Thank you for posting about this. That being said, I will state that I entered the pageant. I have been doing pageants since I was 4 years old. I have also been gaming for about as long.

Here is something that I wrote as a comment on the Joystiq article. I feel it sort of is relevant here as well! :)

Here is the thing.. YOU may not post your picture online but I, and millions of girls do! It doesn’t mean we are attention whores or wrong. It means we like to take pictures and we like to get feedback. We LIKE to look pretty and yea.. we LIKE the attention. Is that a bad thing? No.. it’s human nature! If that’s not you then fine. That doesn’t mean what I am doing or what MILLIONS of girls are doing is wrong.

I am not posing in a bikini or licking a game controller. I am not “faking” and saying I am REALLY a gamer… I AM a gamer and yea.. I model too. That shouldn’t matter at all! I’m what I like to refer to as a “glam gamer”. Just means I like to do girly things and I also like to game!

Just because you play FPS games and I don’t doesn’t mean I’m wrong. Just because you like to play RTS games and I don’t doesn’t mean I”m wrong. A LOT of girls don’t play games because they are under the impression that it’s just about kicking ass and shooting things. That’s not ALL games are about!

Just like in everything else in life there are LOTS of different types of girls… Just because we also like to play video games doesn’t change that. Just because you don’t like dressing up and looking pretty and wearing frills doesn’t mean another girl is wrong for wanting to do that.

This doesn’t appeal to ALL girl gamers. It’s not TRYING to. It is appealing to girl gamers who like to do those sort of things. It’s saying “Hey, we can be pretty and sexy and fun and play games too!!” and honestly, there is NOTHING wrong with that just like I don’t have an issue with you NOT wanting to do it.

My issue is looking at girls who DO want to do it and somehow saying that we are wrong or bad.. or setting a BAD example. If a real gamer wins this, gets some publicity as being a real gamer and is also cute and frilly.. maybe some more cute and frilly girls will think that it’s cool and get into gaming. WHO KNOWS!

All I know is that it’s a BIG world and there are LOTS of women in it… women of ALL types. So, instead of saying THIS IS WRONG.. THIS IS BAD!!!! Let’s say “Hey, this is cool.. another way for girls to be girls. And yea… we game too!”

Let me also just add that I DO believe they should change how they are wording things on the site. No, it’s NOT going to change the face of the video game world. I don’t think any of us, who have entered, really believe that. That being said, it is a very fun opportunity for those of us who ARE gamers and who also like to do pageants and model, to have something that crosses both hobbies! :)

Becky “Aktrez” Young
Head of the Girl Gaming Network
http://www.girlgamingnetwork.com