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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: What's behind stereotypes about what ladies play in WoW?
by Olivia Grace 
Dec 26th 2011 at 8:00AM
So I did what any sane girl would do in 2011 -- I went and posted about it on Twitter. I went to another session and emerged to quite a response from various ladies all saying that they PvP or that they knew ladies who did and who wouldn't be particularly happy to be told that PvP wasn't something women did.
Anyhow, as I was saying, this provoked some thought. I do think there are gender stereotypes in WoW -- mostly, that women heal far more than they do anything else and that almost all tanks are men. As an anthropology student, I'm adept at making sweeping generalizations, and I wouldn't think for a moment that either of these statements are absolute truths.
However, they do raise questions. First, is there any truth to them at all? Are healers really the group in WoW where female players are most well represented? Are tanks genuinely the role least played by women? And do ladies really make up a far higher percentage of the PvE playerbase than they do the PvP one?
And, of course, the burning question underlying all of the above: If so, why?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 7 of 7)
Vinícius E. Dec 26th 2011 3:20PM
As I suspected this became a sexist thread: Men AND Women here are playing the game "I'm the better/stronger/more intelligent gender".
Can't we just have a simple conversation about it without all these BS?
Ginger Dec 26th 2011 3:27PM
In my BC/Wrath and now Catclysm raiding experience, I have both healed as a holy priest and prot pally. I rotate as my guild needs me and I love both roles. I am female, just to set the record straight.
Optica Dec 26th 2011 3:51PM
Female tank signing in! Yes, I've played a resto druid for about 5 and a half years, but early cataclysm I rerolled to my paladin tank.
Doing so required some courage here and there but now I feel very confident in tanking. I'm no one of our main tanks and while I still like healing, I really like my tank alot more now ;)
Saz Dec 26th 2011 5:57PM
It's really hard to say how well the female population is represented in the many different branches and roles within WoW without taking a full blown poll including the whole player base. The number of available spots for some roles (tanks for example) can often greatly skew ratios, sometimes even if you raid with a player for years you'd never know their true gender, and the ratio of the gender population may be different from server to server. There just seems to be too many factors that can debunk the stereotypes that we have all come to know, and don't love all that much.
As a female who has been playing WoW for 5+ years I've filled the role of officer, GM, raid leader. I view melee dps > ranged dps > healing > tanking. My main (an enhancement shaman for PvE) PvPs as restoration, my secondary (a feral dps druid for PvE) currently has a restoration as offspec for duo-ing purposes, but I generally have a feral PvP offspec and I've dabbled in all of the available specs at one time or another for PvE. I currently have six level 85s with a seventh on the way, all of which main spec as a dps. Personality wise I tend to think I'm more of a nurturer, often gaining the nickname "guild mom" and yet I choose more aggressive roles when it comes to combat because I prefer to juggle pushing out big numbers with personal defensive CDs over staring at health bars or dealing with the stresses that come along with being a tank.
In my day I've seen some excellent female tanks, generally my healing teams have been male, and while it's harder to find female players in general, they have been represented in the dps teams I've run with in the past (though have been *generally* ranged dps). I've known a few girls who were absolute PvP nuts, along with a few who wouldn't touch that aspect of the game with a 30 foot pole. While I wouldn't say that all roles have been split with equal representation between the genders, I have just about seen it all. It's rather hard to get 50/50 representation out of a population that's 60/40 (or whatever the actual ratio of gender representation is in WoW) anyhow, especially when there are so many play style avenues in which to choose from.
As the saying goes, 'different strokes for different folks'. I think roles are determined more by personality, not gender. Without more solid data though it would be hard to say which stereotypes actually prove to hold true. In my narrow scope of experience women have been known to fill all of the roles and it's hard for me to pin down which area they've been represented in more.
