My Son and #1reasonwhy

[blairmacg]

My son is a gamer.  I'm not.  I enjoy playing now and then, and would certainly play more if I had more time, but I don't play enough to do more than suck at it when compared to my son.

He just had me watch this video from Feedbackula about the #1reasonwhy hashtag used on Twitter to discuss harassment and attacks against women in the gaming community.  The video isn't perfect in its approach, but decent.

Dev and I have discussed these issues at length because I wanted to be certain he understood that a) there was no such thing as "joking" about rape or a "woman's place," b) any guy who tried to say otherwise was a moron, and c) if something came up that he didn't understand/feel comfortable with, I wasn't going to freak out if he wanted to talk about it.

One of his closest friends is a young woman and enthusiastic gamer.  Dev said they're picky about who they interact with so she doesn't have to spend her time deflecting assholes rather than playing.

But what made me smile most about the Feedbackula video was the fact the link was forwarded to my son by one of his MALE gaming buddies who thought it was SO COOL to see support of equality in gaming.

It isn't hard to teach our children about equality.  It's a choice.

Comments

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for sharing that video. It's awesome. And, for the comment that asked would a woman rather be Samus Aran or a pop star? I'd go with Samus Aran all the way. She's my hero.

I belong to an LJ group called wow_ladies and you should see the discussions that go on there about how woman have been abused gaming online. Of course, there are occasionally good stories as well. (And not everything discussed has to do about sexism or the lack of.)

I'm a guild officer on a WoW server and the Guild Master is highly respectful of women. One of the raid leaders is a woman, too, and when the teenage boys smart off about rape or women or their moms, we're all over them, and the GM backs us up. Gives me hope.

And, yay for Devin! He's awesome!

[blairmacg.livejournal.com]

I hear ya on Samus Aran. :)

I can imagine the stories that must come across that discussion group. It's fantastic the GM is on board with respect inforcement! That sort of thing is so important because it is the foundation to establish the "new normal."

[thanate.livejournal.com]

Good for your son & his friends! One hears so much of the bad stuff; it's always encouraging to hear the occasional stories about people being sane and considerate. :)

[blairmacg.livejournal.com]

There is a ton of bad stuff out there, and I think it's made worse by parents permitting something like Xbox Live to act as "babysitter" for young and pre-teens, without ever taking the time to listen in. Thus the kids get socialized by loud-mouthed and foul-minded idiots.

I'm glad my kid has gravitated to the better players. :)