Not bad I guess… You know, for a girl

I just saw an article about a woman that was placed in the Guinness Book of World Records for the highest Through the Fire and the Flames score (for a female).

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Lois, this is not my Batman glass.

Really? I can understand having different categories for men and women in sports simply because female physiology is different. In the military, women have a different set of standards for physical fitness for the same reason. The best female basketball player in the world wouldn’t stand a chance against Kobe. But when it comes to video games, do we really need that degree of separation?

When it comes to gaming you need good hand-eye coordination and fast reflexes. Larger muscles won’t help you and being a fatass won’t hinder you (except maybe at DDR). Why is being a female even a consideration when we are talking about video game scores? What is it about being a female that prevents her from posting the same scores as her male counterparts?

I’m not saying that her 789,349 point score isn’t impressive. Just being able to finish that song on expert is a challenge, so kudos to her. I know I wouldn’t be able to do it. But the highest score I can find is 973,954 which means that she’s still 184,606 points from breaking the actual world record.

I need a female to drop some knowledge in the comments section. Let’s say you have accomplished something that you are extremely proud of and someone sees the evidence of this accomplishment and says “Not bad, for a girl”. Would you be okay with that? Would you count that as a compliment? That’s exactly what’s going on here. I’m not even a woman and this seems degrading. When Danica Patrick races against a bunch of male drivers and doesn’t win, do they take her up to the podium and give her the ‘First Place (for a girl)’ prize? Fuck no. She goes out and competes against men and sometimes she finishes in the front of the pack.

There are times when having separate awards for men and women are justifiable. This is not one of those times. If you want the record, do what that 14 year old did back in 2009; practice. Practice more than anyone else. Play that game until you can’t stand to look at the screen. Play until you have nightmares of being chased down the highway by orange and blue gems, then get up and play some more.

If you want to be recognized as the best, don’t settle for just being the best girl.