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These are the invisible benefits male gamers take for granted

These are the invisible benefits male gamers take for granted

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It's been a long year for gaming, but a much longer one for female gamers — especially for those who've spoken out against GamerGate and the rampant sexism endemic to the gaming industry. To help drive home that this is a very real problem, Feminist Frequency's Jonathan McIntosh enlisted the likes of IGN's Brian Altano, Polygon's Arthur Gies, the ever-recognizable Adam Sessler, and several other male gamers to list the ways gaming circles can be far more welcoming to men where they're actively hostile to women.

"One of the luxuries of being a member of a privileged group," McIntosh says early on in the video, "is that the benefits afforded to us often remain invisible to us." Thus, it's easy to write off the lived experiences of female gamers who regularly endure catcalls and abuse as "no big deal." This is a problem. Of course, women aren't alone in facing abuse. As a few of the gamers above note, men can be bullied for a number of separate reasons. But the fact remains that women, just by dint of not being male, can face alienation without their voices being heard. We need to do the work to change that.