Imagine being a straight white guy. How do you feel about 

nail shops? Theres quite a few guys who feel comfortable 

in that setting, but theres many who are not. It's alien, 

isnt it? There's staff, regulars. Banter. It's a culture, 

almost. It smells weird, you probably dont speak the 

language, and you have pretty much no control over the 

social order. There's gels, there's shellac, theres 

acrylics, theres pink and white, and so much acetone and 

nail polish you're going to get a contact high. Ladies are 

trying to convince you to get your nails done. Being 

straight, white, and male puts you pretty much in the 

minority. People can talk all kinds of shit about you - 

not that you're really worth the time, but you have that 

loss of power. I really want you to think about that 

feeling. Anyone can make fun of you, and pretty much 

everyone else will back them up. Even the men at the 

salon! That feeling is super important, because it's a 

feeling many women understand walking into gaming cultures 

in general, and especially the FGC. 

Note, I'm going to use the word "you" a lot. I'm not a 

writer, blogger, or anything other than somebody with an 

opinion with arguments. The word "you", may not apply at 

all to you, the reader. Of course, there's also a pretty 

chance that when I say "You", even if you think I'm not 

talking about you, I totally am. I'm going to criticize 

generalizations a lot, while at the same time using this 

all encompassing term; "you". Try to keep your whitey 

tighties on. 

Women in the fighting game scene are a minority to the 

extent you have to understand that when you're shitting on 

random girl #9 for not playing and having opinions, you're 

affecting all women in the community. How do you know 

that's random girl #9? Maybe she's someone who actually 

knows what she's talking about, or does well? People apply 

these prejudices to others. People take this attitude 

because some person in some community somewhere did 

something, and there's collateral damage. "Pro hoes" is a 

concept that seems to just be, hey a girl had sex. That 

almost never happens!!! There's a few specific things I'm 

referencing I dont want to dredge up, but if youve 

followed how everything's progressed you should have a 

couple ideas. I hear all the shit you people say to girls 

who dont play. The stuff you say to X girl for Y reason is 

the exact same shit I hear. I've been told I'm a fake 

gamer looking for male attention. Seriously, that's 

completely fucking ridiculous. By kids who were busy being 

incubated when I was playing Rush'n'Attack. We've since 

ironed it over, but I made a self deprecating joke "I dont 

know anything about this game!" when commentating, I dunno 

it was like Honda vs Guy or something. I dont fking know 

that matchup, and neither do you, LETS BE REAL. When I say 

it, ppl make fucking videos about it. I've ironed that 

situation out like I said, but the issue is the 

preconception where you so readily accept I dont know what 

the fuck I'm talking about. It's getting asked repeatedly, 

"So whose your boyfriend?". Do you know what it's like to 

play a good player -  for real, a good player - and being 

told the whole morrigan doom fireball thing wasnt going to 

work and I should switch to sentinel. This is after Chris 

G started his reign of terror, and neither performing nor 

demonstrating knowledge and understanding of tech 

mattered. What mattered is finding a video of a dude doing 

it, then I get patronizingly how to understand it. Do you 

know how patronizing dudes are? Over video games? To 

women? Who beat them? And you expect them to play? 

I've been fortunate enough to grow up with Street Fighter. 

It holds a lot of nostalgia. I was also lucky in that I 

was very young when I become 'initiated'. I cared about 

the franchise and really wanted to succeed and that drove 

me through much of the early hazing. I cared about 

fighting games enough to get serious with Tekken 5 in 2007 

and went through a lot of stuff women picking up the game 

will deal with; exclusion, patronizing, threats, misogyny, 

sexual harassment, etc. To be honest, I handled myself 

pretty well, but I also had certain advantages. For one, 

I've been playing video games before a bunch of yall were 

born. Most women may not have that advantage. But you 

know? What if that was just a random girl. Do you think 

they'd stick around after having someone throw a punch at 

them, telling them not to speak up(EVEN WHEN YOU BODY THIS 

PERSON), or have weird ugly creepy guys trying to set up 

three ways between you and their gross ass and "they knew 

a girl". What if that wasnt me? What if the women youre 

judging have had experiences like that or worse? Does that 

justify people acting out? No. You still dont have the 

entitlement to judge her in this community. Why do you 

want to be another brick in the wall? Do you NOT want 

women in the community? If you do, you're going to have to 

make concessions. Maybe skip every other usage of the word 

bitch, maybe write "get raped" out of your vocabulary. Pro 

ho too, fuck that shit. If a girl is sleeping with a 

player, well humans are humans surprise surprise. Guess 

what? She can pick up a stick. She can ask questions. She 

can watch videos, she can learn, but if you've already 

labeled her as a non playing fake gamer attention whore... 

