Christina Hoff Sommers on video game sexism

[LAwLz]

Christina Hoff Sommers, also known as the "factual feminist" has released a fairly short video (6 and a half minutes) about her views on sexism in the gaming industry.

I encourage everyone to watch the full video and have an open mind. In my eyes, Christina Hoff Sommers is a true feminist, and I have a lot of respect for her.

 

I think it's nice to see some people being rational about this whole thing and I hope this video will open some peoples' eyes, but I seriously doubt it will.

 

 

 

Edit: For those of you who are interested, she is in lot more videos on that YouTube channel.

"Check your facts, not your privilege"

 

This is technology, right? I was unsure if this was off-topic or general discussion material.

[wng_kingsley7]

I hope she's not reading off a script but then again this is quite a subject topic to be concerned about. Erm..what other to say then I agree, haven't been playing too many genres at all that display women flashing the upper torso's every minute.

[LAwLz]

I hope she's not reading off a script but then again this is quite a subject topic to be concerned about.

She is probably reading off a script, but I am sure she wrote it herself. She is a very well researched person who has written several good books, got several degrees and so on, not just a puppet.

[Guest Kloaked]

I would marry this woman, if I was her age.

 

EDIT: To be more serious though, she has common sense, something Anita doesn't.

[Admiaczking]

Bullshit.

[rambi36]

Bullshit.

Did you even watch the video!?

[DigitalHermit]

Finally, a feminist on YouTube who makes sense and actually backs things up with related research...

 

 I was getting tired of the femfreq bullshit...

[helping]

Holy shit someone that doesn't even play video games, isn't in the industry, and doesn't care much about them isn't herrpdurpfpppth

10/10 this lady isn't dumb

[Guest]

Christina Hoff Sommers is awesome and real feminists should do more of this. Feminism is still important today and in order to be taken seriously, they should go after the feminists who don't bother to do their research in order to go after the REAL problems.

 

Raise awareness about the Anita Sarkeesians of this world who do nothing but poison the well with frivolous accusations of sexism, and maybe after that we can fight what's left of sexism in our societies, wherever these problems may be. This would be more productive than getting angry over random bullshit. Props to the feminists who step up to the task and use science and reason to fight against anger and dogma.

[EChondo]

Simply amazing. She calls out both the BS articles claiming more women are playing games when it's just the casual side and she calls out Anita!

 

Now this is a feminist I can get behind.

[bob345]

Well that was pleasantly surprising. I came to this thread ready to listen to another stupid illogical argument but instead i was met with someone who actually knows what they are talking about. We need more people like her

[prolemur]

This is the feminism that should exist, not those other viewpoints.

[LAwLz]

This is the feminism that should exist, not those other viewpoints.

I completely agree.

It's not like she is against feminism either, even though most of her videos are very critical towards a lot of what I call "pseudo feminism". She believes that inflating numbers, twisting facts and focusing in trivial things gets in the way of real woman's issues. She gets a lot of (undeserved) hate for it as well.

 

 

[Trik'Stari]

Video games are an artform, therefore they are simply the message the artist intended to convey, nothing more, nothing less. If you want less "sexism" in video games, have more female devs make games that males want to play.

 

Sex sells, end of story.

[MEC-777]

 

 

 

[SAV1OUR]

well i'm happy she isn't ranting on about how games make women look like sluts and such 

[TheSLSAMG]

Wow, someone who actually knows what they are talking about.

[shadowblitz3]

Real talk

[coen113]

Oh look. Someone who has actually researched their stuff.

[Yoinkerman]

Sure, we've made a lot of progress since duke nukem, but we still have a ways to go.  

 

Though I would posit that the patriarchy/male dominance/male privilege problems are inherent to our societies at large, not gaming culture, and will pleasantly fix itself in gaming as we fix it in society.

[LAwLz]

Sure, we've made a lot of progress since duke nukem, but we still have a ways to go.  

