I think it’s been pretty well established here that gamers can’t really deal with women or people of different races, but what happens when you are both, and you happen to be good at games?
Meet BurnYourBra, an African American woman who also happens to be pretty good at Super Street Fighter IV.
BurnYourBra is on the left.
In a recent interview published over at EventHubs, This player reveals all the variety of things she has been called over the course of her brief career as a competitive fighting gamer. It’s some pretty horrific stuff that I don’t want to reprint here, but suffice it so say, it’s horribly racist/sexist/homophobic/all of the above.
And all because she can beat some ass at a fighting game. What the hell?
I genuinely feel pretty shitty for what this person has to put up with, and that she even has to try to tolerate it. But, if you think this is abnormal or something, Kotaku has you covered on that front. Commenter Demosthenes does a good job of being one shameful fuckhead, and pretty much proving how shitty gamers can be.
Thanks to reader moseslmpg for the tip.
Goose
April 20, 2011
Demosthenes! Haha! Whew, that was a good one. Where’s Locke?
Lugh
April 23, 2011
This isn’t that great of an article to point out how gamers are all cavemen – the entire website seems to be jumping down Demosthenes’ throat and agreeing with you.
gamersareembarrassing
April 23, 2011
Well yeah, in the Kotaku article they are, but still Demosthenes alone is bad enough. Also, the original article is pretty horrid in itself.
moseslmpg
April 23, 2011
A lot of people were agreeing with Demosthenes’ sentiments initially. I think as the article gets more commenters, the tide of common sense may overwhelm his comments, but still.
I only singled him out because he was so persistent while at the same time he appeared to have the intellectual capacity to recognize the ridiculousness of what he was arguing for. Some of the other comments, even though they agreed with him, weren’t really worth dignifying.
I didn’t read the updated article, so I’m not sure what changed. Regardless, it is things like this which make one ashamed to call oneself a gamer. And here’s 5 more reasons, in case anyone is interested:
http://www.cracked.com/article_18571_5-reasons-its-still-not-cool-to-admit-youre-gamer.html
RaverChick60
June 20, 2011
I’m a transgendered person, and I cannot believe that in this day and age, with our society and government making a progressive effort to consider the homosexual/trans community “just like everybody else”, that these “gamer” types, who claim to be accepting and open, have the social sensitivity level that equates to people’s social intolerance close to forty or fifty years ago.
Once, I was playing Doom deathmatch with a group of online friends, and a random person came in, and as soon as he found out “what” I “was” (ugh), he promptly demanded that I log off (despite I was gaming with MY friends, and he was a total stranger).
On the other hand, why am I so surprised — we ARE talking about a niche group of people who generally flat out refuse to drink alcohol or smoke marijuana (because their mommy said it’s bad for them), consider rape, racism, and general misogyny hi-larious, and rage-masturbate to their “waifus”, brooding about how Roger Ebert is a “total fucking idiot” for his valid point that video games are hobby playthings, not precious works of art.
Oh well.
Jawnita
August 29, 2011
RaverChick: I agree wholeheartedly and completely that the gamer community is a stronghold of transphobia, and that that is a huge shame. That random person in your Doom deathmatch was both breathtakingly horrible and, even more horribly, common in such a setting.
However, I am totally baffled by your last paragraph. Why is not wanting to drink or smoke evidence of terrible personhood? It seems to me that being sober is lifestyle decision that has exactly zero chance of hurting another human being, and I am startled to see you lump it in with misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, racism, and the rest of the gamut of genuinely horrible things that people can do to each other. At our worst, we teetotallers are potentially scolds, but most of us aren’t even that — personally, I don’t drink because I can’t stand the taste of alcohol, and prefer to remain in control of my emotions and actions, but I have no problem with hanging out with people who do drink. Are you seriously saying this puts me on a level with, say, burnyourbra’s aggressors?
