I may be a bit of a male chauvinist, but I believe in equality. One would think that this would be an easy road to follow: simply judge everyone the same, regardless of gender. Too bad that things are never as simple as that.

It seems that the girl gamer group Frag Dolls and the PMS Clan have protested against a Miss World Series of Video Games competition. I saw a comment that they were going to hold a male beauty contest in protest as well, but I saw no reference to this on their homepages. Either way, I applaud their protest; I like looking at girls as much as the next person, but gaming prowess should be the main concern when it comes to competitions like this.

Or should it? Why is it wrong to have a beauty contest? Humans are shallow, and we cannot pretend that looks don’t matter; why play the hypocrite and hide our interest in such competitions? Of course there’s a good reason against it: almost everyone agree that there should be more women in gaming, and competitions like this are sure to make many fence-sitting women sniff contemptuously and head toward the land of non-gaming amusements. (The opposite is true as well, but those women are in all probability a minority.)

However, among the comments to one of the articles I saw this comment:

“I wonder if they know that a lot people seriously believe that the only reason that both Frag Dolls and PMS have gotten all of the attention that they have been getting is because they are good looking girls first and gamers second.”

I wouldn’t put it quite as cynically as that, but I’m certain that the girls’ looks is a major part of their popularity – and it seems others agree. If this is true, it means that equality cannot be achieved simply by making the gaming scene equal; we are different, after all. It might draw more women, but equality would still be far off since people would compete for popularity on an unfair basis.

Hey, that’s the same situation as out in the bars!

Yesterday I saw a discussion about vaginas. One man started a thread about “front” and “back” vaginas – i.e., how far back in the groin they were located - and what the effects were on intercourse. The discussion was dull and uninteresting until one woman expressed her extreme dislike for the topic. I’m quoting:

In what way is it interesting to discuss advantages and disadvantages of things that are genetically determined?

Another woman joined in, commenting that:

Do you choose a partner from [these] criteria?? [...] Maybe we should alter our genitalia to fit the man??

At this point I definitely couldn’t keep my mouth shut! I replied with a caustic comment about women’s discussions concerning sizes of male private parts, and how potential hypocrisy was in action. One of the comments that followed mentioned that the penis size is of more importance than the angle of the vagina’s placement, and thus discussions of it are more relevant. This can be argued, of course, but it’s worth taking note of.

Why am I bringing up all of these different things?

I’m trying to show that I haven’t got the slightest clue how to be for equality, after all. There are too many variables and parameters, and except for simple cases like equal salary, it’s practically impossible to decide whether or not a point of view is actually equal. Would the gaming world be a more equal place if no beauty contests were held? Would the women who like to show off themselves be happy then? Would an equal gaming environment make both males and females happy, or would one group have to suffer? Should both males and females be allowed to discuss genetically determined body parts? Should none of them? Should we allow some parts to be discussed, since they have more of an effect?

What about the men and women who don’t fit in with the stereotypical cutout? Have we achieved equality if the ones outside normality don’t approve at all? Should we assume that people ought not have interests and traits that belong to the other gender?

I guess the question boils down to whether or not it’s truly equal to have an environment in which everyone is treated exactly the same. I really cannot say.

And don’t get me started on the bog of racial and cultural equality!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 20th, 2006 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Observations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.