More Women Playing Video Games
Paul Nelson wrote an article about the growing number of women who play video games. Being a woman and a gamer myself, I clicked the link to it with much enthusiasm. Said enthusiasm was quickly extinguished by the inevitable genderfail.
“Hughes says most of the girls there get introduced to gaming by their boyfriends, and then become serious gamers themselves.”
As with all gaming articles, the primary focus must be on male gamers. Even the image included with the article is one that is meant to appeal to males rather than the gender that it was allegedly written about: a woman in a skimpy tank top and skin-tight pants, with her legs spread apart ever so slightly. Because, of course, when women play video games they don’t dress for comfort; they dress to appease the male gaze! In the end, it’s not an article about women who enjoy video games, but about women who take up gaming to please the men in their lives.
The Quest to Render Men Obsolete
“British scientists claimed Wednesday to have created human sperm from embryonic stem cells for the first time…”
Comments Off
Get an Ugly Guy to Marry You
…or at least drunk enough to drop his drawers for five minutes.
“Males with the opportunity to mate with many females would be likely to produce less sperm on each occasion than those making fewer sexual conquests.”
Comments Off
The Customer Isn’t Always Right
The University of B.C. has been doing research of how customers judge the quality of service they receive.
“The study, which will be published in the Academy of Management Journal, asked participants to watch videos that showed interaction between a book store customer and a sales clerk that was either a white male, black male or a white female. Although all clerks performed similarly, the white male clerkâs rating was 19 per cent higher.”
This is particularly scary considering the current state of our economy. Employers trying to make tough decisions about who to lay off will undoubtedly take this sort of misleading customer feedback into consideration.
Comments Off
The Family That Spits Together…
Who knew there were contests for spitting cherry pits? A married couple from Arizona won this year’s championship.
“…Marlene took first place in the women’s contest, spitting a pit 36 feet, 3 inches (11.8 centimeters).”
Damn. What a great way to keep the romance alive!
Comments Off
The Murder of Jill Lynn Ulmer
When I was done reading this article, I decided it wasn’t weblog material. Basic summary: man murders woman after she dumps him. It’s tragic, but I tend to link to news that is more unusual. Sadly, this is far from unusual.
Then I scrolled down to read the comments, and we get these gems:
“This would not have happened to this poor girl if SHE was NOT this idiot.”
“I feel sorry for her parents…I don’t feel sorry for her. She got involved with someone like this…”
“You people AMAZE me!! She was trying to get out of the relationship with him! This is in no way, shape, or form her fault.”
“…not always do women realize they are dating an abuser she obviously was trying to get out of the relationship, she had a protective order, her decisions didn’t get her killed, the abuser killed her. This is not the womans fault.”
Perhaps these sort of opinions aren’t unusual, but they are very disturbing. Why the first two quotes are disturbing should go without saying. As for the last two quotes, it’s not that people are defending Ms. Ulmer that bothers me. I am glad that there are people smart enough to see that it is not ok to blame the victim. What I dislike is the reasoning behind it. Both place emphasis on the fact that Ms. Ulmer was making a visible effort to leave her abuser. This is irrelevant. If she had fully intended to stay involved with him for the rest of her life, she is still not to blame for the abuse, or her own murder.
May Ms. Ulmer receive peace and justice.
Because Women Who Enjoy Sex Are Crazy
A woman known as “Amy” allegedly had sex with 200 AFL footballers over the course of ten years.
“She said players kept in regular contact with her and she admitted to sometimes engaging in group sex with them.
“She said she was not abused, had always engaged in consensual acts and had not suffered as a result of her lifestyle.”
While AFL is giving a lot of lip service about respect for women, the only person the organization seems to think is in need of counseling is Amy. Because, you know, when men want lots and lots of sex, that’s normal. When a woman wants the same thing, she’s obviously suffering from some kind of mental disorder.
Comments Off
Because It’s Not Rape If He “Marries” Her
A man who raped 40 women, including his own wife, tells a reporter:
“I have asked the family’s forgiveness…I even paid the bride price: 12 goats, a scarf and a suit for her father…Three days before I was married, I went to church to confess. My wife knows what I used to be.”
Adding to the shock of the subject matter itself, is the way the reporter, Jonathan Pearlman, alters his language when he writes about the wife. Suddenly, rape becomes “somewhat reluctantly.” As I see it, this woman doesn’t even qualify as his wife. The way the article tells it, she did not consent to marrying him.
Who would?
The article goes on to paint a sympathetic picture of a man who admits to raping roughly 80 women:
“He says he remains haunted by his crimes.”
Excuse me for a moment. I seem to have misplaced my violin.
Comments Off
MMO for Girls
It’s a Korean game called Make a Friend. Characters create their own islands, and have cute little pets. The nature of it seems a bit stereotypical, but I think it’s great that someone out there is at least trying to make a game that doesn’t feel like a boy’s clubhouse where female players are only grudgingly tolerated because their characters have been forced to wear bikini-style plate armor. Moving away from the standard lets collect uber l33t gear and kill stuff model is to be commended as well.
Comments Off
Comments Off