The Women Who Raised Me

The Women Who Raised Me

“We was born to mothers who couldn't deal with us

Left by fathers who wouldn't build with us”

 

 

I’m the son of loud and proud Xhosa women who are present

I’m the son of a loud and obnoxious father who is absent

I was raised by women who built me up

And men who wouldn’t build with me

My grandmother, Ouma Sag, is warmth and chaos,

A rough and tough Kallit woman

Who married into the Xhosa culture,

‘La gogo we Lawu’

She taught me Afrikaans and gave me my love of tea

She is afraid of the government and white people

Considering her history,

Rightly so

My mother is noise and structure

She likes things being in their place

She’s the hardest working person I know

Life hasn’t been kind to her,

In response, she’s one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet

She’s a bit of a busybody, though

She likes getting involved in everyone’s business,

In a good-natured, well-meaning way

My aunt, my Mam’ncane, is quiet and chaos

She doesn’t like people much

And minds her business

She’s fiercely intelligent

Her focus and determination inspire me to keep pushing myself further

My sister is cheek and chaos

She’s all attitude, that one

Always ready to put people in their place

She’s crazy and fierce

Her fire burns hot and bright

I hope that she sets the world on fire

With her excellence one day

I am all of these characteristics,

With a generous serving of anxiety on the side

But all the good qualities I do have,

I get from these wonderful women

Who raised me

Kick-Ass Women in Gaming

Sexism in Gaming Kick-Ass Women in Gaming

This has been a great year for gaming in terms of what we already have to play and in terms of announcements. Here in sunny South Africa we had rAge last weekend and though I could not attend I know from all the media and attendees with lunatic grins on their faces that it was a good show. The gaming community is getting better all the time and anyone regardless of who they are can get in on the fun… Or can they? Surely we are past things like racism, sexism and other nasty –isms?

Sadly we are not. The biggest issue I’ve experienced as a gamer this year is the shocking amount of instances of sexism and misogynistic views in our beloved industry. In SA we already have a huge issue with crimes against women like rape and other forms of abuse. It’s tough being a woman in just day-to-day interactions and it breaks my heart that a community based on escapism and having fun can be sexist. Games are meant to be fun for everyone who wants to pick up a ‘joystick’ and play.

When I started writing this piece the idea was to point out in great and righteously angry detail how stupid male gamers can be and to refer to cases like the reactions when Remember Me was first announced and people were freaked out that they’d have to play as a heterosexual female protagonist who is – surprise, surprise – sexually interested in men. I was going to write a rant about the nasty, misogynistic and plain stupid attacks on Gamespot writer, Carolyn Petit’s GTA V review. I’m not going to do any of that, instead I’m going to celebrate three amazing women who are in the industry and are contributing towards making our favourite pastime even more enjoyable.

I think this year’s Tomb Raider is one of the best games of the year.  (If you don’t happen to think so please don’t send the KKK to my house – it’s just an opinion.) One of the people on Crystal Dynamics’ brilliant team that we can thank for a Lara Croft that’s actually likeable and actually more beautiful because she has a personality is Rhianna Pratchett, who served as the lead writer on the project. Rhianna earned her stripes writing for games like Overlord 1 & 2, Mirror’s Edge and my other favourite of the year Bioshock Infinite.

If you attended rAge you would’ve seen Noelle Adams’ amazing Lara Croft cosplay. She has big presence in the SA gaming scene. She writes, blogs, vlogs, Facebooks and Tweets all things nerdy and for that we like her. She’s sort of like Wonder Woman really.

Pippa Tshabalala was the MC at rAge this year and has an amazing presence in the SA gaming scene, what with having hosted a gaming show, The Verge and teaching 3D animation for a while. She writes or has written for many online and print publications and contributes much to the gaming scene.

Even though our beloved industry has a lot of growing up to do it’s a great community and everyone should be welcome to contribute and enjoy playing games.

Cupboard Person of the Week

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”

- Nelson Mandela (quoting from Marianne Williamson’s Return to Love)

So I've been watching The Pick Up Artist of late and I'm quite impressed with Mystery and his wings.

I read The Game some years back and liked the concept of the seduction community because meeting women is an important area of any heterosexual male's life. It's one of those areas that you can never be too good at, it takes constant work in every other area of one's life to stay afloat in this one.

I love the fact that pick up artists like Mystery have been able to build an industry for this area of people's live. The world already caters for almost every other social and sexual need that people have (in a tacky and crass manner for the most part)so why not this area? Many people I've spoken to concerning the topic of 'pick up' think it's beneath them somehow but the sad truth is that they are still unable to approach beautiful women in many social settings. It's something worth learning is all I'm saying.

Anyhoo, back to the issue at hand, Mystery and his awesomeness!!! The guy is a freakin' tall mofo and has a scarecrow presence that's quite lovable. He's like a bony teddybear. This guy leads the sort of life that most dudes just dream about as they drive to some office in the morning and that is what I think is the coolest thing about him, he just does what he wants and is, as he calls it, the 'tribal leader' in his circle of friends. Everyone in the world should be as out there as this dude :)