My sister and I have been playing video games since we were both about 4 years old
(1994; we're twins, so the same amount of years) I have yet to find any female gamers that are as hardcore into video games as we are. Most don't play Gears of War, Call Of Duty, Halo, Mass Effect, or Bioshock- they just play rock band or guitar hero (which yeah, I play too) How come there aren't very many girl gamers? I just figured it was because our culture teaches that women aren't supposed to be agressive or competitive, and that video games are for guys, so women don't really get that chance to play and get hooked to the games like most guys do. Plus, adolesents can conform to their culture better than anyone, so it kind of makes sense to me.
What I've heard is that guys like it because they're more of what a man was built to do- to defeat the game, but there's no hormonal barrier that prevents a woman from being as or more agressive than a man, so what's up? Why are there so few female gamers?
they just dont appeal to many females and also youve probaly experienced the attention that you recieve from some people for being one, which i think put alot of females off aswell, pluss its considered kind of geeky in a way, if you descride yourself as an avid gamer.
The sexes do differ in aggressiveness, which is one reason most of the people locked up for violent crimes are men. I think it's like 97% or similar. That's not to say that women can't be aggressive--and I don't just mean criminally. Women an be competitive and determined, which you can see in sports since we passed Title IX. (I wanted to compete in sports in the late 60s and wasn't able to because there were almost no sports for girls then). So I'm sympathetic to what you are saying. I tend to like "guy" activities myself. (I've even played grand theft auto with my teenage sons. ) But women's willingness to take chances or do things like that is less on average, despite individual differences, and there IS social pressure against girls and women doing certain things.
It's really hard to say what's "biological" and what's social engineering, since babies/toddlers start getting trained early in what's acceptable. I see parents tell their 2 years olds "You are so pretty" if it's a girl or "You are so strong" if it's a boy, and let boys behave aggressively but get upset if a girl does the same thing. It can be very subtle, but persistent, and it's the stuff adults don't even realize they are doing that's most potent. When my older son was in grade school, the schools were just getting computers. I had taught him to use one and to make minor fixes when things went wrong. At school, the female teachers would act helpless around the computers, refuse to learn anything and ask the boys to help them. My son became the 4th grade computer guru, even though he really didn't know that much. It bugged me that the teacher was modeling helpless behavior for the kids, especially for the girls. Then people would make remarks about how it was just "natural" for my son to understand computers because he was a boy.
So sexism stories: I tried to buy a motorcycle a few years back and they wouldn't let me test drive the bike, even though I'd put money down for one and had been riding for years, had my license. They didn't say no, they just ignored me for an hour and chatted with male customers until I went away. I kept asking about riding "my" bike, and they would just say, "in a few minutes." No one ever talked to me. They weren't busy either, just guys shooting the breeze. It was a good way to get rid of me because I don't make a scene most of the time.
Last year, when I went to the department of motor vehicles to renew my driver's license, the young guy behind the counter tried to get me to not renew my motorcycle license and not take the test. He told me I didn't "need" a motorcycle license. I said I wanted to take the test and I passed with flying colors and renewed my license. Then another woman walked up to me and said he'd tried to talk her out of renewing her license too! How weird.
I love video games but only if they're Donkey Kong, Mario or Yoshis' Land. I like they older ones. My sisters and I used to be pros at them. I still remember every hidden banana in Donkey Kong, and where all of the 'bad guys' were in Mario.
Currently I don't play many video games, only because I work full time. If I could get an old Nintendo console with the games mentioned above, I would.
i don't know, people say that men are more agressive because they have higher levels of testosterone than women, but I heard that testosterone doesn't increase when a man has an agressive out burst, or before an agressive outburst, but after, and that if there is a link between testosterone and agression- it's a weak one. So what is the difference between men and agression, and women and agression- it can't be anything hormonal right? I would not argue that men are more agressive than women generally, but I think that it has nothing to do with the way that men and women are "built" but rather, what culture says is acceptable- an agressive woman isn't much accepted in this culture, maybe that's why.
Overall, since I'm definitly more "boyish" than girly, I have to say that there is more differences between me and the average "girly girl" than me and the average guy, personally. There are more differences within the sexes, than between them, at least that's how I see.
Men's testosterone levels go up if they win a game (or if their team wins a game). The levels go down when they lose. Women's seem to do the same thing.
But really I think there's a lot more to this than just hormones. People give themselves permission to act in certain ways. With succeess, comes a burst of confidence, and sometimes a hormone burst. So brain surgeons have higher testosterone levels than football players, who have higher levels than accountants. But it may be that the brain surgeons have high levels BECAUSE they are getting treated like gods all t he time. They aren't brain surgeons because they have naturally high levels. Not enough research in this area. (All this is from an advanced textbook I have on hormones and behavior.)
Whoops. My son is calling me. This is a fascinating subject though!
I heard that women who work have higher testosterone levels than women who stay at home. So does that mean that women who have higher testosterone levels work, or work causes women to have higher levels of testosterone? Are some women just born with more testosterone?
The sexes do differ in aggressiveness, which is one reason most of the people locked up for violent crimes are men. I think it's like 97% or similar.
Actually, recent studies have proven that violent crimes by men are on the decline. Women are capable of being violent and hostile just as much as men. In fact, in most cases the female is more aggressive than the male.
The women's rights movement views women as not being capable of being violent while men are the sole cause of violence. Instead of having equal rights as men things have been twisted into being superior to men and ridiculing them.
The domestic violence power and control wheel (Duluth Model) is faulty and uses the "her" pronoun and addresses men as being abusive and dominating yet says nothing about women equally.
Actually, recent studies have proven that violent crimes by men are on the decline.
Yes. Down for women too. Violent crime has been down for some time and lots of speculation about why that is so. Gamers point out that the declines in violence don't support the idea that gaming causes violence.
I'm finding that about 14% of convicted violent offenders are women; the other 86% being men.
HEY! I LOVE Halo, my husband thought I was the coolest when we met. I like Fable and a lot of the Star Wars based games. Oh and the Godfather game is awesome! I like Call of Duty as well. I think that there are more women who are gamers than you think. We just have better stuff to talk about most of the time.
) But women's willingness to take chances or do things like that is less on average, despite individual differences, and there IS social pressure against girls and women doing certain things. 
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