Lesbian Gamers

GTA IV - Sexist crap or just how guys are?

I was reading an interesting article over at Reverse Cowgirl about the misogynist content of GTA IV. I was about to write a small piece based on a video I’d seen (I’ll add it at the end) and quite frankly I was disturbed, irritated and about to go on a feminist rant, then a reverse cowgirl made me stop and think.

Here’s the overall thing. I was thinking from what I’ve seen of GTA IV thus far that it demeans women, it’s helping perpetuate stereotypes, it’s sexist and as Feministing stated “reflective of the bigger misogyny embedded in capitalist patriarchy”. I was thinking all of those things because of a few embedded personal feelings I have about men and gaming.

Firstly it was my assumption that men are capable of mature, intelligent thought and that they aren’t thinking about fucking every 6 seconds. I also was under the preconceived notion (perhaps based on the fact I am a female gamer) that gamers get a bad rap for their hobby and are more often than not inextricably linked to enjoying violence for violence sake and being sad anti social blokes.

God of War threesome

This has to be one of the weirdest things in a handheld game I’ve ever seen. For all those bitching and moaning about the sex in Mass Effect, this one’s for you. This little gem comes from God of War: Chains of Olympus and it tells us a few things about straight sex, threesomes and juvenile pointless sex minigames. It also shows us how classy Mass Effect is and how non classy this part of the GoW title is.

Firstly we have two naked women, who appear to be having a good time prior to Kratos arriving, but they’re good Samaritans and ask if they can do anything to repay him (he must have just taken out the garbage or mowed the lawn). Next the camera shifts and the phallic candle beside the three begins to jump, now Kratos either whipped out his tiny manhood with celerity or, he sits watching while the ladies have fun, either way there’s moans aplenty.. all lasting a whopping 16 seconds or so. Given the two women are in the same position they were at the start after events, we can only surmise Kratos watched and the ladies went at it for 16 seconds.

Here's the clip.. oh and it's adult content.. though we doubt anyone matching the word 'adult' in its given meaning (opposite of child; a grown-up; a mature person) actually had anything to do with working on it....

Devil May Cry 4 'lesbian overtones'

So I was checking out a few ‘lesbian’ related news items this morning when I came upon this ‘wondrous’ (cough) piece of ‘journalism' (guffaw) in Daily Star Sunday. It’s by a guy called Paul Vale, he clearly thinks he’s a journalist with an oh so funny sense of humor as he discusses Devil May Cry and alleged lesbian overtones.

“There’s been some buzz on the internet suggesting that Devil May Cry 4 contains lesbian overtones. If so, could someone tell me where? I’ve been through nearly the whole game and not one of the characters wears dungarees or works in a bookshop.”

Oh Mr Vale, what hilarity, did you go to journalism school to come up with that? He goes on to mention Mass Effect and its “Sapphic romp” and how lesbianism “seems to be the latest watchword for gaming’s legion of forum monkeys”… you have to love that, he’s putting down his own readership! Here’s the clincher though… “With that brushed under the carpet (there’s a pun in there somewhere)”. This guys stupidity aside I’ll be checking out Devil May Cry 4 later this week and looking for shaven headed flannel wearing women… yawn (yes.. that was sarcasm).

Ender’s Game: Homophobia Evolved

Yeah it’s been a hell of a morning and the best I could come up with was a take on the original Halo title.. meh. Let’s get to it shall we. Chair Entertainment has announced Ender’s Game for XBLA, PSN and Windows. The game will utilize Unreal Engine 3 and is based on the novel of the same name. Here’s the interesting part, Ender’s Game is written by Orson Scott Card and has been lauded with numerous awards since it was first published back in 1985. The novel is set in a future where Earth has been invaded by an alien insectoid race called ‘buggers’. It then gets into a whole ‘gifted kids whisked off to Battle School in preparation for a third invasion’ kind of deal.

