{"id":2422,"date":"2012-07-26T10:16:19","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T16:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/?p=2422"},"modified":"2015-11-14T16:07:48","modified_gmt":"2015-11-14T23:07:48","slug":"a-call-to-arms-for-decent-men-a-re-post-of-ernest-adams-column","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/minkhollow.ca\/beckerblog\/2012\/07\/26\/a-call-to-arms-for-decent-men-a-re-post-of-ernest-adams-column\/","title":{"rendered":"A Call to Arms for Decent Men: A Re-Post of Ernest Adams’ column."},"content":{"rendered":"Approximate Reading Time: <\/span> 9<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

A Call to Arms for Decent Men<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is worth saying again, and again, so here it is, in its entirety:<\/p>\n

\n

Gamasutra declined to run this column, but I still consider it to be part of the Designer’s Notebook series. Contains strong language.<\/p>\n

\n

A Call to Arms for Decent Men<\/span> <\/strong>
\nBy Ernest Adams<\/em><\/strong>
\nJuly 26, 2012<\/em><\/p>\n

Normally I write for everybody, but this month’s column is a call to arms, addressed to the reasonable, decent, but much too silent majority of male gamers and developers.<\/p>\n

Guys, we have a problem. We are letting way <\/em>too many boys get into adulthood without actually becoming men. We’re seeing more and more adult males around who are not men. <\/em>They’re as old as men, but they have the mentality of nine-year-old boys. They’re causing a lot of trouble, both in general and for the game industry specifically. We need to deal with this.<\/p>\n

Why us? Because<\/strong> it’s our job to see to it that a boy becomes a man, and we are failing. <\/strong><\/p>\n

When we were little boys we all went through a stage when we said we hated girls. Girls had “cooties.” They were silly and frilly and everything that a boy isn’t supposed to be. We got into this stage at about age seven, and we left it again at maybe 10 or 11.<\/p>\n

Then puberty hit and, if we were straight, we actively wanted the company of girls. We wanted to “go with” them, date them, and eventually we wanted to fall in love and live with one, maybe for the rest of our lives. That’s the way heterosexual boys are supposed to mature, unless they become monks.<\/p>\n

My point is, you’re supposed to leave that phase of hating girls behind. Straight or <\/em>gay, you’re supposed to grow the hell up.<\/p>\n

What might be temporarily tolerable in a boy when he’s nine is pretty damned ugly when he’s fifteen and it’s downright psychopathic when he’s twenty. Instead of maturing into a man’s role and a man’s responsibilities, a lot of boys are stuck at the phase of hating girls and women. The boys continue to treat them like diseased subhumans right through adolescence and into adulthood.<\/p>\n

Men are more powerful than women: financially, politically, and physically. What distinguishes a real man from a boy is that a man takes responsibility for his actions and does not abuse this power. If you don’t treat women with courtesy and respect \u2013 if you’re still stuck in that “I hate girls” phase \u2013 then no matter what age you are, you are a boy<\/em> and not entitled to the privileges of adulthood.<\/p>\n