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09/30/2002 Archived Entry: "Play culture for women"
It never fails-- you bring up game play for women, and you'll find women pipe up "We don't play games. We do important things." I don't think its just a feeling any more-- there is a serious lack of play in women's culture. Somehow, where men are embracing play beyond childhood, there's a stigma against women who spend their time at play. Maybe we're still proving how responsible and intelligent we are, according to a feminist agenda. Maybe we're still clutching the lions share of the work, and feel we don't have time. Maybe we allow ourselves more unstructured interpersonal space with other women (thanks to Camille's clothing swap crowd for this one).
Here's my concern. We need to play. Play is a form of learning-- the act itself speaks of new ways of thinking, different mixes of brain chemicals and the sort. What are we losing from a 'mental experience' standpoint by not allowing ourselves to play?
I know a lot of women want to see what our sandboxes will look like, what we will reconfigure/ reconnect/ subvert/ invent, but sometimes I'm afraid we won't remember what to do when we get there...
Replies: 7 comments
I very much agree. I'm pissed off by the fact that whenever I'm seen gaming, I'm told to shut it off (by my parents).
And then when I find myself immersed in a game, I keep thinking, "Ugh, it's not THAT fun." or "I need to spend my time doing something 'productive'."I feel very conditioned into not liking games. I see no change in sight...
Posted by doob @ 10/10/2002 10:26 AM EST
Anger at parents. Mild drug reference in alias. My sister?
Posted by Cindy @ 10/11/2002 06:10 PM EST
I have an annual project where I try to get parents to buy their daughters cool tech toys for Christmas, like video games and consoles, digital cameras and Lego Mindstorms. For some reason, it never occurs to some parents to buy a girl a gameboy (maybe because they gave it a ridiculous gender based name).
Posted by Cindy @ 10/11/2002 10:01 PM EST
I'm interested, how does this project work? How many and what kind of parents did you approach? Perhaps it depends on how open-minded parents are and how much they give in to innate reasoning.
As for gameboys, I think it's been around too long for normal ppl to think of the name and its implications. It's a game console, it plays games, it's for guys. Though it's possible there's effects at the subconcious level.
My nick, long story.
Your sister?
Aside from the topic, it's great to know of a fellow female who's as techie as guys :)
Posted by doob @ 10/14/2002 03:12 AM EST
Last year, it was just a post to the newsgroup I'm on as part of DigitalEve-- so these are ladies that might be so inclined, but hadn't thought of it. This year, its a much bigger project-- I'm researching what kinds of techie gifts are best, and why (for example, what console has the most games girls tend to play) and interviewing some experts here at Simon Fraser and in the industry. I'm hoping to get this on a newswire, so newspapers can pick it up across the country. Cross my fingers...
Posted by Cindy (cloo) @ 10/24/2002 02:03 PM EST
Cool, good luck on it!
Putting my 2cents in, the games released for girls are like... "uggh.... get them away from me..." Mary Kate and Ashley Olson twins game...?!?! Geesuz, that's just pure marketing ploy.
Posted by doob @ 10/30/2002 12:02 PM EST
I agree, they're awful! The mentality seems to be "Girls don't like fighting, they like friendship. So I'm going to make this game about friendship." I've likened it to moving to a new city where you don't know anyone, and joining a club about Friendship.
Posted by cloo @ 10/30/2002 12:30 PM EST