Top Image from Not In The Kitchen Anymore
During the Call of Duty: Ghosts multiplayer reveal, I noticed something that kind of put me off. When the presenter announced that females would be playable in Ghosts , he chuckled. Now, I don’t presume to know the intention of said chuckle. Maybe he thinks it’s funny that females are being included in the game, maybe he doesn’t. Maybe he was just thinking of a really inappropriate joke that a buddy of his told him backstage. Who knows? But one thing is for sure–he chuckled at the wrong damn time. And if the giggle was indeed a summation of how he feels about females in the game, he (apparently) isn’t alone.
Since the reveal, a disturbing amount of male gamers have taken to message boards and comment sections across the Internet in an effort to display their apparent displeasure about the addition of the opposite sex to their beloved shooter. It’s impossible to say how much of this is true sexism and how much is playful male idiocy for the sake of laughs, but neither are necessary.
Here are just a few of the comments I saw.
“It would be a hilarious troll if they added female soldiers, then put a tit slider in the custom character creator. Or offered $2 breast enlargement DLC.”
“There had better be a map called ‘Kitchen’ in the multi-player.”
“Oh noes! Call of Duty has been neutered! Remember kids: dawgs before bitches.”
“We added females in the game to be politically correct. It was to please the 1% of females who actually play this game, so we added totally unrealistic female soldiers, even if there was basically no demand at all for it.”
“All they’re doing is pandering to all the bitchy feminists.”
Though wrong, some of these are clearly intended to be playful. Sadly, in this world, that doesn’t matter. If you say something like this, on the Internet or otherwise, you are just setting yourself up to be categorized alongside the true believers of this mentality. Sucks for you.
And for the men out there who truly do believe this garbage, why does it even matter to you? The game is an FPS, so during play you won’t even be able to see your character. Not to mention that this is a choice, not a requirement. If you don’t want to play as a woman, fine. But don’t shove your ideals into the faces of others because you believe you’re right.
It seems the Call of Duty fanbase is chock-full of men who don’t want girls in their gaming experience. You know what else it’s chock-full of? Girls. Women who find no greater pleasure than handing you your ass in Team Deathmatch or stomping your guts out in Free-for-All. It’s also full of men who have no problem accepting with open arms female gamers. Unfortunately, the moronic dregs of society seem to be the most vocal (but not learned) members of the online community. And since they are so vocal, we must endure their drivel that is indicative of their limited mental capacity.
So, watch out misogynistic male gamers everywhere. The girls are coming for you, and now they have an in-game avatar to get you with. And by the way, there are a lot more girl gamers than you think. Deal with it.