Sounds fairly science-fiction other than ‘buggers’ being used to describe the alien race doesn’t it, well here’s the thing Orson Scott Card has some very strong views about homosexuality:

“Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society’s regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society”

Cooper Lawrence is the devil

Who is Cooper Lawrence and why is she the devil? Well, if you haven’t heard about the Mass Effect fiasco with Cooper at its center, here it is in a nutshell: Fox News had Cooper Lawrence on as their psychology ‘expert’ as they lambasted Mass Effect for its “full digital nudity” and that it sees “women as these objects of desire”.

Cooper Lawrence has a background in developmental psychology and had never even seen the game in question, she was allegedly working from (mis)information she was given prior to going on the air. So here’s the thing, since then Cooper Lawrence has essentially been made the scapegoat for shoddy news on Fox. Sure she said some dumb-ass things, but give us a break, she was a dopey guest “expert” ringed in by Fox to lend weight to their ill researched story.

More after the jump.....

Lesbian or Gayelle?

I had to check the calendar today to make sure it wasn’t April first. I  spotted a piece on an Aussie news site that said a group of lesbians have launched a worldwide movement to change ‘lesbian’ to ‘gayelle’. Apparently the group think lesbian “is antiquated; it is not representative of modern times, and or, of persons with modern views. Lesbian does not sound cheerful and fun, nor does it mean merry, like the word gay does; rather, it sounds more like loner, loser, and less. Gay females deserve more, not less.”

Each to their own, for me I kind of like lesbian, for numerous reasons and anyway a Google check on ‘gayelle’ showed me it’s a TV station in Trinidad & Tobago, as well as a term used for a cockfighting arena... no irony there I’m sure, or maybe this ‘group’ knows that and thinks it’s somehow indicative of what they’re trying to say? What do you think? Lesbian or gayelle? I know, how about Gaymelle, so we gamers can feel all fluffy and comfortable with the new name as well?

MX vs ATV faux lesbians

What is it about marketers and faux lesbians? I actually read a psychology paper that suggested the reason men like “lesbian” porn is because the only penis involved in their mind is their own and that it’s therefore hotter for them because the ‘size doesn’t matter’ rule comes into play. I don’t know if that’s true, but it does make me wonder as to the penis size of all the guys on the marketing team at THQ games.

If you’re wondering why, take a peek at the clip below. It’s an advert for their upcoming game ‘MX vs ATV Untamed’, as you’ll see it has a whole lot to do with the game, no really… well... if the game were called ‘MX Porn Faux Lesbian vs ATV Porn Faux Lesbian’, which is isn’t. Maybe in THQ’s dictionary ‘Untamed’ reads:

Untamed
Adjective
Use faux lesbianism in game advert to hopefully sell to brain-dead teen boys still not savvy enough to realize your game is probably crap--so needs faux lesbianism and bare naked girly asses to sell it.

Xbox Live 'Code of Conduct'

I was chatting to a good pal of mine and she said she'd been suspended from XBL because of something she'd innocently written in her motto. The offending words were 'ding motherfookers', a saying stated at leveling up in CoD4 and covered recently by Penny Arcade. This same pal had a guy on her friends list whose motto was 'beat women', though he wasn't suspended.

This got us wondering, is 'lesbian' permitted in your XBL motto, or does that word go against the Xbox Live Code of Conduct? Does anyone have the word in their motto? Has anyone else been suspended for their motto and if so what was the problem? If you can have 'beat women' in your motto, but not something direct from Penny Arcade ('ding motherfooker'), just what is the XBL Code of Conduct worth. To top it off, said friend also gamed with someone with the gamertag 'Bacon z Jews', how does the 'Code of Conduct' view that we wonder.

Facebook Blocks 'Lesbian' Gamers

Okay so this isn't gaming news per se, but it is related to our site. It seems one social networking site thinks the word 'lesbian' is either plain dirty or inextricably linked to porn. Our PR lovely hit a stumbling block yesterday when she tried to apply for some Facebook advertising for this site. She's blogged about it at her site RamblingLesbo and is pretty pissed.

