Category Archives: Sexism

Discussion surrounding traditional gender roles, including feminism.

Polygamer #42: Tifa Robles of the Lady Planeswalker Society

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Tifa Robles is the founder of the Lady Planeswalkers Society, which aims to create welcoming, friendly environments for women (and everyone) to learn Magic: The Gathering. Since its founding in 2011, the group has grown and now has branches in cities around the globe.

In this episode, Tifa and I discuss how the Magic: The Gathering scene has changed in the last five years and what the LPS has done to address issues of harassment; how players can create diverse, safe play spaces, including starting their own LPS branch; and how playing a collectible card game isn’t as expensive as it may seem.

We also talk about Tifa and her husband’s challenges raising a family. In 2015, Tifa and Mike experienced a miscarriage — a phenomenon that is more common than they realized. They want to let parents-to-be know how to cope with this tragedy and that it’s okay to talk about it.

This episode does contain some language as an example of the harassment some gamers receive, and discussion about starting a family may hit close to home for some; therefore, despite the absence of swear words, this episode has an “explicit” tag.

Stream the audio edition of this interview below or from Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, RadioPublic, or the Internet Archive. Click past the jump for links to resources mentioned in this episode.

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Podcast: Download (Duration: 1:10:06 — 33.0MB) | Embed

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Unheard Voices at GX3

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I’m honored to be moderating a panel at the GX3 conference in San Jose this December 11–13. “Unheard Voices” will feature podcasters Anna Tarkov (Unconsoleable), Tanya DePass (Fresh Out of Tokens), John James (Minus World), and Polygamer alumnus Shawn Alexander Allen (Nuchallenger) on the following topic:

“Get heard with podcasting! The past two years have seen an explosion of diverse voices taking to the airwaves to discuss race, gender, and equality in gaming. This panel will examine the motivations, equipment, and challenges to getting heard.”

Formerly GaymerX, GX3 is an annual convention of games and gaming culture for marginalized voices and their allies. The event was co-founded by Matt Conn, Polygamer‘s first guest and recent guest of Less Than or Equal. This panel will mark my first time speaking on the West Coast and my first conference panel on equality and diversity since “Sex, Sexy & Sexism” at PAX East 2014.

Tickets for GX3 are still available. Come hear our panel on Saturday, December 12, at 11:01 AM PST!

A year of GamerGate and online harassment

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A year ago this month, shortly Polygamer‘s launch, GamerGate erupted across the Internet. I was at a Boston Indies meetup, preparing to give a lightning talk, when a speaker presented five ways to support women in gaming. One method involved Depression Quest, of which I was already a fan.

Holy crap. From everything I know, text adventure Depression Quest hits the nail on the head. http://t.co/C8WXorOJxq #IF

— Ken Gagne (@gamebits) March 6, 2014

Based on my positive experience with the game, I retweeted the advice to police the game’s reviews, without understanding why it was in need of such.

2. Report Abuse: Flag abusive reviews for Depression Quest. http://t.co/lpAA2axzt0

— Ken Gagne (@gamebits) August 18, 2014

When I discovered the larger context of this advice, I pinged fellow podcasters: are you going to cover GamerGate? No, they said — we’re hoping it will blow over. But within a month, it was evident that GamerGate was not going away. A year later, there have been several pieces published reflecting on GamerGate, with some common themes and lessons.

First, Quinn spoke with her new home’s newspaper, The Seattle Times, about how women game developers fight sexism in industry. The article lists several positive accomplishments within the industry in response to (but not arising from) GamerGate, such as the diversification of Intel and DigiPen; the founding of Quinn’s own Crash Override anti-harassment network, for which she granted Polygamer an interview; and the software being developed by Kim Swift or published by BioWare. But the article ends unhappily:

And whatever message the Gamergaters intended to send about women in games, it’s not the one that necessarily registered.

While at DigiPen, I asked a group of young female students what lessons could be gleaned from Gamergate.

Without missing a beat, they said, “Be careful who you date.”

That may not be the message GamerGaters intend to send, but it’s not the lesson we want women to learn, either. The repercussions of Quinn and Eron Gjoni‘s relationship are inappropriately public and wildly disproportionate. Placing the responsibility for GamerGate’s existence on the decision to date Gjoni is blatant victim blaming. Gamers should be able to engage in intimate relationships without concern that your ex will incite an Internet hate mob against you.

As DigiPen’s students demonstrate, victim blaming is something anyone is capable of, as society has practically trained us to believe the victim should’ve avoided the situation entirely; it takes a conscious effort to avoid. When I wrote a guide to avoiding being doxxed, I asked my editor to review it with victim blaming in mind. Was I inadvertently suggesting that, if someone didn’t want to be doxxed, she shouldn’t let her information out there in the first place? That too is not the lesson we need to learn.

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Feminist shirts to wear to PAX

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My PAX East shirt arrived yesterday.

This is what a feminist looks like.

This shirt is sold by the Fawcett Society UK, "the UK’s leading charity for women’s equality and rights – at home, at work and in public life." My purchase was inspired by John Scalzi, who tore apart what it means to look like a feminist.

While I’m excited to wear this shirt to PAX East, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned: this is, after all, the same community that cheered for the return of the Dickwolves shirt. If I were a woman, I might not feel safe attending PAX, especially in this shirt. But as a straight white cisgender male, I’m hopeful that I’ll get high-fives from the right people and silence from the wrong ones — a win-win.

I could be wrong; I’ve been denigrated at PAX East for something as innocuous as using a Mac. It never ceases to amaze me how people who are often considered outsiders will nonetheless go to lengths to make others feel the same way.

If you too want to wear your heart on your sleeve but don’t feel this is the right shirt for you, Fangamer.net invites you to join gaming’s feminist illuminati. My thanks to Pam for pointing me to this shirt.



Frankly, my favorite of the feminist shirts is sold by LookHuman, but I imagine its effect would be lost when worn by a self-identified male:

I bathe in male tears.

Unicorn CC BY-SA 2.0 by Monica