Wired summarizes the study, found in the December Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Lead author and research Sapna Cheryan had an interesting question - if people can base their perceptions of another person on the items found in their bedroom, would the same type of reasoning apply in a classroom setting? Cheryan and her team quickly set up an experiment:

Cheryan and colleagues tested this idea by alternately decorating a computer science classroom with objects that earlier surveys pegged as stereotypically geeky-Star Trek posters, videogames and comic books - or with objects that the surveys found to be neutral- coffee mugs, plants and art posters. Thirty-nine college students spent a few minutes in the room, then filled out a questionnaire on their attitudes toward computer science.

Women who spent time in the geeky room reported less interest in computer science than women who saw the neutral room. For male students, however, the room's décor made no difference.

In follow-up tests, a total of 215 students were asked to imagine they were joining either a geekily decorated or a neutrally decorated company after graduation. For every possible scenario, women preferred the non-geeky space.

"It's a consistent effect," Cheryan says. "The environment can communicate a sense of belonging, but it also communicates a sense of exclusion, or a sense that this is not a place where I would fit in."

Cheryan and co-researchers believe that by creating more neutral appearing spaces will help combat stereotypes and improve diversity in the computer science field.

Cheryan is correct in thinking perception matters in how people place themselves in different roles. But as a geeky girl gamer, I think that focusing on the internal motivations for why women avoid stereotypical or gendered areas (i.e., "I just don't think I belong") obscures the nature of societal norms to influence women away from engaging in the maths and sciences, especially as they are considered male dominated spaces.

Some of the most fascinating explorations of this dynamic are found in Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming. The collection of research findings and games theory, published in 2008, reveal a lot more than barriers to entry for women who want to play games or work in the industry - it reveals how gender norms often influence how "permitted" women are to access certain spaces, and how those limitations function to maintain the low numbers of women entering fields like computer science or game design.

Some of the research upholds Cheryan's ideas. In "Becoming a Player," T.L. Taylor uses the marketing strategies and environments of gaming stores to illustrate the belonging dynamic:

Part of the work of any leisure activity is coming to understand - practically and symbolically - that this is something you can do, that it is not at odds with your sense of self or your social world. The game industry (and, I would argue, the larger game community) knows this at some level and is constantly working to give players information about new games, where to get them, why they are fun, and how to play them. Just as powerfully, it is always mirroring back to boys and men that "this is your and your friends' play space" and "you belong here. Rarely are women gamers given this kind of attention. (p. 55)

Two other studies explain how the idea that some people "belong" and some do not take shape and manifest themselves in physical space. "Getting Girls into the Game," a joint study by Tracy Fullerton, Janine Fron, Celia Pearce, and Jacki Morie, explored a variety of reasons why more women don't pursue careers in gaming. After concluding that early experiences with video games impact how girls perceive the space, they note:

These early experiences pave the way to an interest in game development, but male-dominated environments can limit girls' involvement. In fact, computer labs in schools or clubhouses are often dominated by boys, who tend to elbow out the girls and take control of the equipment. (p. 168)

In "Gender Identity, Play Style, and the Design of Games for Classroom Learning," researchers Carrie Heeter and Brian Winn also talk about some of the gendered norms that come into play when there are limitations on availability of equipment:

When boys play games (or use computers), when there are fewer machines than people, girls step aside. It is difficult to determine whether it is the girls' "stepping aside" from their opportunity… or the boys "crowding out" the girls…. Nonetheless, this chemistry seems to exist between males and females pervasively when it comes to using gaming machines. (p.282)

The most comprehensive (and damning) research comes from Holin Lin, who invested countless hours into her research in Taiwan. Seeking answers to women's exclusion from the larger gaming world, Lin decides to look into home life, societal messaging, school and peer groups in her groundbreaking study "Body, Space, and Gendered Gaming Experiences: A Cultural Geography of Homes, Cybercafés and Dormitories." I devoted a substantial portion of my review of Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat to Lin's research, because the connections drawn are mindblowing:

Deftly weaving connections between the threat of violence, gendered socialization, and the internalized expectations of the women themselves, Lin paints a scenario familiar to any woman who moves into a heavily gendered space. Taiwanese youth frequent cybercafés to increase their skills, use upgraded machines, and hang out with their friends. However, women gamers looking to participate in the fun have to contend with real-world harassment:

The layouts of some cybercafés serve as gender barriers: girls must pass through a room full of pool tables to access the back spaces that are reserved for computers. Most girls are not willing to subject themselves to the scrutiny of and comments made by the pool players, and therefore only enter when accompanied by male friends.

