Epic Dolls recently gave a woman's perspective to the Ten Ton Hammer article on women in raiding. Essentially the original article brought up some extremely valid points about females in the raiding sphere, and Leala took the time to respond to some of the statements made in the article, explaining them from a female point of view.

What I love about this is the fact that what we have here is an intelligent dialog. In no way is the Epic Dolls response claiming that Ten Ton "doesn't understand us" and that they write "biased work because they hate women," both of which are common misconceptions on either side of the gaming gender divide. Leala first begins by explaining that the article on Ten Ton was well written and interesting, and then proceeds to respond to some issues brought up in the article.

The first notion she conquers is the idea that simply adding a woman into the raid brings drama, when in actuality it is the male response to the woman that causes friction. We've heard of cases of groups going out of their way to avoid these reactions, but in the end it is the guild/raid leader's job to create a welcoming environment for all players, male and female. I would have to agree with Leala here. I don't see how a girl can be blamed for the behavior of the guys around her. Which person is acting childishly? Deal with that person. Removing one stimulus will quiet them down for a while, until something else gets them riled and they go off. If, on the other hand, a female member of the raid is causing trouble, deal with her. It only makes sense to punish the offenders, no matter their gender.

A second statement she notes is that point in the article where the author says women are vicious creatures. Profiling of any type is offensive, and you could just as easily put another protected class in that statement and see exactly how wrong it is. It is just as bad to say that all men are pigs, which is equally wrong, if slightly more metaphorical. The only generalization you can make with such a sweeping broad stroke is that all men have Y chromosomes, and all women have X chromosomes, but even then you are pushing it. No entire group of people are vicious. There may be violent and hateful people within a group, but to label the entire group based on one member, or even a few members, is wrong. As Leala puts it, "People can be vicious creatures. It has nothing to do with male or female, it's just personality, priorities, and morals."

The last statement Leala discusses about the three types of women gamers I will not comment on, on the grounds that anything I say will come off as sexist toward men, and honestly, what's the point of fighting fire with fire here? I hate generalization. For me it only works in philosophical discussions. Okay maybe I will make one little comment. In all my time in the game (and I have been playing since 2005) I have never encountered the MSM (Man-Seeking-Missile) type of female gamer Ciderhelm speaks of. But to say that that there are no women who play the game in order to find a guy is again a generalization, so therefore inaccurate.

Any discussion of this type will be heated, and until you can toss what we think we know about the opposite gender out the window and go on what we have experienced personally, any conclusions will be skewed.

Tags: Epic-Dolls, female-gamers, females-in-raiding, raiding, Ten-Ton-Hammer, women-and-raiding

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Social Conventions, Raiding