If I Were A Man I’d Be A Blogger
And the chicks would digg me.
Brian Crecente thinks women don’t blog, or at least they don’t blog about video games.
I have, for the past month or so, been trolling around on the net to find a woman to write for Kotaku because I feel very strongly about having a diverse group of writers. I know that people with different ethnic, gender and social backgrounds can offer different perspective; and perspective, insightful perspective is where it’s at in blogs.
But despite my digging around and my somewhat overt nosing around at GDC, I was hard-pressed to find the same sort of, for lack of a better term, job pool that I usually find with male writers.
This seemed a little strange to me, since my own experience has been that there is a fairly large pool of female bloggers in the gaming space. I would have been delighted to drop Chris the names of some noteworthy female bloggers, but of course you have to be in some kind of arcane Cthulhu-worshipping secret fetal-blood-drinking society to be worthy of the covenant of the Eternal Order of the Leavers of the Comments on Kotaku. Fortunately Brian need look no further than 100 Little Dolls for an excellent compilation of some of the best female bloggers in the gaming sphere. (I’m thrilled to be included on that list, but I’m not kidding myself. I know it was only to round out the list to a nice even 51. 
)
Andrea Rubenstein shares her own thoughts:
You want diversity at Kotaku? You want to add a woman to your staff? Then take down your damn “White Boys Only” sign and, at the very least, stop shoving your contempt for women down our throats in any post that even remotely can relate to women.
We are not your “whores”.
We are not your “bitches”.
And we are not going to sit down and kiss your feet for your half-assed attempts at including us.
Can I get a witness?
The problem isn’t a lack of qualified female writers. It’s a lack of female writers (and probably just writers in general) willing to have their name associated with Kotaku. It’s ironic that Brian’s diversity standards seem to be so admirably high, because, besides the fact that Kotaku is typically female unfriendly (or perhaps more accurately, overly Neanderthal-friendly, and don’t even get me started on the commenters). Kotaku’s editorial policies run the spectrum from inconsistent to inaccurate to occasionally interesting and once in awhile noteworthy. Like some hive-collective schizophrenic, it’s anyone’s guess as to which Kotaku is going to show up on any given post. Will it be the paparazzi Kotaku, or the hard news Kotaku, or maybe even the “one more post and I meet my quota”-ku. Kotaku can’t figure out what it wants to be when it grows up, and so, with few exceptions, it does very little very well.
Brian, if you’re serious about attracting quality writers, then start providing a quality Kotaku experience. And if you’re serious about attracting quality female writers, then start providing a female-friendly Kotaku experience. Until then, pardon us if we don’t take you seriously.
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Wow, when did Kotaku writers start referring to women as whores and bitches? I guess that means Joystiq will be doing it also in about 10 mins?
Amber I love the blog, but this post sounds like you are searching for something to write about almost as much as what you suggest the Kotakuratti does when looking for a story.
I am all for the Kotaku as it stands now I hope Crecente doesn’t change anything (I am white and male also so I guess that puts me in the “club”)…
Women blog? Who knew? Next you’ll be telling me that they’re allowed to ride on the inside of a bus too.
I’ll have to disagree with Cyanbane there, whether or not you are -interested- in what Kotaku thinks about trying to get female bloggers, it is pretty obvious that the topic directly involves Amber. It’s not like she’s posting an image of the most expensive pizza ever made and gaggling over how it costs a $1,000, this is a relevant topic and I can’t blame Amber for taking the opportunity to do a little good-old-fashioned Kotaku slamming.
Yeah. I was surprised that anyone found this irrelevant. I would count this as relevant on any blog written by a woman, actually, even if it weren’t a game blog. I’ve never read Kotaku, personally, so I don’t care if they (continue to) suck or not, but I’ve heard enough people mention that they’re on crack (white males, even) to give Amber the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Amber wrote:
I think I’m supposed to yell something from the crowd in response to this, but I’m not sure what… Maybe… “Yes!” Doesn’t feel right.
Kotaku is excellent for what they are, a fast paced news dish on just about every element of the gaming industry. They scoop news items faster than almost any other source on the web, and I appreciate that. They have an occasionally humerous item, often hedged in with a boatload of offensive and distasteful items that have so little relevance to any topic that it makes you laugh just for its non-sequitorous nature.
