Journée Internationale de la Femme

Community & Empowerment

Many LARPers attribute qualities of empowerment and a sense of community to LARPs. This is as equally true for the female players as organizers despite the sexist behaviors that many of us have seen and experienced. A sense of belonging is central to the practice of role-playing games; long a marginalized activity, these are events practiced in groups and based in social interactions. By extension, the biases we carry in everyday life are inevitably transposed into the game and therein lies the problem.

For example, from their very first event, the Danish warlarp regiment Girls In Armor received countless comments questioning their presence on the battlefield and constantly referring to their gender, as if women had no place in a combat LARP other than to support male players. After a few years of confronting these sexist words and supporting each other among women, they have largely succeeded in gaining respect from the warlarp community and continue to assert themselves as equals to the men around them. Their sense of belonging to the group allowed them to see the strength they drew from it individually and it was with this strength that they led to a positive change within the events in which they participated, as much for warlarp as others LARPs!

On the US side of the ocean, influencer Raquel Skellington speaks from a very similar perspective. I had the opportunity to chat with her recently and she pointed out how in southern states too often notorious for race-based incidents and conservativeness, the LARP community has seen an explosion of progressiveness led by members of our community who belong to marginalized groups. Women of color, trans people, non-binary people and many others have chosen to form a united front to bring their region’s LARP culture to a healthier, safer and more welcoming environment for all rather than continuing to navigate spaces still too affected by sexist, racist and otherwise intolerant biases. Their efforts have led to the general LARP culture in their region evolving. While there is still a lot of work to be done, their successes help to demonstrate that it is possible to make LARPs more tolerant and welcoming of those who do not fit the mold.

Représentation

Dans la thèse Expression of Feminism in LARP (Expression du féminisme en GN) écrite pour le livre accompagnant la convention Knutpunkt de 2016, Muriel Algayres souligne que « les problèmes de représentation surviennent lorsque les personnages féminins sont contraints à une position d'infériorité », un contexte pré-déterminant les rôles d'influence comme étant masculins. Les stéréotypes sont également un problème important car ils représentent les femmes dans des rôles souvent dégradants. D'une part, de telles décisions démontrent que les femmes ne sont pas valorisées à leur plein potentiel et d'autre part, cela informe les joueurs d'un fondement sexiste où les femmes en général ont moins d'importance. Cela perpétue des préjugés contre lesquels les femmes passent déjà la majeure partie de leur vie à naviguer et facilite l'utilisation d'autres préjugés négatifs. De plus, cela crée un climat où les femmes de couleur, les femmes trans, les femmes handicapées et bien d'autres sont davantage à risque de discrimination.

Violence contre les femmes

Tel que mentionné précédemment, de nombreuses femmes GNistes ont vu et vécu du sexisme. Bien que nous ayons collectivement une compréhension croissante du rôle qui joue le sexisme dans la violence contre les femmes, il n'en reste pas moins que beaucoup trop d'entre nous ont dû faire face à des actes de violence et d'abus en raison. de notre condition de femme. Bien que je n'entre pas dans les détails concernant les types de violence et leurs impacts sur les victimes, je recommande fortement de consulter des pages de témoignages telles que ici et ici (use you browser translator as needed) to read testimonies of female players of all ages.

Des actions prises

Beyond the widespread normalization of safety and tolerance rules set by LARP management teams around the globe, LARPers in several regions have put in place groups meant to provide resources and guidelines. At present, such official organizations in existence that we have found are the Quebec LARP Federation (FDGNQC) in collaboration with Les Mélusines, the French LARP Federation (FédéGN), and the Belgian LARP federation (BElarp). Although their approaches differ, they all work towards helping LARPing communities, providing guidance and resources. Woman everywhere are also mobilizing and have been for years, be it on social media platforms, online via blogs or YouTube or within their local LARP communities. Other outlets such as the Conférence Knutpunkt (FR) and the Journal international du jeu de rôle (EN) provide academic resources and articles that help to educate on the importance of equality. Of course, the names here are likely only scratching the surface; the world is vast and women of action all over the globe dream of LARPing on equal terms!

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Liens et Ressources

Women LARPers

Recherche, rédaction, traduction et mise en page par GNiste et rédactrice/éditrice de Calimacil Patricia Favreau