Feminism Catch-All (with FAQ)

I saw this letter to Microsoft about their E3 shenannigans and thought it might add something to the conversation. I really appreciate how articulate the letter is, specifying particular actions and not lumping them together under useless terms like "offensive" (Giving offense itself is not a crime, but lots of crimes give offense.) Brava Cynthia Sharpe, brava.

Cynthia Sharpe wrote:

IMAGE(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/v/p526x296/912903_10152785833945176_1301490042_n.jpg?oh=66db1dfe1cb760ce59b65c3fd66aa89b&oe=51BBF56D&__gda__=1371302138_fd7eae5883cf9167eb728faf59f32a96)Dear Microsoft,

I'm a gamer. I'm a gamer who happens to rock 2 X chromosomes. I have owned a computer since I was 5. I'm 40 now, so you can calculate just how freaking much of an early adopter family I'm part of. My husband is also a gamer and, perhaps unsurprisingly, so is our 10 year old son. Name the type of game, and we own it. From FPS to sandbox, side scroller to MMORPG, and just about everything in between. Our kid is part of the hyper wired generation, and while he can't freakin remember to use shampoo when he showers, he remembers the screen names of every single one of his friends.

This 'holiday season', we'll be buying a new console. But it's going to be an upgrade of our PS. Because much as I, an experience designer, would love to get my mitts on a Kinect system, there is no way I am supporting your Interactive Entertainment Division by buying an Xbox. Guess what- it's not about digital rights. It's not about the short-sightedness of the mandatory online authentication, or the lack of back compatibility.

It's about that division's attitude towards women. Because as if perpetuating the stereotype of ha hah, women gamers, they suck, by setting a vastly unprepared female employee up against a producer wasn't belittling enough; as if having a cavalcade of trailers without female protagonists wasn't exclusionary enough; the rape crack he made certainly was horrible enough. I have a big enough fight on my hands vis-a-vis the rape culture, and raising a boy to be aware of what male privilege is, and arming him to never, ever perpetuate that kind of absolute bullsh*t. I don't need to give money to a corporation that puts rape culture, puts anti-woman culture, right there, in the middle of the biggest forum they have.

"Yesterday, during the Xbox E3 briefing, one of our employees made an off the cuff and inappropriate comment while demoing 'Killer Instinct' with another employee." The fact that your employee felt it was fine to make that kind of comment in the first place speaks volumes about your attitude towards 47% of the market.

Look at this kid in the picture. I've already told him why we will not be getting an Xbox this year. His response?

"I wouldn't want to give them money anyway, if they think it's okay to make fun of women because they're women."

With an absolute lack of respect,
Cyn

PS: One small bright spot: with that 'off the cuff' and 'offensive' comment, you may have actually found a way to supplant Clippy as my most despised Microsoft entity.

IMAGE(http://cdn.lastangryfan.com/wp-content/uploads/citizen-kane-clapping.gif)

I'm sorry, but I have no words. What that women did... Absolutely perfect. Great reaction from here, I love her letter, and I love that she's raising her son the way I dream of raising mine.

And the Clippy burn as a cherry on top.

Great letter.

I was looking over the list of games that was shown by each developer for a different discussion and MS was really, really light on showing any women at all.

Looking over the list and recalling what was shown, I'm not sure a single woman was shown in any trailer there. None of the games have female protagonists and I don't think there was even one that let you choose gender. (Halo multiplayer may allow a woman, and Below had a character of indeterminate gender).

Sony showed female protagonists in Transistor and Beyond: Two Souls. The Last of Us and Rain prominently feature female co-protagonists (as far as I can tell). The PS4 version of Assassin's Creed IV will feature a mission where you play a woman. Diablo III, Don't Starve, Final Fantasy XIV and Elder Scrolls Online are all games where you can choose to play a woman (possibly more, I'm not super familiar with every game shown).

Nintendo showed Bayonetta 2 and a number of games where playing as a female character is an option: Pokemon X/Y, Super Mario 3D World (finally replacing the second Toad with Peach), Mario Kart 8, Wii Party U, Wii Fit U, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and Smash Bros. 4. (Probably Wonderful 101 as well, I wasn't clear on that point though). That's a good amount!

EDIT: I'm not saying none of these games are problematic *cough*Bayonetta*cough*, just making a comparison of how many women were featured on screen at the press events.

Many of you may find this shallow/stupid, but that letter actually changed my mind about which console I would get. I didn't like the rape comment but I was still planning on getting the Xbox 1 for a few different reasons, but when she put it in that type of context...I don't think I can justify a 500 dollar purchase to a company that drops a hugely damaging comment in such a blase manner.

So...good on you, Cyn. Your words affected Microsoft for at least 500 dollars.

The rape reference in the MS conference and the reaction to those who, ahem, DARED to call it out disgusted me to the point where I completely ignored MS while I was up in LA. Sorry, I don't need your rape culture. Keep your fanboy defense force too.