This parallels one of Lin's observations of cybercafés in Taiwan… most girls are unwilling to enter a cybercafé unless accompanied by a male friend. Together, these stories imply that physical and social barriers to entry for women become misinterpreted as a lack of desire to play video games.

Despite the limits of online, virtual communities, however, they are often more appealing to female gamers than actual, physical cybercafés, as Lin points out:

Women's fear and perceptions of risk are deeply rooted in their bodies, and avoiding dangerous places is a common practice for managing the fear of male violence. In contrast, no threat of physical harm exists for players wearing either female or male avatar bodies.

Outside of the dynamics of the cybercafe scene, Lin also looks at women at home, from growing up with their parents to their play dynamics in college dormitories. Lin notes that college-aged male gamers tend to see gaming as a way to bond, while female gamers are often ostracized and made into a minority. In addition, family pressures tend to place pressure on girls to do more help with household tasks, as well as to work on social relationships. Males, however, were often left to their own devices when it came to interacting with technology. This functions to increase discomfort with technologies as women are socialized to spend less time understanding and getting familiar with these types of systems. Over time, this casual discouragement on so many fronts presents girls with a disincentive to continue working with or playing with game systems - and this dynamic is also evident with most other technologies, including computers.

Lin concludes that "[c]ultural constructions of gender are ubiquitous and therefore hard to remove from any analytical interpretation of gender issues in computer gaming." And indeed, while Cheryan has the right idea with looking at how spaces can be perceived as hospitable and inhospitable, solving the issue of gender gaps in technology will require looking at encouragement to get into the maths and sciences plays strongly into societal idea of what girls are "supposed" to do and where they "belong." And I'm afraid it will be a bit more complex than redesigning classrooms.

Star Trek Stops Women From Becoming Computer Scientists [Wired]
Beyond Barbie® and Mortal Kombat: New Perspectives on Gender and Gaming (Hardcover) [Amazon]

Related: Gamer Girls Rising [Women's Review of Books]

Hunt's article is in response to an earlier Guardian piece by Mark Kermode, who admits he isn't really a game player but draws parallels to the horror movie genre, and ultimately concludes that outsiders can't judge an art form they don't understand:

With almost any genuine art form, the most important works can rarely be taken at face value, and are only fully appreciated by those who have an affinity for the medium. Today, the British Board of Film Classification prides itself in bringing that kind of knowledge to bear when rating horror films.

Now videogames are the tabloid press's demon du jour. So, when I hear murmurings about "violent video games" such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (left), I tend to pay less attention to the opinions of MPs than to writers such as Charlie Brooker, who spends his life gazing at a TV screen. Brooker described CoD:MW2 as "the Citizen Kane of repeatedly shooting people in the face" concluding: "Don't worry, it won't turn anyone into a killer." I believe him. Why? Because he knows his subject. The game is rated 18, is not intended for kids and as far as I'm concerned it is no more of a threat today than The Evil Dead was 25 years ago.

Hunt was apparently moved to respond, pointing out that gamers are generally a hostile bunch (how is this news?) and gender based stereotypes can have a hazardous effect in the real world. As a feminist, anti-racist, and gamer, I concur - it's an ugly digital world out there. But I found myself sighing with frustration after reading the article.

Hunt's argument appears to hinge on two points.

The first, the idea that all video games contain content similar to RapeLay - the Japanese rape simulator game that made international headlines - is ridiculous. Hunt writes:

[Equality Now, Hunt's organization, led an] international campaign called on the Japanese government to ban games that promote sexual violence against women and girls. Fans of these games were outraged. They asked us why we were targeting RapeLay when, they said, it was mild compared to similar available games. In Japan there is a whole genre of extreme pornography, known as hentai, which takes in cartoons and comic books as well as videogames. Imagery includes women and girls being molested, stalked and gang-raped.

