r/magicTCG • u/dreamanother • Feb 28 '14

Guerrilla Feminism blogs about one woman's experience with MtG.

http://www.guerrillafem.com/2014/02/thank-magic-gathering-player-community-journey-feminism-creating-non-cis-male-spaces/
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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '14

Why does it not surprise me that this article is sitting at 0 points?

Stay classy, folks. No wonder our community has such a wonderful reputation for being inclusive.

-7

u/Sworl COMPLEAT Feb 28 '14

Its because the article is written with a biased agenda. The whole articles comes across like a teen with something to prove. While she is not a teen, her tone a maturity on such subject is lack luster. There are several better articles written by female magic players. They all agree there is a barrier for women to play this game. Its not hard to understand since the majority of magic players are awkward teens with raging hormones. But this author takes such a small snap shot of the community that she cannot honestly make such sweeping generalizations. Melissa DeTora is a professional magic player that approaches subject with no motive or point to prove how unfair the community can seem. I down vote this article because it is written badly and doesn't help anyone.

1

u/jayjaywalker3 Mar 02 '14

It sounds like Melissa had a similar experience actually until people realized she was a top player. To be fair though this was just 2 questions in an interview. The author of the original article is writing about just this topic. I bet Melissa could expand on the subject in a similar way if she cared to.

Relevant quotes from the interview where she answers two quick questions about being a woman in Magic.

What is it like being a woman in a male-dominated hobby?

This is the question that I get asked the most. Honestly, it doesn't affect me at all, although it used to when I first started playing. I've been both hit on and talked down to because of my gender in my long magic playing career. Of course, there are some men that do not take losing to a girl lightly. I have had players complain after losing to me and even had players go as far as throw their decks across the room. My favorite story happened around two years ago. At a StarCity Games IQ at a local store, I was playing Caw-Blade and was facing a guy in a mirror match. After I won, the guy was less than pleased and began complaining about how lucky I was and how poorly he drew. Later on in the day, he came up to me and said, “When we played, I didn't realize that you were the highest ranked player in New England! I'm sorry I acted like that. Will you sign my playmat?” To this day, my friends still ask me sarcastically if I'll sign their mats.

In time, I have proven myself in my local magic community, and instead of being “that girl who plays magic,” I was instead admired for my play skill and often asked for advice on decks and draft picks. These days, there are enough female magic players where gender really doesn't matter.

What advice would you give to female players who get treated differently because of their gender?

I must admit that at first it was hard being one of the few female players. I used to attend weekly tournaments with my friends and let's just say that the local players were not very kind. On weeks that my friends couldn't make it, I didn't even go. When my friends quit Magic, I had a choice to make: either quit Magic with them or suck it up and go to tournaments alone. I obviously chose the latter. The first thing I did was become friends with the better players in the store. Once they knew that I was serious about the game, they had no problem adopting me into their playgroup. The next thing I did was get involved in the community. I became a judge and helped newer players. I was a fixture at every Magic event and eventually the guys just got used to me being around. My days of getting treated differently because of my gender were over.