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After reading a series of disgusting tweets aimed at Bonnie Ross, head of the studio that developed Halo, Matthew G P Coe commits to battling sexism in the tech industry.
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After lunch most days, before returning to work, I typically take a few minutes’ break to catch up with Reddit and Twitter, to see if any of my friends have said anything funny or interesting today, or maybe there’s an programming-related article I can share with my colleagues. However, today, my Twitter feed had this waiting for me, courtesy of a retweet from @lindsaybieda:
My immediate reaction was not unlike Gollum’s, when Sméagol tells him in the film of The Two Towers, “Master looks after us now. We don’t need you any more.”… what?
Now, I knew going into this that E3 is a ridiculous three-day-long display of sexism, objectification, and misogyny (oh, and something about video games, too). Last year, Scott R Kurtz had a character deliver a webcast from “either E3, or the world’s largest Hooters.” I have privately, among my friends, and probably publicly, too, lamented every marketing department’s decision to hire booth babes for a conference—to use women as little more than decoration and furniture— and I’ve written before about the technology industry’s rampant misogyny. It’s not as though I didn’t at least somewhat expect the result of what I did next.
I ran a Twitter search for “#E3 Bonnie Ross”—just that—and was promptly given a feed full of complaints about the new Halo, pleas for 343 Industries not to mess it up… and a litany of tweets about Bonnie Ross: how good she looks, how inept she (apparently) was as a presenter, and multiple people explaining in sometimes graphic details that they want to have sex with her. In particular, @Boogie2988’s gem (since, it seems, deleted):
£429 do we get a complimentary blow job off Bonnie Ross with that?”
— Boogie2988 (@Boogie2988) June 10, 2013
I can’t believe that I have to ask this, but where the fuck do these guys get off, thinking that this shit is okay to suggest, let alone think?! Bonnie Ross is not the studio head of 343 Industries for you to cat-call, or to ask for sexual favours from. She is there to do a job, and judging by the Halo sales, she seems to be doing a pretty good one at that. If you think she’s a dull presenter, fine (during the BB10 launch, I described BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Hiens as having “all the personality of a wet dishrag”), but for God’s sake, can a woman, for once, show up at E3 and be treated with some basic human respect? Is that so hard, guys? Maybe, you know, not call her a MILF. Perhaps not suggest that “that bitch had to have skipped speech class.”
I went on a bit of a tear on Twitter, quote-tweeting and retweeting some of the more egregious offenders, because you know what? I am sick to death of the way that men in my industry talk about women, whether they’re presenting for their favourite console, or the speaker’s colleagues and peers. I would really like to think that, in this day and age, we were raised better than that, but, clearly, this isn’t the case:
I’m a little proud of eliciting “let’s care more than we should” as a hashtag; it really demonstrates the work that still needs to be done. And I have to say, I haven’t been challenged to a fight since Grade 9, so well done over there, too. However, one of the guys I quote-tweeted (the one who made the crack about speech class) got back to me and we had this conversation. It’s too long to embed without messing around with Storify, but I broke it down for this guy that, basically, what you say on Twitter is open for public critique (and I was just criticising hisstatement, not his character) but his closing statement, “I was in a casual context, speaking with kids just out of high school who couldn’t care less about semantics,” really reminded me, despite all the fucked-up things that have happened this year, that kids today still need to be taught this.
We need to carefully teach the younger generations about respect, and about the hidden messages they may not realise they’re delivering when they use certain words. We need to not only self-correct, and demonstrate the right behaviour; we need to call out the wrong behaviour in others.
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I’m sure he and his friends couldn’t care less about the semantics of what they’re saying, but the reality of the situation is that we need them to. Just as we, as adults and parents and nurturers and teachers, need to teach them to care. We need to carefully teach the younger generations about respect, and about the hidden messages they may not realise they’re delivering when they use certain words. We need to not only self-correct, and demonstrate the right behaviour; we need to call out the wrong behaviour in others. They may not realise what they’re doing, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be taken to task for it. After all, not knowing that, in this particular jurisdiction, you can’t turn right on a red light doesn’t mean the traffic police are going to let you off the hook.
To make this abundantly clear, if you were one of the guys who decided to judge Bonnie Ross’ ability or competence based on her appearance or gender, or you made—or laughed at—jokes about her, using language specifically reserved for insulting women, you are part of the problem. You are holding back the human race from evolving beyond prejudice, beyond hatred, and beyond unwarranted fear. And I refuse to stand idly by and watch you do it.
