Yesterday, a woman by the name of Gabrielle Toledano – evidently a human resources manager for EA games – wrote
a rather confusing and deeply problematic op-ed for Forbes outlining why, in her estimation, sexism isn’t responsible for the dearth of women in gaming. To quote her opening remarks:
It’s easy to blame men for not creating an attractive
work environment – but I think that’s a cop-out. If we want more women
to work in games, we have to recognize that the problem isn’t sexism.
…The issue I have is that the video game industry is being painted as
more sexist than other male-dominated workforces. I know sexism
exists, but the issue isn’t just in video games. And it’s not what’s
holding us back.
Nonetheless, there are still too few women working in my company, so
it’s clear there is an issue to fix. Rather than blame the majority just
because they are the majority, I believe the solution starts with us –
women.
Which is, frankly, one of the most flippant, useless and blithely
ignorant summaries of the problem I’ve ever had the misfortune to
encounter. For one thing, Toledano manages to contradict herself
magnificently within the space of three paragraphs: because surely if
sexism exists in gaming – which, as she plainly admits, it does – then
it must constitute at least a part of the reason why women are so
conspicuously absent. Instead of conceding this point even slightly,
however, she dismisses it out of hand, and for no better reason than her
dislike of the implication that gaming might be
more sexist
than other industries. This, at least, is a reasonable point: game
developers are hardly alone when it comes to dealing with sexism, which
problem is self-evidently one that affects the whole of society to
varying degrees. But to say – and worse, to say casually – that such
sexism as does exist in gaming must necessarily be either benign or
irrelevant simply because it exists more prominently elsewhere, or
because the extent of the problem is popularly overstated, is as
irresponsible as it is inaccurate. This blithe attempt to handwave a
serious problem is further compounded by Toledano’s assertion that
sexism effectively constitutes “blaming the majority just because they
are the majority”, a sentence nobody could write without having first
elected to ignore the glaringly obvious: that the majority isn’t being
blamed
for being the majority, but
for maintaining a culture of prejudicial dominance, whether
due to ignorance, malice, laziness or a combination of all three. To
summarise Toledano’s argument, then: sexism exists in gaming, but
doesn’t impact negatively on women, because criticism of the majority is
really only resentment of their status as the majority, and therefore
disconnected from any rational complaint about their actions.
Right.
What, then, does Toledano see as the root cause of female
under-representation in gaming? Her argument comes as a triptych:
firstly, that female gamers have failed to identify themselves as such
(which is both ludicrous and insulting); secondly, that the industry
wants to hire more women (though how this admission constitutes a reason
for their absence is anyone’s guess); and thirdly, that there aren’t
enough women to hire (which is a partial explanation for her second
point, but which nonetheless doesn’t explain why there are fewer female
STEM graduates to begin with, which point she glosses over with a simple
call for their being more widely encouraged).
Her closing remarks only serve to cement her total misunderstanding of the problem:
If women don’t join this industry because they believe
sexism will limit them, they’re missing out. The sky is the limit when
it comes to career opportunities for women (and men) in games. If we
want the tide to turn and the ratio of men to women to really change
then we need to start making women realize that fact…
Sexism is an unfortunate reality of our times, but as women we must
seek the power and ability in ourselves to change the dynamic. Cast
aside the preconceptions, and look for the opportunities and places to
make an impact. And I can tell you firsthand that in the video game
industry women are not just welcome, we are necessary and we are equal.
From beginning to end, the piece reads as an oversimplified,
insipidly cheerful and woefully pat exhortation for women to simply wade
on in – you’ve only yourselves to blame if you don’t! Sexism exists,
but you can overcome it with gumption and elbow grease! Follow your
hearts, my darlings! Follow your star! Never mind that Toledano offers
not
one single fact in support of her claim that sexism isn’t
so much as a tiny part of the problem despite acknowledging its
existence, nor cites any specific policy, testimony or other useful data
that might bolster her argument. Neither does she respond to the wealth
of evidence and arguments which directly contradict it, despite linking
to an article which lays out a detailed opposing case; instead, she
leaves it totally unaddressed. Add these deficiencies to the
self-contradictory and wholly unsupported nature of her assertions, and
it’s hard not to wonder if her belief in the benevolent
non-existence/unimportance of sexism as a factor stems entirely from not
having experienced it herself, or from believing such sexism as she has
experienced to have had no detrimental effect on either her wellbeing
or career. That, of course, is only conjecture on my part; but if
untrue, the only viable alternative would seem to be that, having
suffered sexism in the past but subsequently overcome it, Toledano has
elected to use her own success as a yardstick against which to gauge the
determination and worthiness of every other woman in her industry,
which is hardly reasonable. Whatever the case, the implication is
equally unsatisfying: that as sexism hasn’t impeded
her, it must therefore be incapable of impeding anyone else.
