I don't think either of us are what you would call "gamers." And yet at some point about in the late '80s my mother could not get enough Tetris. Day in, day out, until her eyes glazed over. And then she'd play some more. She became a fixture at the computer — her back to the room, silent, motionless, furiously clicking, oblivious as hours passed.

I developed a similar problem with Tetris, which I had a on Gameboy for a spell. I'd play a game, the board would fill up, and the prompt would ask, "Play Again?" The answer was almost always yes. It was hypnotic, mesmerizing, and impossible to put down.

Many years later my mother got a Motorola phone with a game called Bubbles in it. My family was on a Christmas vacation in Florida, sharing a hotel room and there was a moment when my sister and I realized my mom had been in the bathroom a really long time. When questioned, Mom admitted she was in there playing Bubbles. On Christmas! While hogging the bathroom!

Wednesday afternoon, I discovered a game called LineUp for my iPhone. it's similar to Tetris and Bejeweled. I played it once while waiting at the doctor's office; then again. And again. And again.

I played some more on the subway, and once I got home, I burned through a few more games. I got a pedicure, and played Line Up the whole time — then played a few more games while my toenails were drying.

I recognized the signs of addiction, so I did the only thing I could think of: I texted my mom, telling her to download LineUp.

I received no immediate response to my text.

Yesterday morning Mom called, half-laughing, half-crying. "I've been up all night," she wailed. Doing what? I asked, innocently. "PLAYING LINEUP," she shouted. Amused. And accusatory.

I saw my Mom last night, and she complained that her eyes were "gone," thanks to round after round of LineUp. I almost felt bad… Then she told me her high score, and I found myself itching to try and beat it.

Tetris Dress: [BuzzFeed]
Finally: Tetris Dress! [A Dress A Day]

The Forbes article starts out saying that "so powerful is the public's urge to categorize mothers that even the arena of sports has bred a taxonomy with which to order the chauffeuring, ref-hating, ice-pack-applying women who get their kids to games and practices." Yet despite a lengthy comparison of soccer, hockey, basketball, baseball, and football moms, it fails to explain how the sport the child plays gives any indication of how the mother will vote in the election. While "soccer mom" was shorthand for "wish-washy female suburban voters," the new "hockey moms" are supposed to be "a more decisive voter: the pro-life, red meat Republican." Yet, it is noted within the same paragraph that hockey is played in both red states and blue states, and there are plenty of liberal hockey moms.

What the article really highlights is how ridiculous it is to stereotype women based on the sport their child randomly chose to play. (One particularly absurd point: that "Michelle Obama has about her the air of a basketball mom" because the basketball mom "doesn't have to venture into the next county, or sit on one of those silly folding chairs that soccer moms tote with them, or use the rest room at Dunkin' Donuts ...The basketball mom can attend games in heels, all the while congratulating herself for being a stylish force of life.")

All that soccer moms, hockey moms and those pretentious basketball moms have in common is that they are middle-class, suburban mothers. Despite the fact that if you go to any random youth sports event in the country you'll find both mothers and fathers watching their children's games, women are still defined as caretakers whose lives are dictated by their child's sports schedule. At least NASCAR dads get to be classified by an activity they enjoy, rather than a task thrust upon them.

But there is a difference between "hockey moms" and "soccer moms": Sarah Palin has given the term more pride. Whenever the term "soccer moms" was used in the 2004 election, it seemed like no matter how desperately politicians wanted their votes, they term may have been an insult to those women. You didn't really imagine the soccer mom forming any sophisticated political opinions while listening to talk radio in her minivan on the way to a game. By coining the term "hockey mom," the Republicans have not only brought the discussion of sports moms back to this election, but shifted the description of the same group of women from a beleaguered sweatshirt-wearing frumpy mother, to a kind of hot, "pit bull" of a mom who seems more likely to whack someone with a hockey stick than worry that every kid gets a chance to play.

