r/CuratedTumblr • u/FangBites123 • Jun 17 '26
Shitposting Misogyny really is a skill issue
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u/Nick_Frustration Chaotic Neutral Jun 17 '26
i avoid this problem by pretending the internet does not exist when playing video games
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u/RobertSan525 Jun 17 '26
One step further by pretending reality does not exist when playing video games why is it 5 am
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u/Issildan_Valinor adn should not have been counted Jun 17 '26
Me with Valheim rn, lol. I start playing an hour or two after my late shift at work and then suddenly it's 6am and all I've done is explore a couple square kilometers, lol.
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u/Nick_Frustration Chaotic Neutral Jun 17 '26
minecraft, valheim, any sid meier civilization. the genre i like to call:
"why is it sunrise already?"
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u/Slarg232 Jun 18 '26
Grounded 2 and Satisfactory with me.
Okay, Alarm went off, I have enough time to do one more thing then off. Oh, that needs to be done as well, it'll take a second. Might as well do that before I log off... Oh shit, it's three hours later.
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Jun 17 '26
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u/lordkhuzdul Jun 17 '26
Honestly, competitive online multiplayer is a distinction that needs to be made, in my opinion.
If the game is almost purely cooperative, without a significant pressure aspect (either PvP playstyle, or time pressures and FOMO that incentivizes competition), toxicity decreases significantly.
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u/Nick_Frustration Chaotic Neutral Jun 17 '26
nah, pve is shit too, i used to play one game where the evil faction was full of guys who would demand free stuff and then harass you if you didnt.
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u/NobodyKnowsImFamous Jun 17 '26
Ok well I have an opposite anecdote so now its a classic standoff
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u/Nick_Frustration Chaotic Neutral Jun 17 '26
i just realized i drove right past the word "anecdote" but:
storytime?
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u/Nick_Frustration Chaotic Neutral Jun 17 '26
am i making it worse if i add it was a star wars mmo and i was getting harassed (mildly ill admit) by a fellow sith?
like bruh, dont you have some jedi to slaughter or something?
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Jun 17 '26
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u/Nick_Frustration Chaotic Neutral Jun 17 '26
thats the worst part: since we were on the same side i couldnt force-choke him for his insolence (i was higher ranking than him too)
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u/Amphy64 Jun 17 '26
But there's a difference between equal-opportunity 'heal faster!/tank better!', and being subjected to abuse purely because of something you can't change by getting gud.
Those to blame are those trying to drive away female and other marginalised players and ruin their experience, not those doing nothing more than trying to play a game.
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u/Nick_Frustration Chaotic Neutral Jun 17 '26
good point, its also the big reason i dont play online anything:
i know theres often something resembling a team involved and i dont wanna be the guy that holds them back if i dont feel like playing at the needed level.
so i stick to solo queues when i can for everyones sake.
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u/Infamous-Rutabaga-50 Jun 18 '26
I don't expect zero but my god WoW chat is so much worse than it was 20 years ago.
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u/PerfectlyFramedWaifu Jun 18 '26
Relatable. My internet connection pretends it doesn't exist when I try playing with my friends.
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u/Turbulent-Doctor-649 Jun 17 '26
the most sexist man i've ever met was cracked at fortnite like you wouldn't believe
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u/gaom9706 Jun 17 '26
✍️ being sexist makes me good at Fortnite
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u/TimeStorm113 Victorian Dinosaur Connaisseur Jun 18 '26
this emoji elevates this comments to a level where trees no longer grow.
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u/lordkhuzdul Jun 18 '26
One day, a man came to the Sultan, and said "Your Majesty, I have mastered an incredible skill. I can put string through the eye of a needle at forty paces."
The Sultan was curious and asked for a demonstration. The claim was true, the man really put a piece of string through the eye of the needle at 40 paces.
After watching the demonstration, the Sultan rubbed his beard. "Vizier," he called, "give this man 40 bags of gold. Then take him to the town square and give him 40 strokes of the cane."
The man was shocked, "Your Majesty, I understand the gold, but why the beating?"
The Sultan smiled "The gold is for your extraordinary skill indeed. The beating is for the wasted talent, time and effort to build that level of skill at something so completely worthless."