Originally appeared on Matthew G P Coe’s blog, Quoth the Runtime, “Segmentation Fault”
Lead Photo: AP
“If you were one of the guys who decided to judge Bonnie Ross’ ability or competence based on her appearance or gender, or you made—or laughed at—jokes about her, using language specifically reserved for insulting women, you are part of the problem. You are holding back the human race from evolving beyond prejudice, beyond hatred, and beyond unwarranted fear.” For better or for worse, one must also acknowledge the concomitant; If you were one of the people who decided to judge Bonnie Ross’ ability or competence irrespective of her appearance or gender, or you made—or laughed at—jokes about her, without… Read more »
Sadly, until young women stop thinking and being taught that all they are good for is being sexy, this will just continue. Women have to learn to stand up and strive for being more than just a pretty face and hot body.
What you say is so true. My one daughter always did good in school (High school, College, Medical school) and her circle of friends at every level were of similar ability. Most of them went on to successful carriers based on their abilities and strong work ethics. Some however, just took the easy route and went on to ‘live off their looks’. I guess it’s always tempting to take the easy road (Personally, I never had that option). The one thing I noticed was the ones who dropped out to become barmaids, hostesses, and other jobs based on their good… Read more »
@bobbt: Kudos to your daughter and her friends— women at all levels are constantly confronted with the “trading in on your looks” card… I knew an Ivy League educated surgery resident (whose BF was similarly trained and in the same residency program)…. She was smart, well-spoken, and also attractive and blonde… She groused constantly that people just assumed she was a nurse, even though she wore a long white coat with her ID badge that clearly identified her… Senior attending physicians were always telling her that she was such a pretty girl— why did she want to work so hard… Read more »
“Perhaps it is too threatening to some old timers to have a surgeon who is female and beautiful? If you are gorgeous, then you can’t possibly be smart enough to compete with them on their level?” More like, if you’re hot enough to marry a rich man, why would you work your ass off to become rich yourself. A sort of “If I had your booty, I would so cash it off” thing. We are mostly lazy as humans. Few people are dedicated and passionate about becoming rich. Much easier to marry the rich. So they see how they would… Read more »
Thanks Leia, appreciate it. All of my daughters , while attractive, have proven to be resilient in achieving their goals. What I saw with my youngest daughter however, is that being VERY good looking(this isn’t just a case of parental prejudice , on several occasions professional photographers have walked up to her, handed her their business cards, and said ‘If you ever want to model, please give me a call”) can make a young woman actually feel WORSE about herself! I think she felt that no one saw past the looks. You know, the person inside that really deep down… Read more »
I think that men (and women) need to stop assuming that women can be sexy or intelligent but not both. Nobody assumes that an attractive man is a moron. Why is there no male equivalent to “bimbo”?
I really hate the way that you blame women for “thinking all we can do is be sexy” and I think you’re perpetuating that myth. Am I supposed to walk around with a sign that says “I’M SMART”? Have you thought about how much of your own assumptions are revealed in your comment.
“Why is there no male equivalent to “bimbo”?”
There is. They’re called himbos, but it is very rarely used whether it’s because society views men as naturally capable or unattractive or some combination of the two and I’ve only seen it used by media. I don’t think that it has caught on with society in general.
“Definition of HIMBO
: an attractive but vacuous man ”
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/himbo
I work for a company developing a children’s educational product that decided to put up a booth at E3. Yeah, maybe it isn’t a big kid’s place, but we want it to be – and we want to see some respect for ALL the women who work in the gaming industry. That’s why we were careful to select our FEMALE game designer to help man the booth and to put strong FEMALE characters into our game. And then just to change the game around a little, we claimed ownership of the hashtags #e3Moms and #e3Dads to have visitors tweet pictures… Read more »
“And then just to change the game around a little, we claimed ownership of the hashtags #e3Moms and #e3Dads to have visitors tweet pictures from our booth.”
We can visit? I thought you needed a pass or something. As in a professional pass.
We arranged to have local mommy bloggers receive affiliate passes. Plus there’s the media. And the other attendees. It’s been kind of popular and it’s nice to see that family focus happening at E3. I think it’s ridiculous that people under the age of 17 can’t visit the exhibits because of the ridiculous over-the-top sex and violence.
Even to be outside the LACC is to be exposed to view after view of “booth babes.”
It’s just permitting those same attitudes to continuing circling in continuance…
No, it didn’t make it. Popcorn munching time.
