It's true. It's happened more times than I can count. Somewhere in public view, I'm declared a queer. Or a homo. Or sometimes something a little less polite. This usually occurs completely outside any discussion of sexuality.
And of course, it only happens online.
I don't really take offense to it ... I've known lots of gay people and never found anything wrong with being gay. However, I know they mean it as derogatory. And that's where I have a problem with it.
And yet, I've never seen a single person in any forum or game ever banned for harassing another person about their sexuality, presumed or otherwise.
Not once.
Which is centrally how I disagree with certain defenses of Blizzard's policy, including Finster's. Let's break down the argument here.
1. World of Warcraft is rated T for Teen, and as such there should be no talk of sex.
Except that World of Warcraft's content rating is for the content which Blizzard provides in the box. A parent should notice the whole "online experience" caveat. I'm quite positive Blizzard has about twelve different layers of protection between them and what people chat about. Parents who don't want their kids running into such unsavory terms as "GLBT" should really monitor their internet usage ... because I can assure them that there is a lot worse out there.
And even with all that, declaring a sexual preference is not the same as talking about sex. So saying "I'm gay" in no way breaks a T rated game.
Unless someone out there wants to argue that no T game should feature gay characters? Anyone want to try that one? Oh yeah, Campfire Fan in We Love Katamari ... I'm looking at you.
2. Blizzard needs to protect children from potentially unwanted sexual topics.
Which, I'm not against. Any online provider needs to be careful about the kind of content children, young teens, etc., gets access to ... which could range from porn to sexual predators. What I'm against is the idea that someone in WoW couldn't even mention being gay ... or gay friendly ... without triggering that "protection". This concept that a GLBT Guild instantly carries with it a brochure about gay sex is close-minded and ridiculous. So it's not really about protecting kids about sex, it's apparently about protecting them about the existence of homosexuality.
New flash. Being gay doesn't mean someone is a sexual pervert is who going to corrupt all that wander nearby with ribald tales of sailors and whores. I hate to break this to people, but most of the homosexual people I've known are really pretty tame. In fact, out of all the sexually orientated discussions I've had ... and I was a crisis line operator for five years ... heterosexual women by far exceed any other group I've known.
And I've heard this argument before. Not even about games. It went something like, "I don't want to have to explain to my kid why those two men were holding hands at the ball game." To which you have two choices in my book.
Don't have kids ... or don't take them outside.
3. Cybering is private, advertising a guild is public
Bull. I've seen WoW cyber-chats which would make a sailor blush ... and I don't even play the game. The hetero sex which is occuring in Azeroth is clearly not always being held in private. And Blizzard is clearly doing nothing about protecting kids from that kind of content.
When cybering goes unchecked and gay bashing goes unchecked, but advertising a GLBT guild does not ... well, that's just protecting the people who don't really need protection.
4. When I go to Azeroth, it's not about being gay or straight ... but orcs or elves.
Which is fine. Except that people a) do role-play in WoW quite a lot and b) there are immature players which will bring sex into the game regardless. I agree, when I play online the last thing from my mind is which way the Tank swings. However, it's silly to just assume that the rest of the online world agrees.
And if we were to take these two camps ... one being people trying to form a GLBT friendly guild to have a GLBT friendly atmosphere ... and another which uses sexual preference as an insult and a smear ... I've got a pretty clear idea of which group probably merits protection.
Between the GLBT friendly guild and your homophobic teenager ... I'm going with the guild every time. I've never been harassed by a gay friendly group in any game, ever. I was called a slut once in Diablo when another player realized that I was not, actually, female.
I'm simply tired of the implicit online agreement that it's OK to insult someone by sexual preference, or to assault female players for dates, as long as it's not "too bad". The only recourse some players have had in the past is to band together to keep away from such elements. Why do people think we've had such a rise in girl clans? It's not so much of a feminist statement as it is a method of keeping away from horny teenage boys.
And if Blizzard wasn't homophobic, they'd be assisting such guilds instead of banning them.
tagged: gay, gaming
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
I'm Often Mistaken For Gay
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5 comments:
Firstly, clearly the position taken by Blizzard is pretty odd - and if it was race instead of sex orientation then clearly they wouldn't have done it.
Secondly,
>I've never seen a single person in any forum or game ever banned for harassing another person about their sexuality, presumed or otherwise.
You've been playing in the wrong places, I guess. Just as girl gamers end up playing together to avoid idiots, I've tended to play with mature gamers rather than the 14-year old morons who harass anyone different than themselves. For example, I've seen a ton of people kicked or banned for hate speech from the OldFogey Natural Selection servers. One notable thing was that the teens who just got kicked for using "gay" as an idle derogatory term ("dude, that's so gay") often genuinely didn't seem to realise that it was offensive. I'm pretty sure that that's how they use the word offline as well as online.
Thirdly, America is currently in the grips of a "culture war". With so many authority figures saying that being gay is somehow evil, is it so surprising that people harass people about orientation?
if it was race instead of sex orientation then clearly they wouldn't have done it
Could never have gotten away with it, for sure. They'd be spending some much beloved profits on lawyers.
You've been playing in the wrong places, I guess.
Possibly, though I do try and get around ... Most recently were instances on FEAR MP demos servers and I've seen it in some Guild Wars town instances, though the latter was far more of the giggly than angry kind (that it's much better).
Certainly though, playing on well moderated or familiar turf helps. The CS server I used to help admin would occasionally have it's problems, but it TKing or cheating was really the only thing we had to kick/ban for. Most of this was because that despite being public, about 80% of players "knew" each other online.
So it's definately possible to avoid these situations, but being able to choose the people you play with is a big part of that. Which is what I think Blizzard is stomping on here.
With so many authority figures saying that being gay is somehow evil, is it so surprising that people harass people about orientation?
I heard a Congressman on NPR honestly defending making pre-marital co-habitation illegal because it was immoral and it's the government's job to defend people from immorality.
So. No.
All the more reason to make a stink about it, though ...
And if Blizzard wasn't homophobic, they'd be assisting such guilds instead of banning them.
It seems pretty clear to me that they aren't banning a guild. They are banning preference-based advertising.
Especially when Blizzard says things like, "While we appreciate and understand your point of view, we do feel that the advertisement of a 'GLBT friendly' guild is very likely to result in harassment for players that may not have existed otherwise."
They need to start issuing formal warnings to straight people who allude to their significant others (e.g. wife, husband, etc.), because that reveals someone's sexual orientation. According to Blizzard's policy, such things should not be discussed. Blizzard would not want these players to be harassed by other players who become offended when, for example, a known male player says that he has to go because his wife is calling him so they can go out for dinner. That player is clearly throwing his sexual orientation (straight) into the faces of all the other players, and he must be punished.
I haven't seen any news about people complaining about Christan guilds and their Jesus talk in WOW. Somone must have complained about this girl advertising for her gay-friendly guild. People aren't complaining about Christian guilds advertising, so Blizzard isn't doing anything about them.
It seems pretty clear to me that they aren't banning a guild. They are banning preference-based advertising.
Hardly a decent distinction. Like saying that GALA can have a chapter at a school, but they can't call themselves GALA, advertise being GALA or tell anyone that they're GALA.
Kinda defeats the point. And all this to not offend the homophobic? Hardly seems justified.
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