> ... another news article saying women aren't strong enough to participate ... I'm 36, and a white male. I've played computer games my whole life... ZX Spectr

> ... another news article saying women aren't strong enough to participate ... I'm 36, and a white male. I've played computer games my whole life... ZX Spectrum, Master system, SNES, Amiga, PC, Wii, PS3. I'm a grown man who still plays table-top RPGs with dice and bits of paper. I was bullied as a kid, not badly, but enough. I have difficultly relating to people. And I'm here to tell you that you are so epically wrong on this. Firstly, men don't need to talk like that to other men either. That's exactly the kind of behaviour that makes "gamers" as a culture seem like a bunch of 5-year-olds compared to regular folks. It's not okay. Your advice to women is to get better at games in the hope they don't get bullied as much. Someone always loses. The bullying is the problem, not the women. Secondly, it's not the same when men abuse women. Abuse about physical appearance cuts far far deeper because of the way women are taught to value themselves by their appearance. Threats of rape and violence are far more real when made against women because women are ALREADY live under the threat of being raped by strangers and family members alike (and don't try the men-get-raped-too line, we do, and it's awful, but it's rare enough that we don't all live in fear of it). Thirdly, you're conflating 'strength' with a willingness to voluntarily suffer verbal abuse and threats as part of something that's supposed to be a leisure activity. Who wants that? Fourthly, you're also dismissing people's pain as irrelevant, or misguided, something that would make anyone feel small. They're telling you that they're hurt, and you're saying it doesn't matter. It's your choice, but it's an approach that won't help you in life. Take that as sincere advice from someone who has real problems with empathy and has had to work hard at it. Actually you know what, I take it back, you're not "epically" wrong on this, you're historically wrong. In a decade or two anyone in tech or games who reads opinions like the one you just shared will be repulsed, almost as if they were reading a defence of apartheid, or a justification why women shouldn't have jobs. Don't be that guy. The good news is that it's just an opinion. Own it then let it go. Be the guy who sees the problem and changes things. It's the mature, empathic response. Level up. Or... you could tell me that I'm a gay, or a dentist, or whatever. Your choice, right?