I don’t have the time to talk about this right now, but I wanted to let you all know it’s eventually coming. I’ve got lots of thoughts jotted down in my draft and I’ll be posting that eventually.
What about, exactly?
Well, I have things to say about being a woman who raids, about how I’ve seen the decline of women around me as I’ve moved to more progressed guilds, about the lack of women as tanks and other stuff, including questioning why the Leggings of Concentrated Darkness look like this on a female toon and like actual slacks on a male toon. (Couldn’t find a screenshot of the men wearing them. Gee. I wonder why not?)
But, like I said, not right now. If you have any questions for me about being a female raider, leave them in the comments and I’ll be happy to address them in my upcoming post.
Do you think women raiders aren’t taken as seriously? And I don’t just mean players, because it’s evident that many men who play WoW think women are unable to be functional within core roles in the game, but even beyond that and entering the raiding aspect.
Do you think women don’t play tank characters because of the preconceived notion that tanks == men?
I, for one, am an emotional player. Not crying all the time kind of emotional, but screaming and getting pissed that people think standing in void zones is okay and someone will just heal them through it. *takes a deep breath and digresses* So do you think women tend to avoid tank toons because of the tendency to be, like me, emotional about things? I don’t mean that to say all women are emo. Or that all women are bitchy. Or that all women cry for no reason. Or that all women PMS all of the time. I just think I’ve avoided making a tank because **I** can’t handle being told I suck when people die cause they stand in fire. Wait… that happens already as a healer. Shit. Nvm. ;)
Mailynn – damn me, sugar, I <3 you. I should be talking about chunks of what you brought up for sure.
I feel that I must now post the male version of that armor… (courtesy of Syp at Bio Break)
http://biobreak.wordpress.com/2010/08/22/picture-of-the-day-61/
@zelmaru, That was effing hilarious!!
@Kurn, Also, do people really believe that the only reason women raid is because their significant other raids/plays? Does this, outside of certain situations (one of which you’ve written about previously which I’d link if I were on a computer and not on my damn phone) mean that men (more often than women since there is an apparent lack of female raiders) often equate to two people applying instead of one?
Are women viewed as only capable of minor supportive roles and thus lack the motor skills to do anything other than mash a few buttons?
And… One more… Am I being a whiny bitch?? I’m just curious. :P
Oooo. This is a topic that me likies.
What do you think about women choosing healing classes? In Res. on BB, most of the priest healers were women. Go back to when you joined, we had Fad, Me, you, Sakura – all strong female healers. And we rocked! (Euphie can be an honourary woman ^^ )
To continue on the tank vein, I tank on my druid and I *only* tank when I feel secure about doing it. I like tanking 5 mans, and 10mans with people I know, I’ve tanked a few 25mans, usually as the OT.
I don’t think I could raid on it like I do on my priest, because I’m afraid of sucking. Or being told I’m a shitty tank. Or killing people because I positioned a boss wrong. Or being too squishy. Or… being too OCD. Like just then. Bleh.
TL;DR
I like to be pretty anonymous when I tank, so if people think I’m a guy, well that goes along with the role, right? I usually correct them, but sometimes I feel like I get less hassle if they think I’m a guy.
I’m a guy, but I may just be an exception to the rule. I don’t think women are inferior when it comes to games (any game, really). I don’t think women only play because of their significant other. I do, however, think that the sensitive nature of women could cause problems if the woman in question can’t control her emotions properly. I don’t mind ranting and bitching on Vent or whatever, guys do that all the time as well. But I’ve seen my share of, imho, completely overreacting. Like deleting an offspec just because of being affraid to speak up and tell the RL that she doesn’t want to raid on her offspec anymore. But that still doesn’t make women (as a whole) bad players. In fact, some of the best players I know (not restricted to healing, in fact) are women.
In my own situation, I started playing because of my wife. She’s way ahead of me in terms of progression. She’s way better than me if it comes to healing (I know, it’s a stereotype, but in this case it just happens to be true). Even though she doesn’t really like tanking, she’s still better at it than a lot of other people. I think her reaction speed and ability to multitask are a big factor in this.
And on an unrelated note, your poll is still lacking an option imho. I ticked “Tickybox?” (as the mejority at this point) because of that reason. I’d say: “They still have Multishot, as intended. Fine by me.”. It’s not that I don’t care about hunters, even though I don’t play one. But it just seems to me that GC is offering an alternative. They’re taking out Volley and in essence, replacing it with Multishot, which will most likely be revised in order to offer a real AoE option.
disclaimer: I’m a guy, I heal, I tank, I’m fairly comfortable leading pugs (aka, I’m good to step up and take command when need be), I sorta progression raid, though not really.
@Mailynn:
I honestly don’t think women tend to be more emotional about things than guys do. They MIGHT, be more willing to show it (as that is our cultural bias), but I’m used to the idea of a MT/RL (I know, not always the same person, but often) being emotional and all too happy to rant and rave and get all emo over people standing in the fire.
I do think that being a tank and a raid leader require similar personality traits. Specifically they tend to lean in the direction of the ‘type A’ personality. I know when I tank/lead I flip over to that direction (I’m generally a fairly stereotypical type B). However, I also don’t think that the ‘type As’ are restricted to men.
That all said, I accept that I’m not the typical WoW player. I don’t make disparaging comments about females, I don’t swear that much, I never use racial epithets, and I don’t expect females to not be good or whatever.
As for women getting chainmail thongs and guys getting full plate? It actually doesn’t bother me. I know that seems a complete 180 from what I just said, however it’s due to being a fantasy geek. Part of the history and culture of fantasy is that women AND men are objectified. Women are expected to have physics defining proportions, and make no attempt at covering them up. Men are expected to make Fabio look like the 98 pound weakling. They are all expected to be strong competent characters though.
I think it’s all just part of being fantasy too me.
I hate to say it…but in the case of the Leggings of Concentrated Darkness, it appears as though they are identical to a model of a low level tailoring pattern called…Black Mageweave Leggings…look for yourself.
http://www.wowhead.com/item=9999#.
In fact most of the “high level” stuff looks like Blizzard is just copying and pasting from vanilla wow.
And yes I know I’m a guy, but to mean it seems like Blizzard is more “lazy” than sexist.
I’m probably coming into this a bit late (I’m behind on my Reader) but I find that being a woman who raids is really not much different than being a woman who works:
You have to work/play in the same workplace/office for at least a few months before anyone takes anything you have to say seriously.
On the rare occasions that I use my voice/gender/sex appeal to get what I want I figure it’s payback for all the times my ideas or opinions were ignored because of my voice/gender/sex appeal.
Looking forward to reading your article!