How men can help stamp out harassment of women in games
Content warning: This article features references to harassment, abuse and sexual assault.
Despite the many cases of harassment and abuse exposed in the games industry over the past few years, and the subsequent calls to address these behaviours, fresh reports continue to emerge from each major event, highlighting the systemic roots of the problems.
Many of those roots were discussed earlier this year at a Reboot Develop Blue session, fittingly titled 'WTF, it's 2023: Conversations we (still) need to have about being a woman in the games industry.' GamesIndustry.biz caught up with the panellists shortly after, and they suggested many ways in which men should change their behaviour to not only prevent this harassment from happening, but also better support and protect the women being targeted.
First and foremost, they highlight that men don't easily recognise the many forms sexual harassment can take, with Chantal Ryan – founder and game director at We Have Always Lived In The Forest, and also an anthropologist – pointing out that "a lot of the microaggressions are from people who don't realise they're being predatory."
By way of example, she shares her experience the day before Reboot Develop Blue, when she attended an industry dinner during which a man spent most of the evening staring at her. Sharing a taxi back to the hotel with this man and a male peer, the former interrupted her by saying, "Your voice is so sexy." Her peer said nothing, even when the comment was repeated after Ryan ignored it.
The other passenger in the vehicle should have told the man to think about what he was saying or recognise that Ryan was not interested or pleased with the repeated, uninvited compliment. But his inaction suggests a
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