Coincidence...or throwing down the gauntlet for folks to take on your arguments? ;-) Seriously, though, nicely done essay. I particularly like the concrete suggestions for improving things you present at the end.
My specific comments follow.
That's what feminism is: attempting to make the best things available to everyone, no matter what gender the things have traditionally been tied to.
Hear hear!
As long as you're recruiting women, why not recruit people from other countries, people of other races, people of other classes?
Very good point. Most gamers I know are white or East Asian, and though I have met working-class gamers in the past, I haven't encountered them in a long time. I only knew blue-collar gamers "back in the day" -- in the late 70s/early 80s -- and they seemed primarily to have come out of the world of miniatures and Avalon Hill type games, then wandered off into Traveller and/or the Fantasy Trip. Lately, though, it's been all middle class & upper middle class in my experience. Mind you, I'm skewed by (1) mostly being involved with Amber DRPG gamers, who tend to read a lot and own (therefore can afford) a lot of books, and (2) being in that class myself, so I'm not at all sure if I have a representative sample at this point in my gaming life. More data (anecdotal and otherwise) would be welcome.
Nonetheless, I think that RPG gaming is more expensive than it was back in the day, even allowing for inflation. Books back then tended to be home-grown and pretty cheaply made (and badly copy-edited, with mediocre artwork, etc. -- the downside). Now everything is slick and professional-looking, often hardbound with full-color glossy pages. As Peter Falk's character in the movie All the Marbles kept putting it, "Them frills cost money." And that cost is passed on to the gamer, effectively raising the class floor for entry. There are a few exceptions, of course, such as the output of Cheap Ass Games.
Con runners could add an option to the nametag that would show your e-mail address or blog address, to make it easier for people to connect to each other once the con has passed.
The feminist SF convention WisCon has had an LJ party for the last few years with blog names and default pictures on stickers that you can add to your badge (if you want to). It works very well, IMO.
[Regarding at-con daycare] I suspect the holdup is liability. Could the concomm contract it out and just alert babysitters to the potential motherlode, and gamers to the potential service? It's a problem that we all need to put some serious thought into.
Hmmm...larger SF cons seem to have established protocols for daycare (though I've never looked into it, since I don't have kids). Mayhap some cross-fertilization of information could be had.
to make women feel included in gaming, it's best to include them in the examples in game books
Actually, I've seen this being done a lot more in recent RPG books, which is a Good Thing.
to make women feel included in gaming, it's best to include them...as active participants in the game
In my experience, gamers come in a range from extroverts to the painfully shy (regardless of gender), and GMs need to be very aware of who is, unconsciously or not, demanding lots of attention and who is silently suffering in the background. As a GM, I've had to learn this skill, but my games have improved because of it. If GMs practice this kind of parity, women will naturally have as much "screen-time" with GM focus as men, because everyone will have the same amount.
female characters in the art should be no more naked/passive than the male characters.
I'm personally happy to see both male and female characters scantily clad in artwork. Preferably in the same piece of artwork. But that's me. :-)
Hmmm....
Coincidence...or throwing down the gauntlet for folks to take on your arguments? ;-) Seriously, though, nicely done essay. I particularly like the concrete suggestions for improving things you present at the end.
My specific comments follow.
That's what feminism is: attempting to make the best things available to everyone, no matter what gender the things have traditionally been tied to.
Hear hear!
As long as you're recruiting women, why not recruit people from other countries, people of other races, people of other classes?
Very good point. Most gamers I know are white or East Asian, and though I have met working-class gamers in the past, I haven't encountered them in a long time. I only knew blue-collar gamers "back in the day" -- in the late 70s/early 80s -- and they seemed primarily to have come out of the world of miniatures and Avalon Hill type games, then wandered off into Traveller and/or the Fantasy Trip. Lately, though, it's been all middle class & upper middle class in my experience. Mind you, I'm skewed by (1) mostly being involved with Amber DRPG gamers, who tend to read a lot and own (therefore can afford) a lot of books, and (2) being in that class myself, so I'm not at all sure if I have a representative sample at this point in my gaming life. More data (anecdotal and otherwise) would be welcome.
Nonetheless, I think that RPG gaming is more expensive than it was back in the day, even allowing for inflation. Books back then tended to be home-grown and pretty cheaply made (and badly copy-edited, with mediocre artwork, etc. -- the downside). Now everything is slick and professional-looking, often hardbound with full-color glossy pages. As Peter Falk's character in the movie All the Marbles kept putting it, "Them frills cost money." And that cost is passed on to the gamer, effectively raising the class floor for entry. There are a few exceptions, of course, such as the output of Cheap Ass Games.
Con runners could add an option to the nametag that would show your e-mail address or blog address, to make it easier for people to connect to each other once the con has passed.
The feminist SF convention WisCon has had an LJ party for the last few years with blog names and default pictures on stickers that you can add to your badge (if you want to). It works very well, IMO.
[Regarding at-con daycare] I suspect the holdup is liability. Could the concomm contract it out and just alert babysitters to the potential motherlode, and gamers to the potential service? It's a problem that we all need to put some serious thought into.
Hmmm...larger SF cons seem to have established protocols for daycare (though I've never looked into it, since I don't have kids). Mayhap some cross-fertilization of information could be had.
to make women feel included in gaming, it's best to include them in the examples in game books
Actually, I've seen this being done a lot more in recent RPG books, which is a Good Thing.
to make women feel included in gaming, it's best to include them...as active participants in the game
In my experience, gamers come in a range from extroverts to the painfully shy (regardless of gender), and GMs need to be very aware of who is, unconsciously or not, demanding lots of attention and who is silently suffering in the background. As a GM, I've had to learn this skill, but my games have improved because of it. If GMs practice this kind of parity, women will naturally have as much "screen-time" with GM focus as men, because everyone will have the same amount.
female characters in the art should be no more naked/passive than the male characters.
I'm personally happy to see both male and female characters scantily clad in artwork. Preferably in the same piece of artwork. But that's me. :-)