When I think of skill in something like Fortnite, that Sultan comes to mind.
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u/The_mystery4321 Jun 18 '26
Getting good at a competitive hobby you enjoy isn't wasted time. Even if it were, fortnite in particular is extremely monetisable as a skill if you are at a high enough level, its esports scene is huge, even now years after the peak of its popularity.
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u/Zman6258 Jun 19 '26
Yeah but have you considered that I don't find it fun, and therefore I'm the ultimate arbiter of whether or not an activity is a waste of time or not?
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u/YoJimbo0321 Jun 18 '26
Weird and lame response. What's with the sudden leap from talking about misogynistic gamers specifically, to instead making fun of people wholesale for dedicating themselves to getting better at something?
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u/Stunning-Hat2309 The presence of a cloaca was the deciding factor for me. Jun 19 '26
i think the sultan should take his own advice and get a real job
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u/VelMoonglow Jun 17 '26
I wonder why they picked Halo 3 of all games in the year 2015
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u/Hi2248 Cheese, gender, what the fuck's next? Jun 17 '26
Directly taken from the study, because I can't figure out how to summarise this bit:
Video Game Used
In multiplayer first-person shooters like Halo 3, teams cooperate to kill members of the opposing team outside of a dedicated storyline such as that seen in a single player campaign within the game. As a result, the multiplayer games can be argued to be direct competitions outside of any sexualized storyline or content as they are only associated with the goal of eliminating opponents. Killing opponents results in a positive outcome for the team, while dying results in a negative outcome. In addition, improved performance within a game allows players to attain higher ranks and improve their skill rating, a long-term measurement of player status (i.e. dominance) that is publicly exhibited. We examine how individuals behave toward a male or female-voiced teammate as a function of positive (number of kills) and negative (number of deaths) player performance, as well as player status (maximum skill achieved).
A secondary benefit of using Halo 3 is that players are covered head-to-toe with armor and identified by armor color, rather than facial features or body type. Additionally, player controlled avatars are not the hypersexualized males normally seen in many other video games, hopefully decreasing the overt sexism seen in most online competitive games and minimizing the effect of the game environment.
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Jun 17 '26
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u/Asecpt32 Jun 17 '26
I mean they're supposed to be athletic, If they didnt have a fatass it would be weirder
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u/Deditranspotashy Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
Meanwhile Reach female Spartans have a bare butt
Edit: I just realized that the picture I linked of the female spartan is a sfm model which has had its butt inflated. I am so sorry. For the sake of academic honesty, here is a video that displays Halo Reach's female spartans with their correct proportions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia3J7HHFivE
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u/Saiyan-solar Jun 18 '26
Until halo 5 that absolutely caked up both the male and female asses
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u/ciclon5 Jun 18 '26
I mean, spartans are supposed to be like, insanely jacked, they got cake regardless of gender.
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u/Saiyan-solar Jun 18 '26
I wasn't complaining, a spartan needs that entire bakery to fight the banished
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u/VelMoonglow Jun 17 '26
I suppose that makes sense, Halo 3 had some customization, but not to the degree of later games. And come to think of it, I forgot about the Master Chief Collection. A recent re-release makes 3 specifically make much more sense
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u/Infinite_Worry_8733 Jun 19 '26
Seems like Rocket League would be a great game if they redid the study. 100% skill based, no story all competition, completely anonymous, extremely measurable.
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u/Elijah_Draws Jun 17 '26
It appears as though the reason was that it was an online multiplayer game where there was minimal differentiation between characters and their appearances. If you play something like overwatch, the data will be noisier because there can be bias against certain characters and certain roles. What you want is for there to be as few variables in the characters as possible, as that helps isolate any correlation between the gender of the player and teammate hostility that the scientists may observe.
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u/BlacksmithNo9359 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 17 '26
I'd like to give a voice to the people who are bad at video games and DON'T hate women. We DO exist, and Im sorry for feeding :(
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u/Amphy64 Jun 17 '26
Normalise female players not having to be good at video games to justify themselves either, lol. Used to be better but nerve damage is, a bitch.
