PixelVixen707

If you’re a fan of game journos and you know the name Jane Pinckard, it’s because of that article. You know the one I mean. A couple years back she wrote a blog post detailing her discovery of the peripheral-based music/action game Rez, and specifically the peripheral, which was called a “trance vibrator” and, when deployed to the crotch, sent happy sensations to the little man in her canoe. Things got wild. There were pictures.

The post was a hit. And insofar as women always cross a certain threshold when they reveal the fact that they are sexual beings and have discovered their genitals, Pinckard crossed the threshold big time. She wrote about her sexuality in relation to a videogame and it scored her lots of readers.

So I ponder, as a woman joining the community of game scribblers, if you’re expecting me to do the same. Do women who write about games have to write about sex?

A quick survey suggests, “Yes.” Many – in fact, most – of the prominent female writers on games lead with their sex or their sexuality. Bonnie Ruberg of Heroine Sheik started by covering sex and games, and has recently taken up the cybersex beat. Leigh Alexander, one of the great new journos of any gender, made it big with a nifty little hentai column. Her blog name? Sexyvideogameland.blogspot.com. And feminist and academic blogs abound, where highbrow discourse gets down with Etsy crafts and game cake debates.

If you’re a girl who writes about games, or a girl who likes games at all, you’re still in the minority. I expect the teens and tweens of today to get over those hurdles, so that female first-person shooter fans aren’t “frag dolls” and men log time on games about riding ponies. But for now, in too many gatherings and too many blogrolls, one finds herself “the girl.” And one way to tackle that is head-on: embrace your difference and your different perspective. If the men can’t handle a woman who’s comfortable with her body, that’s their bad.

In fact, the problem may lie with the boys. Scanning my own bookmarks list, I’m hard-pressed to find men who can write smart on sex. I don’t just mean that Games Radar’s many lists of the hottest 8-bit women or the sexiest up-skirt shots of the Meiji era reflect a hostility peculiar to virgins. Men are baffled at how to express their sexuality through games without giggling. Encounters with female NPCs leave them staggered. The cross-dressing and role-reversal that permeate online worlds teach them little to nothing. Here we have the opportunity for the genders to cross streams in a virtual, anything’s possible world – and they settle for bouncy, bouncy boobs.

Of course, some guys show signs of life. Remember that Pinckard’s Rez companion, Justin, immediately wondered what a vibrating peripheral might do for him. And like I said, the more mature guys may be catching up with the gals.

But that still leaves me with the question: how do I play my gender? Naturally I owe you nothing. But if there’s an elephant in the room, let’s acknowledge it. So here’s my pledge: if I use my body in any way to deliver these reviews, I will tell you. If I rub the box against myself. If I buy a vibrating peripheral. If I’m menstruating (if it’s relevant). If I give my avatar a bigger cup size than I have in real life. If you need to know about my body, I won’t hide it.

And I won’t hide my brains, either.