Seth wrote:

Many of you may find this shallow/stupid, but that letter actually changed my mind about which console I would get. I didn't like the rape comment but I was still planning on getting the Xbox 1 for a few different reasons, but when she put it in that type of context...I don't think I can justify a 500 dollar purchase to a company that drops a hugely damaging comment in such a blase manner.

So...good on you, Cyn. Your words affected Microsoft for at least 500 dollars.

Not to belittle the awesomeness of the letter, but I can't help but feel that tarring the entirety of the Xbox division because one employee was very publicly (and to be fair, completely unscripted-ly) a f***ing moron is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I would imagine (and hope) that there are professional repercussions for the guy, and I applaud the letter writer for reaching out to MS to tell them in no short order what a screw-up that was.

However, am I to believe that every member of Sony's Playstation team are paragons of feminism? That there aren't just as many misogynistic morons working there too? Or rather than Sony did a better job of managing which of their mouthpieces they put in front of the cameras?

Ultimately though, horses for courses - if that screw-up changes how you feel about the whole corporation, then you get on with your bad self, and enjoy the hell out of your PS4.

I've never really felt that Microsoft "gets" gamers (of the older school kind) so their XBox business has never especially appealed to me. I was already kind of of the opinion that the XBone wouldn't be for me but this latest round of rapey awfulness has totally sealed that deal.

Yeah. That's the other side of it, Jonman, and why I would accept accusations of being called shallow. From one perspective, I feel like I'm punishing a whole lot of innocent people for the behavior of one moron. The other perspective is that other than withholding my dollars, I don't know how else to effectively communicate my feelings.

Seth wrote:

Yeah. That's the other side of it, Jonman, and why I would accept accusations of being called shallow. From one perspective, I feel like I'm punishing a whole lot of innocent people for the behavior of one moron. The other perspective is that other than withholding my dollars, I don't know how else to effectively communicate my feelings.

Yeah, that also occurred to me that "voting with your wallet" is the only vote you have.

Although that said, a letter like the one posted upthread would likely have a bigger impact that a lost sale, as there's no way for that lost sale to be detected, let alone traced back to this incident.

Either way, I wouldn't call it shallow by any stretch, just maybe an ineffective way to communicate what you want to the corporation.

Jonman wrote:

However, am I to believe that every member of Sony's Playstation team are paragons of feminism? That there aren't just as many misogynistic morons working there too?

Neither the complaint nor the point being made.

Jonman wrote:

Or rather than Sony did a better job of managing which of their mouthpieces they put in front of the cameras?

Well this is the crux of it. Clearly Sony care enough not to deliberately set up a "hurr, hurr, girlz suck at gamez" bit in their press conference and they care enough for everyone to have enough PR training not to make rape jokes in public. Seemingly XBox, not so much.

The rape "gag" probably is a tasteless off the cuff remark that could be fixed with a reasonably apology. Orchestrating a bit where a guy beats an unprepped girl at some game while he trash talks her on stage was clearly premeditated.

Jonman wrote:
Seth wrote:

Yeah. That's the other side of it, Jonman, and why I would accept accusations of being called shallow. From one perspective, I feel like I'm punishing a whole lot of innocent people for the behavior of one moron. The other perspective is that other than withholding my dollars, I don't know how else to effectively communicate my feelings.

Yeah, that also occurred to me that "voting with your wallet" is the only vote you have.

Although that said, a letter like the one posted upthread would likely have a bigger impact that a lost sale, as there's no way for that lost sale to be detected, let alone traced back to this incident.

Either way, I wouldn't call it shallow by any stretch, just maybe an ineffective way to communicate what you want to the corporation.

That is my problem with vote with your wallet in general. There's no actual feedback so there's no clear lesson to learn.

To provide a little context for why I also like the letter, it seems to me that MS's message has been kind of aggressive and disrespectful to begin with. Things like "We already have an offline console, it's called the Xbox 360" and equating no-internet connection with being on a submarine (not to mention Adam Orth) paint a picture that MS doesn't really care about their customers. While there's obviously nothing sexist about those remarks, it makes things like the rape joke sting a little harder for me.

Out of interest, someone around here must have experience working for Microsoft? I assume they have fairly robust diversity, equality and anti-discrimination policies? It's something that I've been continually impressed with my own employer.

Can anyone chime in on that? Is the working environment at MS endemically misogynistic, a bit of a boys club?

Hmm. I disagree, Farscry. In fact, a feedback of -500.00 seems pretty loud. Much louder than a legion of Xbox 1 owners complaining about their flaw of choice in the console. I don't really view online complaints as useful, unless they're backed up with financial complaints. In other words, I don't care how much you hate me, so long as you keep paying me money.

