by Aine C.
Oddly enough, I never intended to write an article about privilege. This started as a simple announcement.
Several months ago, Jeff, who kicked off this series with me and Lauren, suggested a broader focus for the articles. There are moving, eloquent articles being written about misogyny on a very regular basis. The issue is successfully sparking controversy as they drag the discrimination into the light:
- Laurie Penny is writing about the "Nice Guy" Problem, "saving" porn actresses, and Taking Back the Net.
- Ashley at Chickhammer took on the disturbing mix of horror, gore, sex, and birth in a recently Kickstartered minis game.
- One Forbes writer takes on the challenge of discussing the new Lara Croft game to find that it goes beyond the "spandex-clad, big pecs, big tits, big guns" tropes (to borrow a Chasing Amy line).
We've needed to expand beyond misogyny to include other minorities and subcultures that are often overlooked, misrepresented, or reviled even in what should be the haven of geek culture.
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In the same way that "internalized misogyny" hit me hard when I finally understood it, the phrase "invisible privilege" initially didn't resonate with me immediately. I'd only heard it applied to the "Invisible Privilege of the Christian Majority" and I was too busy being outraged about how They were unaware of how good they had it, while acting all oppressed! Recently, I've finally begun to examining privileges that I take for granted. I'm beginning to grok how all privilege starts off as invisible, and how distressing it can be to consider letting go of it.
I cling to privilege. But, if I have all these benefits in society that I didn't earn, what can I do? I didn't ask for this? How do I give it back? Well, I can start by trying to regain that fearless honesty I once had about myself instead of just breathing a sigh of relief when I “pass” (i.e. someone incorrectly assumes I’m “normal like them”). I would have to return to being honest, even if it costs me another round of fair-weather friends.
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| (photo by Carlos Castillo) Mind if I take these off? It's getting a bit stuffy. |
I know I'm not the only one who denies huge swaths of my identity, hoping I'll magically change, because it would be so much easier to deal with the world as a heterosexual cis-female feigning agnosticism. So it’s equally likely that I’ll strengthen relationships with people who are also trying to hide in plain sight. There have to be other Secret Agents (obligatory Melissa Etheridge link with autoplay warning).
I've run into my own doublethink and hypocrisy in other ways as well. I'll scream until I'm hoarse about how Cosplay IS NEVER Consent and I’ll lament the severe body-shaming that crawls along that subculture’s darker side, but I stopped cosplaying nearly a decade ago to avoid ridicule. I've raged about the accused fake geek girl, but I've rarely had someone question my cred; I lucked out and found geekdom through a university organization that was thrilled to have a female member who was a Zelda and Mario fan.
The issue becomes far more complex as geeks because many of us were ignored, bullied, and hated for our hobbies. I had my high school threaten call the police because, even though I hadn't even had so much as a demerit on my record, being depressed and nerdy meant that one rumor was evidence enough that I was the next Dylan Klebold. Because it was a Christian school hopped up on the mid-nineties Satanic Panic, my borrowed Monster Manual nearly started a witch hunt when I was ordered (and refused) to provide a blacklist of every student who played Dungeons & Dragons. I believe the scars from that time still run deep for many of us, but our childhoods will never justify harm we cause as adults.
| Facepalm from the IT Crowd (© Channel 4) via Cheezburger |
Unfortunately now, it seems like geekdom is actively trying to reverse the privileges of mainstream society by discriminating against the people whom they assume have it easier. I've seen us dismiss would-be fans with a sigh and "Oh well, you can't expect him to understand us, he's a jock." It's the same problem with every fake (read:attractive) geek. Every exclusionary comment boils down to "I was bullied. He is attractive and obviously hasn't faced my hardship. How dare he take our word - that's as bad as using racial slurs."
Meanwhile, racial minorities actually are being discriminated against and are frequently under-represented in games. John Kovalic braved the discussion of race in gaming with a series of Dork Tower strips back in 2010. A few months later, Stanley Woo (representing BioWare) was raging on their official forums that no one had disliked the Dragon Age due to racial homogeneity, and that the company shouldn't be forced to have dark skinned people "just to be fair." A second statement quickly amended his statements with, essentially, “aaaaah, ummmm, there ARE dark people, they just, um, live up north, and the game takes place in the south, so you probably just didn’t see them.”
In contrast, lesbian, gay, and bisexual characters are making their way into games (sadly, trans* individuals get thrown under the bus, despite their inclusion in the acronym - but that's another article). Yet sometimes things go horribly awry, as with BioWare and the DLC Gay Ghetto of the Old Republic. If anything it's proof that good intentions aren't enough to get by on anymore. Oh, and maybe don't prioritize the ease with which you manage DLC over bigger issues like how your consumer base may dwindle as your brand is seen as rejecting the LGBT community. At least we still have Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
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| (Mass Effect © BioWare via GayGamer) Ouch, Liara, don't be so surprised. |
Sadly, although we have a few gay and lesbian characters, and even some non-white characters, all the rest of the Gender and/or Sexual Minorities (GSM - an acronym I far prefer to LGBT) and others are still queued behind, hoping that one day they'll be included too. Hopefully, it will snowball, and we’ll all pull one another up and find recognition, especially as it becomes more feasible to make complex games where the player can create a character with whom they truly do identify.
With the ratings system (if it's as fucked up as the one for film), I wonder if developers’ hands are tied. I don't want graphic sex scenes incorporated into every game, but right now threesomes and other non-monogamous relationships are treated like an easter egg or a nude mod. Often they are brief, nearly-impossible to trigger, once-a-game, scandalous events. Sorry poly folks, I tried searching for "polyamory in video games" and the closest match was some kid blogger using the word to be edgy because he was (gasp!) playing two video games at once. Depressingly, games with healthy non-monogamy are a long way off.
The take-away here is that women are far from the only minority that need better representation in geek culture. So this article series has to grow beyond its original focus to include GSM (transgendered, transsexual, trans*, questioning, queer, asexual, demi-sexual/grey-asexual, bi-romantic, pansexual, dualgendered, gender fluid, genderqueer, and everyone else), post-humanists, furries, otherkin, polyamorous, non-monogamous, non-Caucasian, non-nerd-seeming jocks, and women. That's by no means an all-inclusive list. Those are just people I've seen used as internet punching bags over the past year, which may be why it's so skewed towards the non-heteronormative crowd.
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| It's heart-wrenching that this statement is considered radical. (image by DCTim1) |
Therefore, we're accepting submissions. If you would like to contribute to this series with anecdotes, opinions, etc. please drop us an email, and we’ll give you more details. If you’d like to remain anonymous, please let us know. As always, please feel free to discuss in the comments section below.
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