Whenever nerd creators scoff that "WOMEN don't play those types of games!" here's what that actually means:

1) They had no women friends when they designed the game;
2) Their initial designs and playgroups were soaked in repellent sexism

What inevitably happens is, both happily and sadly:

1) Women ARE nevertheless interested, and help create variants on the game that strip away the unnecessary repellent sexism;
2) Turns out the game's EVEN MORE fun without that shit;
3) Women start playing! But...

4) By then, a subset of dudes has glommed onto this hobby as their escape from women, which is weird, because it's not like women are usually swarming them anyway;
5) They get very pissy at "women" invading their territory;
6) They actively try to make gaming hell for women.

7) Those toxic gamers then use the barriers they purposefully reinforced as proof that women just don't like playing games.

Fun fact: You can replace "women/sexism" with "Black gamers/racism," "gay/homophobia," and "trans/transphobia" & GUESS WHAT IT'S THE SAME PROCESS WHO KNEW

This thread brought to you by Gary Gygax's rotting values being dredged up from the grave, because thankfully extremely flawed people can create things that evolve past them: https://twitter.com/caderaspindrift/status/1298022089039982594