Feminist
Pro-Queer
Anti-Racist
Gaming

I received an email from Ilene Jones regarding "The Faces of Gaming" article that I previously posted. Ilene is CEO of KittyCode and I felt that she made a very valid point. She has given me permission to post her email:

Ilene Jones wrote:
> "One of the men in the pics is an Asian man, who is a minority in the US.
>
> As for who writes for the Game Informer, to me it's a to be expected thing. You will see a lot of sexism in the gaming industry, and -------- will attest to it since she's close at hand. If you follow --------, you will find that while she works for Microsoft in the XBOX Community, she also tries to enlighten the public at large through her posts and videos.
>
> The biggest issue in the gaming industry is that as a whole, Women do not purchase the majority of the games. Well, we don't write them either. Programming is not something that most women do, and so the guys are left to guess at what we want, or would be interested in. I was never interested in video games as a kid, unless you counted pac man and compared to the guys I sucked at it. Ehh, whatever. Women tend towards puzzle and music games, men tend towards the FPS and sports games. The whole thing is a vicious cycle, especially in the US. Devices like the iPhone, show you that men are in the majority for certain high selling apps like iFart (and the ton of copy-cats). Why? Because boys will be boys and girls act like they're too good or too "mature" for that humor. We are taught to be that way. The simple, silly things have to be frowned upon or the other girls will frown upon us.
>
> There are lots of vicious cycles going on, and while it's changing, it is a change that is slow to come.
>
> Ilene"

"I feel that this deserves some attention - particularly because I don't want to be misunderstood in intent and because she makes a splendiferous point. So, in response:

I do realize that one of the men that writes for GameInformer is asian. Also, I realize that I can tell nothing of their sexual orientation status, nor can I claim to know if they are trans, or even if any of the others are actually racial or multi-racial minorities. When I first wanted to write the short article, I had planned to writer more about the nigh-complete lack of diversity but thought about it and realized that I truly can't speak to that at all. All that I can truly mention with complete certainty is that, for all appearances, it is a writing staff consisting only of men. I do give credit and am happy that their web-writing staff includes a female. Mostly, I wanted to provide this as an example of why I started this site - the very reasons that you mention.

I do not, in all honesty, believe that the hiring choices of GameInformer is necessarily what is biased. The reasons for the staff choices are multitudinous and impossible to quantify or qualify. There could be a particular bias in the staff hiring decision-making process. It most definitely is a field likely to have less women and minority applicants. Even if it is biased decision making, I don't believe that it is consciously so. A bias is decision would more reflect the bias that society creates. Women do not play console games as much as men (though it has been shown that we make up more than half of the causal game market) and racial minorities make up a video gaming minority as well. This creates a stereotype that women don't play games - and often racial minorities are ignored in this. LGBT minorities are almost completely ignored. Technology in general has been marketed to white (hetero) men. Likely that started because white men were able to break into that forming industry more easily. The growth of technology can, in fact, be credited mostly to white men. After all, in its beginning there weren't as many (white) women working in general and the jobs available to them were significantly different. Minority women were working more out of necessity (that women fighting to work and not be housewives thing was a white feminist thing) but had to take very low paying manual-labor (etc) type jobs. Historically, white men had greater access to higher education. Thus, its not surprise that white men make more games. Then, it isn't any surprise that they create games that white men would like. Society doesn't like LGBT that much (especially not showing up in things that their children might see...bah) so that the games made aren't as inclusive of queer issues. Marketing to a largely white hetereosexual male audience thus makes sense. Women and minorities are then, logically, not as keen on video games and class issues and socialization come into play in this as well.

I guess that I'm saying that you're absolutely correct about the vicious cycle. "

I'm posting this as a comment to the article as well because I really want to stress the point