[quote=Jorick]For instance, two people in this thread so far (IRLGoat and Magic Magnum) have said things to the effect of gamers rarely interacting with girls.[/quote] Feeling the need to clarify here, cause re-reading my earlier post I think I did give across the wrong message. I didn't mean for that to come across as an on average or all gamer's sort of comment. Just that it is noticeably more common in geek culture than outside it (at least in High School and before. College and later it seems even out). Which honestly I think is really the result of 2 things. 1. Elementary & High School Culture (+How Parent's raise them) cause kids to equate sports, drinking etc. to be popular and cool. But games, anime etc. to be lame. So those who do like it get casted out, and as a result don't get as much interaction with the opposite sex. 1a. This being combined with how Culture still seems to raise women (Unconciously or not) to go after the cooler/alpha male, so naturally most women get lured away from the uncool geek culture. 2. It being highlighted as something as weird, odd and different it acts as a place of acceptance for those with a lack of success in average life. A place of understanding, reliability and ultimately an escape from the real world that shunned them. [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_qlumZ5K4I]James Portnow from Extra Credits did a good talk on how stuff like games can be compulsive for people like that.[/url] They also have other episodes which address this issue, and the sexism that's apparent in geek culture, all of which I feel relate to the topic on hand if anyone has the time to watch them. [quote=Jorick]I've seen plenty of instances of fake geek stupidity, such as people wearing glasses with no lenses and then talk about how they're such a geek, or how someone will say they studied for some test and then say something like "I'm such a nerd" in a positive joking manner, or how some will talk about how they played and that they're a huge geek because of it.[/quote] Forgot about these cases... Most these I just see as such horrible/bad attempts at being a Geek that I forget to even count them as attempts to be one. With these cases in mind I change my percentage estimate of 95% to become around 50% or so. It varies anywhere from 80%-20% though I'd say depending on the area. [quote=Jorick]-Long bit on Girl's using their sex to get free shit-[/quote] Maybe it's just been my general play style and lack of caring if there's a girl around or not, but I've rarely noticed this in the game's I've played. Though, at the same time I've never played an MMO to the point that I imagine these girls would pick me as a target for this kind of thing anyways. If a girl got into a game like Kotor or Mass Effect though where I was really high leveled and started asking me for stuff... well first off I'd be shocked they found a way into a single player game. :P But these are cases that I have at least heard much about. Hell in one group I'm in on facebook called the Cult of Dusty I know of at least one girl who has bragged about doing this stuff for free games and such constantly. And the behavior outright disgusts me, to be honest. It really worsens the case for girls trying to get involved in the community. [quote=IRLGoat]Haha~ You'd be more worried if it were effecting your lifeeee. :/[/quote] I believe Jorick means more in terms of the fact that he's not worried about where it's going. Not in regards to it's current state. But honestly, getting up in arms against the Gaming community demanding them to treat women better will get you nothing but a knee-jerk reaction making the situation worse. The wheels to get women more accepted are already in motion, this kind of thing takes time though for everyone to adjust and get used to. No group of people have been instantly accepted into something over night. Getting mad at the community at a whole for it is only going to piss them off and slow down the process. I mean just look at Anita and Feminist Frequency (most of her points being falsified not counting for this example). Even if everything she said was true, all she's doing is getting gamer's to react badly to her and do stuff like make apps of her getting beat up. If anything she's pissing people off at girls and gaming than she is helping people accept girls in gaming. Granted, you can argue that no matter what people do to get equality there will be bad reactions. This is true, that's part of the cycle to getting equality to happen, but once the gears have already been turned people are far better off by offering good solutions than they are simply complaining about it. [quote=IRLGoat]I believe girls do deserve a bit of special treatment(unless they're totes cray), since we already receive special treatment in the negative aspect. :/[/quote] Now, like Jorick's already said. This is only worsening it for you, not helping. If women are being treated unfairly you want to fix/get rid of it by having that bad treatment go away and have them be treated equally. If you give them special treatment instead, you not only allow the bad treatment to stay but also give the message that women aren't good enough to be treated normally and instead need to be treated with more sensitivity and care. Which I don't think anyone here wants or agree's with. In another sense, imagine someone broke an arm. Are you better off fixing the arm so it can work normally? Or are you better off leaving it broken, but changing the environment around them to be broken arm friendly? [quote=thinkertron2000]at least to stop using gendered words, like "slut", "whore", "bitch" and so on. Using these targets them AS WOMEN, rather than as just someone you don't like, [/quote] And what about word's like dick? Also I've seen some women curse words used on men, like bitch. Hell that's more gender neutral at this point with how people use it. [quote=Jorick]I think that's the first time someone has ever said I'm a nice guy who means well.[/quote] I agree, it is odd seeing someone say that of you. :/ Though, to be fair you have been coming off as less "I care nothing for your feelings and will just slam my opinion down hard on you lately". But maybe that's just because I've known you for a while now and have gotten used to you. :P [quote=Kestrel]On the other hand you try telling someone, as a straight guy, that you enjoy Desperate Housewives and then go a week without uttering the sentence; "No, I'm not gay. Why would you ask that?" (really, try it. It's hard.)[/quote] Oh yea... I personally don't watch the show at all, but I've had people in High School think I'm gay simply cause of how I never seemed to alter my mood or go out of my way at all to be with a girl. Thankfully though the school was largely homophobic, so I learned about by just having a casual conversation with some classmates and them passively saying I was gay just as if it was well known fact and I had to go "Woah there, you think I'm what now?".