Subject: Women in Magic Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 19:51:34 PDT From: "Chua Hian Hou" To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com The topic has raised some interesting issues, and has given me some food for thought. An introduction of myself first - I'm probably one of the older players at 25+ and working, _not_ a tournament player. I hail from across the Pacific Ocean - Singapore. While I am a world away, the social scene is pretty much the same - 95% males. First, I'd like to commend both Graham Thomson and DeAnn for their very good points - read their post if you haven't. I'd just like to add my 2 cents. Magic is a game - a social thing, that people do for _fun_ and social interaction - and the opportunity to meet attractive people. In most areas where social interaction takes place, people are very conscious of the "class" of the event and the type of people associated with it. I'd like to contrast two different games/sports - M:tG, of really pathetic female participation fame, and say, swimming, which has much greater female participation. I'd probably offend half the world and most of the Magic crowd, but M:tG features really unattractive people compared to say, swimming. In Singapore, a certain number of players are foul-mouthed, and as Graham says, they simply don't know how to treat the opposite sex. Hey, even I'm embarrassed to be seen there - frequently - especially when somebody gets land-screwed etc. and starts howling like ... *sigh*. Is that the way to add to the "class" of the event? Already we have too few tall, bronzed, muscled hunks to help revise the image of the archtypical foul-mouthed sloppy M:tG player. I won't bring my girlfriend to a M:tG place where she'll get eyed up and down by players and get an earful of vulgarity from these players. How many players would bring your girlfriends to play in this kind of scene? How about a say, swimming meet? How many swimmers would bring their boyfriends/girlfriends to a place where tanned, toned people conduct themselves with some grace and probably try not to use vulgarity in the presence of girls. An event you won't be embarrassed to tell your parents or friends you went to? Hmmm ... And if some of your own are embarrassed to be seen playing M:tG - you think girls (a leap: who might be more concerned with appearances) would jump in with this crowd? Go figure that one out! Magic players need to conduct themselves with some decorum. Try not to be so sloppy, dressing or otherwise. Treat girls/ladies nicely - not condescendingly. Teach them to play and don't use that Sligh/suicide Black deck on them! At least, not at first. Then, maybe one day when somebody walks into a games store and is not confronted by screaming vulgarities and a distinct lack of deodorant (fortunately, Singapore players don't seem to have the unbathed problem), sees what seems to be a fun game going on, they might just be interested enough to ask, "Hey, can somebody tell me what's going on? It looks like fun." Wicked 11 June 1998 ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com