TW/CW: This article mentions sexual assault and sexual harassment.
A tweet from Twitter user @caderaspindrift was recently posted that showcased an image of a statement from Gary Gygax, creator of the popular tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons. When asked by a fan whether women were involved in the early stages of testing and playing the game (back in the 1970s), Gygax stated that there were very few female players (about three in the roughly one hundred players) and that he believed, “most females do not play RPGs because of a difference in brain function. They can play as well as males, but they do not achieve the same sense of satisfaction from playing.”
As a woman who participates in several factions of nerd culture, I see the issue with this statement, as well as the issue with women in nerd cultures today, as evident. Plenty of women and gender non-conforming individuals are drawn to nerd spaces like the RPG community. But when it historically has been very male-dominated, the effect is a culture that does not necessarily reject women, but is not welcoming either. What Gygax failed to take into account with his statement was that women might not have been as drawn to the game, not because of a difference in brain function, but because of a discomfort with participating in a male-dominated hobby.
Nowadays, women make up a much larger percentage of nerd communities, and there have been more efforts to include more women in the making of media like comic books, video games, and films. However, as many women will attest, this has not stopped harassment and alienation in the fan communities that they hold dear. I can quite easily recall the discomfort of entering a gaming store a few years ago to find it populated by exclusively grown men. There was no sign upon the door that barred my entry, nor anyone in the shop who explicitly told me to leave, but I immediately felt a sense of otherness; that I didn’t belong in this space.
In addition to the history of overwhelmingly male participation, there is also the issue with masculinity in the making of the media and the rampant sexualization of women. As I previously mentioned, many attempts have been made to portray female characters as more than sex objects, and make sure that they are not objectified. Nevertheless, one needs only to walk into a comic book store or take a look at several video games to see that it is still very much an issue. And this affects the reality that women in nerd spaces experience. Many women have recounted being sexually harassed or assaulted at fan conventions because the character they were dressed as was one that was often sexualized. Sexual violence towards women seems to be almost normalized within certain nerd spaces. Rape jokes, or referring to being screwed over during gameplay as being raped, seem to persist in online gaming chat rooms. Sexual assault existing as a popular storytelling device for advancing a female character or to provide drama runs rampant in all forms of media, including RPGs and other games. In one instance, Adam Koebel, a game designer and GM (game master) for a live-streamed RPG campaign, had an NPC sexually assault a female player’s character without any consideration for the player in question or the other members of the group. The scene upset the group, as well as fans, and the campaign was canceled from then on.
I point out all of these factors out of love for these nerd communities. I love playing RPGs, I love cosplay and fan conventions, and I love engaging in light-hearted discourse about nerdy media. And I would like these communities to feel like an open space for everyone, but the current culture of these spaces can sometimes make this difficult. In many ways, it’s up to the people in charge of these spaces to make them welcoming to women (as well as POC and members of the LGBT community). While it’s wonderful to see spaces say that they are welcoming to all, it isn’t always enough. If you are leading some sort of nerd community, whether that be a massive fan convention or a small RPG campaign, it is your job to set boundaries and limits. Make sure that misconduct is clearly defined and not tolerated, that objectifying media is not idolized or openly displayed, and make sure that your number one goal is to keep the people in the community safe from harm. Do your absolute best to foster a space that women feel welcome and comfortable in. This is not some crazy SJW agenda, it’s a plea for the basic decency that women and anyone else that doesn’t fit the straight-white-male model are owed. There should be nothing controversial about allowing everyone to feel safe in the nerd community.