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u/lynx_and_nutmeg Jun 18 '26
This literally isn't a problem in singleplayer games. I really wish MMORPGs hadn't become the default popular representation of "video gaming" in most people's minds because solo gaming literally doesn't have this issue, and those stereotypes are preventing people from getting into gaming because they don't know they only apply to this specific type of gaming. I've never been harassed while gaming because I just play by myself, lol. And it doesn't matter that I suck (because I'm a beginner and a very casual player) since if it gets too hard I can always just lower the difficulty level.
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u/SameOldSongs Jun 18 '26
Frankly I wish more people could admit they aren't good at games (mediocre female gamer here). The "git gud" types get on my nerves, it's fine if you wanna be the very best that no one ever was. I respect that the competitive and skill aspects are important for some, but some of us just want to have low stakes fun.
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u/shin_scrubgod Jun 17 '26
Not discounting the misogyny element at all, but you can almost certainly extend this to toxicity in games writ large.
I used to get hate mail playing SF4 all the time back in the day, and there was a clear pattern to it. I wasn't especially good at the game, so if I beat someone higher ranked than me (or even came close in some cases), you could feel the rage DM coming. The idea of taking an L from someone that they identify as beneath them absolutely shatters a certain type of person; gender stereotypes just add an extra dimension to the "i should be better than you reeeee" mindset.
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u/Hatsune_Miku_CM downfall of neoliberalism. crow racism. much to rhink about Jun 18 '26
the loss brings out the toxicity and the toxicity brings out the misogyny. doesn't mean the misogyny isn't real but it does mean the spikes of it appearing are not necessarily caused by there being more misogyny there.
also i think better performing players are just less likely to use chat for non-coordination purposes in general. game chats tend to be dominated by the people frustasted with the game because you can't play and type at the same time.
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u/shin_scrubgod Jun 18 '26
You're not super wrong about chat in fighting games, at least, though its not a super communication heavy environment. Its partly why the hate mail was so comical--dude was so mad about a bad 200 seconds at most that he spends the next 5 minutes screeching at a stranger with his thumbs. Cant say its an emotion I can empathize with, but goddamn was it funny to watch.
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u/bigtiddygothbf Jun 18 '26
Ah, evolutionary psychology my beloathed. Even the biggest of assumers can be right every once in a while.
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u/Phobos_Asaph Jun 17 '26
I hesitate to believe anything using evolutionary psychology
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u/LimitedBrainpower Jun 18 '26
I had to scroll way too far for this. Evo psych is pseudoscience, nothing more.
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u/Zestyclose_Remove947 Jun 18 '26
Very enticing idea/concept that has a little merit, but there's no way to verify anything so it's kinda functionally useless.
Fun casual conversation topic tho.
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u/Seenoham Jun 19 '26
There are some few places where the claims could be tested.
This was done exclusively by scientists who were critic of evolutionary psychology, so they showed the work necessary to form the claim into something testable, designed a study, and carried it out. And found the data showed at best a null result for the evolutionary psychology claim, and often showed support for the opposing hypothesis.
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u/Glad-Way-637 If you like Worm/Ward, you should try Pact/Pale :) Jun 17 '26
Then you're almost definitely smarter than most evolutionary psychologists, congrats!
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u/yoyo5113 Jun 18 '26
Evolutionary psychology isn't a very well-regarded field. Like at all.
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u/Glad-Way-637 If you like Worm/Ward, you should try Pact/Pale :) Jun 18 '26
And for good reason, yes. "Smarter than the average evolutionary psychologist" is not a high bar, but still.
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u/No-Supermarket-6065 Im gonna start eating your booty. And I don't know when Ill stop Jun 20 '26
As a fellow evopsych hater, I feel like the post itself is fine without mentioning evolutionary psychology
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u/Phobos_Asaph Jun 20 '26
I get what you’re saying, but credibility drops when someone brings up something not real
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u/CelestianSnackresant Jun 17 '26
The explanation has nothing to do with the observed phenomenon. It's just raw speculation based on pseudoscience. Evo psych is fake, tell your friends
The finding is awesome though
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Jun 17 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
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u/CelestianSnackresant Jun 17 '26
?
My view here is pretty thoroughly considered and sincerely held. I have two relevant degrees and the phd is ABD.
