>my vote would be 80% conditioning, 20% genes...
Hm. Sounds reasonable. I would probably call the ratio a little closer,
but it's all speculation.
>and yeah, i think the main thing is that the upbringing of females tend
>to include more reasonable ways of resolving conflict. but i may be
>wrong....
I hope you are right. I hope the upbringing of females doesn't just teach
conflict-avoidance and submission. I think the ability to be aggressive
when necessary is important.
>>At any rate, I would find any effort to do "girl video games" sort of
>>offensive. What would they be about? Some kind of daring, high-speed
>>embroidery race? ;)
>
>ferheavenssake, no! ;-) but perhaps more games where other forms of
>conflict, and other form of handeling conflicts, could be more
>important. dammit, a gun is a poor conflict solver, in real life,
>so why don't we try to make video games involving just a little
>more brain and a little less guns? video games where cooperation is
>the key to success, would that be possible?
Hmmm. Dunno. Being one of those typical girls who's not into video games
;) I don't know if there's such a thing out there, or if it's been tried and
it failed. Certainly there are games that don't involve violence. Do girls
play those any more than they play violent games? There's also the factor
that conflict resolution is hard. It's not a fun process. Would it make a
fun game? The key for me is to see a game that more women played and men
played too ...
Jeez, speaking of violence, just picking up the NYT and reading about the
children killed in Scotland. Is this stuff spreading? I thought gun-toting
madmen massacring large numbers of innocent people was an American thing :(
Er, anyway ... it would be great to see women and girls playing video games
more, for the reason you pointed out -- it's a gateway for computer
involvement -- and because it sort of bothers me that there are things that,
for one reason or another, only men do, but it sure would be nice if they
could play games together, rather than having to separate into groups so
that each gender could play its own games.
>>admiring women
>>who cross gender lines to enjoy traditionally male subcultures.
>
>i'm all with you on that! and i admire men doing the same gender crossing!
It strikes me it's tougher for men to cross gender lines and do
traditionally female things than vice versa, so y'all deserve even more
admiration when it happens.
>neh, i'm just happy that my wife is almost as grat a fan of splatter
>movies as i am :-)
Cool :)
>so, one part of the
>answer to the question "how do we get more females into computers/
>computer science/well paid and important jobs using computers?" could
>maybe perhaps be "introducing more girls to computers at an early
>age, by getting them to play games on the damn things!" and i said
>ONE part of the answer....
This is true, and if you start young enough, you can be sure that the
cultural conditioning won't come into play. It's really something to see my
five-year-old cousin pop in her Sesame St. cd-rom and play with it, and even
somethinger to watch her show my aunt how to navigate her way out of some
word-processing mess she's gotten into ;)
>as to "why should we care if girls learn to use computers?" i guess
>the answers would be along the lines of
>a) because it's fair?
>b) because it would make a better society?
>c) because it would make better technology?
Very true. The last point is especially interesting. Whether through
conditioning or innate characteristics, I think women bring something new to
any field they break into. That statement is prolly impossible to defend,
but it strikes me as accurate nonetheless.
>and or course, as a man i would love to find games that could appeal to
>something else than my urge to-go-out-and-kill-things-for-supper-and-
>defend-my-male-honors. and i would like my child/children(?) to be able
>to find video games about something else than destroying giant robots....
Hey, it's way-cool to think of Mr. Ph.D. destroying giant robots for fun ;)
________________________________________
Alex <ablock@facstaff.wisc.edu>
My father is not a bad man. He is only a weak one. And he only did
what so many men do: he divided women into groups, although in his case
it was not the body-and-soul dichotomy of the madonna and the whore but
the intellectual twins, the woman of the mind and the one of the heart.