He Frag, She Frag

“The sexes may fight equally hard for that remote, but new research demonstrates that men are predisposed to have a harder time letting go of a video-game control once they get started than women.”

Now hang on there, buckaroo. I know what you’re thinking: you’re going to run home to the wife and proclaim, “See, honey? I told you so!” and engage in an all night World of Warcraft orgy fest, feeling smug in your assertion. Does this sound like you? Yes, I thought it would. Well, cowboy, here’s where I will layeth the smacketh downeth on you.

At first glance, reading the article made sense to me. Men are typically more aggressive than women are. I’m ok with that, really. However, I thought the study was horribly inaccurate due to one minuscule detail: there were only 22 test subjects. What’s more, is that we don’t know the backgrounds of each person. Were the men already addicted to gaming before the test? Did the women have an aversion to gaming or have they played games since their childhood? I believe environmental factors before the test was performed could slant the test either way.

Many men will argue that their addiction to gaming is simply an outlet for their fantasies. Men want to be the superhero that saves the day, kisses the girl and flies off into the sunset. It’s the ultimate fantasy for a man. Why isn’t it that way for women, too? In a nutshell: it is. I think some men feel a tad emasculated when a woman crashes their daydream, so women in gaming typically tend to go more underground. Being an avid gamer, a geek, a wife and a mother, I know this to be true.

I was raised by my father to be a geek. I don’t think he consciously thought, “I’m going to make Jasmine a geek”, but he laid the foundation for it. The first time I remember being on a computer was my dad’s Amiga 500. I was 3 at the time, and he bought me a dinosaur coloring game which I loved. After the Amiga he bought the Nintendo Entertainment System where we really bonded over countless hours of playing Super Mario Bros. Though my geekery was not limited to video games, it also fell over into the 80’s pop culture cartoons. To this day I still feel the urge to wear a blond wig at the grocery store, hold aloft my sword and declare, “For the Honor of Grey Skull! I am She-Ra!”.

Like men, I too want to be the super hero; albeit a scantily clad super hero with large breasts that can kick your ass. I’m competitive, I’m merciless, I will hump your dead body and above all: I am a woman.