Pixiiedust Dec 26th 2011 6:51PM
I tank heal and caster dps and I am a female. Despite that you would be amazed how many "oi
Priest/shammy/Druid, HE might be afk" or whatever other response I get. Ppl automatically assume you are overweight or ugly if you are a female wow
Player when they should just be happy somebody competent who knows their character is part of the team. My combo is as follows: my lock main, hubby's Mage, hubby's tank, my priest etc and so forth. I have 6 85s and it gets annoying when ppl stereotype you as a male.
yagamimoon Dec 27th 2011 6:05AM
A couple of girls i met (one ex) were into dps characters, and hated healing or anything that wasnt up front attacks. But then again, it was only them, all the other girls i've met either play healers with dps offspec for leveling :(
I could say there a little bit of everything, but women gravitate more towards healing roles. At least from what I've seen. Most women love to keep femenine traits even in game =/
Freedom Dec 26th 2011 6:49PM
Excellent questions Olivia. I am a female who plays a rogue and I have Battlemaster. Currently grinding out Justicar. I have a healer alt I play quite frequently as well, but would never touch a tank. My toons: Isobel - rogue, Iso - healer.
Imoo Dec 26th 2011 7:05PM
im a guy and i heal -disc prist. and the best tank i have ever met in game was a female -war.
Micte Dec 26th 2011 9:20PM
I'm female. I primarily play melee DPS. I just prefer it, in the end.
I enjoyed my hunter until I capped her...Since then, I just don't feel like doing anything. My mage and warlock are sorely neglected. I'm loving my rogue and bear druid.
Of course, I'm loving my holy priest and my disc priest, but neither of them have really done much healing. The hpriest has seen two dungeons and a bg, both of which scared the hell out of me, and mostly has gotten to 51 by questing in holy. The disco priest isn't even level 15 yet and my friend's rogue is killing things before she even needs to toss a renew on him.
kettlephone Dec 27th 2011 12:58AM
fatties
CRtheMighty Dec 27th 2011 1:36AM
My first toon was a rogue. My main for years was a protadin. I've learned that I find distance playing boring; I'd rather be in the thick of things than standing in the back. My mage has stagnated at 40 since BC, I got bored with a warlock, and I can only take hunters because they play like rogues. And I have never rolled a priest.
My old guild leader was a married mom, who mained a rogue. I'm not even sure she had a healer alt.
Meanwhile, my brother has had a resto druid since vanilla, one of his several max level characters. When he would talk about healing spells, or I'd watch him heal something when I wasn't playing, my eyes would start to glaze over.
It's as has been pointed out already: Specs and classes are based more on personality than gender. My bro is a nice chap, so he heals. I am a violent ass, so I stab people. (Now, despite this, I do hate PvP, but that's because I am also antisocial and not coordinated enough to play against another human. Combine that with me being a sore loser, it's a disaster.)
tlschlo Dec 27th 2011 2:34AM
In my raid group I happen to have a female tankadin with a ret offspec. She's more than capable of being the lead tank and when we have the option to solo tank, she does better dps than some of the full timers.
One of our heals is a holy pally however she has numerous alts that she dpses with and does extremely well with. Her and I usually run roics every morning and it's a game for her to beat me... which she can do and let's me know about it.
Cliche is one thing but take my word from this game and others, females love to bash skulls or dragons... no matter what it takes.
lilyofthemyst Dec 27th 2011 2:37AM
I am woman - hear me roar! /roar
My first (and current) main is a belf rogue - I love my rogue. Been playing it for 3.5 years now.
I tried to make a belf priest healer and bored..only got to lvl 30. Now I have a belf paladin tank. I'm liking it so far but have taken a break from leveling for now.
I play PvP with my rogue and I think im pretty darn good. I don't do Arena, mostly because I'm in Australia and the lag is horrible and I don't want any partners to get angry at me because of that. I'd say I'm pretty good at raiding and dps as well.
In real life I'd say I'm pretty aggressive and assertive. I get up to management levels in the majority of jobs I've had. But I'm also a girly girl..purple is my fav colour. I like sparkly thingys and candles and kittens. I love shopping and decorating my home. I even enjoy cleaning the house! I've been playing video games my whole life - father was a computer engineering so we had a computer since I was 5 (28 now).
