While we're sharing anecdotes, I have also been into warriors, ninjas, dinosaurs, jet planes, guns, swords, explosions and weaponry since I was a young child.

While we're sharing anecdotes, I have also been into warriors, ninjas, dinosaurs, jet planes, guns, swords, explosions and weaponry since I was a young child. What I 100% was not into was: - all the bullying and exclusion I got from boys when I tried to do or talk about "their things" with them - the way I was inevitably the one that got called away to help out with one chore or errand or the other - being scrutinised (to the point of pathologising) for openly being unbothered by violence and gore - on the flip side, the rather weird expectation that I should or would be open to (receiving) violence and aggression in real life just because I do so on a screen, or that I could not also like teddy bears and flowers and family - the reinforcement from many of the games (and other media) themselves that these were Boys' Things for a Boys' Club that I was just intruding on - the step beyond bullying and into actual, pretty vile harassment when I eventually started trying to play or talk about games in a bigger context (i.e. online)