Monday Morning Rant: Gamer Girl Haters

This morning, I honestly couldn't think of what, exactly, I was going to rant about. Nothing seemed to be firing me up. So I did the only thing I could do that was guaranteed to make me angry about something really, really quickly.

I went on facebook.

Within minutes, not only did I have the topic for this Monday, but I realized that this is such a HUGE topic that I am going to need to break it down into hundreds (probably) of sub-topics, so that I can actually say even a teeny, tiny fraction of what I want to.

I refer, of course, to Nerd-Girl haters.

You know, the people that get really, really angry about pretty girls (although anything with boobs is at risk here) who dare to take on the title of "nerd". Sometimes they will claim to be a nerd even though they don't know ANYTHING about <insert whatever you personally geek out over here>. The nerve of those girls!

I myself routinely have to defend my self-appointed moniker of the Naked Nerd, because I don't actually know everything about every aspect of nerd culture in the entire world. Mostly just LoTR, Star Trek, Buffy, Star Wars, Harry Potter (YES IT COUNTS) and a general working knowledge of the major comic book universes.
And there will come a day where I use this blog to defend just that....but it is not this day.

Nope, today is the day that I take on the topic of "Gamer Girls".

 

 I'm going to start by admitting that the memes like these are actually pretty funny. After all, every now and then I should remind you that I DO have a functional sense of humor. I swear.

But the basic premise of these memes is inherently flawed. They assume that being a gamer girl and a slut with a controller are mutually exclusive.

Huh? I'm not sure how that happened - how "serious gamers" came to the conclusion that you cannot enjoy games, play games, be serious about games...and also be kinda slutty about it. Because, y'know, makeup makes it physically more difficult to use a controller. It is incredibly difficult to sit on a couch wearing stockings and heels.

I know plenty of women who are deeply, passionately into gaming. In fact, there are entire forum threads on sex-work forums for girls to share handles so that they can play together in between shows. These are not women who are attempting to seem "nerd sexy" for customers - these are women on women-only, invite-only forums who really, really want to play with people who will not judge them for wearing mascara while they do it.

In fact, there are camsites entirely devoted to naked gaming. Check out xxxgamergirls.com if you don't believe me. These are not sites where women think that it will be easier to make money than on any other camsite, because, well, it ISN'T. These are sites where women honestly think "hey, I can get paid to game in my panties. Fuck yeah!". Isn't that every guy's dream? Well boys, you do not have the monopoly on that one.

I'm not even going to begin discussing the camgirl obsession with Second Life.

Essentially, there are a lot of women who do, actually dress like that while they game. Some are doing it because they are dressed up to cam, and game between shows, or after they are done for the day. When I was stripping in the UK, my best friend and I would end a bad night by lazing around in our makeup and jewelry, getting drunk on champagne and dicking around on Grand Theft Auto. Hate to break it to you, but after I am done, I don't immediately scrub off my makeup and throw on sweatpants. Usually I wander around the house in my cam outfit doing whatever I need to do. Sorry for not spending 20mins in the bathroom slutting-down so that I can avoid challenging your stereotype of how a woman should look when she is hanging out at the keyboard.

I feel the need to comment on my own personal slut-with-a-controller status. I no longer game. The reason for this is that I have no off switch when it comes to gaming. I am absolutely incapable of just playing "for a little bit". Leveling up is like crack to me, and I am one of those people who will create a character, and then emerge three weeks later with a wild-man-of-the-woods look. Add to that the fact that I am self-employed, and actually not answerable to anyone about how I spend my days, if I allowed myself to get back into online gaming, I would go to a very, very scary place.

However, even if I did allow myself to re-visit that particular addiction, you can bet your ass that I wouldn't be posting photos online of me at the end of a marathon, red-eyed and twitchy with leftover snack food in my hair. Funnily enough, I post photos of myself that are designed to make me look GOOD.

Which brings me neatly to the second issue with the "this is not a gamer girl" photos. They are POSED PHOTOS. People, please - do you really think that we actually lounge around our homes in the way that we do in photosets? Again, hate to be destroying any illusions here, but when I bake (and I do! I'm a catch that way) I don't usually look over my shoulder and wink while I am pulling the cookies out of the oven. I don't dangle cherries over my mouth when I eat them, give bedroom eyes over the top of my banana, or squirt frosting on my boobs when I am decorating cupcakes. No woman, ever, has been cleaning her car alone and squeezed the sponge so that soapy water runs down her front.

Does that mean that because I post photos of myself doing those things, that I am somehow lying? That I am "faking it"? That I am trying to "pretend" to be someone who bakes, or eats, or  washes her car, when really, I am just a slut with a sponge?

Nope. I post sexy photos, because it's mah job. And I use props, because, well, I would get really, really bored otherwise. And most of the time, I try to use props that have something to do with my actual life and interests, because I would like my photos to somehow reflect who I actually am.

Which is why all those "sluts with controllers" are actually probably REAL gamers - women who do not game, ever, generally don't have game systems and controllers just lying around the house, funnily enough.

Oh, the irony.