Figure 2: A screen shot that shows misogynistic comments from the article “Where To Report Sexist Gamer Dudes”
This very common misogynistic attack can also put womxn in a defenseless position of not feeling good enough to be a gamer even if she has received better ranks than the male players who are constantly attacking them. There is never a sense of equity with womxn and men when it comes to video games because men don’t seem to see womxn as actual gamers.
This toxic community can stimulate anxiety, sadness, self-doubt and stress for many womxn within this virtual community. An article in the Cut reports that indeed cyberharassment leads to withdrawal, depressive symptoms and damages mental womxn’s mental health (Singal, par.4). This environment should not be tolerated; this is why there was a creation of reporting options within games started being created. Many video game consoles and video games have adapted a reporting system for women to feel safe within the social environment aspect of video games. Games including Minecraft, Fortnite and more have adapted support centers or options to report an abuse player (Cybersmile, par. 1-3). But, it does nothing to solve the problem other than avoid root problem by not allowing abusive men to play the video games. Just because a game or console blocks an individual for a certain amount of time from the game will not allow the player to understand what they did wrong. Also this makes it the abusers work to go through the process of blocking an individual and having to explain why they are blocking a certain individual. The way that reporting systems works is also a large procedure and sometimes it can be difficult to find the link to report an abuser which creates an inconvenience for the victim (Cybersmile, pr.1). Sometimes it just deletes the negative comments written by the individual. Without any type of education of why being horrible to womxn creates the situation of why men keep harassing womxn in video games without a second thought when they are allowed back to the space.
Educating men about the whole history of why womxn are treated inhumanely sounds impossible. How can there be a module that has enough of the history, can impact men to make the change and get men to actually act on it sounds difficult. Mostly when men might describe it as hostile and destroys their environment where they can act like themselves. Men in video games are known to be racist, sexist and homophobic and create a hostile environment (Maher, par. 4). Men feeling targeted over being reported about harassing womxn are part of the problem; they should understand that they are targeted because of their actions. There needs to be a way to make a module that won’t feel like a lecture that they dread or even an easy agree to the terms and conditions that they would be able to not even take a look at the 28 pages within it. The way that many educational modules precede is extensive and unbearable videos with simplistic questions that can be answer with common sense. How can there be a way to make a module that can actually be entertaining and educational at the same time.
Currently in the video game environment doesn’t seem to have these video games that create a lessons once they are reported. But there is a development of educating students about sexual harassment in school environments. Three northern Chicago charters schools in October 2016 launched a video game called Bystanders in their classrooms that teaches students about sexual misconduct (Stone, par. 1-3). The video game is aiming to educate students on how not to be bystanders and understand what sexual harassment is and the next steps to take when you are sexually harassed. Bystander really just aimed to shift the social norms about sexual harassment and to disrupt and prevent sexual harassment (Stone, par. 6). Looking at Figure 3, a screenshot of the actual game, you can see how the minimalistic setting can go a long way to create sympathy and an understanding of what the problem is right away through facial expressions and context.