Words girls never hear, why?.. other than the obvious gender specifics of it? Because we can't do things when we're women that we did when children and have a ready made and fondly spoken excuse waiting in the wings to bail us out, ladies, we're just not that lucky, guys, you've got it made, you can be boys when you're 50 and it's okay because everyone knows 'boys will be boys'.

Parental control ...
My mother doesn't understand my fondness of gaming and I've come to the conclusion she never will, my father too gives me quizzical looks and a sort of sad smile if he happens to be with me on a Friday, the day in the UK when new games come out and I'm in town, heading for the game store with excitement. My brother is older than me and a gamer, but that's okay, he's a guy and 'boys will be boys', he spends three wage cheques on a huge projection TV for gaming and 'boys will be boys' and 'it looks so nice in his flat'. I mention wanting a plasma for my Xbox and it's the end of the world as we know it 'honey you don't really need one do you?'... yes mum.. I DO, I REALLY need one.

Dicks are better off ...
My brother Richard (oh yes now you see why the risque subheading) tells me to ignore it, that's easy for him to say, he doesn't heed his own advice when I thrash him at Halo 2.. but I gleefully digress. I do ignore it to a point, I have to, if I didn't my head would implode, or something just as graphically gruesome, but deep down it irks me that because I'm a female gamer I'm at a social disadvantage, looked on in disdain for the same hobby as my male counterparts, this my dear readers pisses me off.

Pissed but not in the tripping over kind of way ...
I don't drink, I don't party, I don't smoke, my fun you see lay in gaming. My wages, as well as paying my mortgage, car, staple items and savings are... yes of course, spent on gaming; but my good citizen skills mean nothing when I'm an affluent female gamer, or should that be effluent? The putrid effluence of the lack of understanding I gain for my hobby that Dick has not suffered? The non understanding of a girls need to frag, the, dare I say it... antipathy of 'mature' women and indeed some men towards my hobby!

Alas 'Girls will be Girls' does not exist for 'girls shall be women' and there is no turning back... get your aprons on ladies and shop for shoes because step out of that box society has made for you and you're in a world of hurt. Husbands who berate wives for not understanding their gaming expenditure do not fret for it is YOU who are lucky and your wife cannot help this, she has been conditioned and few of us escape. Now if only Richard would marry an apron wearing shoe shopper, maybe this entire situation wouldn't seem quite so bad after all.