How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
The internet has some pretty strict criteria for the way girls who play video games should look and act.
Women and girls who play video games are up against a lot: one-dimensional female protagonists, sexual harassment by male gamers, objectification, and a litany of weirdly specific — and impossible to fulfill — criteria for what “real” gamer girls should be.
If male gamers and nerds have always, to some extent, been challenged to prove their “authenticity” to others in the community, those tests have been based in knowledge and skill. With female gamers, it’s quite a bit more complicated — and more than a little sexist.
What gamer girls (and, relatedly, their comic book cousins, “fake geek girls”) should and shouldn’t do (and what they should and shouldn’t look like) is a frequently heated topic of Internet discussion, particularly on Tumblr. (See the gamer girl tag in particular.)
Here are just a few of the confusing, and often paradoxical, rules set forth by Internet people (gamers and non-gamers alike) on what a gamer girl should be.
1. A gamer girl shouldn’t announce that she’s a gamer.
(The original, non-gaming version of this comic can be found here.)
And even though people keep doubting the existence of girl gamers …
2. … gamer girls shouldn’t identify themselves as girls or make themselves known as such.
3. Real gamer girls don’t ever play Mario Kart or use pink controllers.
4. A gamer girl should not be cute or TOO overtly feminine.
It looks like she SHOULD still be hot, though, with a LITTLE cleavage at least.
5. A gamer girl CAN be hot if she’s headless and in her underwear …
6. … but not if she’s a whole person who wants nerd “street cred.”
8. Instead, gamer girls are submissive and quiet — “the heroine to complete your story.”
This, from a truly remarkable (but not in the good way) piece of writing called “Date A Girl Who Plays Video Games.”
9. Gamer girls need to take extra care not to annoy the guys they play games with.
HOT ON
More Buzz
- Contributions
- (Page 1 of 2)
-
jennao2 3 weeks agoThis whole topic is so weird, what female gamers should and should not do. How about, everyone be cool and have fun. How about we try that. I’m a chick, and I game, and I could care less if someone takes me seriously or not, or thinks I’m “fake”, or whatever. I don’t have time for that.
-
- teresac5 thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is LOL &
- Devon B. How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- Siarlas How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- dudehugespeaks.tumblr.com readers just made How Should A Gamer Girl Be? hotter
-
shevnrug 3 months agoThe old appeals to racial, sexual, religious chauvinism and to rabid nationalist fervor are invalid. Monetary systems are false societies. Those societies will go down in history as humanities lowest developments.
We have the brains, the know-how, the technology and the feasibility to build entirely new civilizations. -
- jennys7 How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- mk thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is
- reddit.com readers just made How Should A Gamer Girl Be? hotter
- dethgirl How Should A Gamer Girl Be? and thinks it’s WTF & Fail
-
- Thom thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is Cool Story Bro
- kelseym8 thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is LOL
- josiel3 How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- Grace Bixby How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- DramaticallyGiles thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is
- celinalaf thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is OMG
-
Raiil 3 months agoI think something the writer really didn’t consider is that a lot of the backlash against the ‘Gamer Gurl’ image is coming from other women. And no, it’s not because they hate women. Or they want to be special. Or crap like that. It’s because a lot of us (yes, including me) went through years of dealing with flak about being gamers, and then you have this wave of women who come in licking controllers, spamming YOLO, and now when we try to hop onto multiplayer, we’re dealing with more idiots who now have fuel for the fire. When you’re like me and spent years getting harassed in arcades and on multiplayer just for the ‘crime’ of having female bits, and then you hop onto an MMO and watch people act flirty and crap to try to get help or gain some sort of imaginary position in a game, it’s a little infuriating because we spent a lot of time overcoming this ‘teehee I’m so special because I’m a GURL’ and now they’re coming in droves? Please. This isn’t about owning a pink DS or having a Hello Kitty controller. No one cares about that for more than a minute.
-
-
Bonnie Linge 3 months ago
Hey, here’s an idea: if people stop making such a big deal about it, it wouldn’t be a problem.