Yes. Those are games used for pornographic purposes, mainly, in the same way that major companies will use games as advertising, and educators can use games as an instructional tool. In this case, the video game is one type of format for that type of content - it isn't necessarily a reflection on the industry at large. And, just as no one is offering up the latest skin flick from Vivid Pictures to the Oscars, RapeLay falls pretty far outside of the boundaries of the types of games that would earn the title of "art."

The second point is a bit sticker - it deals with Grand Theft Auto, one of the gaming industry's top selling and most contentious franchises, arguing that the games help reinforce harmful stereotypes:

But if games such as RapeLay can now be classified as art, maybe the popular media promotion of sexual violence against women is so normalised that we don't even pay attention any more. Does "killing" a prostituted woman in Grand Theft Auto just reconfirm to a gamer the "lesser value" of women in prostitution generally?

And that it does. We make video games, and many of them follow the norms of our culture - so what the culture values is reflected within the gaming environment. It is true, with video games becoming a popular past time more and more, people are exposed to these virtual worlds - and more and more people are calling attention to the problematic aspects of gaming, like its whole-hearted embrace of sexism. And Grand Theft Auto is certainly no exception. However, there are a great many women who play GTA - and I include myself in this count. So while, it is easy for my gender and racial outlook to pinpoint a great many issues with the game itself - a lack of decent women characters outside of love interests and sex workers tops my list - I'm also listening to the criticism as a fan and player.

Here's what gender based criticism of GTA sounds like to someone who plays the franchise:

"Excuse me - I know you're busy attacking with people with chain saws, fleeing from burning crackhouses, acquiring new territory for your gang, and coordinating heroin shipments, but I'd really like to take a moment to discuss the deplorable way you treated that prostitute!"

Now, this isn't to say that Grand Theft Auto has no issues with gender and representation, or that an argument can't be made for normalizing images of violence against sex workers or reinforcing other harmful societal norms, including racial stereotyping. But it can be hard to launch that argument when the in-game norm makes places you in the role of a trigger happy underworld kingpin. This isn't an environment of moral, upstanding citizens.

When Grand Theft Auto IV released, it was seen as something far closer to art than entertainment. As many have pointed out, it isn't the violence that makes the game so special, but rather the intrinsic theme of moral ambiguity. The complex narrative of the game, combined with a lush background and the freedom to do as you will, presents an immersible experience rather than violence for the sake of violence. Rapelay was a game created as a masturbatory aid.

These things are not on the same level.

I do not object to Hunt attempting to critique a flourishing media environment, and make people aware of issues of gender and sexualized violence in video games. It will be work that is necessary if video games truly want to make the full transition (at least in some genres) from base entertainment to art. However, I do object to her flattening the full world of video games, which encompasses everything from Metroid to Little Big Planet to Super Smash Bros. to Spore, as if it is all one teeming mass of violence and perversion. There are many, many reasons why people are players. And, if one seeks to truly understand the difference between video games and pornography, I would suggest they start by picking up a controller.

These Videogames Are Not Art. They Are Extreme Pornography [Guardian]
Do Violent Computer Games Turn Us Into Killers? [Guardian]
Equality Now [Official Site]
The Best-Selling Video Games [Newsweek]
Open Letter Implores Games Industry: "Don't Forget Women" [Border House]
Reviews: "Grand Theft Auto IV" will change your life [Salon]
"Grand Theft Auto IV" is a dark urban masterpiece [Salon]
How Can Grand Theft Auto Transition from Base Entertainment to Art? [Cerise]

Earlier: U.S. Ban On Rape Simulation Game Not Likely

Hiroyuki Kobayashi, the game creator, opines:

From a social point of view, his experience is also interesting. He believes women are partly escaping into fantasy because they cannot find suitably heroic partners in real life. Capcom's samurai groupies may be the corollary of a widely discussed trend in Japan, that of "grass-eating men", who eschew the typical male trappings of cars and big salaries, and may prefer shopping and fashion to sex.

The Economist article refers to "grass eating men" which sounds a bit strange. The more commonly translated term is "herbivore men," (read: meat as a stand-in for manliness) and the Times of London explains why these men who are choosing a nontraditional lifestyle are capturing the attention of a nation:

Two phrases have been coined to describe them: soshokukei danshi or "herbivorous males", and Ojo-man – or "girly men".

