Women in the Gaming Community Deal with Bullying and Harassment

It’s nothing new that women in gaming deal with harassment. It has been an issue that people don’t hear many others talk about. Sophia McClure is a junior at FHN and her first memory of playing video games was when she was four years old. She often deals with people thinking that she’s not as good as someone who has been playing the game since it came out and she is just now starting to play it.  

“I just started playing Assassin’s Creed and I feel segregated because they have more experience than I do, so they think they are better than me,” McClure said. 

Growing up a female in a male dominated community can be rough. Consumer science teacher Catherine Mayberry used to play video games online with anyone who was on. She then saw that that was where the most harassment and bullying was. Since growing up, she only plays with people that she knows. 

“When I was in college I used to be in a gaming club and you’d think that people would be less mean but they would say `I didn’t know what I was doing and I am just pushing random buttons’,” Mayberry said. 

Whether it be from males or females, if someone is new to video games, they can be subject to bullying or harassment. A lot of people deal with bullying and harassment but women typically deal with more. Often, good female players become subject to worse male players.