-
- syedmuhammadalig thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is LOL
-
nothingxbutxpoison 3 months ago
the real problem is the fact that gaming became the scene the same way punk was the scene in the 80 and emo became the scene in the 00’s and only those who really are gamers will be left behind when the scene becomes the thing to be into.
-
- rachelg36 How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- amphere99 thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is LOL
- veronicas9 thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is Old & Fail
- Girlcam How Should A Gamer Girl Be? and thinks it’s Win
- vonb2 thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is Fail & Old
- jillianmargaretr thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is Trashy, WTF & Fail
-
jillianmargaretr 3 months agowhat is this Gamer girl etiquette school? I don’t need to be instructed on how I should behave as a gamer. If guys can flaunt their achievements in gaming, girls should have the right to do the exact same thing. This article is basically telling me I should stop wearing deodorant in order to fit in to this category. OH! And thanks for telling me my pink 3DS is too girly! I’LL just toss that in the trash along with my COD Black Ops 2 game. Like seriously. Personally my game collection ranges from Zelda to Dark Souls to World of Warcraft. Real Gamers don’t discriminate. The author of this article does.
-
- allyj3 How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- Seraphica thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is Trashy, Fail & Awkward
- jessin How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- Dante Hall thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is Fail
-
- Kelsey Eagle How Should A Gamer Girl Be? and thinks it’s Win & LOL
-
ellenb5 3 months agoMy daughter is a gamer, katftwynn, she rocks. She does not go by the rules, she is herself. If people don’t like her they don’t have to watch her. Do people hate on Tobuscus because he is cute? Then they shouldn’t hate on her. She loves video games, she plays run throughs on the Internet. More power to her.
-
- juliac12 How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- Tsuki9 How Should A Gamer Girl Be? and thinks it’s Win & LOL
- Amanda Gefner thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is Win
- Christina V. thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is LOL
-
Dante Hall 3 months ago
First, those are some horrible .gifs. Please stop using tumblr. Secondly, here is my whole take on this girl gamers situation. I don’t think anybody should make a big deal about what their gender is when they play a game. When I hear a voice, the gender does not matter one bit to me. It’s when things like “you got beat by a GIRL” start to pop up that I get annoyed. Can’t I just be beaten by a superior gamer? Why does your gender matter? When you put your gender out there, it gives off the impression to the listener that you think you are special. You are not special, there are millions of girls who play games. This is especially true in text-based games. Also, for fuck’s sake, just because nobody added text over the “headless hot girl” does not mean people don’t think it is ridiculous. I’m sorry that the internet didn’t simplify it for you and ‘meme’ it up. And everybody hates obnoxious players online regardless of gender, don’t cherry pick. Lastly, I think the main problem folks have with females sexualizing gaming activity is that you really don’t see men taking bites out of controllers or covering up their body parts with controllers. It once again draws attention to gender, which should be meaningless. If there was a traditionally female dominated pass time, and I won’t name anything because even hinting that something is aimed at females can be considered sexist by you fucking dolts, wouldn’t a guy posing sexually with stuff covering his junk be considered pandering? tl;dr gender shouldn’t matter when playing games, just be who you are. You’re only a problem if you go out of your way to state what you are because you think you’re special. You aren’t.
-
- ravinp How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- laurent6 How Should A Gamer Girl Be? and thinks it’s
- tumblr.com readers just made How Should A Gamer Girl Be? hotter
- Doom's Bride How Should A Gamer Girl Be? and thinks it’s Win
- lah8e How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- carlaaalvarado thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is
-
abigailo2 3 months agoIt’s really not as bad as you’re making it out to be. Stop drawing attention to your sex for no reason, stop calling yourself a “gamer” because it sounds ridiculous when both men and women say it and stop playing shooters with fourteen year old kids on Xbox. I have never, ever had to deal with any guy who was a goob about me being a woman.
If the top comic went like this…
Guy: What hobbies do you have?
Girl: I like ___, ___ and playing video games.
