| famousringo said: Here's a challenge for you: Can you find me one example of a female game developer who doesn't think her gender is a barrier? Because I only seem to be reading those rare edge cases where actual, working female game developers find it problematic. |
*sets challenge*
| Tamron said: Dude, do you realize the very person you are talking to when you're saying this, is a female games developer, who has worked at a number of "AAA" studios? |
*challenge is obliterated in a single line*
annnnd you conveniently skirt around that and continue throwing out the same rhetoric.
My gender isn't a barrier, and I have the sense and presence of mind to know that if i were to be sexually harrased or looked down on in the workplace, it's a case of the individual being a douchbag, not the "norm"
If you search for reports of misconduct in the workplace you will invariably find reports from people discussing their situation, and there are numerous people that do, but that doesn't make it a compund issue, it just means, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER PROFESSION, people can, and often will be, jerks.
Some of that may well be down to gender, I won't deny it, but people are too fast to tag it as sexual harrasment or sexism, without giving it much thought.
People are bullied in the workplace, in every walk of life, every profession, though name calling, mental and physical abuse, and in order to achieve that goal, the abuser will resort to whatever tactic produces the strongest result, if theyre reffered to in a racial slur, or a sexist slur, it doesn't inherantly mean that the person saying it is actually racist, or sexist - its just that they're douchebags and theyre using whatever gets the biggest rise out of the victim.
There has been somewhat of an explosion of reports of "sexist attitudes and behaviour in the workplace", does that mean that this generation of people are somehow MORE sexist than the last? not at all - it just means that when you have large, widespread movements that are so far reaching and blindly supported, with barely any research done into accusations, you end up with a generation, taught by society at large that "he touched my shoulders, thats pretty much rape", or "he called me bitch, and he might not have been joking, what a sexist pig" are not only encouraged but actively supported.
The actual reality behind it is that people of all ages, races and genders, are victimized in the workplace, each in slightly to very different ways but the underlying cause is simply people being douchebags. That doesn't mean sexism, sexual assault or rape doesnt happen, not even close, it just means that if a particular group is given a voice and encouraged to speak up, they will, while everyone else remains quiet.
When I was younger, an intern, fresh out of university was working at our tokyo studio, he was treated like utter shit by the other, senior staff, at work parties and gatherings he would be belittled and shamed for his weight, made fun of and teased - this trend extended beyond the douchbaggery of a few senior guys and spread, across the entire department to a point where the women of the office would drop disgusting comments to him themselves, and it became almost an office-wide trend to mess with him
One day, during a work party, they forced him to drink really strong sake, all night, then when he was borderline comatose from intoxication they removed every items of clothing he had and got various women staff to post next to him for pictures, he was then taken outside and the police found him the next morning, covered in his own vomit and badly hungover, completely naked and tied to a traffic signal.
After trying to brave the office for an additional week he quit, I heard that not long after that he had commited suicide.
People are abused at work, at home, just about everywhere, focusing on victims based on a particular gender or race is the wrong approach, it will never resolve the root cause of the abuse, because sexism for the most part ISN'T the root cause, it's a tool used in practicing the root cause, and that root cause is people (and i say people, because it can practically be anyone) not having enough morality and decency to treat their fellow humans with respect or a semblance of humanity.
If you use binoculars to focus on a particular subject, you see that subject in a much larger frame, but at a cost of losing sight of the things happening around it, and more often than not, the context of the frame itself . Let that one sink in a little before you continue.
