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An Enlightened Life
Feb. 4th, 2006 12:14 pmYou know, I lead a pretty comfortable existence. I'm in a socially aware (for the most part) city that I love, I have intelligent friends who are worthwhile human beings, and I work in an job and industry whose entire purpose is to entertain others and make them happy (well, and make money, but that's a different issue). I have friends of whom I'm very fond, and we have a great deal of mutual respect. All in all, it's a very pleasant life -- almost pleasant enough to forget that there are plenty of assholes out there.
Well, at least until yesterday.
Upon seeing![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
iamnikchick's post, I realized that I had been sitting back waiting for someone else to say something. The ads she mentioned offended me as well, but I was waiting for someone else to comment. After kicking myself for a coward, I went to the boards, saw the three threads already in progress, and proceeded to not only offer Nicole my support in her request for an end to that particular advertising tactic, but also to let people know that the ads did offend me and that I would like to see them changed. I also posted in the main thread on the issue, the one I knew the advertiser was reading and in which he had requested comment if anyone was offended. The resulting flurry of posts probably added half again to my post count there.
In the 24 hours since in those threads, women who object to the use of objectifying images to sell items in banner ads have been sideways accused of being prudes, man-haters, and ugly/insecure about their looks on those boards -- not by the advertiser, although his response proves he utterly does not get why this is an issue, but by the members of the forum "rising to the defense" of said publisher. I was even the recipient of a personal attack under the guise of "analysis," something that's happened to me... oh, never, really, in the course of my time on message boards. I've literally never seen anything like it.
It's easy to forget sometimes... to think the bad old days are past, and that most of the fight for equality and respect is won. It's easy to believe that everyone thinks as you and your friends do. To believe that because you have a safe haven, everyone else does as well. As small as the stakes were here, it was enough to shake me out of my complacency a bit and remind me that there's always more to be done.
As it is, I'm pretty disillusioned with ENWorld right now. The mods took no action to address the concerns (except to be happy we weren't complaining to them, because that would be censorship), worried more about the effective volume of the discussion than the topics being discussed. It became clear that the opinions of the female board members were not something that would be seriously considered or listened to, and that makes me sad. The d20 community as a whole... well, I wish I could say I believed it was only an issue among a select few. I am seriously considering removing ENWorld from my list of sites that I visit based on this experience. Granted, my post count there has never been high, but I visited daily and contributed where I could, given industry status and general interest. It's a site I would have recommended to other women looking for information about d20 gaming. Not anymore.
And, as a footnote, I've never had problems like this on RPGnet. There's been issues regarding sexism among the forum population and there have been complaints from time to time, but the administration there has always made it clear that they felt those concerns were in their province and that they were willing to deal with it. They have female mods. On the whole, they are approachable when there's a sensitive issue. The "volume" can be a lot louder there and the discussions tend to run a bit rougher, but it isn't a boys club and I'm grateful for that. Ironic, isn't it?
Well, at least until yesterday.
Upon seeing
iamnikchick's post, I realized that I had been sitting back waiting for someone else to say something. The ads she mentioned offended me as well, but I was waiting for someone else to comment. After kicking myself for a coward, I went to the boards, saw the three threads already in progress, and proceeded to not only offer Nicole my support in her request for an end to that particular advertising tactic, but also to let people know that the ads did offend me and that I would like to see them changed. I also posted in the main thread on the issue, the one I knew the advertiser was reading and in which he had requested comment if anyone was offended. The resulting flurry of posts probably added half again to my post count there. In the 24 hours since in those threads, women who object to the use of objectifying images to sell items in banner ads have been sideways accused of being prudes, man-haters, and ugly/insecure about their looks on those boards -- not by the advertiser, although his response proves he utterly does not get why this is an issue, but by the members of the forum "rising to the defense" of said publisher. I was even the recipient of a personal attack under the guise of "analysis," something that's happened to me... oh, never, really, in the course of my time on message boards. I've literally never seen anything like it.
It's easy to forget sometimes... to think the bad old days are past, and that most of the fight for equality and respect is won. It's easy to believe that everyone thinks as you and your friends do. To believe that because you have a safe haven, everyone else does as well. As small as the stakes were here, it was enough to shake me out of my complacency a bit and remind me that there's always more to be done.
As it is, I'm pretty disillusioned with ENWorld right now. The mods took no action to address the concerns (except to be happy we weren't complaining to them, because that would be censorship), worried more about the effective volume of the discussion than the topics being discussed. It became clear that the opinions of the female board members were not something that would be seriously considered or listened to, and that makes me sad. The d20 community as a whole... well, I wish I could say I believed it was only an issue among a select few. I am seriously considering removing ENWorld from my list of sites that I visit based on this experience. Granted, my post count there has never been high, but I visited daily and contributed where I could, given industry status and general interest. It's a site I would have recommended to other women looking for information about d20 gaming. Not anymore.
And, as a footnote, I've never had problems like this on RPGnet. There's been issues regarding sexism among the forum population and there have been complaints from time to time, but the administration there has always made it clear that they felt those concerns were in their province and that they were willing to deal with it. They have female mods. On the whole, they are approachable when there's a sensitive issue. The "volume" can be a lot louder there and the discussions tend to run a bit rougher, but it isn't a boys club and I'm grateful for that. Ironic, isn't it?
