Subject: Re: Girls in Magic! Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 22:28:44 -0400 From: Rochelle Webster To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com At the time I’m writing this there are seven replies to Cathy Nicoloff’s “Girls in Magic!” article up on The Dojo. I’m excited about the thread and some of the statements that have been made, so I’ll divide this long post into two sections: 1) my own take on women in Magic and 2) a response to Martin Novosel’s post. I think it’s fair to make some generalizations about sex. Please understand, though, that generalizations don’t apply to individuals. For example, the most competitive women are far more competitive than average men. This is an important point, so I’ll give another example. On average, boys have higher SAT Math scores than girls. But there is so much overlap that the best 1% and worst 1% of SAT Math scorers include both sexes. That said, I think that men do tend to be more competitive. Women tend to enjoy making connections with people more than proving their superiority. That bodes poorly for women enjoying the Magic tournament scene. Men carry on conversations about “then I pulled this holy Pikula!,” followed by another man’s one-upmanship by mentioning some great win of his. Women are more likely to enjoy a conversation about how both participants prefer to play X deck, for example. DeAnn Iwan’s article speaks to this beautifully, so I need not say more here (note that she’s the “Garden Variety Mage” rather than the “T2 Queen.” She is inclusive in her identity since most of us are garden variety.) My personal experience is that I am both competitive and like to make connections. I usually hate to win because it seems to wreck my opponent’s fun. I love to beat an opponent who cops a superior attitude, however. But when I lose, I’m quite frustrated with myself at the end of the day. When I win, I tend to be pleased, but feel guilty. I’ve heard from one man that he hates to win too, except to people he hates. He wins a lot more . . . I think he hates more players than I do. :) Women who can be competitive without these social concerns . . . power to you! Magic players do make connections, though. We have seen the rise of the team recently, though I haven’t noticed any female members of prominent teams. I think that women are an incredible resource that is being overlooked. I know from experience that if people who are preparing for some event ask me to help scout what folks are playing over IRC or help playtest, I am a hard and enthusiastic worker. Average women players are likely to be exceptional teammates. It gives many of us psychological permission, if you will, to win when we’re on a team. Evidence that women enjoy teams more than one-on-one play? Women seem to enjoy bridge and mah jong, which are intellectually demanding games. Perhaps team sanctioning will bring more women into the limelight. Multiplayer team formats, e.g., emperor, might help to attract women. I think there are many reasons why Magic appeals especially to males. There is the phenomenon that boys love to play games with rules, then they like to argue about the rules. Doesn’t it also seem that boys like to collect? Rocks, baseball cards, dead bugs, Prodigal Sorcerers, etc. I’ve noticed another little phenomenon that nobody has mentioned. It seems that women in Magic end up doing a lot of care-taking for the players. It looks as though we are over-represented among judges and organizers considering our numbers among players. I’ve also had the impression that many card shops or small tournaments have one female regular. Not two, not zero, one. It’s like each group needs its own mother figure or something. I might be wrong... has anyone else noticed this? There are a couple of other claims about this topic I’m not sure I agree with. One is that men are more obsessive than women. That’s not obvious to me at all. I wish I could come up with a light-hearted example, but anorexia and milder forms of that obsession come to mind. There are many more women out there than men who can tell you exactly how many calories they’ve eaten today, their weights for the past few years, etc. This is, unlike gaming, a disease, but it makes my point. I’m also not sure that us females are so sensitive to the odor and appearance of guys with poor hygiene. Well, actually, women do tend to have a more acute sense of smell, so I guess I’ll buy it. I’ve never noticed a terrible smell anywhere except Sunday at PTNY, where I’m afraid I contributed because I had forgotten my deodorant. :) Now to address some of Martin Novosel’s points. His post got me pretty worked up, but I’m not sure if it’s the woman in me or the scientist that is experiencing the testosterone rush. Here is a key point of his argument: “Men are better logical problem solvers than women. It is biological fact. It has to do with a structure in the brain called the corpus collasum [sic](CC). This if [sic] the bridge between the two halves of the brain. A women's [sic] CC is more developed than a man's. That means women can solve problems faster than a man [sic] but they cannot tell you why. Their brain [sic] has gone through the thought processes so fast that they cannot comprehend the steps to solving that problem.” Okay, let’s say that Novosel is right about the biological difference (I don’t know where the science on this stands these days). He made a big mistake, however, in stating that it is a “biological fact” that men are better logical problem solvers because they have smaller corpus callosums. This simply isn’t known. Has anyone surgically removed part of someone’s CC and watched that person’s GRE score rise? No. I agree that the speculation that this could be true is quite attractive. A large CC might allow large amounts of information to pass quickly from one side of the brain to the other, for example, connecting the language center with spatial-processing centers. If so, women might more often see problems in a gestalt (whole). I suspect like all generalizations of this type, though, there is more overlap than difference. Can Martin say that my CC is larger than his, just knowing our sex chromosomes? I doubt it. It’s kind of amusing how people try to turn having a *larger* brain structure into a handicap. Does it then make sense then to say that men are likely to be better Magic players because their brains work more slowly? No, it implies at most that they are likely to be better teachers. His claim is simply that women don’t know how we solve problems. I think that there are plenty of reasons that few women play Magic without having to resort to speculations that we are probably bad at it. Just in writing this and rereading Novosel’s letter I’m becoming clear that it is really the scientist in me that is appalled. I agree with many of his points about women, and most of those that are poorly-founded aren’t insulting. What gets me is statements like “ask any geometry teacher...” and “Ever hear a woman say, ‘Just because’ during a discussion” in the same paragraph that ends with “Bio 101 is over.” Bio 101 never started. Bio 101 is about things learned by the scientific method, which does *not* include drawing broad conclusions on the basis of the casual experience of a small number of people. Novosel, your crime is not against women, it is in misrepresenting biology to a general readership. We need to be extremely careful about generalizations about groups that people are born into, such as sex and ethnic groups. Especially the abilities of these groups. My Magic friends are probably saying, “Rochelle the scientist? What?” Years ago I got a degree in chemistry, then spent a few years doing endocrinology research on fish. I would have a MS in Zoology if I had just written that little paper called a “thesis.” :) Rochelle Webster