VICE Investigates Dungeons and Dragons' History of Ingrained Sexual Harassment

It's one of the horror stories we tell around our gaming campfires. We know a guy who once played in a game where the DM made the story revolve around the sole female player having sex with one of his NPCs. Often several times. In some of the worse stories we hear all about how that lone female PC gets raped for no purpose other than to appease the DM's need for vicarious thrills. We all shudder and clutch our Mountain Dew tightly, and we wonder how something like that could ever happen in the past time we all know and love so much.

Well according to VICE Dungeons and Dragons has a long and ingrained history of misogyny.

Such shock. Much surprise.

According to VICE's investigation that the boy's club environment of tabletop RPGs is no accident. Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons who passed away several years ago was on the record as saying that male and female brains were simply different, which is why games meant to involve women had been failures. These attitudes permeated the game's creation as well as the early culture surrounding Dungeons and Dragons, which might explain why less than 3% of gamers were female at the game's outset.

Dungeons and Dragons, like all games, has evolved and changed since its creation though. With more women (and minorities, and people who aren't straight, white dudes) playing the game than ever before issues that were once given a pass are becoming a battleground between those who see nothing wrong, and those who want attitudes to change. I covered some of this in my last flavor post Why We All Need Diversity in Gaming (And How You Can Start).

Will rapey DM's and objectified female players one day be looked on as relics of the past? Things like slave collars, Jim Crowe laws, and bell bottoms that we can't explain, and that we really wish we could have avoided? Here's hoping!


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