Ask the Editors
by,
The Editors
Episode 14
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| Someone must have asked her where to find Nighthawk. |
Hello again, and welcome back to the strange and unusual minds of our editors. This week's question comes to us via email and proved to be a toughie.
"Do you think sexism is still rampant in the Realms? Why or why not? Do you care?"
~Anonymous
Anonymous has the best questions! Let's get some answers for them.
First up, Lani 'Gwen' Grayson:
“I believe that in a lot of ways, Realms is a microcosm of society as a whole. As such, I believe that there are pockets of Realms society where sexism still exists, but that, on the whole, society and Realms are both far more progressive now than they were even when I started the game. For some points of reference, from 2008 to 2011, 13 people were recognized as KOEF, all of them men, but from 2012-2017, 12 people were knighted, half of them women. In addition, the Event Holders Council voted this year unanimously to remove gendered pronouns from the omnibus, which made me very proud to be a part of this community. Discrimination, in any form, is offensive, and where it still exists every effort should be made to curtail it. However, I believe that as a community we are taking the right steps to making the Realms a place that is safe and fun for everyone.”
Thank you Lani!
Now we hear from Diana 'Kiira' LaPierre:
“Sexism, I believe, is still prevalent in the Realms, just as it is in Society in general. However, I believe that sexism can both benefit and hinder women in the game. As a female it is easier to get attention since we are the minority. But, it is also harder for us to garner respect, specifically when it comes to combat. It is harder for women to become exceptional fighters than it is for men because of physical differences. It's not to say that it's impossible, it'll just take a lot of women a lot more time and energy to get good at it. Also, from my personal experience, men are less likely to take tactical advice from me, but when a male compatriot says the exact same thing, it's taken. Do I think it's impossible to gain respect as a female? No. Not by any means. But, your opinions or statements will be questioned, and when up against a male, will most likely get discredited “
Thank Diana, but I really think we need a man's opinion....
Here to 'mainsplain' for us, it's Alex 'Lucas' Newbold
“Yes. Yes I do. If you don't, it's because you don't want to see it, or because you have decided not to see it.
The Realms has a lot of rampant problems, one of which is that if a woman does something great we say, "She does it pretty good, ya know, for a..."
The Realms is a microcosm of the world we live in. The problems of the world reflect into the Realms.
To use an old phrase... "If it waddles like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, it's a duck."
Have you noticed The Huntress Guild? In a perfect world where it didn't matter if the fighter was a man or a woman I doubt we would have a Huntress Guild, because we wouldn't need to have a guild of fighters dedicated to women. Women wouldn't need to train aside from the men or have a place to train together. It would be Men and Women just hitting each other with swords guild.
I care, because I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that 50% of my friends are women. That half the kids related to me are my nieces. That a good chunk of my friends have daughters. That some of the best fights I've had, were against women. That, in some corner of my mind, I remember thinking to myself "Hey, she was pretty good... ya know, for a... Dammit I'm part of the problem."
Thanks Alex. I mean, not for being part of the problem, but for answering the question.
Last, but not least because that would be sexist, Sara 'Zarine' Jessop:
“Again, I am probably in the minority here, but no I do not think that there is a rampant sexism issue in the Realms. I think that there are some sexist people, just like there are in the real world. But a few people does not an entire community make.
Also, I need to dispute the word 'still' in the question, because I don't really feel like we were ever all that sexist. Back when I started playing there were far fewer girls in the game. Girls, and even smaller guys, did not really fight much. Now there are a lot more ladies around and more and more of them at least try out fighting every now and again. Does that make us less sexist and more inclusive. I don't believe so.
The inclusiveness of the world of fighting comes from technological improvements, not from some magical attitude shift. Weapons and armor have become much lighter, and even though combat has gotten much faster it seems more physically safe. People who are physically more delicate now have a fighting chance (see what I did there) of not getting hurt by heavy weapons and can wear armor that they can actually pick up by themselves! That's not to say that all women are delicate feminine flowers, but the majority of us are built leaner than men.
As far as less girls playing back then, I don't feel like the community actively dissuaded them, but rather they isolated themselves. It was a bit of a vicious cycle where girls felt that not enough other women played so they didn't come, only adding to the issue. There was also a healthy dose of 'larping is dumb' either because they really thought so, or because it wasn't cool. Now that it's less stigmatized to do such nerdy things, I feel like more girls are at least trying the game out and seeing what they think of it, and a lot of them are even staying. And as we get more ladies into the game, more and more will feel more comfortable because they won't feel so alone in the community.
So, the TL;DR version (sorry, I had the feels about this one) is that I don't think we can equate 'participation' as a sign of either sexism or lack thereof, and I don't think there is a sexism issue in the community as a whole. Also, this is all about OOC sexism right?? Because I have totally different opinions on IC sexism....”
Thanks for that lengthy opinion, Sara. Girls talk forever, jeeze....
So there you have it. The opinions of our editors on another controversial subject in the Realms. I'll bet you all know what 'microcosm' means now right? That's probably good, because the Realms really is just a reflection of the real world and mundane society. It's interesting to note that when we heard 'sexism' that we assumed that Anonymous meant towards women. That, in and of itself, is telling, but it seems that most of us feel that we are moving in the right direction. We still have a ways to go to truly feel like we are all on equal footing, but we will get there. Besides, girls are taking over, didn't you know? Out of the seven of us here on The View staff, five of us are girls. So really it's the guys you should probably feel some sympathy for.
Thanks for reading. Please join us next time when we answer the very interesting question "Do you think a Social Justice Warrior (or at least somebody who says, "Hey, that's not cool.") should leave such notions at the door of a Realms event? Because hey, role-playing, amirite?"
Questions can be sent to Sara “Zarine” Jessop via email (Sarajjesop@gmail.com), facebook messenger, or in person. The question box will also be making the rounds at various events. Please note if you'd like your question to remain anonymous and/or if you would like to address specific editors