Miguex Jan 3rd 2012 3:23AM
There are differences between both genders, but again, they are a generalization. Men are better at maths, measuring distances and finding their way back home. Women are better at languages and have a way better peripheral vision. This differences come from the early days of humanity and the roles that both genders had to perform.
Thousand of years later, this still shows up nowadays, as it is built in our brains (has been demostrated that men and women brains are not exactly the same). Again, so many years of evolution make this only a generalization that can be only applied to a very average individual.
Still, there are some tendencies, and when you have one million men and one million women, if you test them all, you'll notice areas of expertise that tend to have more of one gender doing better than the other. This is because of the differences that make a trend, but is just that, a trend.
At an individual level you never know what kind of brain someone has. I could get lost in a corridor, but i'm quite good at languages. I'm a man.
This trends may influence what you enjoy in game. When you choose a role in WoW, do you enjoy it cause you are good at it or are you good at it cause you enjoy it?
My guild has several women, and they most fit the 'healing stereotype':
- We have a priest that focuses on healing. He has always been a healer, even in other games. She does an average performance due that he barely plays nowadays. When she goes shadow... well, let's just say she does not have the right gear.
- We have a priest that heals with both specs. She plays a lot and does a very good job. She roled a warrior recently and tried to tank an heroic. She claimed to perform poorly cause she was nervous. I really think that with practice she'll be has good at tanking as she already his as a healer.
- We have a resto shaman that excels at spamming chain heal (lol). She does pretty decent dps has elemental. She rolled a bear tank recently and she also performed poorly.
- We have a warlock that does just average dps. Hey, a woman dpsing!
Just to clarify, I think anyone can do anything, but it seems like women tend to the healing role. Again, with just 4 examples, you can't really tell.
I apologize for any 'engrish' i may have commited.
Svlad Cjelli Dec 27th 2011 6:58AM
I think I'm aware of the stereotypes behind the healer-thing, but I can't think of any obvious ones on tanking.
FemaleTank113 Dec 30th 2011 3:36AM
Female PvE DK Tank in here, as someone said above, I love what I do as well, I don't even have a healer character, I tried once and found it wasn't for me.. Even though I aspire to be a doctor in RL. But yes - gender has nothing to do with anything, what you can and can't do is what matters imo.
Molly Dec 27th 2011 11:38AM
Haha, that would be awesome. What server are you on? I could use a change of scenery!
Lara Dec 28th 2011 10:22PM
I love, love, love healing- but nothing makes me want to quit healing more than this conception that I enjoy it because I am a girl. I have seen women excel- and fail!- at every role in this game. We're all just people, damn it.
I don't think being female makes me a great healer. I think that my obsession with multi-tasking and preference for a reactive rather than set rotation-based playstyle are what keep me interested in healing.
Geoffrey Brent Dec 28th 2011 3:28PM
A while back my sister was tanking a random pug. Somebody asked about players' age & sex, and when she mentioned she was a 35-year-old woman she was kicked for "lying".
Back when I played, I tanked a lot (achievements including Halion 25, Sindra 10, Putricide and Blood-Queen 25). I met very few female tanks - I'm struggling to remember any besides my sister - but I don't think this has anything to do with bad evo-psych explanations of how women are better nurturers and healers. I think it's much more likely to be that women who make mistakes while tanking are going to be much more harshly criticised than men who make the same mistakes - "she's a crappy tank" vs "he made a mistake".
Also, arguing that men are better tanks because it's a leadership position suggests that you don't know a lot about tanking. In a 5-player dungeon, sure, tank is usually leader. But in raids, you're just as likely to see a DPS or healer calling the shots; the tank has to focus on one particular aspect of the fight, party leader needs broader situational awareness.
evoxpisces Dec 29th 2011 8:03AM
I'm a guy, and hate tanking, love healing and love DPSing. I rarely PvP.