Jia · @jiadee_
23rd Aug 2017 from TwitLonger
thoughts on the WESG HS tourney gender-segregation
Hi, I'm Jia and I'm a Hearthstone caster. I don't presume to speak for all women on the issue of gender segregation in HS tourneys, but reading some of the arguments today regarding the WESG gender-segregated tourney, I feel the need to point some things out.
Not all women HS players are the same. There are different reasons for wanting to join a tournament, and hearing one reason from one person should never be used to generalize the entire population.
Here are some common perspectives:
1) "I want to join only a main event to compete against the best players to prove my worth/gain some renown in the community." Same as you would assume of any male player. These are often the women we already see competing and the ones most often cited as examples. These are also the ones most active on Twitter so perhaps their perspective is best understood.
2) "I want to join the main event because it has the biggest prize pool. I want the opportunity to win the maximum prize, the same right afforded to men." Of course, not mutually exclusive with 1). But I'm trying to emphasize that you can be in it for money, or for a proving ground, or for both.
3) "I want to join a women's event (regardless of whether there's a choice to join a general event) because it will most likely be an easier field* and there is a higher chance of me winning some cash, even if it isn't the max prize." I guess this is a controversial point of view, but you can't blame someone for making this choice. Maybe she doesn't care about getting the max prize or competing against presumably the best players. She's just taking a rare opportunity; can't fault her for that.
4) "I want to join only a women's event because I'm uncomfortable in a male-dominated environment." This is perhaps the most sensitive talking point. Historically, esports has been a way more toxic community for women than for men** (like a lot of other communities, lmao). Therefore, some women, especially those who have not had prolonged exposure to and thus developed a tolerance for it (the same women which it's presumably the goal of the whole women's tourney idea in the first place to attract) wouldn't want to join general tourneys. An all-women tourney gives them the platform to compete in an environment they're more comfortable with. I'd like to stress that it's not about these women being more "fragile" or "scared," which are some of the words that have been thrown around today, but about lack of experience. No one is saying that women's tourneys should be a permanent fixture, just a temporary springboard to help ease a new demographic into what can honestly be a frightening community for women.**
These probably don't encompass every perspective, but it's enough to argue that having only a gender-segregated tourney will not increase women's participation overall, because you are excluding women who subscribe to the first or second perspective. Similarly, having only a general tourney will exclude women of the fourth. Therefore, I believe the most effective way of increasing women's participation is to give the option of either a general tourney or an all-female one. This was what was done in China's WESG qualifiers this year (read: https://twitter.com/wesgcom/status/893407356326825988) and I don't know why they changed it for AM/EU.
Certain people have been saying "Well, if we had a general tourney, hardly any women would join anyway. Previous tourneys have only had a handful." To that I want to say, whether or not your generalization holds (that's another argument), it's still unfair to those handful of women who would still join. Are they meant to be pushed aside and given lesser opportunities simply because they are a small minority? That's really troubling thinking.
That's my two cents, anyway. Better reading, which positively influenced my views on the matter: http://www.lilchen.com/blog/stop-asking-about-all-female-tournaments/
*not because women are less skilled at the game but because there are just way more men in the competitive community. Because men have a larger sample size as of now, of course they have more players that meet the arbitrary standard of "good". And naturally WESG attracts these players.
**including but not limited to: automatically assuming women are worse at the game, judging by appearance rather than gameplay, being objectified and sexually harassed, and belittling males for losing to females