In the Gaming Community have you ever been the victim of receiving unwanted images or flirting? This is a real problem for Women in the Gaming Community as well as women everywhere. Often Male Gamers believe we are there to simply be their playthings and at times it can be beyond frustrating.
We wanted to know how real this problem is. We took a poll of the Ladies in our Gamer Girl Line Room asking them How many had ever been sent an unwanted Dick Pic from someone in their game. Sadly the Results were that the majority of the people who responded had received those images and while some had not, they believe it will happen at some point.
A Gamer Girl Perspective
Let’s get real. The majority of females in the gaming industry have received unsolicited and unwanted advances. Men see a player who is a Woman and they go crazy, leaving us wondering have they all lost their minds??
I help people learn how to play the game. I love strategy games and I love helping other people learn how to play them. In doing so I have at times found myself in private message, my purpose for being there, to help them with their build, the dude’s purpose for being there, to try to flirt with me.
Being the kind of person I am I try to gently move the conversation back to the game but many times these guys do not get it. When they do not get it and persist I typically will stop responding. One of two things happens at this point.
- They back off
- They really do not get it and end up BLOCKED.
For some reason, it is more often the latter of the two. Thus ending a friendship that never even started because the Gamer Boy was a little too thirsty. I have learned that it is better to block before we get to the point of unwanted images but honestly, there are still the Gamer Boys out there that lead with those pictures. That is an immediate BLOCK in my book. We wanted a male perspective to help us out so we had our very own Pappy hop in and give his thoughts.
A Gamer Boy Perspective
Where do I begin? My mind thinks of so many things talking about this topic. I am actually a little scared to be totally honest with my thoughts. Maybe I should start off with apologizing on behalf of male gamers everywhere? Or maybe it’s better to explain what goes through a guys head when he sends a sexually suggestive picture to someone that has shown no interest in looking at it?
As an openly gay male, I have actually experienced receiving unwanted pictures however at the same time they did not offend me. Whether that is the guy in me or that I just don’t care, I am not sure. I, myself, have never sent an unsolicited Dick Pic to anyone that I was sexually attracted to. However, I have sent them to friends both male and female as a joke and the joke was always well taken as crazy as that sounds.
However, what leads a guy to send these pictures? Is it a disconnect in that the woman you are chatting with is a REAL human being and not just a one-inch avatar? Society has become very sexualized, however, there is still a double standard in that Men are allowed to be “whores” but women are Shamed for the same behavior.
The majority of men are not walking around flashing their goods to random girls. I am also guessing that it is illegal in many states and countries which could and would lead to your name on sex offender registry list or possibly worse. At the same time, this behavior continues and while not acceptable is the new normal when you are interacting in a Digital World.
The anonymity of the Digital World allows Men to behave in a way that they never would in “Real Life (RL)” situations leaving the Gamer Girl community feeling disrespected and invalidated as Gamers.
Revenge of the Gamer Girl
We got Real… Now let’s get Honest. I often wonder what guys think we actually do with the pictures they send us. To be Honest, many Women I know who receive an unsolicited picture are sharing that picture with their Ladies. While I am not an advocate of this practice it is something that commonly happens and Men leave themselves open to when choosing to send those pictures. Also, we know when those pics were stolen from Google… Js…
So Gamer Boy if you happen to be reading, here’s a few things to note when contemplating sending a picture to that Gamer Girl.
Is this a problem you have experienced? Tell us your thoughts in the comments.
Gamer Girl 