Definitions vary, but the new herbivores could be described as metrosexuals without the testosterone. Although most of them are not homosexual they have in common a disdain for the traditional accoutrements of Japanese manhood, and a taste for things formerly regarded as exclusively female. Girly men have no interest in fast cars, career success, designer labels and trophy women. Instead, they hold down humble jobs, cultivate women as friends rather than conquests and spend their free time shopping at small boutiques and pursuing in Japan what is regarded as a profoundly feminine pastime: eating cakes.

(Aside: When Anna N. covered this earlier, some people expressed confusion about the reference to eating cakes as a feminine past time. Now, I'm just a pop culture junkie, not an expert on Japan, but the idea that men don't eat sweets is a prominent one. In addition to Men's Pocky, a less-sweet version of the popular snack, a popular trope is to show a man eating sweets to demonstrate how he is strange, different, or child-like. In the series Ouran High School Host Club, Honey-chan is a male host with a sweet tooth - along with a babyish demeanor.)

The Times continues, noting that this new take on masculinity is starting to impact heterosexual dating:

Japanese women, according to Professor Yamada's research, have not caught up. Two out of five say they wish to marry a man who earns at least 6 million yen (£40,000) a year - but such men make up only 3.5 per cent of the eligible population. The result of such unrealistic female expectations is a generation of men, and women, who may never marry and have children.

About half of men aged 20 to 34, he says, are unmarried and only 20 per cent of them have girlfriends. Thirty per cent, according to Professor Yamada, have never had a girlfriend in their lives. For a country like Japan, which already has a shrinking population, this is a disaster.

So, back to the Economist article. The article shifts focus from the video game's popularity to the larger, societal implications:

The phenomenon may also reflect a bigger issue: young women failing to find marriage partners. Since the 1970s the number of men and women marrying in their 20s and early 30s has fallen sharply, which is one of the main reasons the birth rate has fallen so low. It is largely the result of poor job prospects for men-and for women who marry. It will also have a severe impact on Japanese GDP in coming years.

However, this dynamic has been in play for a few years now. Much has been written about "freeters," a generation of people who are opting out of employment, or who cannot find gainful employment, and how that impacts the romantic and home lives of a generation of young Japanese professionals. In addition, due to traditional structures in Japanese society, women looking for men of means isn't a sign of shallowness - it is a reaction based in the grim job prospects for women, normally low paying temporary jobs or jockeying for a position in a glamor industry.

And with this much stress, can you really blame women for finding an escape in mythical lands with sword wielding hotties?

They Need Another Hero [Economist]
Girly Men Of Japan Just Want To Have Fun [Times Online]
Ouran High School Host Club [Wikipedia]
Youth Employment In Japan's Economic Recovery: ‘Freeters' And ‘NEETs' [Japan Focus]
Young Japanese Women Vie For A Once-Scorned Job [NY Times]

Earlier: Japan's "Girly Men" Choose Cakes Over Consumerism

Related:
Of "Wacky" Japan and the Myth Of The Other [Racialicious]

I've written about this before, in most directly for the online magazine Cerise. My colleague Andrea also had a regular series called "Market to Me," as kind of an open letter to the marketing arms of major games makers.

I mean, the statistics are fairly clear. When I reviewed the academic work Beyond Barbie and Mortal Kombat, the stats revealed some interesting trends:

The book's introduction lays out some pertinent facts: about 38 percent of video game players and 42 percent of online game players are female. About seventy percent of casual gamers are women. Estimates vary, but it is clear that women have become a major subgroup in gaming. Yet the industry still ignores them. [...]

The population that does play games is frequently seen as an anomaly rather than a prime informant for understanding how play works. Researchers, and people in the gaming industry, often talk about trying to capture that demographic of nonplaying "Vogue readers" to the exclusion of looking at the group that actually seems to be succeeding in inhabiting game culture now.

Instead of paying attention to why women play certain games or speaking to women who identify as gamers, it appears that game companies prefer to work with stereotypes. This isn't something that is characteristic to the gaming industry - it plagues advertising in general, as we last discussed when talking about the Femme Den and their aversion to the "shrink it and pink it" strategy of marketers trying to reach women. This attitude runs rampant at all levels of game marketing, from the games that are even recommended to women down to store displays.

The photo illustrating this post? It was snapped at a Gamestop, and Wired blogger Eliza Gauger sums up my thoughts perfectly with her choice of title: "Games 4 Girls at Gamestop: Gagging, Weeping, Bleeding From the Eyes ."

