Whether you're a woman or not, we all know that the time of the month, yeah that time of the month, is no fun. Cramps, fatigue, blood. It's all so inconvenient, uncomfortable and just gross.
Now that I've alienated any man who was reading this article — and good on those men who continued reading it even after seeing this headline — we can get down to some real talk, ladies. Periods. They're no fun, but we now have something that can help us cope with our dark time of the month.
Two high school students from New York City created a video game called Tampon Run. In the game, you run through the streets throwing tampons at your enemies. If they run past you, they take your tampons, which isn't fun for anyone. But when that happens, you can collect some new tampons to hurl at more villains. It's a win-win.
Tampon Run was the final project of Andrea Gonzales and Sophie Houser, the creators of the game, for the Girls Who Code program this past summer, which helps encourage computing among women. Not only is it awesome to see women code and develop video games, but Tampon Run also has an awesome feminist message behind it.
The introduction to the game discusses how most men and women alike feel that talking about menstruation is a societal taboo, making women feel that a normal biological process, albeit one that is unique to women, is weird or embarrassing. The intro also mentions how bizarre it is that guns and violence have been accepted as just another part of video games, but we can't openly talk about our periods. Are we sure these ladies are only in high school? They seem so wise beyond their years.
As you probably know, women are underrepresented in the tech industry, especially in the gaming world. Although women's presence in gaming is ever-growing, they are still grossly underrepresented among game developers, making up only 22 percent of this group of professionals, according to a report from the International Game Developers Association from June 2014. Still, the fact that this is nearly double the percentage of female game developers from five years ago and the fact that the The Entertainment Software Association claims that women make up 48 percent of gamers in its most recent report makes me optimistic. But more than any statistic, the fact that women like Gonzales and Houser are interested in computing and creating games with such a great message as Tampon Run is a really exciting prospect for the future of gaming.
