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azrael2112314's review
5.0
My respect has always gone out to those who play games as a long-term hobby. Since I was six years old I've been playing Dungeons & Dragons and not much about me has changed since. My dad taught me how to play and we still game together with a group of friends roughly once a month. Two or three times I've played with my mom but she isn't into it the way she used to be. Before I was born, that is. But I don't think that my upbringing had anything to do with her exodus from consistent roleplaying. Instead I remember her telling me things about the game like "I got tired of all the fighting". What I didn't realize then was that she wasn't talking about the occasional slog-fest of dice rolling during an encounter with orc raiders. Instead she was telling me about the overly-masculine attitudes of most of the, well, male players at the table partly driven by an, at the time, overly-masculine tabletop game (I mean, one of the instruction manuals for the first edition of the games in the 1970's had a naked woman strapped to a sacrificial altar for fuck's sake!)
Goddessmode is a collection of stories and poetry by female and non-binary gamers about female and non-binary gamers. And while some of the stories and poetry are about the dominating and bullying attitudes of male players towards non-male players there are some stories that celebrate the victories of female and non-binary gamers.
One such victory is in the story "Blasting Stereotypes" by Judy Adourian. A story in which a mother and her son bond over a game of Asteroids and come to the conclusion that, "We are buddies saving the universe from total destruction." Victory indeed! Unification even.
Sometimes the victory comes from unprecedented places such as in the story "Opportunity Cost" by Bridget G. Dooley. A story in which a girl discovers from her brother that point-collecting in a video game sometimes isn't as much a victory as finding secrets levels by attempting seemingly inane tasks (such as swimming to the invisible borders of a level and pointlessly pressing yourself against it).
Sometimes these victories come from violent feelings and sometimes the target of those feelings is the patriarchy that caused them. Such as in the story "Fear of a Female Planet" by Elinor Abbott where a recent divorcee rediscovers her freedom after killing her would-be murderers in the rebooted Tomb Raider video game.
The fact that this book exists is a victory. The fact that all of these women and non-binary gamers came together for a brief, shining moment and then returned to their gamer lives in solitude (unless they're into online or offline multiplayer) is a victory.
Read this if you want to see something greater than yourself because these writers are yourself. None of us are alike, none of them are alike, so we're all alike. The game always begins and the game always ends but the choices we make throughout makes all the difference.
Goddessmode is a collection of stories and poetry by female and non-binary gamers about female and non-binary gamers. And while some of the stories and poetry are about the dominating and bullying attitudes of male players towards non-male players there are some stories that celebrate the victories of female and non-binary gamers.
One such victory is in the story "Blasting Stereotypes" by Judy Adourian. A story in which a mother and her son bond over a game of Asteroids and come to the conclusion that, "We are buddies saving the universe from total destruction." Victory indeed! Unification even.
Sometimes the victory comes from unprecedented places such as in the story "Opportunity Cost" by Bridget G. Dooley. A story in which a girl discovers from her brother that point-collecting in a video game sometimes isn't as much a victory as finding secrets levels by attempting seemingly inane tasks (such as swimming to the invisible borders of a level and pointlessly pressing yourself against it).
Sometimes these victories come from violent feelings and sometimes the target of those feelings is the patriarchy that caused them. Such as in the story "Fear of a Female Planet" by Elinor Abbott where a recent divorcee rediscovers her freedom after killing her would-be murderers in the rebooted Tomb Raider video game.
The fact that this book exists is a victory. The fact that all of these women and non-binary gamers came together for a brief, shining moment and then returned to their gamer lives in solitude (unless they're into online or offline multiplayer) is a victory.
Read this if you want to see something greater than yourself because these writers are yourself. None of us are alike, none of them are alike, so we're all alike. The game always begins and the game always ends but the choices we make throughout makes all the difference.
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