Women in Pro-Gaming
Dec 8, 2016 | 1 Votes
by shilpa
9
rate
When it comes to gaming, women have always been viewed unfavorably by the "alpha" male populace - the sort of players who tend to dominate the eSports Arena today. However, there are tons of excellent female gamers who seem to have to jump through a lot more hoops just so they could get the same fame and recognition as their male counterparts. Join us as we explore and discuss this issue.
Sexism has persisted for years now without an end. Men and women are differentiated according to their social standing and the job they are ‘supposed’ to do. In a patriarchal world, men always seem to get their way.
Times though, they are changing. Women have stood up for their rights in all fields. Whether its sports or office work, women are as good as men, and in some cases, better. When it comes to gaming, women have always been side-lined due to the misconception that females don’t like or play games. For too long had this misconception persists in spite of the mountains of statistics and evidence that show games in general are played almost equally by both genders... though, when it comes down to specific genres, you can see some differences.
Pro-Gaming
Pro-gaming also known as “eSports” is a type of competition that is facilitated by electronic systems; the input of players as well as the output of the eSports system is carried out by human-computer interfaces. In short it is a multiplayer video game competition.
Teams from around the world consisting of professional players compete to win a particular game or tournament. Games like League of Legends and StarCraft II have appealed to millions of gamers, both male and female throughout the world for a while now. There are specific sets of rules that the teams and players must abide by in order to prevent themselves from getting disqualified. Each game has a particular set of teams eligible for playing and there are prizes at the end. Sometimes, there are cash prizes that go up to a million.
This is exactly why Pro-gaming is now a source of income for a growing number of individuals out there. Who said you can’t get paid to play games?
The Segregation
It is a pity to watch sexism flow into pro-gaming. There are women out there who would beat the crap out of a guy in League of Legends. There should be no limitations in this scenario. Gaming boards and event organizers have put forward several arguments. They talk about target audience. They say, since it has been seen that majority of the games are played by men, it is only wise to facilitate this particular scope towards the male population. This conclusion that has been derived by business tycoons is not only wrong towards the society, but is a wrong way to conduct business.
It’s true that they earn millions and billions of dollars through this franchise, but what good is it doing them by removing a section of the society from this. There are uncountable female gamers out there who are willing to take part in eSports. It would lead to a loss, if such a vast portion of the population is left out. Then again male chauvinism got the better of it. Women who participate in ESports have fallen prey to the male dominion. They are ill-treated. They are subject to unnecessary and cruel ‘sexual remarks’. Some event organizers have even gone a step forward and created an all-male event.
These situations have led to large scale mistrust and differences among the male and female players. Women pro-gamers are shy when it comes to attending an ESports event. Nevertheless, over the last few years the number of women in pro-gaming has gone up considerably. Men are realizing that they are not even good at what they proclaim to be best at. This insecurity has caused many issues that involve passing judgmental or sexually explicit comments.
Bruno is a part of Team Immunity. It is one of the largest pro-gaming organizations in Australia. She had to go through a lot before she attained the recognition she has today. Here is what she had to say about her experience: “I actually got kicked from a team once, simply because I am a girl” (Source)
Reading such a remark ought to be shameful for the organizing team and the other members. She further continued, “Women have to prove themselves 200 times more than men. I don’t understand why. When you share a passion for the same thing, you all want to achieve the same goal. What’s the difference?!”(Source)
She has made the whole point of this article vividly clear in not so many words. If men and women share the same goal in attaining a specific objective, why should the women be not given equal chances as that of men? The gaming boards and the event organizers and the ‘all-male teams’ must realize that women are equal to or better than men when it comes to pro-gaming and therefore must not be treated as a novelty.
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