In the first of a series of articles, ‘Role Models’, I take a look into the backgrounds of a couple of women who have inspired myself and countless other men and women.
Women in Gaming and Nerd Culture
Much like every other example of constrictive gender roles, the status of women in gaming is somewhat stuck with one foot in the dark ages of teen harassment with the other foot just about holding the door open for equal representation.
The middle ground in all this is women putting themselves out there as journalists, content creators, developers, PR etc. and hoping they get the same amount of respect as everyone else. Unfortunately, that rarely happens.
Here is my tiny contribution to affording two such women the respect they deserve…
Ashley Eckstein
Eckstein has not only been the representation of strong female leads in modern Star Wars canon, the American polymath is also leading exciting opportunities for female attendees of yearly Comic Cons and heads her own nerd clothing line ‘Her Universe’.
When the animated feature film The Clone Wars released in 2008, Eckstein was the but of some horrible jokes and comments about the new Ahsoka Tano character. This experience served as a call-to-arms for Eckstein who would use her platform to highlight the difficulties faced by women like her.
Eye-Opener
During a feature piece for TVGuide.com, Eckstein went on to explain this pivotal moment in her career and how it opened her eyes to how girls and women were being treated in the fandom and nerd culture:
“Because female fans were being bullied, and they were being bullied terribly for just liking what we do, liking these properties,” she said. “Oftentimes, women would pretend to be men on message boards just so that they could have a conversation about Star Wars and be taken seriously. Or little girls were being bullied going to school carrying a Star Wars backpack or a Star Wars water bottle. And I thought, this is no way to live your life. Being a Star Wars fan or being a sci-fi and fantasy fan, it’s not a trend. It’s literally a part of who you are.”
Eckstein later went on to confirm that she not only felt the need to hide her fandom, but also noticed that the aforementioned didn’t cater to a female audience. At the time, little-to-no female-sized merchandise existed for the fandom that supported 85% of total merch sales (as of 2009).
She then decided to take action and approach Lucasfilm Execs to help create female focused merchandise, which led Ashley to creating her own clothing line just to obtain a Star Wars Licence. She hasn’t looked back since.
Alanah Pearce
A great example of working one’s way to the top is Inside Gaming Daily and Rooster Teeths’ Alanah Pearce. Not only did she conquer both the Australian and US gaming industries media creation sectors, she did it with sheer hard work. She did all of this while encountering her own troubles in the industry, including being doxxed following an E3 2019 press attendee info leak.
Alanah is also recognisable from her time with IGN and is a brand in her own right with her self-titled YouTube channel @Charalanahzard Is possibly the best handle in the world) Her YouTube video ‘Reacting to old videos’ really puts the aforementioned into perspective and just makes viewers smile. The ‘buy-in’ to Alanah’s approach to gaming media is her personality and approachability, the kind of Gamestation employee you’d call in to just talk rubbish for half an hour to kill some time. Her struggles in the industry are well documented too.
‘Gamer Girl Image‘
During an interview for PocketGamer.Biz’ “Women in Gaming” series, Alanah goes into more detail about breaking into an industry which at the time catered almost entirely for men.
“When I first started out, I was rejected by a few companies I wanted to work for because they didn’t want a ‘gamer girl image’ to influence their brand. That was a huge bummer for me starting out but has almost definitely faded away now”
What I think is important here is how honest and open Alanah is about what she’s been through, she continues to explain some of the barriers she clashes against:
“I think I still get told on a daily basis that I’m only successful because of the way that I look, when the men around me, who in some instances haven’t worked half as hard or had half the experience I have had and yet have had more success than I have, have never been told that. The reception to women in games has gotten far, far better over the near-10 years I’ve been working in the field, but the absolute misconception that I don’t deserve my job has never gone away.”
Alanah is bulletproof and its inspirational. It only takes a quick Google search to see how much of a rough ride she’s had throughout her career. And I find her attitude and approach to such negativity to be nothing short of brilliant.
Fighting Uphill
Unfortunately, women are sometimes confronted with the notion that their success is measured by their looks and sexual worth. Women like Ashley Eckstien and Alanah Pearse shouldn’t have to go through such experiences.
But because of the extra challenges faced by Eckstein and Pearse, their achievements and accomplishments stand out all the more. That is why I chose to celebrate these two women as positive figures within Nerd Culture and Gaming and I hope you will do the same.
