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Video Games for Girls

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I visited Gamestop the other day looking to preorder some games with the few extra bucks in my pocket. Before walking to the counter I briefly perused the “Upcoming Games” section, crafting mental notes of the games I will yearn for in the coming months. While browsing my personal must-buy titles, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Gears of War 3 and Batman: Arkham City, I noticed a small section of games in an unmarked category. They were certainly unmarked for a reason.

Among the games, if you can even call them that, included My Baby Girl for Nintendo DS, The Cheetah Girls: Pop Star Sensations Wish List and Bratz: Girls Really Rock. I must have wandered my way into the “girl” section. Besides these games describing my own personal hell they insult me on a multitude of levels.

What makes a game a “girl game”? Are they shoved into that category due to a lack of violence and testosterone fueled imagery or is this grouping purposely utilized as a mechanism to reinforce gender stereotypes? I hope neither but both are undoubtedly true.

Video Games for Girls

Females play video games nearly as often as the boys do these days. The attempt to sell games about childcare, fashion, and makeup is ridiculous. What child, let alone an adult, wants to play a game about taking care of a baby? Being a parent is the most difficult job in the world, and mixing the immense responsibility of parenthood with the concept of gaming fun is an utter oxymoron.

I am a girl and I am a gamer. I’ve been addicted to video games ever since I was 5 years old and I have no desire of stopping any time soon. I can say that I have never once felt the urge to mix and match virtual outfits on my DS or become an imaginary popstar via my Wii. My double X chromosome in no way dictates that I should be forced to play such garbage! I play real titles, games prevalent across all demographics not type-casted in the female category.

My trip to Gamestop definitely put me in the ranting mood but this gamer girl will continue to play the games she loves regardless of the insistence upon lame, uninspired, and blatantly insulting games related to gender. Video games for girls? No thank you.

ABOUT Taylor

Taylor Stein is a recent college graduate and freelance games writer. You can find her work on Destructoid, G4, Bitmob, 1UP, Pure Nintendo, Honest Gamers, and more. Beyond the arena of geekdom. she is a fitness freak and lover of sushi. Don't judge this book by its cover, let's talk games! Google

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  • O’Neil

    I totally understand that they should not assume “girls” want to play those ridiculous non-games. I think these games skew under your age range. In my opinion though you are in a special group. There are a large number of women who are hard core gamers and those games aren’t for them. There are people including some men I would guess, who enjoy those games. I did a quick search for reviews for the games you mentioned on metacritic and the only game reviewed was the Bratz game and it got middle of the road reviews. They have games based on cartoons that are skewed towards little boys and a lot of those games are horrible. I wouldn’t say I’m offended by them. I just think there is always a market for those kind of games. Many of them make good money although people of our ilk have no interest. I don’t think you should be offended Taylor, just know those game are not for you. I’m not ignorant to the fact that there is a stigma out there in regards to women and not just specifically their gaming habits but I would urge all women not to let those stigma’s define them. As more female gamers step forward and involve themselves in the community (As you’re doing here) and show that they are not only beautiful women inside and out but they are serious gamers that can kick a guys ass in male dominated games, we will see a bigger shift in perception. We need a lot more women involved than we have currently especially on the editorial side.

    • Taylor Stein

      I appreciate your comment! Your’re absolutely right, I shouldn’t take it personally. I also assumed that the main offender in this “social injustice battle” was gender but age is undoubtedly a key component in an advertising campaign that I overlooked somewhat. Great insight and I hope to see more females represented as serious and competent members of the gaming community.



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