six of one

[whitereflection]

Taking Mom to my second cousin's wedding shortly, and Nebraska being what it is, they've changed their mind twice already today about whether it's being held outside or at where the reception will be. They've settled on outside, even though we're still predicted to have thunderstorms. \o/ Should be awesome. At least the aunt I ranted about recently won't be there after all--I guess only some of the family is invited (the term 'good parts of the family' may or may not have been used). Ah, family politics. Just the way my mother's side of the family is--there are just some with whom most people really, really, really, really would not want to associate.

The other day in WoW, I reported another player to the GMs for having the name "Nofatgirlsx". They dealt with the situation, and forced them to change their name. Which they changed to "Nofatgirlsxo". Have rereported them. Saw another name I wanted to report because it's gross and once again a crack on women, but didn't because I didn't want to be seen as causing trouble with too many reports at once. May do so in a couple days. Just a reminder of what the online environment can be like. I once saw a poll on NPComic about whether it was harder to be a male gamer or a female gamer, and it makes me want to rant at all those who voted that it's tougher to be a male gamer. Show me, SHOW ME where boys/men have to deal constantly with sexually derogatory or harassing names or guild names (how many versions of the guild [Come Honor Face] have there been now?), constant demeaning comments about their gender as a whole in the chat channels, even dismissive and near-discriminatory behaviors from their own guildmates? I sure don't remember in any of the guilds I was in having someone say that you had to watch male players because they caused more drama like some guy once tried to tell me was the case with female players.

Cranky, cranky, cranky. Awesomes.

Comments

[annella.livejournal.com]

oh, that is just GROSS. DDDD:

I don't see too many stupid misogynistic names like that because the server I'm on is fairly underpopulated. THANK GOD. I think I'd be reporting left right and centre. D: COME HONOR FACE? FUCK. GRRRR RAGE HATE.

[whitereflection.livejournal.com]

Seems like all the servers I've been on tend to be bad for this sort of thing. : / But then again, they're all 'old', I guess you could say, original from when the game started. And I think the combination of people getting 'that name is unavailable' plus the general age being more toward high school instead of college lends to stupidity of this sort.

It's funny, back during the original game they used to police names so hard. You couldn't even have special characters, even if they were used properly. Now a name full of special characters is the norm, and actually the least offensive. :x And for all that offensive names are reported and changed, people just keep coming up with new ones or new ways to spell previously banned ones. I just wish it weren't 'cool' to always come up with ones that are anti-women, anti-gay, anti-Jewish, etc. It's not funny, it's not cool, ARGH. Anyway... ^^;

[verbranden.livejournal.com]

God, I hated the Nofatgirlsx name. It's not clever, it's not funny, it's just another reinforcement that we live in a culture where womens bodies are public property and its okay to police them.

I'll report that second one tonight, but like you, I just don't want to be seen as causing trouble. Which is another big problem right there, when we have a legitimate complaint, we're seen as "causing trouble". Five bucks says the "hardships" that male gamers face is an increasing (hopefully, optimistically speaking here) intolerance for shit like that and getting called on it.

But like I said yesterday, won't someone think of the poor oppressed bro-dudes!

[ditta-spn.livejournal.com]

Family is always a problem, right?! LOL

You're so right... being a man is so much easier than being a woman! They should at least understand that!!!

[cacklesthewitch.livejournal.com]

I'm not a gamer, but from what I've glimpsed/overheard, it seems like it can degenerate into an online version of a male locker room pretty quickly. It would turn me off gaming pretty quickly if I had to put up with that.

Good for you for not letting that kind of juvenile (male) behaviour chase you away - and calling them on it!

[whitereflection.livejournal.com]

Male locker room is an extremely apt description of it. :\ Very true. And it's the sort of thing that can drive female players away, which just perpetuates the atmosphere. At the least, these sort of large online games has really helped show that people of all sorts game--no matter their gender, age, type of work, and so on. But there's still so often stuff like this, though as one of my friends says, there's also a growing intolerance for it, and a growing number of people that say Hell No to the behaviors. So it's a start!

[akintay.livejournal.com]

Hope the wedding was good anyway!

And man, some people are stupid :(

[whitereflection.livejournal.com]

It was a really nice wedding! Though the clouds were so dark by the time it finished, and my mother and I barely got back home before the rain started (we eventually had really nasty storming later that evening). But they were lucky and got through the ceremony, even if the flower girl and the boy that was the ring bearer were bickering. XD;