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My turn:
List of sexist/toxic crap I’ve lived or witnessed in the game industry: a thread.
I’ll skip over the obvious situations of male employee favoritism- it happens all the time but is hard to prove and often comes from unconscious bias. 1/
List of sexist/toxic crap I’ve lived or witnessed in the game industry: a thread.
I’ll skip over the obvious situations of male employee favoritism- it happens all the time but is hard to prove and often comes from unconscious bias. 1/
Email threads/Conversations judging the “fuckability” of new female employees. Had a colleague (a lead) confess to me he had a talk like this during a one-on-one with his employee about me when I got my 1st job. He thought it was a compliment. 2/
I was a redhead at the time, it often came with all the “Gingers are kinky” or “Does the carpet match the drapes” comments or just the recurrent “Redheads are exactly my type”. Both inside or outside the industry. 3/
Overheard 2 male employees betting on the outfit of a girl I worked with. They were hoping she was going to wear a specific skirt because they liked “how it showed her ass”. I confronted them saying it was an unprofessional thing to say, they just laughed it off. 4/
During a friend’s B-day costume party at a bar, I was wearing a Catwoman outfit. Ran into a new colleague which weirdly complimented me on my costume. I told him I was surprised it still fitted, he replied “I wouldn’t mind if it tore off of your body“ 5/
He then tried to hold my hips / lower back, I just made an excuse to go see some friends further away. Side note: this guy DID apologize profusely a couple days after and seemed to really regret his behavior, so there’s that. 6/
Another man, probably the only person in this thread that still works for Beenox to this day, tried to pour red wine in my cleavage during a Christmas party. He was very drunk. He also was above me in studio hierarchy which made me extra uneasy towards the situation. 7/
He was stopped by a female colleague who took the bottle and told him to go away. Few months later, I told him what happened and how awkward it made me feel. He laughed, said he didn’t remember and that he was only embarrassed that it happened at work, not that it happened. 8/
Years later, I learned by some guy friends (ex-colleagues) that he was once going around saying stuff like “I’d fuck her if I wasn’t a producer, right now it would just look bad”. I mentioned the incident to a couple higher ups, but nothing ever came of it. 9/
One guy in particular had pretty terrible taste in humor. Couple of “jokes” he told me during the few months I worked closed to his desk: When I was on my knees plugging in a cable in my PC “I like girls at this height, perfect for giving out blowjobs”. 10/
The day after I had my septum pierced: “Why did you do this? Do you enjoy looking like a cow?”. I barely knew the guy. He was constantly making very whacky sex-related jokes. 11/
Once I was introduced to an artist that worked for another studio by friend-colleagues. He really wanted to date me and I gave it a try. When we were about to have sex, he refused to wear protection even if I clearly said no and physically pushed him away. 12/
He forced himself on me and I stopped fighting. I have an history with hypochondria, so I had panic attacks for weeks after, thinking I may had been infected by a STI. Got tested 3 times in the next weeks/months - fortunately got negative results. /13
I didn’t make a big deal out of it at first because he was only visiting the country. At some point he moved here and I ran into him because we still had common friends. I confronted him about it, he told me he was drunk / drugged - classic dumb excuses. /14
When he moved I was dating someone else, knowing this, he still tried to force a move just after I told him he abused me. He tried to kiss me at 2 occasions and tried to lift up my dress, I had to physically push him away and leave. /15
He told our common friends I was crazy. They told me it was his words against mine so they wouldn’t take sides, even if they all often casually joked that he was going to end up in prison because "he is a sex addict” and “can’t control himself, especially when he drinks”. /16
He since moved to Montreal and I gained back some safety. He still works in the game industry at WB. He is a very talented artist and is often promoted by software companies, so he often pops in my timeline. Every time my heart sinks. /17
I may add more stories later, but it’s as much as my heart can take today. I hope my thread will help shed some light on some of the issues in the game industry. If you lived through similar things, you are not alone and I support you. #metoo 
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