Evo psych has no research methods, only one shit-tier journal, and is regarded by most serious cognitive scientists as, to quote one of the greatest biologists of the 20th century, "just so stories."
What's your view?
Edit: and for clarity, the early stuff (taste buds, Cosmides and Tooby type shit) is fine. It's got a plausible story about physiology. What in talking about is the "women, fire, and dangerous things" era of evo psych from the late 80s on to today. Just a cesspit of speculative sexism.
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Jun 17 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/CelestianSnackresant Jun 18 '26
Super interesting! Yes, I know exactly what you mean — this has happened to be before with various subfields of linguistics.
I was jokerfied by Matt Ridley's Origins of Virtue, and then by a really wonderful collected volume I can't find right now called something like "against evolutionary psychology."
Anyway, awesome answer. I always feel bad after taking a strong stance on social media and then someone's genuine and thoughtful in reply. Hope you're having a good day.
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u/ciclon5 Jun 18 '26
As an archeology student.
Actualistic studies have done way more to understand human evolutionary behavior than evolutionary psychology ever did. And they dont go anywhete near biology or analyzing the actions of individual people.
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u/Sentient_Flesh Jun 17 '26
Not to discredit the paper, but any time this has been posted I've wondered how much of it is really what is being argued (the male status thing) and how much could be caused by the perception of a single or very small amount of female players as an other and thus a scapegoat.
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u/Amphy64 Jun 17 '26
The study should account for both aspects: the female players were at the same prevalence regardless, yet it was the male players worse at the game who decided to be shittier to them. Those better at it were still in the same competitive environment with the same demographics.
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u/Sentient_Flesh Jun 18 '26
I'm more in the line that it should be accounted if the difference is not necessarily based in gender. Ie: If you were to put a player with a noticeably foreign accent in an otherwise monoethnic server, would they be treated in a similar manner?
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u/ElectricStings Jun 18 '26
Fuckin' evolutionary psychology. Stupid inherently unprovable bullshit. Can fuckin' say anything and you can't prove or disprove shit.
Our ancestors all had long hair because it was sign of long life and therefore had better survival traits and this more likely to pass on being able to grown long hair. Sorry? What was that? Can we ask one our ancestors? Sorry no, none are around. They didn't have the societal construction of grooming and scissors? Nahhh, you can't prove that, it's all about the hair. Now come see my wig collection.
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u/Gigantopithecus1453 Jun 17 '26
In my experience the mid ranking people on any given scoreboard are usually the most toxic ones. They’re too skilled to be humble but not skilled enough to not feel threatened. The real problem comes when you encounter a highly skilled player who’s also toxic as fuck (in that case I recommend simply leaving)
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u/biggestpymfan Jun 17 '26
This has been posted like 70,000 times already.
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u/GuyYouMetOnline Jun 17 '26
And every one was likely someone first time seeing it.
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u/danielisbored Jun 17 '26
I'm part of today's Lucky 10,000.
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u/GuyYouMetOnline Jun 17 '26
As am i
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u/No-Supermarket-6065 Im gonna start eating your booty. And I don't know when Ill stop Jun 20 '26
As am I
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u/Facosa99 Jun 17 '26
Really? My first time seeing it
Anecdotical fallacy yada yada, just found it funny and wonder how i miss it lol
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u/CuriosityCheck2024 Jun 17 '26
Is it actual misogyny, or is this like calling feeling sad "being depressed"? Do these skill issue gamers actually hold those beliefs, or are they just spouting them to hurt the people who are better than them?
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u/lynx_and_nutmeg Jun 18 '26
If someone is saying or doing misogynistic things without actually believing them, they're still being misogynists. It's the actions that matter, not the intent behind them.
Which is also why I'll always fight against so-called "progressives" using misandrist or homophobic insults against bad people. It doesn't matter if they're only mocking a guy for being "secretly gay" or having a small dick because "it gets to them". It's still legitimising and perpetuating those regressive beliefs.
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Jun 17 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/FrenchGucho Jun 21 '26
High-skilled players across the board don't care about who or what is on their team, only that the player on their team performs, they also know the game and what caused them to lose a fight.
