Sexual Harrassment of Female Players

Musedbyjava·10/27/2014, 6:33:57 PM·9 votes·1,742 views

Over the past few weeks I've seen some pretty disgusting examples. As a female gamer, my anatomy should never be the topic of discussion in the middle of a game, especially if the topic of conversation was unsolicited and is unwanted. I shouldn't feel the need to defend my gender or ward off attacks of prepubescent trolls asking for beaver shots. It's disgusting. I don't know how your parents raised you. Do you think your mother, sister, grandmother, aunt, girlfriend, or wife would appreciate being asked to strip down and take a porn shot to trade characters in ARAM? I bet not and guess what it just happened to me and another girl. While we may be fewer in numbers, we still pay the same prices for skins and play the game the same as you. We deserve the respect that we give you.

25 Comments

8bj2yMEanN10/27/2014, 6:48:45 PM6 votes

I really can't tell you're a troll or not... Based on the content I would say yes but based on your name I would say no.

In case you're not a troll... ... "defend my gender"? That makes no sense... "ward off attacks"? Ever heard of just fucking ignoring or muting people? Get some thicker skin. "we still pay the same prices for skins"? EXPLAIN TO ME HOW THAT HAS ANY RELEVANCE I've played around 800 normals and around 500 arams, and I can't remember a single time I've seen someone harass someone because they were female. Maybe you shouldn't include your gender in your name if you don't want to be harassed about it, you seem like trollbait to me.

AJStarhiker10/27/2014, 8:33:50 PM6 votes

You're right, it's not acceptable. Comments like that do get punished (at least in League they do) if they are reported. Unfortunately, there's no way to predict who is going to say that stuff and preemptively mute/ban them. Or people who intentionally type things in a way that bypass the language filters. Riot is doing what they can to clean up the game, but it's a long process and it's fighting a culture that gets reinforced in too many other games (Just check the archived forums for the "But I've never been in trouble in video game X!" posts.

Dreddeth10/27/2014, 6:58:01 PM5 votes

Really, all this grandfather-clause misogyny needs to stop. It's proven that the gamer/nerd subculture is independent of gender, so at this point all sexism really does is make the rest of us look bad by association.

And remember kids, only you can report toxic players.

ComannderShepard10/27/2014, 7:46:39 PM5 votes

Look, im sorry but the internet is pretty awful and you're going to get this pretty much on any online game, not just league. What's the reason for telling people your gender anyways?

Musedbyjava10/27/2014, 7:02:27 PM2 votes

We had a girl named Elsie on our team. Many people know me from Aram. They know my daughter as well. They assume that I'm female because of my name (I work for social services and I'm a mom). Believe it or not it happens a lot. Also the relevance of my mentioning that we pay the same costs. There has been little to know protection against it. I'm a pretty calm person. I usually try to mediate when team mates are fighting or there is an issue but you see very little by way of defense of women when this crap happens.

Creamy Seaman10/27/2014, 7:31:08 PM2 votes

you're not "kawaii" as the weebs would say.

MarrowEight10/27/2014, 7:32:24 PM2 votes

first off how do they even know your a girl to provoke these topics?

just don't even respond to the nastyness

KlNGPlN11/29/2014, 10:49:28 PM1 votes

It is the internet. People can and will do as they please. If you are not old enough to handle such language or environments, should you be here in the first place? I had the understanding that you had to be 13+ in order to play league. I would think someone, even at that young age, is smart enough to realize that most people are tools on the internet and can easily be ignored. It is only a problem if you LET it be a problem. There is a report function for a reason. Take comfort in the fact that people who are ignorant enough to spit out crap like that over the internet are likely just as big of an idiot IRL. Shun them all.

Narasimha10/27/2014, 6:39:25 PM1 votes

Why did your gender even come up in the first place? No one cares unless you brought it up.