Kotaku’s Poor Treatment Of Women

You have to like Kotaku because of the slavishly researched items about games and culture the site presents.  But are some of the writer’s anti-women?  Over the weekend, Game Break saw a Kotaku story about a tech item that changes the sound of your voice. As Kotaku figures, if you’re a girl, you can sound like a guy when you play games online and chat.  Writer Michael McWhertor goes beyond the bounds of satire (if that’s what you call it) when he writes, “So, you girls want to come into our boys club and play our video games. Fine. A lot of us like girls. But you've got to understand our natural instinct to harass you over the internet at the slightest hint that you might be the bearer of actual breasts—the naturally occuring kind, that is, not the masculine version borne of fistfuls of Peppermint Patties and Cheese Puffs.”

OK, despite the misspelling, a Kotaku mainstay, the posting raises more questions than that. Why do girls need advice from a guy to learn how to feel protected online? Why do girls need to change themselves to have male voices to play online?  Do girls need to dress like guys when they walk outside?  No way. So why should they have to change their voices, essentially disguise themselves, when they play in the online world?  Kotaku wants girls to spend $99 for a tech item so they won’t be harassed when they play an MMORPG?  Why not simply say, “Hey, guys, grow up: don’t harass”?  And by saying that a guy’s natural instinct is to harass women is pretty low … and pretty scary.  Sounds like the “He-Man Woman Hater’s Club” with a gamer bent.  At its best, it’s written by a guy who’s afraid of girls.  At its worst, McWhertor is promoting something religious extremists like the Taliban would enforce: the idea that it's a girl's fault that a guy harrasses her.  She was the one that didn't have a veil on her face (or in this case, a voice changer on his mic, right)?

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/girl-gamers/girl-gamers-protect-your-identity

Comments

[Michael McWhertor]

Harold, it's certainly not my intention (or Kotaku's by association) to promote the harassment of women online. This is something I have never done and would never advocate. I thought that my comments, nestled between terms like "boys club" and references to man breasts, might read as sarcasm. I find the software ridiculously overpriced, (from an idealist perspective) unnecessary, and marketed in a cheesy fashion, not unlike most of the marketing targeted at "girl gamers".

Clearly this sarcasm did not come across in that post.

Thanks for pointing out the typo. It has been corrected.

P.S. Your link to the Kotaku post is broken. The post you referred to can be found here.

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/girl-gamers/girl-gamers-protect-your-identity-hide-your-gender-185984.php

[I love the '80s too!!!]

So trying to be funny on the internet = terrorism? That's pretty cool I guess.

The sarcasm in the terrorist's post was pretty crystal clear to me, though, so I can only assume that you're attempting some kind of double-reverse irony here. The terrorist accusation thing is pretty played out, but otherwise, nice try!

[Barrie Ellis]

Kotaku's consideration of disabled gamers isn't exactly the best either. And that excused as "humour".

http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/remakes/retro-remakes-big-2006-retro-remaking-contest-177926.php

When they aren't being pathetic, it's a fine site. Shame really that their sense of humour is piss poor 13 year old.

[K__G]

Interesting that a network mostly built on irony and snarky pop culture programming is apparently unable to see sarcasm in others people's works..Do you need emoticon for air quotes before you can see it for yourself? Or is that you just want to get all NGJ over something that is apparently more of indication of where your mind is at rather than something the original poster actually said. You might want to give Jack Thompson a call...I hear he pays real good for completely scurrilous writing such as yours.

[Jeff Stolarcyk]

wait a minute...there are girls on the internet?

All the Kotaku article is doing is playing up the "he-man woman hater's club" stereotype that the online gaming community already has.

Could he have gone in a more successful direction with the article? Yeah, there's no doubt of that. But it's being sensationalist to claim that Kotaku is espousing any views beyond the strictly juvenille.

[Sean Broderick]

"Beyond the bounds of satire"

Are you shitting me? There is no bound of satire. There is no limit.

Obviously, they are trying to make the point of WHY a woman would choose to change the sound of her voice (because the prevailing culture of the male gamer is to treat woman with fear and hostility). Their statements are obviously satirical to point out the stupidity of that treatment and the extent that woman have to go to to protect themselves.

Take you 6th grade reading level away and write for Stuff or Maxim. You sicken me.

[Justin K]

At best, this is poor reading comprehension. At worst, it's a defaming misrepresentation of Mr. McWhertor's words. In the future please use restraint when comparing people to religious extremists, as well. You represent a major network...perhaps some professionalism is in order.

[Julie "Jigsaw" Ashcraft]

Harold, You brought up important points here.

[Moshenic]

http://www.exchange-on-line.com> - FRAUD - exchange-on-line.com - KIDALA - PayPal Webmoney - FRAUD - E-gold Moneybookers iKobo Netpay -KIDALA -Evocash E-bullion Goldmoney eBay
E-mail: info@exchange-on-line.com

[lohesteme]

Good day to avoid cops. Crawl to work.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://ebloggy.com/lucindarobbinski

[lgnvaru otmqcjw]

ownygax ypgwbhrja gimcnqh icenksjty nakmj itwguc iwlyhcbgm

[whelayneply]

I'm new here, just wanted to say hello and introduce myself.

[slollalia]

Heh. Nice. Sometimes I can't help but make a move with my purple custody Nice joke! Where do you get virgin wool from? Ugly sheep.

[luckymansy]

You can be lucky!!!

http://digg.com/users/holdempokertips