Will someone please tell me who was in the back yelling "More pink! More sparkles!" for this display? Remove them from your marketing department immediately. Instead, have your remaining employees pay attention to some things that should be fairly obvious.

1. Women Gamers Are Not a Monolith

Let me just run down a quick list of people I know personally.

P: Some would term her "hardcore." P actually works at a gaming store, part time, to help feed her habit. She maintains all systems and normally keeps a PSP and a DSI in easy reach. She also has modded machines for import games and spends multiple hours a week in play, often using XBox Live to connect with our other friends and other players in games like Left4Dead, Gears of War, and Halo.

H1: Plays a lot, often with P. Also plays a wide variety of games, everything from Beautiful Katamari to Gears of War. She also spends multiple hours a week in play.

H2: Social gamer. She prefers to play either handheld games with friends or linking up through XBox to enjoy the Left 4 Dead insanity. She is a big fan of party games, everything from Rock Band to Mario Party.

H3: Loner. She will occasionally participate in the linked games like Left 4 Dead, but generally prefers survival horror games like the Resident Evil franchise, the Fatal Frame franchise and other high suspense games.

T: T lives for first person shooters. She's highly into competition, and prefers games that allow her to let out some aggression. However, she also has a spot for well-crafted, innovative games, which is why Okami ranks among her favorite games.

V: What many would term the casual gamer, she doesn't identify as even liking video games. Yet, her cell phone has a wide range of games downloaded, and she takes part of different games on Facebook. She will also play social games, but prefers sports games on Wii.

Me: I game a lot less than I used to, but I am a sucker for any and all RPGs and the occasional fighting franchise. I'll try playing just about anything, but tend to stay away from first person shooters.

Here are some key trends: None of us wished upon a star for something pink or sparkly. (Though we have been known to play Lego Indiana Jones.) Some of us like pink, some of us don't. Some of us have all the latest tech, some of us don't. Some of us prefer computer games, some of us don't. Getting the picture? We're all different. Stop using a marketing strategy aimed at twelve year olds for everyone, and stop assuming all women are driven solely by a desire to lose weight. Please take a lesson from the ill-fated Della.

2. Switch Up Your Advertising

Advertising through the same old outlets will get you the same old results. In order to find girls who play video games, try researching where there is over lap. For example, the now-defunct magazine Shojo Beat was a monthly magazine aimed toward 12- 17 year olds who like to read manga. There was also an interesting tidbit in the media kit - the majority of the readers of the magazine also played video games. While the editors quickly responded, providing coverage of popular video games releasing in the US and Japan, game makers were slow to advertise in the magazine. Even though Japanese clothing companies like Baby, The Stars Shine Bright found it worthwhile to purchase advertising, the gaming industry was not represented on a regular basis.

Recently, this ad aired for Rhythm Heaven:

While the ad didn't personally appeal to me, I liked quite a few things about it. Positing Beyonce as a player, using a black DSi, having a celebrity promoting a game rather than the hardware are all important steps to take that defy stereotypes. Additionally, this is just one of many spots Nintendo has used in their quest to appeal to non-traditional gamers which feature a wide range of players enjoying their content. It's really just that simple.

3. When Rethinking Marketing, Start Internally

A while back, I read an interview by Fast Company with Will Wright, the creator of mega-blockbuster The Sims. Wright made one small comment that actually illuminated a lot of key issues:

Having more women in the industry would help a lot. We've been making games that cater to ourselves, to 40-year-old men. We've noticed with Spore that women don't mind if there's violence in the game, as long as they have a path they can take that doesn't involve them having to kill everything. I think one of the reasons The Sims did so well with women is that 40% of our development team were women.

If you want to attract more women, involve more women in the process of creating games. Hire more women at your organization. Reach out to women who already identify as gamers.

However, none of this will work if people aren't willing to challenge stereotypes. The Wall Street Journal article states:

Making games for girls has "had a transformational impact on Ubisoft," Mr. Key said. The company in 2004 also began sponsoring an all-female team of game players called Frag Dolls, to help promote women in gaming.

The Frag Dolls play games like Left 4 Dead, Gears of War 2, and Heroes Over Europe. What games are mentioned in the article? Petz, Littlest Pet Shop, Charm Girls Club, and Your Shape.

