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from the perhaps-men-don't-like-losing-to-a-woman dept.
On Monday the e-sports industry awards take place in London to applaud the top players in the business but not one female player has been nominated.
Competitive gaming, also known as Electronic Sports or e-sports, is growing at an incredible pace. In 2016, revenues from e-sports are predicted by professional services firm Deloitte to rise by 25% to $500m (£406m). Its regular global audience will likely top 150 million people.
Unlike in traditional sport, physical advantages in e-sports are non-existent yet the most popular games are still overwhelmingly played by men.
Recent research by the Pew Center shows men and women are equally likely to say they play video games but men are twice as likely to consider themselves "gamers". It is when gaming becomes competitive that the number of women playing drops dramatically.
Steph Harvey is one of the most successful gamers in the world. She says that the number of women in e-sports is as low as 5% and the main reason is the stereotype attached to gamers. "It's still a 'boy's club' so as a woman you're automatically judged for being different," she says.
Online abuse has been prevalent in the gaming community for years and even led to a misogynistic hate campaign.
Steph has even received online rape threats in the past: "The way I get harassed is about what they would do to my body, about why I don't deserve to be there because I use my sexuality - it's all extremely graphic."
[...] Julia Kiran is the leader of Team Secret, which in October became the top female team in the world. She thinks this reflects a common attitude: "It's always felt that female teams are not a real scene. Male players see us as a side game that doesn't count."
One of the solutions has been the creation of female teams and female-only tournaments.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Kell on Wednesday November 23 2016, @10:26AM
It's actually more complex than that, if you look at the science. There are 14 markers for biological sex, and XY/XX chromosones are but one. Some kids are born with other chromosonal types (XXY and such), and others are born with intermediate genitalia that are not clearly either male or female. So if you take someone with androgen insensitivity who has XY but developed otherwise entirely as a female - are they male? What about more complex things like chimerism, where a person may have both XY and XX cells in their body. Actually, sex and gender are very complex once you get away from the whole "boys or girls!" false dualism. Attempts to enforce it with labels ignores the science and is, at its core, disingenuous.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 3, Informative) by r1348 on Wednesday November 23 2016, @11:12AM
What you describe are various degrees of genetic hermaphroditism, or intersex, that occur naturally, although rarely. Transexuals do not occur naturally. It's individuals that transition from one sex to another through surgery and/or hormonal therapy because their perceived gender mismatches with their biological one.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday November 23 2016, @12:57PM
Sorry, no. There are two genders determined by XX or XY chromosomes. If you don't fall into either, you're an unfortunate aberration. It doesn't make you a bad person but it most certainly does make you fall into the Abnormal category. The same as being an albino or having an IQ over 150 does.
You're trying to normalize weirdness but it's never going to happen.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday November 23 2016, @02:11PM
Aberration? Abnormal? You're too free with those terms. Save them for the clearly bad mutations such as Down Syndrome and albinism. IQ over 150? How could you call high IQ an aberration? XXY chromosomes is abnormal, but we know now that homosexuality is normal, if uncommon. It definitely isn't "unnatural" as homophobes asserted. About 5% of mammals are homosexual. Why is still something of a puzzle. Seems too high a percentage to dismiss as a mere mistake. If homosexuality is such a bad thing for survival of a species, why hasn't evolution eliminated it entirely? Perhaps it is beneficial to the species as a whole to have a few members who aren't in the endless heterosexual mating war. Maybe they help foster co-operation. A heterosexual guy can feel pretty sure and safe that a homosexual guy is not going to try to cheat with his mate.
Ants are a good example of animals with radically different sexual roles than most mammals. Most ants are sterile workers.
(Score: 4, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday November 23 2016, @03:50PM
You need to look up the definitions of those words you're so unwilling to accept. They are absolutely accurate, and not pejorative unless you're trying to speak falsehood into truth.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 4, Funny) by tangomargarine on Wednesday November 23 2016, @04:05PM
Damn ivory-tower assholes and their insistence that words have set meanings /s
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday November 23 2016, @04:51PM
It's not ivory, it's made from the bones of my enemies. Mostly catfish but the odd crappie and bass too.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday November 23 2016, @05:26PM
Ant trait affecting fewer than 2% of the population is an aberration. Yes, geniuses are freaks (I'm on the cusp and I'm certainly not normal).
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday November 23 2016, @11:44PM
Normal, but not average. Geniuses are normal, just part of the range of possible intelligence, if at one of the extremes. What they are not is average.
Height also varies considerably, and the extremes are populated with those afflicted with some condition such as acromegaly or dwarfism. Unlike extreme height, I have not heard of any abnormal condition that changes a person of average intelligence into a genius. There are plenty of ways to lower intelligence, such as lead poisoning, malnutrition, deliberately spurning education, and even psychological effects from believing it when everyone tells you that you are stupid.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday November 25 2016, @02:01AM
Not average, median. 100 is the median; I don't know what the mean is, but in this case the mean is meaningless. But if you're in the top 2% smartest, shortest, tallest, or dumbest, you're a freak.
That word should not have such negative connotations but I can't think of one that fits better.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday November 23 2016, @04:01PM
Actually, sex and gender are very complex once you get away from the whole "boys or girls!" false dualism.
According to Blackless, Fausto-Sterling et al., 1.7 percent of human births are intersex,
Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
For a "false dualism" it sounds pretty damn accurate to me. Only 98.3% accurate; better chuck the whole thing out the window and start from scratch.
Gender can be complex. Sounds like biological sex really isn't, the vast majority of the time. Just put the 1.7% under "Other" and ask them how they want to be categorized?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 23 2016, @04:10PM
No, it isn't. Male=XY, Female=XX. It is permissible to omit the chromosome configuration in such instances. This is not the subject of opinion but a fact about the common conventions in biological science. It works just like omitting the + sign in front of positive numbers in math.
thers are born with intermediate genitalia that are not clearly either male or female
And some people are missing parts of their reproductive systems because they were surgically removed for health reasons. You don't stop being your sex if your balls/ovaries are removed for whatever reason.
What about more complex things like chimerism, where a person may have both XY and XX cells in their body.
They are not male or female. XXY-male is not the same thing as male.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday November 23 2016, @05:23PM
Some kids are born with other chromosonal types (XXY and such), and others are born with intermediate genitalia that are not clearly either male or female.
And it's an incredibly tiny number of people. It's akin to the guy in South America who has twelve fingers; nature fucked up.
As to chimerism, that's an artificial construct; there are no natural chimeras. Transplanting a heart with an X an Y into a woman doesn't make her a man any more than surgery and hormones do. Your "false dualism" only holds true to the one in a billion XXY XXX XYY freaks.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org