How to Explain Sexist Video Games to The Little Ones
How to explain to little boys that some video games are sexist.
Dear Madge,
Sexism and video games is the main reason why I didn’t let my little brothers playing video games. Would you share the right way on how to explain it to them?
Best,
@azurindya
Dear @azurindya,
I think you should subscribe to this Youtube channel to get some reviews on video games that are sexist and those that are empowering – of course stay away from the former. For your question, we also asked our contributor Yudith Tirza, who had taught kindergarten students for 13 years and wrote this article about dealing with Digital Kids.
Here’s what she said:
Okay this is what I thought about the issue. For kids, game is simply a game. Just like love is love to gays and lesbians. I don’t think we need to complicate that. When I was a teacher, I tried to immerse on the games my students played. I learned the tricks on winning every level, and shared my knowledge with them. As a result of that, we had a strong bond, they developed a better hand-eye coordination and I stopped being a preachy teacher, and took a role as a friend they can trust instead. Thus, I passed the lesson much easier.
The key is to play with them. Select the games that are suitable for them to play. Explain everything. I remember when we played a so-called “violent” game, I explained that we didn’t need to do this kind of act toward people who have different opinion. So yeah, game could be a powerful teaching media too.
And in this digital era, banning games from kids is like banning porn for adult. Why taking so much effort when you can jump into their world and play with them as you pass one-two life lesson 🙂
Hope that helps.
~M
Got a burning question about something? Send it to [email protected] — in English or Bahasa Indonesia — with the subject “Ask Madge” or tweet your question to @the_magdalene.
