Response to Queer Female of Color: The Highest Difficulty Setting

As Nakamura’s article made many references to John Scalzi’s post, the audience of this piece is likely the entire gaming community, especially white male gamers.  However, since she makes a call to action towards feminist scholars, teachers, writers, and gamers at the end, this article is also directed towards them.

This article mainly argues that someone of color, female, and/or queer in the gaming community tends to be harassed and discredited whereas someone who is white, straight, and male will inherently be given more positive attention.  She also states that while people recognize there is prejudice in gaming culture, they generally don’t care enough to take action against it.

Nakamura wants the gaming community to be aware of the imbalance of power and prejudices there, and she also wants people to actively analyze and try to change these trends for the better.  As she acknowledges, awareness itself isn’t enough.

What I liked about this article is that it does a good job of analyzing Scalzi’s post as a whole, going from the message itself to the positions of the writer and audience.  Nakamura takes into account how race, gender, and authority in the gaming community played a role in Scalzi’s argument, and she brought up an example on the other end of the difficulty scale with Aisha Tyler.  Looking at the evidence, the logic is pretty sound.  She also makes the main arguments and use of gaming rhetoric clear, so I feel like I understand Scalzi’s post without even reading it.

When I was looking up gaming-related news and videos on the internet, I noticed that female gamers usually aren’t taken seriously.  Also, those who speak up about the issue are often the targets of excessive threats and harassment.  The main reason I stay away from online games, especially competitive ones, is that parts of the general community are volatile even to strangers without context.  Given the information from this article, I’d imagine the situation is much worse for those who don’t fall within today’s “white spatial imaginary.”

My question is this: why have both science fiction and gaming communities become, or at least started out as, dominated by straight, white, males?  I feel like an answer is already there, or maybe I’m missing some detail.

Introductory Blog

Hello to anyone reading! My name is Amina, and I’m currently a freshman at University of Maryland College Park. I am studying Neurobiology and Physiology as a pre-dental student. Once I complete my undergraduate and graduate degrees, I hope to start my career as a dentist and eventually develop my own clinic. Other than career goals, I enjoy fashion, makeup, and art. You can find me on twitter at Amina8mazhar.

‘Normal’ Barbie Doll

The Barbie on the left looks like the typical toy that most girls or boys play with as children. The Barbie on the right is a newly developed version that represents what 'real' women look like, compared to the common Barbie.

The Barbie on the left looks like the typical toy that most girls or boys play with as children. The Barbie on the right is a newly developed version that represents what ‘real’ women look like, compared to the common Barbie.

This picture is from an article in the Huffington Post. It presents an issue that most people argue about regarding the unattainable standards that society places on women’s bodies. The Barbie on the left is tall and thin compared to the Barbie on the right. However, the Barbie on the right is what a typical woman’s body looks like. The argument amongst this issue is that society targets women to look a specific way rather than embracing different body types. If a girl is playing with the Barbie on the left, the shape and image of that Barbie will be engrained in her mind. Most girls and women these days have negative body images due to these standards that are placed in their minds of what they should look like.

I am looking forward to the Digital Activism Unit. I find it interesting how much the internet can impact various issues going on in the world. A simple hashtag can spread the word about a specific topic, which can lead to mainly positive but sometimes negative impacts.