/flirt, or "Boys Like Naked Night Elves"

Non-Gamers' Guide to This Post

/flirt is a command that produces a flirting action. If you have another character selected, then you will flirt with that character.
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I've found a few things to be true as I, a girl, play Warcraft.

1. Male characters are very likely to /flirt with me. (Though I never encourage this.)
   
2. Male characters are much more likely to talk to me (I've had many random players ask me for help or just start chatting with me, but this has only occasionally happened to my husband -- he is more often approached for money).
3. Male characters, whether they /flirt with me or just chat, are likely to run off without another word immediately after I tell them I'm married.
4. I feel safer talking to other girl characters, because girls are less intimidating to me (even if the player is male).
   
5. Male characters who have played with me in a group (even with my husband in the same group) are more likely to talk to me again than any of the other players, even if I didn't say much while in the group.

Anecdote: The Flirty Blood Elf

I have a hot little shadow-priest Blood Elf, and I'm very fond of her. Like with most of my (all girl) characters, I'm uncomfortable with flirtatious men who aren't my husband, but I do like creating an aura around this one of femme fatale. Sexy, you know? Well, I was just a level 2 and killing some baddies (and struggling a little, to be honest) and this guy ran up and started /flirting with my character. He blew kisses (/kiss) and commanded me to attack, but he never once said anything or helped me kill my baddies. He just followed me around, emoting at me.

Finally, as I healed myself and once again avoided death, crushing my opponent with my dinky little mace and a few well-placed Pain spells, this guy stood in the middle of my opponent and watched me kill it, then whispered "What's wrong? Do you not like me or something?"

I replied "I'm married."

He replied "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and ran off.

The moral of the story, boys, is that if you're going to try and flirt with a girl, at least help her with the killing. Even if I hadn't been married, I would have been disgusted with how useless he was while I was fighting.

Sexism and W.O.W.

(I read a research paper on this topic. Just google Beth C., "Sexism in World of Warcraft")

There is sexist behavior on W.O.W., and I guess it's mostly by the noob-squashers who are going to be jerks anyway. The problem isn't that as much as the fact that Blizzard (the owners) don't have enough manpower to police every occurrence of sexism. It is, however, our duty as women to report offenders. Just take names, click the red question mark (?) on your taskbar, and report behavior/harassment. I've only done this once, when people were yell-chatting in Stormwind and someone yelled "I'LL RAPE YOUR WIFE!" That was just totally disturbing.

As far as sexism being built into the game itself . . . The men dance in as sexual a way as the women do -- note the pelvic thrusting. Their jokes and flirts are just as sexually-charged, and their bodies are the gaming "epitome" of the sexually mature male, just as the women's are their counterpart. Everyone is overexaggerated with either huge muscles or buxom breasts. And, yes, this probably encourages dumber players to make sexual comments to girl characters, or even to harass us. Is this a problem? Of course. Are the women more sexual than the men? Probably not. They're just seen as more sexual because a) men are vision-based creatures, and games pander to sight, and b) the protection of anonymity encourages jerks to make libidinous comments that they wouldn't make in real life.

Which is why we should report them. Take a stand. Don't allow guys to harass you. The red question-mark is waiting.

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The Comprehensive Flirt List (Wowwiki)