I don't usually post in stuff like this as I'm often just wasting my time and the only result is that I'm being around hostile people; they're opinionated powder kegs. There's some reasonable questions here, though, and some reasonable points. There's an issue with the entire premise of this thread, though, in that it takes the entire subject out of context; sexism in video games and 'geek' subculture is part of cultural sexism and general, and there will be elements missing without looking at it and understanding it in that full context. There are plenty of references and examples that relate to that in this thread-I think it's incomplete, though. On the apparently less loaded and shorter issue-'genuine' versus 'false' gamers. What it really comes down to is what the person is there for and enjoying about it. First there are 'posers' or 'casuals', someone who pretends to be interested or gets involved at only the most shallow level and is really just doing it for the appearance or running with the hype train. They're not there because they actually care about the game. People who play the game as escapism, rather than because they actually like it, actually fall in here in terms of intent, though to what level they're involved in the medium varies.. Then there are 'wannabees', who see those who really do care about the game and seek to be them, yet still lack the genuine interest and willingness. Then there are the 'genuine' players who genuinely care about the medium they're involved in and engage in it willingly and voluntarily. Then there are the ''hardcore', those who [b][i]really[/i][/b] get into it way beyond just liking it (compare a professional athlete to a hobbyist, for example). Then there are elitists, those who are into the game at either 'genuine' or 'hardcore' levels and look down on everyone else as not genuine-even those that are genuine, just because they're not hardcore. Another issue is the very meaning of the words 'geek' and 'nerd'-which have been stolen and bastardized a bit. [url=http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-reasons-2013-officially-marked-death-nerd/] Here's an article on this.[/url] Nerd, by its very nature, means someone who's into something and overbearing about it to the point of obnoxiousness and harmful to their own social connection. Also, as the mediums they have and ostracized for loving become 'trendy', those same things they care so much about are then mutated to cater to a different crowd-often the 'poser' one, meaning they very thing they enjoyed and made has now been stolen from them, and they're [i]still[/i] ostracized and not taken seriously. No, they do not get all fantasy, science-y and so on media and culture to themselves; they [i]have[/i] been abused, though. Similar is the issue with women entering male-oriented games. Now, as for the gender issue... let me start with this. [quote=thinkertron2000] "Dick" does not equal to any of those words, largely because men aren't as as maligned as women are, and "bitch" as an insult for men is still sexist against women. When you call a man a "bitch", what you means is that he's like a woman, submissive and incompetent.hahahahaHAHAHAH! I love guys like this, people who've never actually spoken to a feminist, nor read any feminist articles. You're adorable. Look, one of the biggest tenants of feminism is getting rid of gender rolls, and a patriarchal* society, both of which certainly hurt women, but they hurt men as well. It's because of gender rolls that women get the children in divorces more often (well, that and a higher amount of male abusers than female), it's because of a patriarchal society that male victim rape is so often ignored (also the same reason that female victim rape is ignored).Do you want to know why feminists rarely talk about male problems? BECAUSE THERE ARE SO MANY FEWER OF THEM THAN FEMALE PROBLEMS. It's not that hard you guys. [/quote] That is a complete lie. Sexism never goes one way; a person cannot be sexist towards one gender and not the other. Sexism is discrimination based on gender. Discrimination is behavior taken in response to a person bearing a certain quality or qualities that you have an opinion on-that is, being and/or doing something that you want them to not be and/or do, /and/or not being and/or doing what you [i]do[/i] want them to be and/or do. Men 'discriminate' against women because certain qualities violate what they believe and want woman to do and/or be (or not do and/or be). What's less often looked at is that if those men are assigning a gender role to those women, they must also assign a gender role to men. For every discriminatory issue you'll find of men towards women, you'll find the same of men towards men-and women towards men and women towards other women. Feminists and media currently often bring up the issue of women dressing in clothing that is often perceived as masculine; yet how much attention is given to males dressing in supposedly 'feminine' clothing? If a male wears anything with a hem more than an inch or so past his groin (at a generous best), he's accused of homosexuality, being 'a pussy' and so on. Women often don't get paid as much. On the other hand, men are penalized more for not achieving. Abuse is a horrendous sexist act if it's male on female. It's comedy or even 'sexy' if it's female on male. If a guy approaches a female too hard, he'll get a restraining order. If a girl approaches a guy too hard, people will be jealous of his stalker. When an approach by a fat woman is refused by a man, he's thought of as shallow and judgmental. When a woman refuses a man because he's short, the guy is thought of as a loser. Women are ostracized from video games, to some degree sports and others. Men aren't 'allowed' to play with dolls, acting/dressing up, jewelry, many arts and crafts such as creating clothing, and so on. And, of note to the quote I posted above-if a woman cries or is distraught, it's an expression of tender emotion. If a male cries for anything less than the most extreme circumstances, he's berated and called pathetic. Men's issues often don't up as much because part of the very nature of men's particular issues in this matter is that he can't talk about it. For males, being open is portrayed as being vulnerable and weak-and just as much by women as from other men. Women are just as hard-if not more so-on men about being 'strong' in general. Brene Brown covers touches on this a bit in this video. Skip to 15:00 to go immediately to it. [youtube]GRbD4g3hshw[/youtube] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psN1DORYYV0) On the note of gender-based curse words-those are sexist, and to [i]both[/i] genders. They all imply something about what each gender is an isn't as an insult-that is, insult based on violating gender roles, which also implies that the trait is bad, meaning that it insults one gender for having that trait and the other for not having it. As for gamer girls specifically-aside from [i]their[/i] frequent sexism (and the degree of theft of the medium by casuals in general), this does baffle me a bit. I previously [i]wished[/i] there were more girls. Males approaching females in an amorous sense in games is also not an issue in and of itself (though he can be sexist about it). I myself often jump to this when I find a girl involved in the same medium because she's a girl who not only apparently accepts the same medium I'm interested, she's even into it herself. It's an immediate and preexisting connection; I already know we have something in common, and it's something we can share and enjoy together. To call that sexist, by the same logic, calls any male approaching any female with an amorous agenda over any sort of connection is sexist-meaning that romance as a whole is sexist. On the note of similar/different treatment-this holds some, minor ground. There are variations between male and female and other distinctions, thus some standards have to vary. As said previously by others, though, these tend to be minute in humans and only apply when relevant, and it bears no weight in altering the respect that we give others.