Or, not even you. Maybe someone else did. SURELY someone 

else did. Do you think that's going to make her want to 

play? Can you blame her? I see lots of people blaming 

women. They want a group that's safe where they can talk 

about... shit that they wanna talk about without assholes 

telling them theyre wrong? I completely empathize with 

that 100%. If they wanna talk about how cute Kobuns are, 

whos got the smallest dick, or how to do sword loops or 

danmaku, great for everyone. It's not in your face to 

insult your sensibilities, and it's also not really about 

you. 

I understand the appeal of the FGC to the dudes who are 

misogynistic and etc etc. Youre a bunch of guys with 

extended boyhoods - I've got an extended childhood through 

games too, so im not judging.. yet - who are looking for a 

safe place to basically let your less savory personality 

traits out loose and wild. It's an outlet, insulated from 

women, and I believe I see a lot of frustrations. Kind of 

a fight club sort of therapy with the stresses in life, 

and unfortunately a lot of that manifests itself 

misogynistically. I'm not perfect. When I was younger, I 

dated a guy and in our nerd culture, I shared his really 

toxic attitude towards women. So, actually, I participated 

in the misogyny by creating these ridiculous constructions 

in my head that judged the worth of a person by a metric 

based off things I was particularly good at, and I really 

missed a lot of opportunities to make friends and I'm 

honestly kind of disgusted with myself. Who cares if 

someone's a slut? What did it really take away from my 

enjoyment of the game? I was looking for approval, 

shamefully I admit, and eventually I came to realize how 

horribly wrong I was. Maybe I found someone personally 

annoying, but that doesnt justify being a little 

machiavelli about it and vilifying other women because in 

the context of the game I was a stronger player. It's hard 

enough without ripping at each others throats, and I see 

plenty of women calling each other bitches and whores and 

I dont get it. With grit, determination, and some 

semblance of solidarity(not saying you gotta be BFFs) the 

image of women in the scene can be reversed, although 

there will undoubtably be numerous conflicts along the 

way. I'm still making mistakes, I'm human, and I'm sorry 

for those in my past I havent done the best by. It's not 

hopeless.

The advantage that women have in the community is 

visibility and increased access that comes associated with 

said visibility. Intrinsically, this is also probably the 

biggest single disadvantage, because of shitlord fedoras 

and neckbeards looking for any chance they can to 

discredit you; and holy shit will they leap on it. Not 

even talking about myself, any lady whos been around for a 

few years knows what I'm talking about. Dudes dont. They 

dont realize what theyre doing half the time, I think? Be 

aware. 

My newsfeed is full of stuff like this: "THESE BITCHES IN 

THE FGC BE LIKE..." "THESE FEMALES SURPRISED WHEN..." ... 

Here is a novel and hopefully constructive idea: refocus 

the conversation away from portraying women negatively, 

and instead encourage those women who are succeeding. 

Provide visibility and dont reduce it to 'white 

knighting', if at the very least to give women someone 

they identify with. Helps very much with a sense of 

belonging. Chances are, you have dudes you can relate to! 

hooray! Maybe your girlfriend doesnt. Maybe all the 

vitriol is a bit too intimidating. 

I am just one person. I'm one face, one opinion. I've 

spoken with other women in the scene, and there's a lot of 

similarities with their experiences with men(Kill all 

men). Talk to them; listen. If you're a straight guy, 

think about being in that nail shop, and being 

uncomfortable, and at the mercy of possibly getting 

verbally chopped up for the amusement of patrons and 

staff. Dont make women feel like that. And dont be afraid 

of nail shops either, I'm just playing on preconceptions 

and common fears to illustrate a point about respecting 

the women in the scene. Besides, if youre in the FGC you 

probably need it. Nerds and neckbeards, ew gross. Tip your 

tech. 

Women are a bunch of pro hoes and non players looking fr 

male attention and approval? Fuck what you heard, you were 

lied to. Lets see some man-eaters here. At any time, any 

girl could randomly be possessed of the fire and passion 

to grind it out, rise above, and regulate the competition. 

Could be anyone, you never know what tomorrow is going to 

be like. Still, though, guys? It wont be because you 

called her a pro ho whore and she fucked EG/EMP/PA/CTRl|

McProguy and it went up on Kappa. I hope in 2014 we see 

some ladies rustle some jimmies and we can collectively 

dam all the little baby tears, evaporate it, and shake the 

salt wherever we walk. I'm not sure who's with me, but I'm 

ready to conquer. 

signed

_______________