You know the conversation would have been much different than a girl blurting out “I AM GAMER GIRL” for no reason. -
- jesspixieb How Should A Gamer Girl Be? and thinks it’s LOL & Win
- wykop.pl readers just made How Should A Gamer Girl Be? hotter
- andrem2 How Should A Gamer Girl Be? and thinks it’s Win & LOL
- carolinec14 How Should A Gamer Girl Be? and thinks it’s LOL
- MagmaTron thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is Trashy & Old
- SlappinDaBassMan How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- elvisdepressley thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is Trashy, & Fail
- ~DRE~ thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is Fail
- TylerOtheDO How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
-
ethan 3 months ago
Video games are billion dollar industry. ITs time to stop thinking being a “gamer” makes you a societal outcast or puts you into some elite club of people who enjoy video games. Its not an identity. It doesnt make you stand out, male or female. That being said. I dont think i could stand 5 seconds in the shoes of a woman who plays games. The utter shite they deal with is astounding. And honestly if she plays more than the 5 seconds i could stand than she can call herself the “Queen of England” for all i care.
-
-
- What!?! thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is Awkward
- KekeNara How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- jfwhite92 How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- abrahamd2 How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- Xinhful How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- RandomFlux thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is Fail
- raibies How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
-
TempestuousRaven 3 months agoI like JRPG’s, Adventure Puzzle games and currently Minecraft is my latest obsession.. I don’t go around playing gun games never really cared for them but I don’t have a pink controller either.. I do have a blue slime controller from Dragon Quest though for PS2 ^_^
-
- elisep How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
-
RandomFlux 3 months ago
Real gamers (gender class not required) don’t give a putrid rats ass about this kind of mentally stunted need for classification. Pick up the controller and stfu.
-
- Gaby thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is LOL & Win
- malinb How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
- GapingSock How Should A Gamer Girl Be?
-
whynotzoidberg 3 months agoBitch, please. I knit, read romance novels, and can be heard screaming “FUCK MY LIIIIIIIIIIFE!!!” and making all manner of amazing swear combinations from getting swarmed with mobs on my MMO. Be pink and girly and absolutely destroy the haters. Let them not take you seriously, it makes them let their guards down.
-
- jac152 thinks How Should A Gamer Girl Be? is & LOL
-
jessicae14 3 months agothat last gif sums it up i play video games but theres no teehee omg im so nerdy. its more like the hulk comes out.
-
-
beckio 3 months agothis is ridiculous. if you play video games and you’re female, you’re a gamer girl. Why make things so damn complicated?!? So I like playing on pink/Hello Kitty consoles. So I LOVE Mario and Nintendo. I have owned a NES, Gamecube, Every gameboy since Color, PSP, PS2, PS3, and Xbox 360. One of the biggest things me and my boyfriend share is our love of video games. We debate ALL the time about games and console vs PC. (I hate PC gaming…) So where do I fall? I’m not very pretty and I don’t have massive boobies to rub controllers against (although why would I? You touch those with your hands, which have the most germs! EW!) I hate how gamer girls are treated on the internet, which probably adds to my hatred of PC gaming. I legit had a coworker of mine say “Wow, I didn’t know girls like you even existed.” WE ARE NOT UNICORNS! WE EXIST, GODDAMN IT! Screw those assholes who objectify women like this.
-
-
April S. 3 months agoAre you my soul sister? Lol. Playing games together is one of my bf and I’s favorite things to do together. I also hate PC gaming because it seems like all the PC gamer peeps are sexist a-holes who are the type to look down on console gamers. I worked at Best Buy for a long time and knew quite a few other girls who liked gaming and all the guys who worked there were awesome about it. I, too, hate how women gamers are treated online so I avoid all the bullcrap. I’m a grown women and I reserve the right to own my pink ds and 360 controller and act as girly as I want while logging a hundred hours on fallout. The best thing about the Internet is that I can avoid any kind of sexist jerks and instead find other nice people who share my interests regardless of gender. I’ve become much more interested in the actual gaming community ever since I became a member at true achievements because everyone there just loves to game and there are groups for women gamers. I’ve been able to join up on group gaming sessions where I don’t have to worry about random jerks joining and harassing anyone so that’s nice.
-
-
-
Special Reactions
Your Reaction?
GET STARTED