I’m not a big gamer so I’d like some clarification. Is E3 for developers or gamers? If the event is for gamers and the misogyny is coming from the audience, how does this reflect a problem with misogyny in the industry? Let’s say I opened a clinic in am extremely racist area. Most of my customers are racist. Does that mean that my clinic is racist by extension? What if I choose to not stock Ebony in the waiting room because my customers don’t like it? If I tailor my business to my customer’s preference without being racist myself and… Read more »
E3 is only for developers and qualifying press. That is why it is 85% male.
It does if you’ve got customers asking for Ebony and you flat out refuse because you’re worried it’ll lose your customer base.
And let’s quash the myth that gamers are mostly men, once and for all. Women gamers, and women games developers have been around since the dawn of video games (hell…they’ve been around since tabletop)…they’re just marginalised. Right now women make up roughly half the people playing games and are spending roughly half of the money spent on video games…in the U.S. anyway.
And let’s quash the myth that gamers are mostly men, once and for all. It’s not a myth, it’s a fact. Yes, it is true that women technically play as many games as men, but a lot of those games are random games you find on facebook, or simple games on the internet. When it comes to dedicated console or PC gaming, the gamers are still predominantly male. Right now women make up roughly half the people playing games and are spending roughly half of the money spent on video games When I was much younger, my mom spent money… Read more »
In other words, in order to claim that women and men game equally, you would have to consider “Farmville” as much of a game as “Call of Duty.”
Yet when people think of “gaming,” it’s clearly the latter that they have in mind.
More relevant is the fact that E3 is only about games like Call of Duty….not Farmville.
That is absolute bullpucky. The survey that was done which concluded that men and women each make up about half the number of gamers didn’t distinguish between which gender is playing which type of game. Therefore, coming to any conclusion about which gender plays which types of games is pure conjecture on your part. Plus, let’s pretend for two seconds that most female gamers are playing iOS and FB games, and most male gamers are playing console and PC games. Why the blazes is one considered more legit than the other? They’re all video games, for goodness sake. Call of… Read more »
I like how anything violent is clearly male. Psh.
Therefore, coming to any conclusion about which gender plays which types of games is pure conjecture on your part.
Is it seriously your contention that females play games such as Call of Duty or God of War as much as men?
Really, this is a moment of truth right here.
And yes, those games are more valid than the likes of farmville. You actually have to invest a significant amount of money in a console and in video games.
That’s why console games are so heavily catered towards males. They’re the ones who actually play them.
true I know lots of girls/women who are gamers….I even had a short rellation with a young woman, who is a hardcore gamer almost 24/7. Our first date was in WoW and our romantic evening was with Unreal. And we started to make out, seriously on the battlefields of France, past Marginot line (serving in the German army…hehe), with ‘ Battleground Europe WW2 online ‘. So yes alot of women are gamers.
sorry for the typos….
I know two women who are serious gamers as far as gaming consoles are concerned. They also tend to play the shoot em up games. I know one woman who gave up gaming, literally. She gave me her DS and never bothered to replace it. My niece likes playing computer not console games like Nancy Drew. So my experience with women in gaming is a mixed bag.
Yes. What Kile said!
This is all about respect and confronting the misogynist hatred that fuels a persistent rape culture.
We need to fight it. We need to call it out. We need to stop it.
So that my daughter and your daughter can thrive.
“This is all about respect and confronting the misogynist hatred that fuels a persistent rape culture.”
Fine. But what does that mean to you, in your own words? Put that into context- cut through the jargon and the buzz words.
Thanks for exposing this ugly behaviour. Semantics? I don’t think so.
That brings up an interesting question. My apologies to the mods. This comment is going to necessarily be profane. I certainly understand if it is not allowed or deleted. If you say f-ck you to someone, are you wishing that they have non-consensual sex? If you call someone a b-tch or a d-ckhead, are you being sexist or is that now gender neutral because they’ve acquired a different and specific meaning in society today? Is there a difference between calling someone a b-tch and saying stop your b-tching? Does context matter and maybe that’s the point in this case? If… Read more »
Talk. To. The. Parents. The Coaches. The Scout Leaders. The Teachers. The Citizens. As members of this Village into which these douches, er, kids have been born; all of us are responsible for calling out people, young or old, who make offensive and ignorant comments. It starts at home, but it must continue, everywhere. This is about policing anything; it’s about teaching respect. That one statement says so much; not caring about semantics does not make semantics unimportant, it makes those who do not care Ignorant.
“This is about policing anything: it’s about teaching respect.”
