Breakfast Topic: 'Every female WoW player has healed at least once'

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-12-2012 @ 9:37AM

Shrikesnest said...

The stereotype, like most patently untrue stereotypes, says way more about the people who believe it tjan the object of the stereotype.

I haven't done any research or anything, so what follows is wild-ass conjecture. I think most players subconsciously assign gender roles to play roles; the tank is "dad" to them, because they assosciate the person at the head of the group (however fallaciously) with a paternal figure. It follows, then, that the healer is "mom", supporting "dad" and enabling his victory.

It's testament to the resilience of syereotypes that long-term players continue in this mindset long after they should have ample evidence to disprove it.

3-12-2012 @ 9:56AM

Shrikesnest said...

For my own part, I love to heal and my fiance loves to tank. Obviously gender has some kind of effect on what role people play and why, but it isn't nearly so cut-and-dried as "all women are healers/all men are tanks." and there will always be a sizeable number of people who just plain don't fit. Any gender-based idea is way more along the lines of expected norms, any combination of which imdividuals can take or leave, rather than some kind of socio-genetic destiny.

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