For All the Women of WoW

Hello, my name is Elena and I’m a girl. IRL. Seriously. Not only that, but I like pink.

Ophelie over at The Bossy Pally and the Giant Spoon is writing a series about the treatment of women in WoW. In Part I of her series, she comments that women can be good gamers and be feminine all at once. I approve of this message. I think far too often, folks expect that us women gamers are just “one of the boys.” Now, I don’t mind being one of the club, but I always find it amusing when they are surprised and shake their head when I do something um… girly? Shocker, I know. So, I’m going to compose a short list of girly things I do, just so we’re all on the same page.

Elena’s List of “Girly” Things I Do:

1. I hate shorts and tend to wear sundresses all summer long. I’d wear ‘em in winter too, but it’s too dang cold for that.
2. My Firefox theme is AvantGarde Mist Rosepetal. It’s pink
3. Multiple elements of my WoW UI are pink. I always try to make my UI look a little feminine, either with color or curved lines instead of a blocky layout. I’ll admit, I do this in part to make my husband roll his eyes. Two birds, one stone. You know how it goes.
4. I like for things to look pretty. This includes my character, UI, PowerAura set-up. Yes, I’m all about the aesthetics. Shallow maybe, but I don’t care.
5. Related to above: I prefer when my character has matching armor. I groan inside when I upgrade to something that looks ridiculous. (No, I’m not so shallow that I won’t take an upgrade cause it doesn’t match, but why oh why do those T10 gloves have to look so silly with everything else being T9!)

I’m sure there are many more things I can think of, but this is what pops out at me. I don’t apologize for any of it. I’m a girl. I’m a damn good priest. I’m also feminine. You don’t like it? Too bad for you.