I have to say, after reading the cut and paste response Facebook sent out we're pretty pissed about it too. We can't get targeted advertising because lesbian is a term that isn't allowed, yes, you read it right. Obviously with Lesbian Gamers having 'lesbian' in the title that caused the problem, but there are far bigger issues here as we're sure you can see. You can read the full and justified tirade HERE along with the lame and seemingly cut and paste response from Facebook.

Coolest Girl in School - Ugh

Aussie developers 'Champagne for the Ladies', a company whose tagline is "mobile entertainment for discerning dames" has a new game out called 'Coolest Girl in School'. Sounds good, it's about cool girls afterall. So, what makes the girls cool? Well, lying, bitching and flirting of course. Don't all groan together.

There's even a little sexuality play thrown in apparently, with the official site stating "Experiment with your sexuality", we can only assume this to mean some girl on girl action. Now, the odd thing is Creative Director of Champagne for the Ladies is (surprisingly - Ed.) a lady - Holly Owen. Perhaps it's all tongue in cheek, but lost on us, perhaps Holly just has a bizarre sense of humor, or she just doesn't realise the damage titles like this do to women gamers. Whatever the case this is a mobile title and won't be adorning your Xbox with its girly bitchery any time soon.

Gears of War 2 - Female Character Morons

Whilst perusing the interweb for news today we came across something that did somewhat disturb us and it was this - the lack of intelligence in 'some' gamers. In a thread on GameTrailers a simple question is posed: 'Should Gears of War 2 have a female character?'. Here's the response that nailed it for us: "Hell no! If there was a chick presented in Gears of War 2 as a main character she would be some buff-manly-dike-butch character".

Oh but there are other responses sure to endear these morons to us even further: "no way!!!!!!! this is gears of war 2, not gears of painting our nails 2", "Naahhhh there is no place for a women in Gears", "I dont wanna play as a butch woman.", "yeah, and she should be a butch lesbo carring a big gun theres definately a lack of butch lesbo characters in the video game industry.. i say she has a mullet hairy upper lip, a rosie odonell feel to her would be nice too", "If I play a female character, will have to play a little tampon reloading mini game like we had to when reloading the guns in the original Gears?"

Yes, there you have it, people actually took the time to respond with these answers, doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Granted there are a few intelligent responses in the thread, but for the most part, that's what you get. Feel free to let loose by making the most of our comments section.

Pink Girl Gaming Accessories!!

Pink, yes it means so many things--not out pop stars who dislike 'Bush' (make of that what you will), color perfect for gender stereotyping, a pale red, slightly flushed cheeks.. and girl gaming accessories. Yes of course we're going to have a little bent out rant about that last one. Firstly let's say, we know not ALL women (yes including lesbians) find pink accessories to be irritating, we're not speaking for everyone, that would be silly. We are speaking for some however.

So why the rage? Well, WolfKing (aka maker of gaming input devices) today announced it is customizing its award-winning WARRIOR gaming pad and TROOPER gaming mouse to appeal to female PC gamers. The specially designed gaming devices will be sold exclusively through Dell. "Specially designed", oh goody!.. how are they specially designed for girl gamers... aren't our hands the same as guys, four fingers, one thumb - CHECK! .. strange I wonder what they 'designed' for us lucky 'special' ladies of gaming!! YAY!! They added "a Flamingo Pink accent gradient on top of a full stealth black matte finish" and now "it offers all the functionality of the WARRIOR, but with a feminine touch."

“Female gamers have an incredibly high set of standards when it comes to quality as well as design,” said Bob Costlow, director of sales, WOLFKING. “You can’t just paint something pink and say it’s for girls. (errr, isn't that what you've just done Bob?-Ed) The Girl Gamer products give women access to fully functioning, hardcore gaming devices, but with an aesthetic touch.”.. ohh.. 'aesthetic touch' we'd have probably called it an 'asshole touch'.. but each to their own.