Well we had a new Duke Nukem game get released a few years ago, and I honestly didn't see anything wrong with it. Sure it had lots of sexy women in it, you slap boobs to get more HP and so on but it's very clear that it's for laughs and the entire game is silly. Even if they weren't for laughs I still wouldn't see that as sexist, just like I don't see the Duke himself as sexist against men just because he is a handsome badass. The entire game is based around saving women, even if it costs the lives of men. Hardly what I'd call a patriarchy.

 

 

Though I would posit that the patriarchy/male dominance/male privilege problems are inherent to our societies at large, not gaming culture, and will pleasantly fix itself in gaming as we fix it in society.

What issues do you think are important to fix, and what things in gaming culture do you think that would change? I really don't think there are major issues that needs fixing in gaming today. It is very inclusive and statistics show that IF there is some correlation between video games and sexism, it's that video games reduce sexism (since generations who play more video games are usually less sexist than the older generations). In fact, you usually do horrible things towards men in games, but we never see anyone cry about "baww you kill men in the new COD, that's bad!", yet we see people like Anita cry that it is possible to kill women in games like Hitman, and then she ignores the fact that the game punishes the player for doing so. People can separate between real life and fiction, which is why we don't see an outbreak of COD players shooting down men.

 

I don't believe there is a patriarchy (in the civilized world, but there is in some less developed countries), and privileges are often overstated and used as fallacies (not to mention the privileges women have as well). It's just a cheap way to ignore facts and downplay the importance (and luck) in an achievement.

 

 

Edit: I think this video is very good evidence that the gaming community is not sexist. Nobody is telling her to shut up because she is a woman, just like nobody is criticizing Anita for being a woman (even though she tries her hardest to make it appear that way). People (please note I said people, not some specific gender) get criticized when they make false statements and/or say that your hobby is bad and you should feel bad for enjoying it. Like Christina said: "If you love games, they don't really care about your age, your race, you ethnicity, your gender or your sexual preferences. They just want to game."

 

Christina took the time to do proper research (as in, being critical of the studies she cites) and also go out and talk to people and get invested in a subject she isn't familiar with" and came to the conclusion that the hobby so many people enjoy is not dangerous. She gets praised.

 

Anita took the time to cherry pick a bunch of tropes, misinterpret games, not being critical of her sources, didn't have any knowledge about the subject before receiving comically large sums of cash. She didn't take the time to just talk to the average gamer but instead used tactics to bring out the worst in some people, and then generalized the gamer base to be just like those people. She have come to the conclusion that games are bad and harmful. She gets hated.

 

See how the gender of Christina and Anita don't actually matter? What matters in their methodology and their conclusions.

[KemoKa]

Wow, when I read the title I was bracing myself holds Ned pose for a woman complaining about the video game industry being sexist, but it turns out that she's calling out those exact types of people! Very surprised and impressed that there are people like this. We need more like her... Also this forum has taken it surprisingly well!

And bear in mind, this is coming from someone who isn't too hot on the idea of feminism. Feminazis, unfortunately, are the ugly face of feminism and I tend to stay far, faaaaar away from those kinds of people. It gets a bit grandiose for me a lot of the time. That's not to say I'm sexist. I'm totally against discrimination, but it cuts both ways. I think equality is what's needed, not competition or dominance. but I do think that if we're going to have equality, we need girls to step up to the plate more. That's all...

I of all people watched the video. I was impressed. Watch the video. You'll be impressed.

[Archangel1994]

I'm astonished. A feminist being fair, call the newspapers. (Kappa)

 

In all seriousness though it's about damn time someone did their research about gaming/games. If feminists became like her, then hell sign me up because I've rarely seen such honesty/fairness. 

[FizzyFantom]

Call me stupid, but I don't really understand it. If you want to play video games why should it matter what sex you are? If you want to play games then play them, I've never even considered that most of the girls I know are "girl gamers", to me they're just "gamers" like most of my other friends. It's cool to see a "feminist" who can look at this issue without bias (or at least with less bias than we usually see), although I'm not sure that term means much anymore seeing as the views of most "feminists" are radically different from that of others who are supposedly part of the same group.

[ofr057]

I like how she actually used research to back her discussion, instead of one line out of twitter.

also the point that girls like candy crush etc is true ... I've seen it fairly common