Allow me, then, to provide the evidence that Toledano does not. In
November last year, under the Twitter hashtag #1reasonwhy, women
employed in gaming
collectively shared the myriad instances of sexism they experienced at work in order to highlight the extent of the problem,
with multiple accompanying conversations about problems in the industry following soon after. Around the same time, a Penny Arcade report based on actual data showed how
the dearth of games starring female protagonists has become a self-fulfilling prophecy:
such games, it was found, were given smaller budgets by publishers and
marketed far less extensively than their male-lead counterparts, leading
to critical neglect and low sales, and therefore contributing to the
outdated notion that women don’t play games, and as such aren’t a viable
demographic. There’s any number of
prominent accounts of women in gaming being dismissed or
discriminated against on the basis of gender; this Christmas, headlines were made by the presence of
topless women at Gameloft’s holiday party;
and though they point more to problems in the culture of game
consumption than creation, it would be foolish to view either the
infamous
Aris Bakhtanians incident or
the experiences of Anita Sarkeesian as irrelevant. As for the comparative absence of women in STEM fields, this is hardly a problem without a cause:
brogrammer culture,
entrenched academic gender bias and
subconscious bias in hiring practices, to name just three of the major issues, all affect female participation.
Because what Toledano fails to comprehend is that gaming, like
everything else, is an ecosystem – and right now, at every single level
of participation, women are feeling the effects of sexism. Female gamers
are
sexualised,
demeaned
and assumed to be fakes by their male counterparts; those who go into
STEM fields despite this abuse frequently find themselves stifled by the
sexist assumptions of professors and fellow students alike; they must then enter an industry whose creative output is
overwhelmingly populated with hypersexualised depictions
of women and male-dominant narratives, and where the entrenched
popularity of these tropes means their own efforts to counteract the
prevailing culture will likely put them at odds with not only their
colleagues, but also the business models of the companies and projects
for which they work; as the #1reasonwhy discussion showed, many will
experience sexism in the workplace – hardly surprising, given the
academic correlation between the
acceptance of misogyny in humour and culture and
real-world tolerance for sexism and rape culture
– while others will be excluded from it completely. All this being so,
therefore, if a single progressive HR manager at a comparatively
progressive company looks around and finds, despite her very best
intentions that, there are few or no women to hire for a particular
position, then the problem is not with women for failing to take
advantage of a single company’s benevolent practices, but with the
industry as a whole for failing to create a culture in which women are
welcome, and where they might therefore be reasonably expected to
abound.
In her excellent book
Delusions of Gender, Cordelia Fine
documents a phenomenon whereby some progressive parents, determined to
counteract the sexist influences of prevailing culture, found themselves
adopting a ‘biology as fallback’ position when, despite their best
efforts at promoting equality, their children still conformed to gender
norms. “Believing that they practiced gender-neutral parenting,” Fine
writes, “biology was the only remaining explanation.” But as she goes on
to point out, the actual explanation is far more complex: not only were
such parents still prone to promoting unconsciously absorbed gender
roles, but when ranged against the ubiquitous sexism promoted by wider
culture, even their best efforts were overwhelmed in the child’s
experience – no matter how many pink clothes and dolls a son was bought,
if the majority of his peers were playing with trucks and dressing in
blue, and if every presentation of normalcy he absorbed through stories,
clothing, culture, advertising and other children suggested he should
do likewise, then his experiences at home would still read as anomalous.