Gentlemen, we still have a problem.

Videogame Firms Make a Play for Women [WSJ]
Attention Game Designers: 5 Steps to Attract Girl Gamers [Cerise]
Market to Me [Cerise]
Gamer Girls Rising [Women's Review of Books]
Games 4 Girls at Gamestop: Gagging, Weeping, Bleeding From the Eyes[Wired]
The Simemperor [Fast Company]

Earlier: "Shrink It And Pink It" Gets Slaughtered By The Femme Den
Dell Discovers Ladies Use Computers For More Than Diet Tips

The rape simulation game involves players chasing a mother on the subway and violently raping her, and then tracking down and raping her two daughters described as virgin schoolgirls. The game includes even more horrific details according to online game reviews, such as the option get other men to join in the attacks, having to force the women to get abortions if they get pregnant, and what a review (NSFW) from Something Awful says are "tears that glisten and move in the little girl's eyes."

Following a report from the Belfast Telegraph that Amazon was selling the English version of the game, the company has removed it from the site. Amazon has not commented on the item or said why it was being sold through their website. The screen shot below from Google's cache shows the Amazon page for the game before it was taken down.

The game is produced by the Japanese company Illusion, which makes other 3D adult video games. According to the Illusion Wikipedia page, company policy says that, "games are not intended to be sold or used outside of Japan, and official support is only given in Japanese and for use in Japan." As if somehow the game being sold only in Japan makes it any less disgusting.

British MP Keith Vaz says he is planning to raise the issue in Parliament. "It is intolerable that anyone would purchase a game that simulates the criminal offence of rape," said Vaz. "To know that this widely available through a major online retailer is utterly shocking, I do not see how this can be allowed." Last year, when Vaz brought up rape simulation video games during a discussion on a bill about film ratings, he was criticized by other MPs who said such games didn't exist and gamers who commented online that he didn't know what he was talking about.

Though the game is no longer available on Amazon, the English version of the game is still being sold on here on eBay, here on Overstock.com, and on many other websites.

[Image via Game SMS]

Amazon Drops Rape Simulation Game [The Belfast Telegraph]
Rapelay Review [Something Awful] (NSFW)

I wish this was the kind of world where say, 'Wow, I'd like to touch your breasts,' and people would understand that it's not a way of reducing you to a set of nipples and ignoring the rest of you, but rather a way of saying that I may not yet know your mind, but your body is beautiful.

We were standing in the hallway of ConFusion, about nine of us, and we all nodded. Then another friend spoke up.

"You can touch my boobs," she said to all of us in the hallway. "It's no big deal."

Now, you have to understand the way she said that, because it's the key to the whole project. The spirit of everything was formed within those nine words - and if she'd said them shyly, as though having her breasts touched by people was something to be endured or afraid of, the Open-Source Boob Project would have died aborning. But she didn't. Her words were loud and clearly audible to anyone who walked by, an offer made to friends and acquaintances alike.

Yet it wasn't a come-on, either. There wasn't that undertow of desperation of come on, touch me, I need you to validate my self-esteem and maybe we'll hook up later tonight. There was no promise of anything but a simple grope.

We all reached out in the hallway, hands and fingers extended, to get a handful. And lo, we touched her breasts - taking turns to put our hands on the creamy tops exposed through the sheer top she wore, cupping our palms to touch the clothed swell underneath, exploring thoroughly but briefly lest we cross the line from 'touching" to "unwanted heavy petting." They were awesome breasts, worthy of being touched.

Well, that didn't go over so well. Ferrett and his nerd cohorts were showered with outrage and mockery and virtual kicks in the balls and now he's apologized, saying what "works in a microcosm can't work in a macrocosm" and all sorts of stupid shit someone is surely saving for a screenplay on a GeekCon Rom Com about a booth babe who falls in love with a friendly hacker, because the Open Source Boob Project is seriously the funniest thing since Band Camp, unless you're the type to get offended by "double standards" or whatever, and we talked to someone who gets offended by that stuff (and also, has to actually attend science fiction conventions) and the only thing that offended her was that there were no rules for groping dudes. "I am a total repressed groper," she admitted. Me too, kinda! But um...that's what crowded bars in Williamsburg are for, right? Wait, forget I said that.

