No, it's not what it seems.
I was extremely interested when the "D20 Girls Magazine Summer Sampler" showed up in my e-mail yesterday. The text accompanying the e-zine sounded promising:
Well, the highly anticipated D20 Girls Magazine is right around the
corner. But just cause we like to tease a bit. Here is a sample of
what you can expect to see in the upcoming edition. The full edition
is 32 pages, higher resolution, and filled with alot more content. You
can pick up a print edition at Origins 2010 for only $10. Read the not
from the publisher inside the magazine to find other ways you can also
get a copy! Anyway, feedback is appreciated and I hope you like our
magazine!
Click here to view the sampler.
Ideally, based on the cover, the magazine offers an inside look into the world of female gaming.
Sadly, once you open the cover, it becomes apparent that this compares with Playboy's insistence that people will buy the magazine merely to read the articles. Yes, I said it. (I know, I actually DO read the articles... but I'm not stupid. I know that my husband isn't interested in learning about what the articles say.) The entire spread is interspersed around a pictorial wet dream that assumes "the position".
Now, there is a small bit of merit--- there are the promised articles. However, it's over-shadowed heavily in light of what is obviously the primary focus of the e-zine.
It begs the question, if I'm a hot gamer-chick, can I get my photo taken of me licking a d12 while suggestively laying across a battle mat, my pile of washable markers next to me and my hair spread across my DMG 3.5? Oh, and can that be construed an "inside perspective on the female gamer?" Wouldn't it me more accurate to show me in my stained Wonder Woman t-shirt, sitting at the head of a dining room table with all the mismatched chairs, surrounded by a random assortment of guys- my hair in a messy ponytail and my glasses sitting on the end of my nose. Oh yeah, and don't forget one of my kids wandering into the scene with queso all over his face...
Oh yeah... I'm definitely subscribing.
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written by Nightsky, June 14, 2010
* She understands your nutritional needs. She'll bake cookies and order pizza for D&D nights. When you're playing WoW, she'll cut your dinner into bite-sized pieces so you can eat and heal the main tank simultaneously.
Oh, she WILL, will she? First of all, is there some reason he can't cut up his own sandwiches or fill a beer bong with soup or something? Second, why do I suspect that the geek guy is not expected to reciprocate in kind during HER WoW nights?
I enjoy cooking and am a damn fine cook, if I do say so. My D&D group enjoys such treats as scratch-made pastries, but I don't think it's occurred to them that the food is my duty as a woman. I think they'd be ashamed of such a notion; plus, our Official Pancake Chef would be most put out to discover that his place had been usurped.
* Her friends are other geek girls, whom you can set up with your geek friends.
Oh, hooray! Another airing of the notion that geek girls are there so that geek guys can have someone to date! Pardon me while I grind my teeth.
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written by Jack R Stewart, June 30, 2010
1.) Everything in this magazine is controlled by Gamer Girls.
2.) Even the pictorials were designed, thought up, layed-out, and conceptualized by the girls themselves.
3.) All the articles are written by gamer girls.
4.) other than me being the publisher, there is no male influence in this magazine whatsoever. If a couple of the pictorials seem to be more eyecandy related, that is because the gamer girl posing for the shots is that comfortable with what she wants to do. She should not be berated because she wants & feels comfortable posing like that.
5.) All of the costumes, poses, and themes of all of the pictorials were chosen by the girls themselves, again.. no male influence whatsoever.
6.) As far as the dating article goes, that was written by E.Foley, a decently well-know Nerd & dating expert. http://geeksdreamgirl.com/
7.) This is not an e-zine, it is a print publication that we do happen to also put out in an electronic format also.
8.) The editor for this magazine is a gamer nerd herself.
9.) before you judge the magazine or the girls that put so much work into it, I would suggest you stop by the D20 Girls website & read up on what exactly the D20 Girls are all about.
Thank you for your time...
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written by UberWench, June 30, 2010
To argue that something produced by people with a va-jay-jay cannot be sexist is not logical. The product must stand on its own. No one gets a XX chromosome pass, despite their geek cred. If you have to know the bios of the writers for something to be relevant to your interests, then it probably isn't.
It's good to know that geek women have jobs at this magazine, and we're happy for them, but let's not kid ourselves. Your audience is supposed to be gamer girls, and our gamer girls didn't find it interesting. *shrug* Them's the breaks, kiddo.
Also, gamer girls don't need to read articles about how to date each other, even from a well-known dating expert. Some of us like boys (gamer and otherwise), and those who don't can work it out just fine without help.
Thanks for the mansplainin' ( http://www.urbandictionary.com...=Mansplain ), but your magazine speaks for itself, and Kitchen Jedi's account of it is a valid one.
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written by A Nonny Mouse, July 01, 2010
I think my favorite one though was top 10 things to bring to a convention. Which was written as if a.) women don't go to conventions b.) women have no brains in their head (don't forget your hotel key, srsly?!?!) c.) if you're cosplaying you're obviously doing it for the men because "bring one change of clothes for when you don't feel like shaking it for the camera"
I agree with uberwench. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck.
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written by KitchenJedi, July 02, 2010
To the publisher- I have 15 years in the literary and publishing industry. I have been a writer, editor, agent, and publisher among other job titles.
And, in my OPINION (opinion being the key word)--- you've missed your target market. Re-evaluate and resubmit aimed at the appropriate target market, and you have a highly salable product.
However, as the product is presented currently, I'll stand by my original opinion.
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written by malaise, September 16, 2010
The publisher's response was pretty annoying. "It's not sexist, there were women involved!" And then the classic "If you critize oppression, you're berating the oppressed!" Although I'm not sure what more I would expect from the publisher of this zine.
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A Gamer Girl E-Zine?
I can't WAIT to discover what they think our perspective on gaming looks like.