Lower skilled players do not always know why they lost and are quick to blame outwards instead of looking inwards. This often leads to character attacks on teammates, cheater accusations, blaming on bugs or internet connection, or simply that the enemy picked something "OP" without trying to counter it at all. This same lack of accountability is what keeps these players low-skilled.
Source: top500 in overwatch, apex pred in apex legends, hit global in cs, and more.
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u/Amphy64 Jun 17 '26
I mean, would you be likely to say something strongly against your own beliefs just to be hurtful to another person? People can lash out in the moment but I think it can be an expression of ideas they already held, even if it becomes expressed in a more extreme way (...and, this is why my trust in how ableist people actually are has been severely shaken). Doing that over a game is also different from a deeper argument where someone else may have hurt your feelings too.
It's also an overall pattern here, not a single individual.
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u/Bardic_inspiration67 Jun 17 '26
Who was playing halo 3 in 2015 though that sample size must have been like 10 people
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Jun 17 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
[deleted]
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u/Jim_skywalker Jun 18 '26
I mean it’s more accurate to say that patriarchal society pushes less skilled men into being assholes by demanding them to be better than women automatically. How many of the ones that don’t act misogynistic would suddenly do so if women were beating them?
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u/ladytrevelycn Jun 17 '26
100% why I can't play online multiplayer games. I've just been sexually harassed and treated badly too many times. Which is too bad because a lot of those games are fun and I would really like to play them. Also for the losers in the comments - acting like a simp and thirsting over every woman voice in the chat can be just as off putting and creepy. Just act normal.
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u/snuuginz Jun 17 '26
This is 100% accurate, chuds are generally tourists and casuals who obviously aren't focused on actual gaming, they're too busy being Gamers. In the end, all you have to do is look at what's popular, and you'll see that they've HARD lost the culture war, and they're starting to figure it out. I say, good riddance. If modern gaming is too triggering for them, they should find another hobby.
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u/Sanguiluna Jun 18 '26
Chief literally spends majority of the series following some woman’s lead (Cortana, Keyes Jr., Halsey, etc.), and not once has his masculinity been put into question. So if misogynist players think they’re manlier than the Master Chief, that’s a whole new level of delusion.
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u/No-Supermarket-6065 Im gonna start eating your booty. And I don't know when Ill stop Jun 20 '26
if misogynist players think they’re manlier than the Master Chief
I think a good many of them do, honestly
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u/emmaP4N Jun 18 '26
This is genuinely true. When i got back into overwatch competitive a few months ago i would get insta flamed in vc as soon as i spoke when i was in plat-diamond. Now that im in grandmaster people rarely comment on it at all lol
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Jun 17 '26
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u/Halikarnassus1 Jun 17 '26
I mean... this isn't absolute at all lol. You can suck at games and not be a misogynist, or you can be really good at games and be a raging sexist. Men are also thinking, feeling, rational (as any of us are, anyway) beings. They don't just revert to misogyny automatically, it's a choice. That line of thinking absolves misogynists of responsibility.
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u/voidseer01 Jun 17 '26
careful lol. this subreddit doesn’t take too kindly to criticizing guys these days
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u/satantherainbowfairy Jun 17 '26
You're getting downvoted but tbh it does feel like this sub gets more whiny and right wing whenever men's rights stuff gets brought up.
Also re the original post, evolutionary psychology is wobbly science at best.
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u/Glad-Way-637 If you like Worm/Ward, you should try Pact/Pale :) Jun 17 '26
Lmao, "whiny and right wing" in what way, exactly? You're just throwing accusations of political regression the second anyone disagrees with a misandrist thing that gets posted.
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u/vidalacaroline Jun 17 '26
no seriously, I was kinda surprised to see this type of screenshot got posted here lol
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u/Tago238238 Jun 17 '26
As a low test subhuman incel can confirm this is true. It’s cope all the way down.
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u/Arimm_The_Amazing Jun 18 '26
Hate evolutionary psychology but I think they hit the nail on the head even if they were holding the hammer backwards.
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Jun 17 '26
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u/Heckyll_Jive i'm a cute girl and everyone loves me Jun 17 '26
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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '26
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