You go girl!
I was totally excited to see my blog on the list
even after I saw you pointed them at my blog!
Being upset that you weren’t invited to write for Kotaku is precisely the same as being insulted that you weren’t thought good enough an actress by Uwe Boll to star in Bloodrayne 2.
You really had to dig to get offended by this one didn’t you. Did you actually read the article or just Andrea Rubenstein’s feminazi summary?
If only you would use your powers for good.
This is all fasle of course, there are no women on the interwebs. Its all 15 year old white males posing as womens.
Seriuosly though, wow can you get any more chauvinistic. I read several blogs on a daily basis and I would say a good 30-40% are written by the female of our glorious species. Perhaps if the brainiacs at Kotaku had learned to use google and blast through some gaming blogs they’d have found at least a few decent feminine gaming views. Hell maybe even a few feminist ones as well. The lack of real searching for there taget shows a real lack of enthusiasm on thier part.
They prolly don’t want to put in a women’s bathroom any way….yeah thats it.
Uwe said I didn’t have the “range” he was looking for, you insensitive clod!
I agree completely. All those Kotaku guys are chauvinistic bastards who cannot write worth a damn. Something needs to be done. We should write them a strongly worded letter!
*sighs*
Hi Amber,
I was very interested to read this article considering a couple of things. One I am one of the Kotaku editors that you speak of and two I happen to be a gay man. As a matter of fact I just sort of “came out” in an article on the site and was met with all sorts of comments ranging from supportive to pure asshole-ishness. I also have created and run my own site GayGamer.net which in itself garners much criticism. So I can kind of see both sides of this argument. Yes, Kotaku and other sites like it are largely made up of “the boys club” although it doesn’t mean they are not open to other things. Brian Crecente has created for his staff a very open forum to be themselves and was very supportive when I told him I wanted to essentially come out on the site. I met with the other writers in NYC recently and they were all very nice, very accepting guys who treated myself and my boyfriend with the utmost respect. I think it’s easy though to get caught up in the whole “boobies boobies boobies” aspect of game writing when your audience is primarily of that exact mindset. It is an unfortunate circumstance of the game industry and one that I am personally trying to get people to move past.
My point is, not everyone that writes for every game site is a sexist chauvinist with a contempt for women. I like women very much and would like to see more of them in more high profile positions within the gameing journalism industry. And I may be wrong, but I think that was the point Brian was trying to make in his article. Hopefully, this is something that can be resolved and more attention will be paid to the “gameing minorities” of which there are many, in the future. I really believe that in hiring me, Brian was making a positive step towards making things a bit more all inclusive, even in a small way. And while you might not agree with the way he presented his information, I know in my heart that his intention was not to insult, but to really try and make a move towards another positive change.
Hi Flynn,
There is a culture within Kotaku that is hostile towards the dignified treatment of women that I believe Brian was probably oblivious to, either because he didn’t want to see it, or because he doesn’t really understand it. Whether it’s overt or covert, premeditated or subconscious, it exists. This is what I believe Andrea meant when she called Kotaku a “White Boys Only” club. One only need read Michael Fahey’s A Chat With Wii Panty Girl for a particularly reprehensible example. What female writer wants to be a part of that kind of culture? How would you have felt if a gay man had been subjected to that sort of “interview?”
So while Brian and the rest of the Kotaku staff may have been surprised at the response, in hindsight it should have been obvious. But unfortunately the root problem is never addressed. We’re dismissed as being overly-sensitive, told that we’re just digging for something to bitch about, called “feminazis” and worse. Occasionally we’re pooh-pooh’d and dismissed.
Kotaku doesn’t have to be a beacon of feminism, god forbid. But if you’re at all serious about catering to a diverse audience then you have to stop catering to a singular audience. If you want to attract women, you have to attract them from the ground up. You can’t just *say* you want diverse writers when you practice a completely different editorial policy.
I agree with you that “not everyone that writes for every game site is a sexist chauvinist with a contempt for women.” I’ll even go so far as to say that not everyone who writes/comments for Kotaku has contempt for women. Not all is rotten at Kotaku, but there is definitely an undercurrent of hostility that needs to be fixed if you expect female gamers to take the site seriously.
