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From: bradley@cs.utexas.edu (Bradley L. Richards)
Newsgroups: soc.feminism
Subject: Re: computer games & women/girls
Message-ID: <1569@sunc.osc.edu>
Date: 23 Apr 91 17:24:43 GMT
Organization: Advanced Computing Center for the Arts & Design
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|lisa ann farmer writes:
|
|>>It seems to me that
|>>fewer women than men are interested in computer games because fewer
|>>women are interested in computers.
|>My theory is
|>that since women/girls don't play computer games they aren't as
|>comfortable with computers to begin with and therefore get discouraged
|>quicker than boys/men/ and other girls/women who have played computer
|>games.
|
|The researchers found no difference in the abilities of males/females
|playing the games, but they did find a big difference in enjoyment.
|The attitude of the girls playing missile command, for example, seemed
|to be "yea, I can play it, but why do I want to pretend to be fighting
|a war?"
|
|The conclusion the researchers drew was that most video and computer
|games are oriented toward a male audience by being violence oriented;
|we still have the early socialization, to a large extent, that boys
|play with toy soldiers, while girls play house.

  I not sure if I understand your response.  Perhaps I reading something
  different.  College women often have shown low spatial aptitute than
  college men over many engineering disciplines.  Part of the problem is
  that our society whether it is USA or some poor country where I come
  from educates young girls to be nurturing and proficient in language
  learning while young boys to be proficient in math and science domains.
  There has been considerable evidence that young girls and adult women
  need to be taught spatial skills.  This might help to reduce the
  underrepresentation of women in math and science fields.  Note that at
  the same time it is equally important for young boys to be nurturing
  and proficient in language learning.  This might help boys and girls
  communicate better with each other since men and women often
  communicate as if the two come from alien cultures.  Now where does
  computers, video technology, or video games comes in.  Some one at
  MIT did a research couple of years ago where it was shown that video
  games can improve spatial skills.  At a same time women teachers,
  that is the elementary teachers, often have anxiety problems with
  computers and their like.  Tom Malone, also of MIT, once wrote a
  paper on how games can provided education (content lessons).  I hope
  I am correct here.  In any case, well-designed video games can provide
  something constructive to other half of our society.  I am not a
  feminist per se, alteast in the western environment, but I am a student
  of visual literacy, and a big supporter for poor women and children
  rights to equity and equality in my society.