Comments on: Female Experience Simulator (Alyson Macdonald)

By: Betsy

Betsy — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 11:27:00 +0000

It totally depends – I never get any unwanted/negative attention. My sister however, always gets creepers trying to creep up on her – Even though we live in the same neighbourhood and go to the same places etc. What should be more puzzling, I think, is the reaction that the in-game woman/text/character has to the harassment…anyone who perpetuates their own victimhood is only part of their own problem. I wish they had made the character stronger and the point more poignant. Because at the moment it’s hard for me to believe that it’s not satire.

By: spacesin

spacesin — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 03:36:48 +0000

it’s probably different if you live in a small town or don’t walk anywhere, but i am a woman who walks everywhere in a fairly large city and generally someone yells something sexual out their car window at me at least once a day

being physically grabbed or whatever is rarer but yeah i’ve experienced it more than once

By: Porpentine

Porpentine — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 03:35:43 +0000

“strange foreign alien world where a person experiences constant uninvited attention from strangers everywhere they go”

correct

By: Luke

Luke — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 03:32:32 +0000

My intuition tells me that because my experience with strangers has been that I don’t have interactions with them, positive or negative. Based on this experience, it strikes me as a strange foreign alien world where a person experiences constant uninvited attention from strangers everywhere they go (with the exception of celebrities, who I suppose actually do experience this level of unwanted attention or something close to it). But again, I’m not saying it isn’t true. I’m simply asking how frequently women experience sexual harassment.

By: jjmcgaffey

jjmcgaffey — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 15:52:54 +0000

I’m a woman, and yes, I’ve been sexually harassed – but nothing like at this level. I get it – oh, once or twice a year? There are women who, for solidly empirical reasons, spend their lives looking out for the next attacker (empirical = personal experience!), but I’m not one of them. Which doesn’t mean I’m immune…but does mean I spend less time focusing on the possibility (less stress). So no, not a universal experience, but all too common. When it actually gets as rare as most guys think it is, that will be a major win for civilization as a whole. If only because all those women who are expending necessary mental energy on protecting themselves will be free to turn that energy and attention elsewhere – probably producing a burst of progress and innovation!

By: mythago

mythago — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 14:28:21 +0000

I am puzzled why your “intuition” tells you this cannot be right.

Yes, constant harassment is a thing. That is why this game was written. It was not intended as science fiction.

By: Luke

Luke — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 02:32:52 +0000

I understand the point of this is not to express the frequency of sexual harassment, but rather the unavoidability of it and to deflate the misconception that women are responsible for bringing it upon themselves by dressing a certain way.

However, I do wonder about how often this sort of thing does happen to women. As a man, my experience has been that strangers ignore me and I ignore them. Interactions with people I know are almost invariably innocuous. But as a man, I realize that I don’t really have a clear perspective on how it might be for women.

If I were to read this game naively in a literal way, I might get the impression that every time a woman sets foot outdoors she is harassed, or that every time any woman goes anywhere she is harassed by at least one person. My intuition tells me that this can’t be right. Can it?

How frequent do these things happen to women? I do not mean this as though to say, “It’s not really as bad as all that, is it?” I am actually asking for information, because I would like to know.

By: Hmm-Hmm.

Hmm-Hmm. — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 00:44:28 +0000

This actually worked better than I expected. Very poignant.

By: Elementlmage

Elementlmage — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 19:55:21 +0000

I had a pretty good idea of what to expect, but it still offers an interesting perspective while being a bit heavy handed, but not exactly ham-fisted either

I kept being reminded of “Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever” by Bad Religion.

“You can’t win! Think it over again.”

Sometimes, it’s never a crime to spend the day in bed…

By: Jack McNamee

Jack McNamee — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 16:48:18 +0000

Geeze, being a woman is horrible.