It's a joke. But funny thing - most of them actually do attract sponsors. Here is why:
They have vaginas. They have asses. They have tits. They have mouths. That more or less covers the 4 primary selling-points for female gaming teams."
For Rom, head of communications (!) for game gear makers SteelSeries and Icemat, the problem seems not so much about female gamers but about gender in general. Sure, "female gaming" is a great concept, but in reality such a biologically-determined division between male and female gamers just doesn't exist.
The blogger, who describes himself as a "solid state futurist and digital karma atheist," questions the chops of female gamers and conflates their perceived lack of skill with gender. At the same time he totally ignores social factors that dissuade women from pursuing technological expertise. By his own account, gamers should be held to mythic biological standards of competitiveness and commitment defined by men.
By holding that women gamers are sponsored solely for their physical beauty illustrates just how wrong-headed and testosterone-fueled his argument is. Had he had actually read the interview he linked with successful Danish woman gamer Vildkatten (wildcat), he might have taken note of her commitment to serious Counter-strike training.
As it stands, Rom's view is not only sexist, but also misplaced. He singles out a particular female team and assumes their identity as women (or, "camwhores," as he so callously refers to them) supersedes their gaming strategies and competitive success. By diminishing the women's online presence, participation, and performance in relation to their physiological attributes, Rom extends the discrimination of real life gender inequalities into cyberspace.
-reporting from New York City, GP correspondent M.V. Loh
GP: GP welcomes M.V. Loh - righteous indignation and all - to the fold.