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View Full Version : Funny... You play games? So are you Fat, Ugly, or Slutty?


Chevrolet Fanatic
07-04-2011, 12:08 AM
I would have posted this in the gaming section, but there is so much funny shit on this site, it deserves it's own thread:

http://fatuglyorslutty.com/


Fat, Ugly or Slutty?
When I was first shown the offensive messages that my friend Jaspir received, I laughed. Their crudeness was so hilariously over-the-top that it was nothing short of ridiculous. I had been told many times by people I know and trust that online games are a wild and untamed jungle, with pictures of genitalia hiding around every corner. But it wasn’t until I was actually shown the messages that I really understood. Something finally clicked.

I thought I was alone in this misunderstanding. I figured every gamer must have already known how horrible the world of multiplayer gaming was, and that I’d only missed it because I don’t play online all that much. I figured the lewd content and insults were accepted by everyone as a hazard of the hobby – it’s just trashtalk, right?

So, when my friends and I started Fat, Ugly or Slutty to collect examples of this rude banter we didn’t think it would shock anyone. We wanted to gather all this horribleness in one place and have a chuckle about how stupid and ridiculous it was; the FailBlog of gaming.

http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2011/06/fat-ugly-or-slutty/0-614x250.jpg

Then, on the day that I affectionately refer to as The Redditpocalypse, things changed. Two hundred thousand people descended on the site, which overloaded under the strain, and a number of articles, blogs and forum threads started to spread the news. Suddenly, everyone was in on the joke. Not everyone found it as funny, however.

Fat, Ugly or Slutty?Many of the first comments came from people who, like myself, were shocked. It was only when the information was presented all at once that anyone realised how widespread this behaviour was. Online players the world over are spewing unbelievable bile through their keyboards and microphones whenever they discover that supposedly-rare female gamer. And their spelling is appalling.

The chunks floating in that bile are usually from the same disgusting buffet. Women gamers don’t need to spend long on the site before they recognise the messages we display – they’ve received nearly-identical love letters before. They’ve already been told to ‘suck a big fat cock slut’ or ‘you fat f**king tomboy go kill yourself’ or ‘u no ur an ugly girl wen u play xbox’. They’ve come to expect this level of romance from online gaming and, of course, they recognise the jokes that inspired the 1950s-housewife aesthetic of FUoS itself: Get back in the kitchen.

Women have developed various strategies to deal with the influx of idiocy. My FUoS cohorts like to fire back with their own trash talk. Others choose to simply ignore it and use the mute button. In a frustrating self-fulfilling prophecy, many people are under the impression that nothing happens when you report bad behaviour to online moderators, so they don’t bother.

http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2011/06/fat-ugly-or-slutty/7-300x292.jpg

Go Make Me A Sandwich
The most common coping method I’ve heard about, though, is also the saddest; to not play online at all. Both men and women have said they completely ignore the multiplayer component of a game because of the likelihood of encountering obscene players.

This is genuinely sad to me. Video games are supposed to be about fun, but many people think it isn’t worth their time to play with their tormentors, so avoid games wholly.

Another common strategy for women is to hide their gender when they're online. Instead of embracing their own identity, they feel forced to assume the default and become the stereotype: male. This isn’t restricted to choosing TotallyADude69 as a username or selecting the brawniest, most chiselled male avatar – it also means not plugging in a mic or webcam. By far, the quickest way to create a barrage of abuse and laughably awkward come-ons is to have a woman say something on voice-chat. I’ve seen several readers comment that this onslaught is not usually triggered by any in-game event or the content of what is said – all that matters is that the speaker is a woman. Target spotted.

http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2011/06/fat-ugly-or-slutty/33-300x292.jpg

Thus, women play in silence. Target neutralised.

Ironically, this silence leads to a self-reinforcing stereotype that ‘girls don’t play games’, even in spite of statistics that say otherwise. Since they don’t often hear female voices through their headsets, many gamers believe they don't encounter any women playing video games.

In a funny kind of reversal, there’s also a common stereotype about the harassers too; that they are all 13 year-old American virgin boys! Just like all women gamers become either fat, ugly or slutty, there’s a confirmation bias at work here. We remember details that stand out, such as birth dates in usernames or whiny voices coming through crappy speakers, and they stand out more than they should.

Fat, Ugly or Slutty? Go Make Me A SandwichThe fact is, even if the abuse did only come from young boys, teens still grow up. They probably won’t mature per se, but they’ll definitely get taller! As proof, some of FUoS’ most disturbing and hateful audio submissions come from men who’ve obviously survived puberty. The result is made even more powerful because, now Little Timmy is all grown up, he’s only gotten more articulate, capable and creepy.

Give the cretins their due, though – these messages are at least bringing victims together. These men and women now see that they are part of the legion of the harassed. They’re part of a crowd who knew that things were bad, but had given up on convincing others or just didn’t care to talk about it anymore. These vulgar valentines can be upsetting, but FUoS has shown that they take on a different tone when put on display. The more effort put into the profanity or lewd proposal, the funnier it is to share and the greater the catharsis becomes.

What strikes me about this is that the original effect can be reversed - the words that originally might have incited a feeling of ‘I'm different, I don’t belong here, maybe I’ll go make that sandwich’ are pulling people together as a group with a common experience. It’s definitely an unintended effect, however, as I doubt the eloquent soul behind ‘U are nothing but a stuped bitch’ ever expected anything positive to come from his comment.


:lol:

That pretty much sums up every situation in which I've played with a girl/woman online. It always ends up happening, there are too many retards on both PSN and Xbox Live for it not to happen.

stonehenge
07-04-2011, 12:33 AM
:hmm: