Social Stigmas

Going off of a question I receive a lot in game, "Are you really a girl or a dude?" I always answer honestly and proudly and say I am a girl. However in real life there are very few people that know my secret love affair with gaming. After some internal reflection I have come to the conclusion that I hide this from most people because I grew up with my parents looking negatively at 'gamers' so I accepted the stigmas they placed on them as truth.

Many of the social stigmas associated with gamers and female gamers simply are not true, especially in today's diverse society in Canada and the United States.

Here is a list of some of the stigmas I would like to see done away with.

1. Gaming is for males and therefore females are not as capable or carry the same degree of skill as their male counterpart would.

2. Gamers are:

• Lazy
• Anti-social
• Overweight/Obese/Unfit/Out of shape
• Nerds

South Park's Make Love Not Warcraft (Season 10, Episode 8) makes light of a lot of the stereotypes placed on gamers in today's North American society.  I actually love this episode just because of how extreme it really is, but it annoys me when people view this episode and think that is how EVERY gamer really is.

3. Gaming is just a waste of time.
In my opinion gaming is a form of entertainment the same as watching a football game on television, going to the cinema or a round of mini golf. It is personal preference how you want to spend your spare time and which method gives you the most enjoyment for the amount of money or time you have to spend.

4. Gamer's will spend their entire life living in their parents basement, eating pizza pops and drinking soda, and never have a significant other.

5. Gamer's only like to game and spend their entire life doing that.

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I fell in love with video games with Super Mario Brothers for the Super Nintendo, which I beat numerous times and was better than my brother at. I get good grades and graduated from University, while at University I continued playing video games, mostly World of Warcraft. It did not consume my life, I was able to balance, school, relationships, having my own apartment and work.

I can play my avatars just as well as a lot of the males out there and was able to be a strong guild leader. While I love games, I also love to read and write and play sports outdoors.

I find it sad in the 21st Century that there are so many negative stigmas associated with gaming. Real life has them and for a girl, you cannot even escape them in the game sometimes.

So in the end do what you love to do, and try and ignore the stigmas so that hopefully one day, when our children are growing up they will not have to face this type of stereotyping.

Join the party, grab some friends and get out there and game!