Shall I begin?

Here it is! My latest attempt at blogging. Previous attempts have included chronicling my NaNoWriMo experiences and something way back in high school. I won't link you to that one, because I wasn't entirely sentient at its time of writing. Also, like the old fanfictions I keep finding under my bed, it is hilariously bad.

Now, I've had this idea for a blog for awhile, but I've never acted on it until just now.

Here's the thing: I won't be writing about myself.  This isn't my Facebook status, after all...

Well, sort of. I will be writing about myself, but in a more roundabout way. The thing is, who cares about me? And I don't mean that in some "the world is against me" angst-ridden teenager way.  Besides, eventually you turn 16 and realize that your middle class angst doesn't mean much when you live in a world where something like 15 million children die each year from hunger.

What I mean is that outside of the people I already know (thanks for reading, Mom)  most people aren't exactly interested in me. I don't lead an exciting life (not yet, anyway). I live at home. I have a dog and a cat and a boyfriend. And now I have a blog. Well, another one.  Friends and family and pets and boyfriend already know all about me, and anyone who doesn't fit into one of those categories is too busy worrying about their own family, friends, pets and significant others to really care about what's going on in my life.

Instead, this blog is going to be about two things I really care about. The first is video games.

"But Kaye!" I hear you cry. "Everyone likes video games! What makes you think your video game blog will be so special?"

Well, you're right, masses of people reading this.  Video games have picked up a lot of steam since the advent of the Wii, Angry Birds, and all sorts of casual gaming. A blog just about games would be like adding another vampire romance story to the teen section of your local bookstore. Most reviewers have the power of decimals and numbers at their command, Yahtzee has all those yellow swatches and the goal of making every game developer cry...this might not be his actual goal, but I'm sure he's well on his way to achieving it.

So what makes me so freakin' special? The second thing I care about.

Feminism.

Oh, geez. There it is. The F-Word. Even today, sadly, it's still a bit of a loaded gun.

"Feminism is a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." -Pat Robertson

Wait a minute. I'm a feminist and I haven't done any of those things. I've never even burned a bra! It's sad, (and in all honesty, disturbing) when I realize that people still think like this.

I consider myself a feminist because I want women to have the same things that men already do. What do I want for women? Birth control covered by health insurance. Equal pay rates. To not be told that my life will be unfulfilled if I don't have children.

"Feminism is the radical notion that women are people." - Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler

I want an equal playing field.

Obviously, that a lot for a one blog written by a small town girl livin' in a lonely world! She took the midnight train goin' anywhere! This humble little blog (written by, admittedly, a less than humble girl) is not going to change the world. But my hope is that it'll start getting people to think, just a little bit more. With any luck, someone will change their mind about the way they see the world.

Next up: Why the way women are portrayed in games matters.