Thank you for sharing. Contrary to a few comments below I think the points about gender and body image are the history of tech and gaming and I think you do a great job of bringing those uncomfortable things out here. I'm loving the series so far. 👏👏👏👏
As a woman of size, this article means a lot to me. I'd never known about her. I thought all the early video game devs were pasty nerds and that Roberta Williams would come later. Instead... gosh. Gosh. Thank you.
This is a great story...but the whole benevolent sexism thing just distracts from it. The story is about Pirate Adventure, but instead you made it about this lady's weight.
Thanks for the comment, Harland. I would argue the story is as much about the woman who made the game as the game itself, and I expect if I'd left this detail out, you'd have pictured her as thin, just as if she'd been Black and I left that out, you'd have pictured her with light skin. Part of my goal with this series is to show that it hasn't been just straight skinny white middle-class neurotypical American men making text games through the years. It's been all kinds of people, and it's important to me for that representation to be visible.
You know I would have pictured her a certain way? You can read minds? That's remarkable! Say, can you do it again? Can you tell me what I had for breakfast?
Hi Wilhelm, thanks for the feedback. A couple people have contacted me about this, so I think it's worthwhile to explain my reasoning here.
One of my reasons for mentioning Alexis's size is that I've noted that nearly every profile about Roberta Williams, one of the few other early women game developers, mentions how skinny and petite she was-- a "princess" conforming to traditional American ideals of beauty. I thought it was important to show that not all icons need to have that kind of idealized body type. You can be a game dev hero and not need to look like Roberta Williams.
Alexis's weight was also a major struggle throughout her life, and some of her later writing suggests it was a major source of tension in her relationship with Scott: I'm sure it also made it more challenging for her to be taken seriously in a culture dominated by skinny men, which makes her accomplishments even more impressive. In her later years she became a huge proponent of what she called "size acceptance" and the erasure of overweight people from daily life. She started a group called "Bigger and Better" to promote visibility for overweight people. I think part of her journey in the final years of her life was freeing herself from the shame and guilt that she had built up around her weight earlier in life, and I didn't want to erase that from the article.
I also read quite a bit of writing by larger women about how they prefer people to write about size issues respectfully: to my surprise, the overwhelming majority of them wanted people to both acknowledge their size when writing about them-- again, so as not to erase their identifies-- and even specifically to use the word "fat" rather than a euphemism, as a move to reclaim the term from one that has purely negative connotations. I have a hard time applying that label to someone else, but the sentiment did make me feel more comfortable mentioning Alexis's body type as just another part of her identity.
I think the reason the detail has stood out to people is that we're not used to seeing body sizes outside the norms mentioned except in a judgmental way. There may be better ways I could frame all this for a future revision of the article. I'll continue to think about the best ways to honestly portray real people as I keep writing this series.
Aaron, I had the same strong impression as Wilhelm – it really bothered me and distracted me while I tried to continue reading the entire article. I appreciate the context you provide here, but I think you must provide that context within the article (or remove the references altogether), or risk derailing the focus and discussion of your entire series.
Thanks for your comments, Bay. People are clearly not seeing the article as the positive example of representation I intended, so I'll have a think about how to revise it.
Just a note that I've now revised the article in a few places to bring in more of the context from my lengthy comment above to my characterization of Alexis, so the notes from Wilhelm and Bay are reacting to an older version of the article.
Hey Aaron, I want to say that I appreciate the thought and care that you put into researching and writing about Alexis, including about her body - I found it personally expanding in dismantling some of my apparent unconscious assumptions.
Thank you for sharing. Contrary to a few comments below I think the points about gender and body image are the history of tech and gaming and I think you do a great job of bringing those uncomfortable things out here. I'm loving the series so far. 👏👏👏👏
As a woman of size, this article means a lot to me. I'd never known about her. I thought all the early video game devs were pasty nerds and that Roberta Williams would come later. Instead... gosh. Gosh. Thank you.
This is a great story...but the whole benevolent sexism thing just distracts from it. The story is about Pirate Adventure, but instead you made it about this lady's weight.
Thanks for the comment, Harland. I would argue the story is as much about the woman who made the game as the game itself, and I expect if I'd left this detail out, you'd have pictured her as thin, just as if she'd been Black and I left that out, you'd have pictured her with light skin. Part of my goal with this series is to show that it hasn't been just straight skinny white middle-class neurotypical American men making text games through the years. It's been all kinds of people, and it's important to me for that representation to be visible.
You know I would have pictured her a certain way? You can read minds? That's remarkable! Say, can you do it again? Can you tell me what I had for breakfast?
Ahh I see what I'm dealing with now
Bye.
I'm greatly enjoying this series, but I feel this episode did not need to have multiple references to Alexis' body type. They contributed nothing.
Hi Wilhelm, thanks for the feedback. A couple people have contacted me about this, so I think it's worthwhile to explain my reasoning here.
One of my reasons for mentioning Alexis's size is that I've noted that nearly every profile about Roberta Williams, one of the few other early women game developers, mentions how skinny and petite she was-- a "princess" conforming to traditional American ideals of beauty. I thought it was important to show that not all icons need to have that kind of idealized body type. You can be a game dev hero and not need to look like Roberta Williams.
Alexis's weight was also a major struggle throughout her life, and some of her later writing suggests it was a major source of tension in her relationship with Scott: I'm sure it also made it more challenging for her to be taken seriously in a culture dominated by skinny men, which makes her accomplishments even more impressive. In her later years she became a huge proponent of what she called "size acceptance" and the erasure of overweight people from daily life. She started a group called "Bigger and Better" to promote visibility for overweight people. I think part of her journey in the final years of her life was freeing herself from the shame and guilt that she had built up around her weight earlier in life, and I didn't want to erase that from the article.
I also read quite a bit of writing by larger women about how they prefer people to write about size issues respectfully: to my surprise, the overwhelming majority of them wanted people to both acknowledge their size when writing about them-- again, so as not to erase their identifies-- and even specifically to use the word "fat" rather than a euphemism, as a move to reclaim the term from one that has purely negative connotations. I have a hard time applying that label to someone else, but the sentiment did make me feel more comfortable mentioning Alexis's body type as just another part of her identity.
I think the reason the detail has stood out to people is that we're not used to seeing body sizes outside the norms mentioned except in a judgmental way. There may be better ways I could frame all this for a future revision of the article. I'll continue to think about the best ways to honestly portray real people as I keep writing this series.
Thanks again for your thoughts.
Aaron, I had the same strong impression as Wilhelm – it really bothered me and distracted me while I tried to continue reading the entire article. I appreciate the context you provide here, but I think you must provide that context within the article (or remove the references altogether), or risk derailing the focus and discussion of your entire series.
Thanks for your comments, Bay. People are clearly not seeing the article as the positive example of representation I intended, so I'll have a think about how to revise it.
Just a note that I've now revised the article in a few places to bring in more of the context from my lengthy comment above to my characterization of Alexis, so the notes from Wilhelm and Bay are reacting to an older version of the article.
Hey Aaron, I want to say that I appreciate the thought and care that you put into researching and writing about Alexis, including about her body - I found it personally expanding in dismantling some of my apparent unconscious assumptions.
Thank you for this additional context Aaron!