Why Girl Who Play Games Need to Stand Up and Be Proud

Miranda Pakozdi stands mortified at Bakhtanians’ sexist insults. It is later mentioned she purposely lost matches to avoid him.

Vampiriangel argues that there are too many young women who say they are girl gamers only to seek some kind of male attention; posing in lingerie while holding a remote control does not make you a girl gamer. It is unfortunate that there are a great number of young ladies who do this and offer a wrong impression of a girl gamer. Many true girl gamers will side with Vampiriangel on her stance, however, she also states “there is no such thing as a girl gamer anymore.” Clearly, she has yet to meet girl gamers who actually play games professionally and does not use the term as part of an underwear photo shoot for boy gamers to drool over and have sexual fantasies that have little chance of coming true. But these girls who actually play games are on the defense for their right to be gamers because of people like Aris Bakhtanians.

Bakhtanians made a sexual remark in the Cross Assault reality show, where contestants compete in games such as Tekken and Street Fighter. "Miranda I want to know your bra size" he said, the young lady turned to him mortified, “can I get my Street Fighter without sexual harassment?” These remarks are completely unnecessary within a publicized professional competition, but Bakhtanians’ view was different to this and he replied saying,

You can’t… You can’t because they’re one and the same thing. This is a community that’s, you know, 15 or 20 years old, and the sexual harassment is part of a culture, and if you remove that from the fighting game community, it’s not the fighting game community--it’s StarCraft. There’s nothing wrong with StarCraft if you enjoy it, and there’s nothing wrong with anything about eSports, but why would you want just one flavor of ice cream, you know? There’s eSports for people who like eSports, and there’s fighting games for people who like spicy food and like to have fun. There’s no reason to turn them into the same thing, you know?

For the sake of clarification, I will define the "girl gamer" as a female whom audaciously states she's a gamer while posing in sensual photos or putting more emphasis on the aspect of being a women in games and "Girl Gamer" as a market or a community. The issues here are those who have represented themselves  in the gaming community, whether it is a “girl gamer” promoting games in her lingerie or an ignorant young man who enforces sexual harassment on girls who play games,but by allowing these serious matters to go unrecognized and unresolved we risked a greater divide completely unnecessary and yet quite detrimental. Bakhtanians remarks caused uproar and Capcom apologized for the behavior and informed, “any inappropriate or disrespectful comments will not be tolerated during filming.” What Vampiriangel states that I completely agree upon, is that to it's fundamental roots we are all gamers. It is time to change the stereotypical view on girl  whom plays games as well as kill the notions that young men like Bakhtanian believe them to be. Furthermore, “girl gamers” who promote their sexuality and not their gaming abilities are not gamers. The term "Girl Gamer" is not to be used as a title, but a means of identification. A women who plays games identities herself to the "Girl Gamer" market. She doesn't have to say she's a "girl gamer" because it's stating the obvious! Furthermore, by titling oneself as a "girl gamer" causes segregation between genders so it is never advised. This disrespectful behavior that took place at Cross Assault is only one of many examples of the segregation gender and incorrect view of the "Girl Gamer" community. It is in the best interest of the gaming community to allow the "Girl Gamer" market to distinguish itself as gamers without having to be pushed into a corner to defend themselves nor subject to sexual harassment.