sorry…I was browsing through the blogosphere and came across your blog…and was really enjoying reading when I came across that picture. Couldnt help it…that was my first thought when I saw it.

Just wondering why it always seems permissable and acceptable to show such things when it concerns women…but the penis is sooooo taboo?

I’m just going to assume this “game” is WoW and that “break” was a wipe. I think just tuning that kind of stuff out would be the best way to deal with it. Back when I played, me and some friends did high end pvp and always required vent. We used to play with a person who claimed she was a 15 year old girl (she never talked) and we constantly ripped on her for being a 45 year old guy. If I could go back I would definately have toned it down a lot but most of the entertainment value (which made us do it more) came from her (over?)reaction. For good or ill (probably ill); a lot of online gaming seems to revolve around pissing off your opponent.

Secondly, speaking of racism, and going back to a previous post you made about feminism ruining perception, I have a question for you, but first a little background:

I play an online computer game that shall remain unnamed, in which people communicate via headsets and microphones and the like in order to coordinate in-game activities and whatnot. I was participating in a gaming event last night, which was a lot of fun, and during the breaks people would make idle, friendly chit-chat. The fella in charge of the event decided to tell us all a “funny” story about himself and his wife/gf/whatever who were out for breakfast recently, (said wife/gf also plays this game and was in the group), and they mentioned their waitress was a “totally hot black girl”. Whilst drinking their post-breakfast coffee, the wife apparently made a comment about the husband flirting with the waitress, and he said to her, with the sole purpose of embarassing her in pubilc (with playful intentions, presumably) that the next time the waitress came by for their refills he was going to say to her, “I like my women like I like my coffee – hot, dark, and full of cream.” Apparently it worked, because when the waitress returned to their table the wife was “red as a tomato” and hubby got quite a kick out of it (although I don’t believe he actually said this to the waitress). Well, everyone in the group thought this was utterly hilarious, and the wife did the old “teehee, he sure got me that time” bit, and I was, frankly, shocked and appalled. I do not have a mic or headset of my own, and so am forced to type in chat whenever I have something to say, and I believe I said “oh how charming” or something similar. His retort was that he wasn’t trying to be charming, he was trying to be embarassing, and that when he IS trying to be charming he can be “quite smooth”. I was gagging to myself at this point and did not say anything else. But after that I seemed to become a target of teh menz for teasing and ridicule – nothing at all serious, but it was made clear that any disagreement of what was said “for funsies” was not welcomed.

SO – my question is: am I overreacting? Should I have said something further, or was I wrong to say anything to begin with? Sometimes I think maybe this kind of thing is not as bad as my feminist brain would have me believe; after all, the wife seemed to not take it personally, or have any other problem with the whole situation. It’s none of my business what boundaries couples set for themselves – to each their own ….right? I mean, for all I know they have an “open” relationship and they talk to each other about other people they’d like to fuck all the time. But it still made me very, very uncomfortable.

Because, you know, wimminz=objects to be used/consumed/enjoyed, like coffee, or a remote control, or a house plant.

I just don’t know. What do you think?

(Apologies for the long post!)