A girl stands in the checkout line at Target. She’s holding a bottle of Sprite, a bag of Cheetos, and a Call of Duty Black Ops 3 video game. She sets her items down on the counter, the clerk asks her if she found everything alright, she nods. He scans the items, pausing on the video game asking if the videogame is for her boyfriend. The girl says no, he then continues to ask if the game is for any male in the girl’s life ranging from a cousin to a neighbor. Seemingly irritated the girl tells him it’s for her. The man’s eyebrows rise and he then goes on to ask her what rank she is, her prestige, and her favorite game mode. She answers questions in a quiet tense voice, pays, then leaves. The man shrugs seeming to say “Fake gamer girls, am I right?” and continues on with the next customer.

It’s 2015 and people still think  girls still can’t like video games, and any girl that does is faking it. When in reality girls make up almost half of gamers. Big Fish Video Game Stats Database released information stating that 48% of gamers are female. “Guys are so stupid when they say a girl is lying about liking video games to impress them or whatever. I mean come on man! I spent sixty dollars on a game plus DLCs just to impress you? Don’t flatter yourself,” said Liv Zahra, longtime video game player.

This misogynistic attitude has great consequences. A woman named Brianna Wu, co-founder of a video game studio located in Boston, pulled her company out of attending PAX East, the World Series of the video game world, last March, because of death threats received from other gamers caused by her gender. Another phenomenon in the gaming world known as “Gamergate”  affected female video game players. Actor Felicia Day expressed her concerns on the subject through her blog and was viciously targeted in return. Later in an interview Day said, “I think you see a lot of resistance, especially in that world to people saying this is not(okay). I want to belong in this world, and I don’t feel like I fit in. I need things to maybe change to accommodate diversity.”

Interests shouldn’t be validated, they should be accepted. If someone says they like dogs, no one goes “Oh yeah? Are you sure you don’t mean cats? Can you name 10 dog breeds? What are dogs allergic to?” They say,”Cool, I have a dog too.”Hobbies don’t have genders, they only have fun and by judging someone for their hobby is taking away their fun.