One of the things that “girl gamers”, simultaneously used as both a term of endearment and a pejorative (and sometimes by the same person) depending on the conversation, take a lot of flack for in 2020 — of all the years — is “being too feminine” while playing video games. You get criticized for having and wearing too much makeup, or for liking “girly things” like dresses or the color pink. God forbid you like more than one of those things and are honest about it. That’s almost literally the kiss of death “being taken seriously” by guy gamers, which should simultaneously be used as a term of endearment and a pejorative, even though you realize that no one’s opinion should matter to you but your own… although you shouldn’t need to feel the need to be validated in the first place. There are, after all, things like Gamergate, and being scared into submission for being a gamer girl that’s “too loud” about certain things, so one has to exercise caution…

If you’re disabled or a single parent, or disabled and a single parent, they don’t know what to do with you.

People should be free to like what they like in the combinations that they like them in without feeling as though they have to measure up to someone else’s standards. There is no right, or wrong, way to be a “girl gamer”: if you identify as a girl, and you like to game, congratulations! You are literally a girl gamer! 100%!