[DoctorEldritch]

Hello Legion Gamers!

It is almost the middle of the month of Women in Gaming, and we have several interesting and important discussions, such as @Saka's report on harassment in gaming. And there is another important insight that we came across recently and want to get your views on now!

One of our colleagues had a conversation with a female Esports player and learned an interesting insight from her on how she identifies (or doesn’t identify) herself in the gaming world. She mentioned that she doesn’t see herself as a “female athlete”, rather, as just an “athlete” among all other athletes, without any specific labels.

And it is not just this one Esports player either, the topic f identity and label usage in the gaming world has been in the spotlight for some time, and even has some academic research dedicated to it. And it was a subject of social debate for some time now, as well.

So we wanted to ask how you feel about this insight as gamers - do you agree with this sentiment personally, or do you see it differently compared to this esports player? What do you think about the use of the “female” label together with “gamer”, what’s the benefit of it, and are there any pitfalls?

Please share your thoughts with us!

[Dandorma]

my opinion the word female is a normal word the fact that you treat it as a special word make it sensitive to use so what if she is a female athlete or just an athlete as long as she is good at what she do. if i said for example me is middle eastern and some guy identified me as a middle-eastern guy should i feel bad ?. absolutely not
so what if we used the word female athlete she is an athletic female that in facts describe her more accurately in my opinion.

[GoLLuM13]

@Dandorma Hello my GoLLuM brother 🤣 You had almost the same reasoning as I did. And I think that languages we practice are part of it because in many languages we have "feminine" and "masculine" for adjectives and even objects which English lacks. And I totally join you that saying "Male" or "Female" something doesn't mean one or another is superior and/or inferior to the other, it's just additional information to the sentence

[j7schultz]

I don't say that I am a female gamer, I say that I am a gamer. But I cannot deny that I am a woman. I think to be fair, classifications and stuff should be like in athletics: a female list, a male list and a general list for every match. Sometimes they even divide for age. That, to me, seems the fairest and cleanest way to show it, in blocks. But some people see that as segmentation. We can't please everyone all the time, that's life.

[LilMonsterTii]

Hey all so Dr and I kinda started talking about this last week after the game together. In my experience, I play a lot of codm and my whole squad is guys. I am the only female. We have found girls online but we don't know them some of the guys have tried to involve their sisters but so far I'm the only regular one to play. I am very lucky to not have come across any issues but most of the time if I play it's with my group or in this community. Whether someone refers to me as a female gamer or just a gamer there is no issue. I am a gamer and yes I am female. I game because I love it. Making an issue out of a label just seems so silly to me. If we all enjoy the game or having fun then does it really matter what the gender of the player is? I get in esports it's a thing but that doesn't make sense to me as it's not a physical sport like soccer or swimming were gender does play a factor of skill. With gaming, it's the mind in play. It's brain power not physical so in my opinion it's an even playing field.

[Dandorma]

@GoLLuM13

yes Exactly Brothaaaa , we have to treat as normal the fact that she is female doesn't deny her any rights nor give her, but if we treated the word as something related to social profiling we will make it a sensitive word. so why making a word have such power on us.

[Saka]

@Dandorma The problem is that it is a bit too late and the word got a lot of negative context already. Until that changes, some women might not want to use "female gamer" as an identifying label, but rather something else.

[Dandorma]

@Saka
It's never too late to make anything right, in fact we have to be the one making it normal to use if you feel that it's already sensitive , in fact i see that Female players have the biggest role in making it normal by not giving people using it in bad context any importance.

I always say to myself when someone makes me angry or giving me negative energy " you, your brain who gives others the power over you " so i won't get angry if i met someone using the word middle eastern as a bad word describing me as someone who still lives with camels and in a tent. Actually this is something i would be proud of . Being middle eastern should be my pride as this is my origin "this is who I AM " same as being a female player or gamer or athlete being a female is in fact should be her pride.

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@LilMonsterTii

we are not saying gender matters here, in the end of the day you might want to know if you can say "He" or "She" ?
cause we are all in gaming use nicknames, and in article i see giving her what the first post call the "Female" label makes people know that she is in fact a girl so when a fan send her a message won't get confused.
Again for me female is a description more than profiling.

[Saka]

@Dandorma It is, unfortunately, proven that admitting to being a woman in a group of strangers often leads to harassment. I am not saying that it is impossible to restore the original context behind the word "female", but it is a process that takes time. As usual, it is easier to do harm than undo it.

I have the same opinion as @j7schultz.

[Dandorma]

@Saka

I'm sure it's not easy, when you try to have a good time and find some people with no manners at all.
but the word female gamer has nothing to do with those people ,it's just a description nothing more nothing less. and what if a dog barks. would you be annoyed by every dog ?.

my opinion of making a word like "female" sensitive, it will give them one more way of annoying female gamers. while taking the innocence out of the work so it will be added to racist words in the future, just by saying female.