Flynn, thank you so much for taking the time to write and share your thoughts, and for giving me the opportunity to share mine. I appreciate it!
Hi again Amber,
Thank you for your response to my response! In an effort to start a change, I’m going to take the first step forward myself and start trying to create a more women friendly atmosphere at Kotaku, at least on the weekends which is when I am writing and am pretty much the only one there. If there are any articles or subjects that you would like to see covered, I invite you and your readers to please send them to me at fly…@kotaku.com. I am all for creating a more open and accepting atmosphere, but not being a woman myself, I hope I can rely on your guidance to help make this gaming community and Kotaku in particular, a place where everyone can feel comfortable, represented and coexist peacefully.
Thanks!
Amber maybe the reason everyone is telling you your being over-sensitive and full of shit is because your being over-sensitive and full of shit. Ever hear of humor? That’s what the chat with the Wii panty girl was. It was funny. Get a sense of humor you will live longer. If the Wii panty girl was having a problem with it she could have stopped at any time. Nobody else complained about it. Sad to hear Flynn Demarco cave into your terrorist demands I guess I won’t be reading Kotaku on the weekends.
Gary, maybe the reason you’ve got your wii panties all up in a bunch is because you’re an insensitive asshole? Just because you find something funny doesn’t necessarily mean everyone else will. And just because something is funny doesn’t mean it isn’t disrespectful, either.
I’m sick of guys like you making a bad name for the rest of us, asshat.
Well, clearly the answer is for Amber to become a gay man.
Oh yeah, sure – it’s way up there with Monty Python, The Marx Brothers and Bill Bailey it was that funny.
Pass the Rohypnol when you’re done with it.
Amber I’m surprised you didn’t reference the original Panty Girl story from Kotaku which was even worse than the interview. Wii In Your Panties.
Quote by Michael Fahey:
This wasn’t a comment, this was from the MAIN article written by Michael Fahey.
And then he has the nerve to post here with his sarcasm and act like nothings wrong. Well fuck you Michael Fahey, you have no idea how much damage your so-called humor causes. Thank God thare are people like Amber and Andrea who will speak out against your hatred. You and people like you have made for some of my most miserable and painful gaming experiences. Yah it must be really funny to people like you and Gary to humiliate someone so much that they can’t play their favorite online game anymore. You make me sick Michael Fahey.
I don’t have near the fashion sense to pull it off.
Posting because I post in every “Brian Cresent is a moron” threads.
Me too, but I try to spell my name right and not hide behind anonymity.
Amber, thanks for the gross over generalization of my short item. It really helps the issue.
Brian,
I don’t believe I commented enough about your post to come close to a “gross over generalization.” Your question was “why aren’t there more female gaming bloggers?” 100 Little Dolls answered your question, so I didn’t feel the need to address your post specifically any further. I think I was pretty kind to you personally, given that responsibility for the gender issues at Kotaku should very definitely rest on your shoulders.
Nobody who blogged on your post misunderstood you, we’re just incredulous that you and your staff seem to be oblivious to the gender issues your staff has fomented.
The rest of my post addressed several items, but the focus was on why women are treated so badly by the writers and commenters at Kotaku. You said in your original post:
I don’t mean this to sound combative, but if you’re interested in diversity Brian, why do you, as the senior Kotaku editor, tolerate posts such as the one Janelle, a few comments up, quoted? It certainly doesn’t support your stated goal of supporting diversity.
Brian, Amber provided evidence to refute your claim that there are not enough women blogging about video games. (There are also plenty working in the industry)
She (and her commenters) provided evidence of why women might not want to write for Kotaku, and indeed, content that might be found offensive.
Those, to me, are neither over-generalizations (and indeed, very specific) and do in fact help the issue by bringing the points up.
Maybe you object to her bringing the hate about Kotaku in general, and hey, I get upset when my blog is insulted too. But maybe you can do like your compatriot Flynn does and use it as a way to start a dialog to make some change for good?