Unable to accept this, however, parents persisted in blaming biology:
their failure could only have been predestined, and not the result of
wider social and cultural factors beyond their individual control, let
alone indicative of a flaw in their methods.
Toledano, it seems to me, is committing a similar fallacy, adopting a
fallback belief in female disinterest in order to explain the lack of
women in gaming, and thereby discounting the impact of more pervasive
and difficult issues, never mind her use of faulty logic. And the thing
is, it matters: not just because of her status as a representative of a
major gaming company writing in a prominent publication, and not just
because it betrays exactly the sort of misunderstanding of sexism that
inevitably helps it perpetuate itself; but because she’s created a
cop-out piece for sexists and those who doubt their influence to wave
about as definitive proof that really, the problem is women themselves –
and, more specifically, feminist women, or women who demand change. By
claiming to speak definitively on the matter – unveiling the “dirty
little secrets” of women in gaming, to use her phrase, as though she’s
boldly daring the wrath of some secret feminist conspiracy in order to
say openly what
sensible women have always known in private,
but been too scared to admit in public - Toledano is using the supposed
authority of her gender to claim, on the basis of not a single shred of
evidence, that sexism isn’t an obstacle, because look! Here she is, a
woman, admitting as much! And if a woman says it, it must be true! Which
is, presumably, why she’s felt no need to sully her case by supporting
it with facts; because surely, the act of merely presenting it must be
evidence enough. Only, no, that’s not how it works. To modify a Biblical
phrase, the greatest trick the patriarchy ever pulled was convincing
women it didn’t exist – and in Toledano’s case, all too lamentably, it
seems to have succeeded.
I am so sick of your fluking Bullsh*t, you are hypocritical, sexist
against men (actually sexist, not your ephemeral non-existent sexism
you keep ranting about), fascist, control freak swine. You seek to
create a society devoid of creativity and run entirely by a PC
Bureaucratic dictatorship that tells society how they should think. You
think that men and only men are bad people, that women can do no wrong.
You live by outdated ideals, and hypocritically claim that a nonexistent
word (in the context you were using) was used long before a slang
context of a word that describes something that marked our first major
milestone to becoming a civilization. Your ideals poison the minds of
younger generations and will undoubtededly lead to the collapse of
society and the eventual extinction of man/woman kind. You decry the
existence of a paranoid and delusional institution that exists only in
your mind, then you criticize people for pointing out what it is (trash
talk) and for some unfathomable reason try to argue that trash talk (an
awesome strategy and productive hobby) should not be allowed, then you
proceed to feebly attempt to call me names (tool). Do you honestly feel
you are right in any way???? I honestly feel very sympathetic for your
parents….what pain they must feel for having a hate filled, ignorant,
failure of a daughter who’s borderline mentally retarded…what shame they
must feel.
Darth Jader says:
I am so sick of your fluking Bullsh*t, you are hypocritical, sexist against men (actually sexist, not your ephemeral non-existent sexism you keep ranting about), fascist, control freak swine. You seek to create a society devoid of creativity and run entirely by a PC Bureaucratic dictatorship that tells society how they should think. You think that men and only men are bad people, that women can do no wrong. You live by outdated ideals, and hypocritically claim that a nonexistent word (in the context you were using) was used long before a slang context of a word that describes something that marked our first major milestone to becoming a civilization. Your ideals poison the minds of younger generations and will undoubtededly lead to the collapse of society and the eventual extinction of man/woman kind. You decry the existence of a paranoid and delusional institution that exists only in your mind, then you criticize people for pointing out what it is (trash talk) and for some unfathomable reason try to argue that trash talk (an awesome strategy and productive hobby) should not be allowed, then you proceed to feebly attempt to call me names (tool). Do you honestly feel you are right in any way???? I honestly feel very sympathetic for your parents….what pain they must feel for having a hate filled, ignorant, failure of a daughter who’s borderline mentally retarded…what shame they must feel.Get your sexist filth off the internetFoz’s Note: I’ve allowed this comment through only because the sheet ignorant vitriol of it helps to prove my point, and because the abuse is levelled at me rather than another commenter. However, the poster has now been blocked, and may feel free to simmer in his own misogynistic fury in the sure and certain knowledge that I give no fucks whatsoever about his opinion.
