The Number One Reason Why

Over the past day or so, something interesting has been happening on Twitter (Really, when is something interesting NOT happening on Twitter?). Luke Crane, the Games Project Specialist at Kickstarter, asked, “Why are there so few lady game creators?” And then the hashtag #1ReasonWhy exploded.

It turns out, there are a lot of shitty reasons why there are not a lot of female game developers. A few of the worst cite managers who casually toss out gems like, “We don’t need any more women, they’re more trouble than they’re worth,” while viewing applications and bosses who straight up tell them they were hired to “look pretty and make the guys happy.” It’s gross, and obviously the gaming industry isn’t the only workplace where stuff like this happens. We’re aware of that. But it’s an industry that has lately been under a lot of scrutiny for its treatment of women. From the extremely-sexualized portrayals of female characters, to “girlfriend mode,” to the harassment of women who even try to voice their concerns about the state of things, it all kind of blows. We talk about these things constantly, and while things are getting better, it’s hard to believe in a more welcoming future for females in the industry when you look at examples like those cited by tweeters, both female and male alike.

Inevitably, we will be called whiny. We will be told to shut up and quit complaining. We will be made fun of for bitching about something that others don’t think is that big of a deal. We are Nazi Feminist Bitches who don’t know how good we’ve got it and shouldn’t feel so violated when some random dude takes an upskirt photo of us at a convention. We shouldn’t feel so angry and upset when we are mistaken for a man’s assistant when actually we are the lead designer of the game. We will try to speak up for ourselves and immediately be shot down and called fat, ugly, stupid whores.