Wow, Gary. Now feminists are terrorists? I didn’t feel even mildly threatened by Amber’s tone or words, let alone terrified. I read the Wii panty girl thing. It’s the first thing I’ve read on Kotaku. I didn’t find it funny. I found it really, really lame. Like so socially inept it was painful for me to read lame. I have no doubt it was intended as a joke, but–Look. I used to publish this magazine when I was in college. It was formatted sort of like the Onion. One of the things that new writers often forgot was that being horrible and/or vulgar is not, in and of its self, funny. It can add to humor, if you properly set the tone, you can catch someone off guard and have it be funny, but in general something has to be so funny in its own right that people who might have been offended will forget about it or forgive you. We said some pretty horrible stuff, but only crossed the line once (no one called us on it, but we printed a retraction/apology anyway).
As for the consensus angle you mentioned… You realize that “everyone” was telling Martin Luther King Jr. that he was being over-sensitive and full of shit, right? I, anyway, think he wasn’t. While this may not be as basic as voting rights, this is still related to women’s right and equality in society, so I don’t think I’m at all out of line invoking that as a parallel. Just because “everyone” thinks or says or does something doesn’t make it right.
I find it particularly amusing that anyone would somehow get the idea that Amber doesn’t have a sense of humor… I think she’s damn funny on a regular basis.
As for the consensus angle you mentioned… You realize that “everyone” was telling Martin Luther King Jr. that he was being over-sensitive and full of shit, right? I, anyway, think he wasn’t. While this may not be as basic as voting rights, this is still related to women’s right and equality in society, so I don’t think I’m at all out of line invoking that as a parallel. Just because “everyone” thinks or says or does something doesn’t make it right.
You have got to fucking be kidding me.
I find it particularly amusing that anyone would somehow get the idea that Amber doesn’t have a sense of humor… I think she’s damn funny on a regular basis.
I read Amber’s writing for her sense of humor, sarcasm, poncho stories and wit. I completely agree.
But, but… she’s American…
“You have got to fucking be kidding me.”
If that means you think the analogy is overreaching, perhaps you’ve forgotten that black men were allowed to vote fifty years before any women in the US. The plight of different social groups changes over decades, and I don’t think the feminine situation in the US right now is nearly as grave as that of 1960s blacks, but that doesn’t make a “your being over-sensitive” (double sic!) response any more valid. It doesn’t answer the complaint or amount to any kind of argument; it essentially means “shut up.”
For example, I may think that white people complaining about “reverse-descrimination,” in almost circumstances, are being whiny bitches. But I wouldn’t call them that; I would try to establish that the claimed wrongs either don’t exist or aren’t significant. Let’s see a response that rises to that minimum of reason; or, let’s see more apologies like Flynn’s.
Hypocrites!
Is the contest here to see who can use the most hate-filled biased bigotry to attack Kotaku and it’s readers? Are you all proud of yourselves for becoming the very thing you claim to despise?
and I don’t think the feminine situation in the US right now is nearly as grave as that of 1960s blacks
/agree wholeheartedly
It doesn’t answer the complaint or amount to any kind of argument; it essentially means “shut up.”
/agree wholeheartedly
You did it! Well done Amber we knew you would get traffic one day and not a troll in sight (before the fall anywho).
All the best.
Oh hon, I’m so sorry. Still only mom reading the blog, is it? Well chin up. Literacy is within your grasp!
[...] If I Were A Man I’d Be A Blogger Women game bloggers Female Gamers Feminism, Gaming and ‘Heroes’[Killer Betties] Feminism, gaming and “Heroes” [...]
[...] If I Were A Man I’d Be A Blogger Women game bloggers Female Gamers Feminism, Gaming and ‘Heroes’[Killer Betties] Feminism, gaming and “Heroes” [...]
[...] If I Were A Man I’d Be A Blogger Women game bloggers Female Gamers Feminism, Gaming and ‘Heroes’[Killer Betties] Feminism, gaming and “Heroes” [...]
[...] If I Were A Man I’d Be A Blogger Women game bloggers Female Gamers Feminism, Gaming and ‘Heroes’[Killer Betties] Feminism, gaming and “Heroes” [...]
Holy crap, I am disgusted yet again. Amber, thanks for bringing this to people’s attention. I could be wrong about this too, but I have tried to post in Kotaku’s commments after registering and have yet to see any of my comments posted, ever. Hmmm. I guess, after reading this, I will just stop visiting their site. The other commenters there make my skin crawl.