Anita Sarkeesian, Video Game Rape Culture, and Why Online Harassment Is Not a Joke (long screencap)

[jeff47]

31. I think primarily we need to talk to the "non-jock" teenagers

If the teenagers of both genders who assume they aren't "good enough" actually tried to get dates, they'd find they were "good enough". That would do an enormous amount of good destroying pedestals and learning that the other gender isn't so different. And that will make bigotry seem dumb.

I don't think it will take any sort of challenge/confrontation. It'll take getting these kids to take the first steps to build their "date-ability" self-esteem. Everything else will flow naturally from there as they interact with actual people of the opposite gender.

Speaking of this phenomenon as a whole, the vast majority of this isn't coming from adult gamers. It's the teenagers. And they aren't done growing yet. They need to be steered, not confronted.

As for getting worse, it's not going to. Because the game developers still need to keep the adults buying and playing their games. Also, game developers have realized women like games too, and turning them off is a bad business decision.

Think of it this way, the most horrifically misogynistic game in the last 10 years was Duke Nukem Forever. It tanked. Because of the misogyny.