Wives and girl friends - do any of them get it?

[MarkShot]

I mean do they get our hobby or interest in military history?

In 20 years, I've known 3 woman flight simmers and 1 naval analyst who liked Harpoon, Sub Command, and Dangerous Waters.

Now, I grew up through the civil rights and feminist movements. Women now serve in the USA military in all roles but combat. And it could be argued from the KIA and WIA figures, they are serving in combat.

BTW, I mean this as a serious thread and not a chance for the ugly sexism that sometimes shows up in game forums. I am as serious about this as why we still don't see a greater balance of women in engineering disciplines.

Is the lack of women war gamers: nuture, genetics, hormones, male/female culture?

BTW, what started me thinking on this ...

I think when my wife goes to sleep, I am going to slip over to the laptop and get back on patrol!

It seems the light from the display does not bother her, but my typing does. She said to me, "How can you possibly be typing so much in a game that is mouse driven?". She doesn't understand as captain I must keep a log. :)

[LongBlade]

Daughter #1 gets it.

[DoctorQuest]

My daughter and not my son was the one who watched Band of Brothers with me. Now that being said.....my son is a major console gamer and is hosting his first Halo Night in his new apartment soon. Strange how the genes work it out.

[MarkShot]

LB,

So, you would say "nuture"?

Because as much as I support full social equality, the science shows there are true differences between male and female brains. These differences account for better spatial awareness in males and better language and communication skills in females.

[MarkShot]

My wife will watch war movies with me as a concession to my interests, but she thinks movies with no females roles tend to be boring.

I used to think that she had no interest in military history. But recently she has been fascinated by documentaries on China, Korea, and Japan produced in the PRC. So, the reality is she is not much interested in what we call Western History ... She has hardly any of the basics of the underlying material. But she has decent grasp of 5,000 years of Chinese History. However, war game or geopolitical strategy games are of zero interest.

[LongBlade]

LB,

So, you would say "nuture"?

Because as much as I support full social equality, the science shows there are true differences between male and female brains. These differences account for better spatial awareness in males and better language and communication skills in females.

Best I can give you is "osmosis."

I've never pushed anything on them - other than long lectures of brain dump about whatever question they happened to have asked where I had an answer.

I used to volunteer at the WWII Museum, and I have books and books (and games and games) on WWII. Somewhere about 6th grade the light went off when they were studying history in school. She connected the dots between my interest in history (particularly WWII) and the importance of the event in history and its effect on today.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I had one Japanese girlfriend who played video games but she liked Japanese console games and couldn't understand my interest in history, sims, and wargames.  She'd get mad if I watched a WWII documentary and her usual refrain was "why do you keep watching this stuff over and over?  You already know who won."

I had a Thai girlfriend who loved war movies and read military history but she absolutely hated video games.  Fortunately, she wasn't the type who insisted I had to curtail my hobbies to accommodate her.   She'd just go work out while I played games.

As for the rest, typical bitching and moaning about my hobby.  I never really understood why most weren't too bothered if I read a book or watched a war movie.  Most would get slightly annoyed if I watched war documentaries.  Most would get really annoyed if I played PC or boardgames.

[MetalDog]

My ex-wife didn't get it at all.  She wasn't the intellectual type.  My girlfriend now says she likes history and maps and loves to read.  I've yet to see her pick up a book or even a magazine.  She does, however, play games.  Console and phone.  She gives me space to play mine and doesn't give me crap when I do.  I'm encouraging her to try Civ with me.  I'm hoping to be able to show her how and let my enthusiasm shine through without being overbearing.

Now that I think about it, she has a fighter plane game for her PS3 that she's beaten.  So I stand corrected.  Maybe that will gateway into other things :-)

[MarkShot]

Are our wargames just the playing at war we did as boys morphed into an adult form?

I don't recall being pushed to play at war as a boy or my sister being pushed not to. I don't think parents or family socialized us; it just seemed natural. Perhaps, TV socialized us. As a kid WWII movies were on all the time. All the role models were, of course, male soldiers.

As a kid you are quickly grouped, perhaps the very earliest grouping being boy/girl, after that I think the whole larger environment had me and my sister type cast. If I had wanted to bake or she had wanted to play football both of us would have had to be child activists.

But how is it for boys and girls today? BTW, I am not a parent.

[MarkShot]

I read recently that women are now the majority of gamers. But still games are predominantly designed and developed by men. This is part of the engineering gap I alluded to earlier.

[Gusington]

The Wife is the 2nd smartest person I have ever met but is not interested in my hobbies in the least and that has been a bone of contention forever. MiniGus #1 definitely gets it and I think we will be gaming once she is old enough. The jury is still out on MiniGus #2.

[junk2drive]

My wife was a tomboy.

She flew helos in Calif and Hawaii. She flew hot air balloons in North America and Benelux. She attained a commercial balloon license and gave instructions. She was Roger Rabbit at Disneyland in a small helium blimp as co pilot. She drove big rigs cross country with a partner. She got to know a lot of gas balloonists but never got to fly one. She was president of the Southern California Hot Air Balloon Assoc. She invited and hosted guest speakers such as Dick Rutan, Joe Kittinger, Ed Yost.

She loves politics and history. We have watched about every documentary and miniseries about the ACW, WWII and Vietnam. More often than not, I find her watching youtubes of Pearl Harbor or Atomic bomb tests or whatever. She can tell you a lot about NASCAR too.

Gotta know how to pick em in the beginning.

[MarkShot]

Gus,

He he he ... That's a sad comment on the value of your hobbies. At least she found you charming enough to tolerate your reduced intellect.

My wife thinks I am smart, but that I waste it on games. She was very happy when I started trading, and still thinks I should pick it up again.

[MarkShot]

J2D,

Finding such a woman must have been hard to begin with! So, does her hobbies extend to games?

[Gusington]

The Wife does like chess, I left that out. She's good at it too.