From: burdickd@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Dakin Burdick)
Subject: Re: Looking for "women's" rpg.
Summary: Cult of True Womanhood, part I
Organization: Indiana University
Date: Mon, 7 Sep 1992 15:21:03 GMT

In article <715838884.14876@zooid.guild.org> brian@zooid.guild.org (Brian Misiaszek) writes:
> I like the points you have above.  Many women are put off by the sexism and
>violence that seems to be the norm for many rpg's on the market now.  While
>many women of I know enjoy reading/writing sf and fantasy, not that many that
>I know of are attracted to role-playing games, saying that many who play these
>games are immature and unsophisticated.  

Well, for the most part, they're right.  But then again, so are they
(see next page).

The sexism in game marketing is certainly a major reason girls & women
do not play that much.  I think the only time I saw an illustration of
a competent female warrior was  on the cover of the RQ 3rd edition.
Almost all the other games have women in steel bikinis, which is
stupid, uncomfortable and ineffective.  If a woman warrior is
portrayed as being so stupid that she will wear this stuff, why will
women want to play them?

>  Perhaps the fault lies with the wargaming heritage from which most
>role-playing games are still connected to (with most of the rules to games
>associated with combat, in all gory detail).  A new approach to role-playing
>games may be required to attract more women to the field.  Storytelling seems
>to be one approach that's working well, with games like "Amber" and "Vampire"
>showing that this is a style that can be favoured.  Other approaches that may
>be worth looking into are from the area of improvised theatre sports, or from
>a direction of "new age" shared personality exploration.

Combat is not the problem.  Women love to hack the baddies to death
just as much as men do.  Puzzle solving and character development
should always be stressed more than combat, but that applies to groups
of male players as well.  What age group are we talking about here 
anyway?  If you're talking about the under-21 group, I think you'll
find that the women/girls who stay away from role-playing are just as
immature as the men/boys who love it.  Both groups haven't quite
gotten used to their own sexual identity yet.  Female immaturity tends
to be of the Barbie-doll type, with girls that expect Romance (with 
a capital R) like they read about.  That's as immature as the boys who
want to rule the world and hack off anybody's head that disagrees with
them.

>  Perhaps the content of many games has a great deal of growing up to do to
>attract more women to role-playing.  Games that aren't so much the working out
>of male teenage fantasies (a quest for power and respect for those who lack
>both), but ones that explore more adult adult and sophisticated themes--say
>the nature of human sexuality, spirtuality and so forth.

Oh Lordy!  I guess I must not be very mature/adult, because I see human
sexuality as of secondary importance, and I don't think spirituality
is of any importance at all.  IMHO, the "mature" themes are morality
and ethics, a person's place in society and how they conquer it or
adjust to it, and deep, involved plots/puzzles in which, every once
in a while, the sh*t hits the fan and the hero/heroine is forced to
place her/his life on the line.

>Perhaps you could
>come full circle with the origins of the word "role-playing", which was a
>techinique of psychotherapy used to provide personal insights; one could
>imagine what would not exactly be a game (but would have many features of
>them) that could be used as a tool for enhancing and exploring human potential
>in a cooperative setting with others.

This is a good point, and I think it is also a large portion of what I
do.  Again, I think the age group is the question here.  If you
concentrate on the violent solution of problems, you are basically
dealing with young boys.  If you concentrate on sexual relationships,
you are basically dealing with people under 25 whose hormones are
still happily raging (by the way, I really think these people would have a
lot more fun putting those hormones to good use than playing
roleplaying games, but I guess you have to do something on the off
nights...).  I THINK (this is my opinion again) that concentration
on puzzles, with ethical dilemmas, sex, violence and monetary reward
tossed in, is the way to go with any group, regardless of age (I
just tone down the sex & violence for the 16 and under crowd).

Dakin
burdickd@copper.ucs.indiana.edu