The introduction of playable women soldiers into Call of Duty: Ghosts has caused quite a reaction online among the male-dominated legions of CoD fans, a response that has been largely tainted with sexist and derogatory comments toward women. We can only imagine the abuse that females who want to play as a soldier of their own gender will face online.
The announcement from the Call of Duty Multiplayer Reveal Event yesterday in Los Angeles immediately brought back memories of multiplayer Black Ops II battles where a female dares to speak up. Rarely has any female we’ve seen in-game got through the match without some derogatory or rude comment being directed toward her.
It also stirred memories of one Call of Duty female gamer who has stuck up for herself online following abuse from male players. Jenny Haniver blogs and talks about her experiences online as a female on her website www.notinthekitchenanymore.com, which include instances of being called a slut and some shocking verbal abuse in Black Ops II. One guy sent her a voicemail saying, “I’m gonna impregnate you with triplets and make you have a very late term abortion.”
The arrival of female soldiers in Call of Duty: Ghosts is simply going to take the abuse to another level. This much has been made crystal clear from the moment the announcement was made and many of CoD’s idiot minority crawled out from behind their PC screens to so bravely take to social media and online forums with jibes at women and have a laugh–remarks such as, “we can’t wait to teabag them.”
While some of the negative online reactions are obviously meant to be tongue-in-cheek, including the ‘joke’ that female characters will be given a free DLC map on release (followed by a picture of a kitchen), it must be disheartening for women who have long tried to shake off the image that they should stay at home to cook and clean while their husband goes out to work.
There’s not a gaming forum on the web where comments such as this haven’t been made. Check out this one, for instance, from some hilarious dude called The Stig, a poster at MMGN.com – "The female soldiers carry portable cookers to aid their male teammates with freshly cooked sandwiches." Oh, how we laughed.
What’s more shocking are when the comments take a sexual tone. "There is going to be a lot of rape," writes one loser. “ahhh finally a ‘female’ char to suck my balls,” writes another. The tone is quite sinister and incredibly offensive. "Oh, this is going to be baaaad! "Base-Rape", "Tea-bagging", "Tits or GTFO," concludes one guy who obviously can’t wait to exert his superior manly powers over the female species.
The Call of Duty franchise is dominated by males, so it’s likely that there’ll be dozens of rude teenagers masquerading as female characters (wait for the sexist YouTube clips to appear), but can you imagine if an actual female who dares to speak steps into the role of female soldier? Hold tight ladies, there’s some serious abuse coming your way.
PSU would like to stress that not all CoD gamers are foul-mouthed, childish idiots. There are many very nice and polite CoD players too. If you find any, or if you are one, let us know your PSN ID so we can celebrate your refusal to debase the opposite gender.