(As someone who is interested in the medium of games as interactive virtual spaces and narrative, apart from their current mainstream manifestations, I also take issue with your characterization of Ebert’s viewpoint as valid, but that’s neither here nor there and I assume you’ve already read as many arguments on the subject as you care to.)
gamersareembarrassing
August 30, 2011
I actually for the most part agree with Ebert that, up to now, we have very little that we could call “art” in videogames, and the VAST majority just try to be hobby playthings, which is fine. I start to disagree with him when he says they never can be art, but I could agree if he added “…if they keep up at their current pace.” While you are more than free to focus on games outside of “the mainstream” (a silly limit to place on study), that very focus admits that much of Ebert’s argument is valid.
As for RaverChick’s discussion of teetotallers, I think the reason she brings it up is there is a certain amount of nerd culture that demonizes the use of alcohol and such, but at the same time sees no issue with the various degrees of racism/sexism/etc. that go on constantly in gamer culture. Even your “prefer to remain in control of my emotions and actions” indicates a bit of that demonization, as it is perfectly possible to drink a decent amount before coming into any chance of losing control of either of these.
And yes, at its worst, what ends up occurring is the various teetotallers do extend into a kind of preaching for their choice of life, and condemnation of those who choose not to follow it, which is silly. You (meaning not you, Jawnita, per se) are free to choose not to drink all you want to, but at the same time, if you are attempting to judge others by their choice to drink, you are making a big mistake. Sadly, a decent chunk of gamer/nerd culture does just that.
RaverChick60
October 11, 2011
To clarify: Yeah, it was the demonization I was talking about. My painting individuals with the same brush was unintentional, so my apologies if that seemed so.
Joshua
November 16, 2011
Dude, your generalizing like a hell of a stupid fuckhead. I am a male gamer, I HAVE A BOYFRIEND and many black friends. I have many gay friends I myself am bisexual. And we’re all fucking gamers. Yes, we drink alchohol. Some of us smoke marijuana. Who cares?? And yes, many racist and sexist jokes have been told, but they’re just JOKES GROW THE FUCK UP
gamersareembarrassing
November 16, 2011
Oh god, can you miss the point some more? It is really funny.
I’m not even going to get into how stupid the “they’re just JOKES GROW THE FUCK UP” is.
George wa-sh-ing-ton
December 18, 2011
The truth is racist.
Don K Puncher
December 29, 2011
I’m really kind of confused by why this is symbolic of gamer culture? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to say that there is nothing wrong with gamer culture. That would be a lie, and I tend not to do that. I just…well, it’s just that people at large can be dicks, and I’m just not convinced that gaming really has much at all to do with it.
gamersareembarrassing
January 4, 2012
Just because the larger culture does something doesn’t mean gamers should too.
And yes, this kind of behavior is actually pretty prevalent in gaming.
Sulla
February 23, 2012
“I think it’s been pretty well established here that gamers can’t really deal with women or people of different races,”
Has it been established by peer reviewed science?
Racists and biggots generalise about whole groups of people, you seem to be doing the same thing to gamers. Also you seem to be hating on male gamers mostly. You are a sexist man hating loser.
gamersareembarrassing
February 24, 2012
Get this: I never said anything about peer reviewed science, idiot. Read the sentence you quoted again. “Here” is this blog, which is not “peer reviewed science” because “peer reviewed science” doesn’t matter.
Why do I hate on male gamers mostly? Because they are a) the majority of gamers, b) the most vocal gamers, and c) the most vocally stupid gamers. It isn’t hard to figure out.
Lamd
June 14, 2012
I love how the pathetic gamers on here are only worried about being generalized with the bigoted ones and rather than the fact that most of their community is made up of childish pieces of shit.
Learn to actually read instead of nitpicking. When people say “This group is racist”, they usually aren’t referring to every single individual member of that group.
DarkRoadWalker
February 10, 2013
I think the bottom line is not only in games but in life there will always be stupid people and the only thing you can do is keep living and not be moved by the common fools