Jonman's right that the message may be muddled: Microsoft won't know I'm not buying an Xbox because 1) I'm scared of an intelligent robotic camera eye watching me, 2) I am disgusted by their perpetuation of rape culture, or 3) I'm still mad at them for botching Windows 8. But in any case, withholding dollars seems almost infinitely more effective than tweeting my disappointment.

edit: Microsoft has an extremely progressive LGBT domestic benefits package, and the company regularly donates to marriage equality campaigns. So I'm aware of a nose --> face scenario going on here.

I touched on this in the MS conference thread, but I never feel comfortable with simply voting with my dollars when it comes to video game issues. Why? I'm usually not part of the "target demographic" in the first place. They're far more likely to take the message "oh, she was never interested in games in the first place" than "I am a serious gamer who was alienated by your policies."

I really need to start writing more letters to devs.

I agree voting with wallets is important, but like a few others have mentioned, I think it's often also important to make it clear why you've done so, as to help differentiate the wallet vote "Your policies have alienated me" from the wallet vote "I just don't feel like spending money right now."

Basically, what Demyx said, though with less of a personal onus, I guess.

Jonman wrote:

However, am I to believe that every member of Sony's Playstation team are paragons of feminism? That there aren't just as many misogynistic morons working there too? Or rather than Sony did a better job of managing which of their mouthpieces they put in front of the cameras?

A supposedly leaked PS4 commercial that features a girl that plays Killzone:

Doesn't mean much by itself but little things add up to a bigger impression of the companies, you know?

Jonman wrote:

Out of interest, someone around here must have experience working for Microsoft? I assume they have fairly robust diversity, equality and anti-discrimination policies? It's something that I've been continually impressed with my own employer.

Can anyone chime in on that? Is the working environment at MS endemically misogynistic, a bit of a boys club?

Each team is its own fiefdom so my experience working on the Office365 team will be different with the Xbox team or any other team. You need to find someone on the Xbox team who is willing to talk about it.

That PS4 vid is neat.

One of the Battlefield 4 videos had a woman playing commander mode on a tablet as well. I know I shouldn't be impressed by a show of equality, but compared to most crap we see coming out of video game marketing, I can't help but cheer a little at every step forward. I doubt you'd see that in marketing for a Call of Duty game for example.

Guys that's...OMG BATTLEFIELD4

Must...resist...dropping another grand on a second computer! I played the hell out of 1-2-3. This will likely be no different.

Seth wrote:

Hmm. I disagree, Farscry.

...bwuh?

If that's the way the video sharing interface works, I'm actually pretty damn sold on it. That looks awesome, save for the apparent need for a real name social media identifier. That's not cool.

Not sure where to put this but thought that this thread might be appropriate

So... the Australian military has an ongoing issue with institutional sexism that came to a head a couple of years ago, currently there is a recent breaking scandal involving a number of officers and some highly degrading emails detailed a little here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia...

Their Chief of the Army then released this clear and unequivocal statement on the issue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...

Apart from being a classic example of Australian straight talking and clear thinking this strikes me as entirely the kind of thing that we need if we are to address institutionalised sexism, it needs to be brought out in to the open, exposed and properly actioned. Exactly the opposite of what happened to the SWP party in the UK earlier this year (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...).

Jonman wrote:

Not to belittle the awesomeness of the letter, but I can't help but feel that tarring the entirety of the Xbox division because one employee was very publicly (and to be fair, completely unscripted-ly) a f***ing moron is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

But we must agree that the bathwater is at least a little bit poopy.

I saw a lot of gender diversity in my corner of EBU when I was a contractor there. But as Edwin notes, every little place is different, and if you have a misogynistic manager, he'll hire differently.

If anyone "rockin' two X chromosomes" would like the email of a woman working in the games division to get some perspective (I'd ask "How do we best communicate our upsetedness with Microsoft?"), PM me.

H.P. Lovesauce wrote:

If anyone "rockin' two X chromosomes" would like the email of a woman working in the games division to get some perspective (I'd ask "How do we best communicate our upsetedness with Microsoft?"), PM me.

Technically, you might to say that you are NOT rocking a Y chromosome, as XXYs occur, and they are physically male. Or, as the Cartoon Guide to Genetics put it, "It's the Y that makes the guy!"

He was quoting Cyn from the example above.

Anyone working a marketing strategy role ought to naturally check their stuff to make sure everyone's not one gender or race. That sort of thing ought to sit right beside proofreading marketing copy, in terms of obvious tasks.

Experiment: attend E3 as a woman. Walk into every first, second, third party and indie booth. Attempt to play a demo or ask questions. Observe how these company representatives (aka: individuals) treat you. Observe how they treat men who also take interest in their products. Report your findings here.

And... Go!

P.S. I'm waaaaaaay ahead of you.

I look forward to the report.

So, CFI finally made an official response the whole Women in Secularism CFI conference fiasco. Here's a breakdown of how their statement reads.