Here are two LJ postings about girl gamers and the role of beauty: Miss Girl Gamer and What IGM thinks girl gamers are like.

I will use them to explore the gap between effective(i.e. looking for effects) and affective(trying for a certain feeling) feminism. Affective feminist would wonder why we are talking about fake girl gamers as being attention seekers, when we should be supporting women, even if they go around licking PSPs in a blatantly unsanitary manner. Effective feminists would wonder why anyone would think that beauty contests or licking PSPs helps the cause of women in gaming, as we already have plenty of ways that women are celebrated for being 'hot'.

Affective feminists would say that the effective feminists are ruining the movement because they might hurt the feelings of women who lick PSPs and post faux lesbian pictures on their myspaces and of course, they'd never become feminists as the goal of feminism is for women to feel good. But effective feminists would think affective feminists are ruining the movement because feeling good doesn't advance any goals.

Of course I'm an effective feminist. Those women know full well that they'll get rewards like attention for licking PSPs and joining beauty pageants. Heck, the winner of the beauty pageant might even get prizes. If they'd rather get those rewards than be feminists, it's their own choice. We all have our own sense of what is important in life.

We as women aren't responsible for whether other women want to work for their own liberation or not. I think that sometimes I sort of respect non feminists more than affective feminists. Nonfeminists know what they want, and how to get it. You want to be interviewed at IGN and maybe given free games? Lick a PSP, conform to beauty standards, maybe play dumb a bit.

But if you want all people everywhere to always approve of you, and to always feel good about yourself, well, that's a tricky pickle and I'm not sure a political movement could do that for you.