Not sure if that was a typo, but it thought/assumed you meant to say ‘This ISN’T about policing anything: it’s about teaching respect’
“It starts at home, but it must continue, everywhere… It’s about teaching respect.” Yes, respect can be taught, and from many different sources & different teachers- but like any skill, it takes practice, and time, and effort, and self-discipline to develop. Also, like other skills, the less often we use it, the less fully it develops, and the more easily it falls into disrepair. Most anyone can be a teacher of respect, hold themselves to a standard, and set a good example to follow. But respect, (to some degree at least) must be self-taught as well, as surely as it… Read more »
I have a topic I’d love to see discussed among smart folks. Booth Babes. So last year (certainly Heather remembers) I wrote about how totally messed up it is, the way that the spokesmodels (who know little to nothing about gaming) get lumped in with the actual female gaming teams like the Frag Dolls and actual gamer girls or girls with legit “nerd cred”. It seems to me that there is a lot of resentment toward using hot girls who pretend to like the geek guys just to sell stuff. And then there is resentment toward the girls who allegedly… Read more »
I remember a few years back there was controversy over whether companies should allow employees to entertain customers at strip clubs. There was concern that it could create a culture of misogyny within a conpany. Part of the discussion encompassed how this affected women on sales teams who were forced to go into these clubs. They even talked to a man in a committed heterosexual relationship who expressed issues with going to strip clubs on business trips. One question asked was is this just part of the job if it makes the sale or is it sexual harassment. Of course… Read more »
@ John Anderson: Big business culture and techie culture is full of this— my husband’s friend was head of a big techie company in Asia— it was routine to take clients out and drink the regional liquor all night long in private dinner party rooms with lovely young hostesses… Then later, the clients were expected to choose one or go hang out at some other party girl location….it was sort of a fraternity of secrets…. ie., you keep my secrets and I will keep yours… And business deals are sealed and more friendly afterwards….of course, all of these businessmen were… Read more »
So were the women who were not ok with it not team players? How about the ones who felt disrespected by it? Did their feelings matter? Or should they have tried harder to be “team players?” Because, you see, women face this issue all the time when “sex sells” and the guys are enjoying it.
@ Lori I think those are all part of the question. I took it that these clients weren’t small that’s why teams of salespeople were sent. I think society struggles with the idea of sexual harassment when they feel that “it’s worth it”. By that I mean that if a person is highly compensated then it becomes part of the job. When a job explicitly deals with sex, it’s clearly not sexual harassment. Hooters waitresses are not expected to complain when men ogle their breasts. I remember reading a story of models having to undress and dress out in the… Read more »
“I have a topic I’d love to see discussed among smart folks. Booth Babes.” Sure. “So last year (certainly Heather remembers) I wrote about how totally messed up it is, the way that the spokesmodels (who know little to nothing about gaming) get lumped in with the actual female gaming teams like the Frag Dolls and actual gamer girls or girls with legit ‘nerd cred’. ” Agreed. “It seems to me that there is a lot of resentment toward using hot girls who pretend to like the geek guys just to sell stuff. And then there is resentment toward the… Read more »
Wow, great question! Totally broadened my thinking, to a place of greater acceptance. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you so much. It’s been a long time since I’ve read something on this topic written by a man with such righteous anger. I really appreciate it. And HeatherN, you are absolutely right.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve read something on this topic written by a man with such righteous anger.” Personally, I’ve never been a fan of righteous anger, even when very righteous, and very angry. Justice & impartiality would seem to be in conflict of interest with (or at the very least, much secondary to) emotional self-gratification. When all is said and done, who likes to think they would fail a test of character or morality when judged fairly & impartially? Righteous anger though seems almost reckless; you can persuade some who fair & impartial with logic, reason and evidence.… Read more »
“Can a woman, for once, show up at E3 and be treated with some basic human respect?” Bigger question, can a woman show up anywhere and be treated as a human first, and a woman second? That’s the big issue with this, I think…well along with all the social privilege and entitlement associated with assuming that they had the right to say whatever the hell they wanted to about her. But yeah, the big issue is that she couldn’t show up and be a presenter…or be a studio head…or be whatever. She is a woman, and then a presenter. She… Read more »
“…particularly in a public space with such a dude-brah culture as a gaming convention.” I think the qualifier there is very important, and I’m glad you included it. Cultural and situational variance is significant. Sexism, like other prejudices, and the people who hold them (or do not hold them, as well) are not uniform- the fact that we do acknowledge that there are innumerable mini ‘cultures’ underscores this. (I would say ‘sub-cultures’ but that sounds almost derogatory, and that is not my intent there) Demographically, I may have a lot in common with an average Christian conservative or an average… Read more »