Online gaming is a wonderful thing. It brings people with common interests together from all over the world. In some cases, they engage in friendly competition with one another. In others, they join together to achieve a common goal.
Unfortunately, a disturbing new trend has appeared, in which women are being abused by their male gamer counterparts, contradicting the belief that online gaming is unifying.
Microsoft Accidentally Brings The Issue to Light
The issue of sexism in online gaming was introduced as a mainstream concern during a Microsoft press conference that took place this summer. A male and a female Microsoft employee were competing against one another in a fighting game, as they engaged in friendly banter.
However, things took a dark turn when the male said ‘Just let it happen. It will be over soon’. Press conference attendees did not take very kindly to his implied rape joke.
A cartoon illustrating the issue:
The Widespread Concern
Even though Microsoft issued an apologetic statement on Kotaku, the issue remains prevalent in all sorts of online gaming. Female players are commonly subjected to abuse, as male players hurl insults at them regarding their gender.
They are often called ‘sluts’ and ‘bitches’. In some cases, they received private messages with inappropriate content, which could be considered sexual harassment.
In Online Gambling
While this issue deals mainly with video games on consoles like XBOX and Playstation, sexism is also prevalent in the online gambling market. In online poker rooms, women receive similar abuse from male players. As such, they tend to change their avatars to gender-neutral images or male characters.
Many male players will often do the opposite. It is a well-known tactic to open an online poker account with a feminine-sounding name and use a female’s photo as an avatar.
Other male players will ‘go easy’ on the player because they assume that he is female, which begs the question: do male poker players underestimate their female counterparts? Sexism is also carried out by some online casino operators.
On online gambling sites where you can play online slots and table games, you will often find banners of scantily-clad women plastered in their lobbies.
In a more extreme case, Calvin Ayre regularly hosts a competition for the AyreHead of the Month. The winner receives a photo spread on his blog, in which she is wearing lingerie, swimsuits and other outfits that leave little to the imagination.
As such, many sites aim to appeal to male players by objectifying females. However, a significant portion of online casino players are actually women.
More and more females are getting into online gaming – at both online casinos and in the console gaming world. If operators don’t want to rebuff a burgeoning audience, then it may be time to be more accommodating to female players.