No No Ojou Chan!
Earlier: Elegy For A Booth Babe

We've seen the perils of tech-obsession firsthand: Earlier this month a reader emailed to complain about a business dinner she attended, where "there was music, champagne, the food was amazing, the setting lavish. But did the men at my table pay any attention? No. They were all playing with their iPhones." And she's not the only one to forfeit male attention to Steve Jobs. Our very own guest columnist, Heather declared herself an iPhone widow last year. "Wherein we used to actually interact with one another during cab rides or walks or, you know, dinner," Heather lamented, "Now I sit there and watch him make love to that damn phone, his unblinking eyes glazed over with rapt-geek puppy love."

But guys aren't the only ones with geek love to go around. My own boyfriend tried to ban laptops after work hours in our household. The first day he made me go cold turkey and I was relegated to answering emails on my BlackBerry in the bathroom. Since then I've maybe gone one night without perusing the internet for at least ten minutes. But I'm not addicted at all! Though if someone destroyed my wireless network I would cut them in a hot second.

"Technology Overload" Can Ruin Relationships: Expert [Reuters]

Earlier: The iPhone is Cool and All, But Can You Stick Your Dick in It?

As commerce migrated online and trade shows began losing their business purpose, companies like Ford and Microsoft began staunching the bleeding with hotter and hotter babes. Strippers joined the babes race. The hotness of one's Booth Babes became a question of industry reputation and national pride. Some brave bloggers even tried to humanize the Booth babes, with poignant photos that dared to ask "hath not a promotional model eyes?"

For awhile, the Booth Babe Bonanza formed the basis for my "theory" that for women all work — acting, authoring, retail, professional manicuring, whatevs — is becoming sex work.

But like all Great Eras in History, the Booth Babe Bacchanal had to end. It started with the semiannual video game extravaganza E3, which banned Booth Babes last year. And then last week we read the tale of a 20-year veteran of the car Booth Babe business on our brother site Jalopnik, we were sure of it.

"In 1989, to audition to be an auto show product specialist, it was 'read your half-page of script and we'll call you in two weeks.' Now it's more like a job interview. You really have to know your stuff."

Decline of the Booth Babe [Guardian]

My wife does not play any kind of games. I have tried to make her interested with various games like Tetris, but she has never showed interest, until recently. But we're beginning to tear down the walls... Hopefully women will begin to enjoy games more. I think our target will be mothers.

But the fact is, despite all the shopping we do, sometimes it seems like consumer goods aren't designed to make us happy. Like for instance tampon applicators. And bras! (Maybe Miyamoto can get into making those?) Anyway, maybe that's what we get in a country whose biggest companies by market cap are makers of, um, war and war stuff!

*P.S. ...Morimoto... Brain fart, guys!

Nintendo Now Japan's Second Largest Company [Financial Times]

But for some women, gaming isn't new. This writer had a childhood shaped in part by Ms. Pacman and Intellivision's Burgertime. Later, Yoshi's Island, then Tomb Raider and Resident Evil were major obsessions. These days, according to Mack, "You're seeing women playing games like 'Dance Dance Revolution' and 'Guitar Hero'—women under 35 who want to do something fun and social."

Except gaming is not always social. There are women who like to hole up and escape inside of a game just like the guys do. (One of them happens to be my mom, who's addicted to the game Bubbles inside her Motorola Q.)

But this is about marketing dollars. And the budget doesn't go toward advertising to women, says Mack. "The money is where the hardcore gamers are. They're the ones who are really passionate about it and the ones who are going to go out and buy the beta version in order to be part of the next 'Halo' game," she explains. "But more and more, as these consumers groups open up, [marketers] will focus on these growing segments." Fine with us — as long as they don't feel they have to make the console pink.

Survey Finds Women Own More Game Consoles Than Men [Online Media Daily]
Earlier: The Do's And Don'ts Of Chick Gadgets, According To 'Wired'

And they all magically caught up to the boys' scores!

When the volunteers were tested again after five months, both the improvement and the lack of difference between the sexes remained. Though it is too early to be sure, it looks likely that the change in spatial acuity—and the abolition of any sex difference in that acuity—induced by playing "Medal of Honour" is permanent.

Nurture Strikes Back [Economist]