The article suggests that the reason there aren't more female gamers is twofold: Men are uncommunicative jerks while playing video games, and women are intimidated by complex, violent games like Halo and operating a machine with so many confusing buttons. Specifically, the women on the panel explained that when guys are so immersed in a game that they throw the controllers, curse at the screen, and ignore company, women can feel put off, and, according to Xbox Live community manager and panel member Christa Phillips,"the game becomes the enemy, like sports." The panel's recommendation? Let women participate in the game by playing in two player mode. And if that's too "intimidating," women can always sit with their boyfriends and watch them play. "Ask her to help you spot snipers," said Phillips. "Chicks like flattery. If she feels like she’s helping, then you’re making it a positive experience." Ugh.

Another recommendation: men shouldn't impose their favorite video games on their girlfriends, since women may be turned off by all the violence and explosions. (One man in attendance at the panel mentioned that his girlfriend played Halo for five minutes and got dizzy.) The best way to make games appealing to women, they claim, is to play those recognizable characters like Harry Potter and Spiderman. Pink, apparently, doesn't hurt either: the article's author, Kristin Kalning, points out that "Heck, Carrie Underwood has a pink [Nintendo] DS, right? And the Wii made being a gamer as easy as operating a TV remote."

Still: Thirty-eight percent of American video game players are women. That number probably could be higher if the industry weren't so sexist. Maybe developers (and frustrated boyfriends) should check out WomenGamers.com to get a clue: The site reviews games of all genres, features articles from women who work in the gaming industry, and scholarships and resources for women pursuing careers in video game design. A note to ladies: The site doesn't have a girly, pink color scheme, so it may be a little, well, confusing at first, but if you can handle an intelligent female perspective on the gaming industry, it may make you want to pick up a controller and start blowing shit up.

How To Get Your Girlfriend Into Gaming [MSNBC]
Related: WomenGamers.com

Because the Greek word gymnasium translates as something more or less like "nuditorium," it seems clear that few events offer a richer opportunity to see how physical beauty is currently constructed than the Beijing Games…

What the Games also frankly accommodate is a taste for the spectacle of straining young bodies, an appeal that was not lost on the ancients. The crowds at the early Games, according to the historian Nigel Spivey, were as excited by the “boys with slim waists, broad shoulders, neatly proud buttocks and springy thighs” as they were by the lofty ideal of the Games.

Yes, the Ancient Greeks would have wanted us to drool over the hot, dark, oiled-up guys on the Japanese beach volleyball team. And honestly? The men and women competing in the games are spectacles. They're not regular, average humans. They're not even what Olympians used to look like, Trebay claims. He checkout some archival photos of athletes from the 1920s. "What is striking about these images is how lightly muscled the athletes’ bodies appear, how fine in proportion and aesthetically balanced, and how unlike so many of those on view in these Games, bodies that even in real time seem digitally enhanced."

So what do we do about the sexist coverage, when we so gleefully delight in these awe-inspiring specimens of humanity? Do we support women like former Canadian water polo player Waneek Horn-Miller, who appeared naked on the cover of Time magazine eight years ago? (She explains: "It's one chance every four years to get out an image of a healthy athletic woman instead of an underweight, underage model. Athletes' bodies are much healthier — and they're functional!" She says after she did the cover, "People told me it was something they'd show to their daughters. I mean, I was obsessed like everyone else with fashion magazines when I was a teenager. It's natural to look for the body ideal… [But her image was] a woman, a great athlete, 160 pounds, who can bench-press her own body weight and squat 180 pounds.") Is there a difference between women having a healthy appreciation for male swimmers' bodies and a male writer questioning female swimmers' lack of breasts?

When Action Figures Come Out to Play [NY Times]
Where are all the breasts? [Times of London]
Athletes went from Nixon to naked [Globe And Mail]
Related: Going for Gold in my Birthday Suit [Shameless]

Read more coverage of the 2008 Olympic Games.