5 Myths About Women In Gaming
Think women have finally found their place? Think again.
It's hard to say as a loyal gamer, but the video game industry can be terribly toxic. Despite the day and age that we live in, it seems that the same controversies and issues in gaming reappear time after time, and very little is done to address or even acknowledge the underlying problems. Media and the community itself brushes the dirt under the rug because it's easier than facing the issues.
2016 was a year flooded with social injustices and the rise of movements aiming to right wrongs and fix what is broken. This year should be the year that changes are made. This year, the video game industry and its communities need to change where they stand on things like sex. And no, I'm not talking about the Leisure Suit Larry kind of sex - I'm referring to the inequalities and struggles that women face in the gaming industry.
Here are five wretched myths about women in gaming that need to be addressed.
5. Men Are The Only Gamers
Do me a favour. Google Image search "video gamer" real quick and see what the results are. If your results are anything like mine, most of the pictures that come up are of males aggressively holding game controllers or intensely staring at a computer monitor. If you look up stereotypes of video gamers, you'll find some of the most common ones (some of which really need to stop) are that gamers are all young, immature, socially-inept neckbeards.
And it's okay to be honest and admit that, while even as gamers ourselves, most of us believe that neckbeards are the wretched demigods of the gaming community. But the truth is that there is so much more to the community than neckbeards.
A 2014 UK study performed by the Internet Advertising Bureau showed that 52% of self-proclaimed gamers (in the UK) are women. Now unless my math skills are poor - and that's highly possible - that means that women account for slightly more than half of gaming community. In 2011, the same study showed that 49% of gamers were women, so these numbers aren't abnormal flukes - they are showing a steady pattern.
Need more? A study by the Pew Research Center published October 2015 showed that 42% of American females over the age of 18 own gaming consoles, compared to 37% of men. These numbers aren't that much different than when PRC conducted a similar study in 2010.
Colour me unsurprised. These aren't the only studies that suggest these results, either. Other PRC studies and Nielsen studies point to the same trend.