So I was reading through random news when something came up. I’ll admit to being a feminist. I’m one of those wild, uncontrollable loons who thinks women should be treated with respect and dignity as much or as little as men. That they should have the same expectation of a safe public environment as men. So the story is a police officer in Arizona got drunk, drove himself to a bar, flashed his badge to skip the cover and entered a bar, then groped a woman to include sliding a hand up her skirt and “running his fingers across her genitals.” The jury handed down a conviction and the judge went to sentence the case. Being a fair judge in a modern sensible courtroom she of course placed full blame on the public servant who utterly failed in his responsibilities as a police officer, a human being and a man and willingly chose to violate multiple laws, common decency and good order. Alternately she said this to the victim:

“If you wouldn’t have been there that night, none of this would have happened to you,” – and – “When you blame others, you give up your power to change,”

Sadly the correct answer is B. Apparently women aren’t supposed to go to bars. If they are foolish enough to go to bars they should be willing to accept that men whom they normally expect not only to obey the law but to uphold it to break it in some of the most disgusting ways possible. I’m leaving the names out as the judge in question HAS come forward and apologized for her comments to the satisfaction of the victim in this case, but still, to me, there’s clearly a problem in the system.

Yes I’ll bring it back to EvE.

Ever wonder why there aren’t many women in the game? Ever wonder why most MMOs don’t have that many women? Because of this crazy “locker room atmosphere” where everyone thinks it’s hilarious to spam dicks in local. Because of this crazy “locker room atmosphere” where rape jokes ARE STILL CONSIDERED HILARIOUS. Because of this crazy “locker room atmosphere” where a woman who expresses disgust at disgusting conversations isn’t apologized to and made to feel more comfortable, but instead told to HTFU.

That’s not what HTFU means guys. HTFU means when your ship blows up whether it’s a Thrasher, a Hookbill, a Guardian, a Navy Mega or a shiny-fit Bhaalgorn you realize that it’s EvE, ships go boom and YOU accept responsibility for YOUR actions. You chose to undock those ships, you chose to put them in the line of fire knowing that ships going boom = EvE. HTFU does not mean you can sperg your drek in local, or even in pub rooms and expect people to put up with your shit. I’m a man. I’m accountable. If I say something awesome, you know damn well I’m taking credit for it, so if I say something terrible I’m damn well expected to own up, apologize and deal with the consequences.

We don’t play like that in EvE. We shit up local. We make “sammich” jokes. We make rape jokes. God forbid a female voice comes up on comms or else the shit will really get out of hand.

Then we wonder why women don’t play EvE. We assume they don’t want to play it because it’s hard. That’s not it. Most women like a challenge. They don’t want to play with us. They don’t want to play with sexist assholes.