#Monday Motivation — Brianna Wu on standing up for women in the gaming industry
Despite being subjected to countless death threats, Brianna Wu is still championing and defending women in the gaming industry — and all that alongside her day job as co-founder and head of development at Giant Spacekat. Her courage, resilience and general awesomeness puts her centre stage for this #Monday Motivation piece.
At Inspirefest, Brianna spoke about unconscious bias and this exclusive gaming culture were women developers are often not welcome.
“When women are not represented in game media it tells the players we don’t belong there.
“When women don’t make games it tells the players we don’t belong there.
“When women are primarily represented as sex objects professionally, it tells the players that we don’t belong there.
Brianna Wu calls out PC Gamer at Inspirefest 2015
Brianna Wu nails it on all-male panels at tech events at Inspirefest 2015
Leaving the Inspirefest audience on a high note, Brianna rejoiced: “We are changing the industry because we were willing to speak up, we didn’t stay silent. We’ve introduced consequences into this equation.”
Brianna’s talk, which included her experiences with Gamergate and subsequent Q&A with Re/Code’s Nellie Bowes, was met with a lengthy standing ovation I encourage you to watch the full video here.
Speaking since, on Isometric, a gaming podcast, Brianna explained that Grace Hopper organisers saw her talk at Inspirefest and wanted her to be one of their keynote speakers. In it, she says: “The talk I gave at Inspirefest, in Dublin, is truly one of the best things I have ever done” — and we couldn’t agree more, we loved it.
Inspirefest returns to Dublin from 30 June to 2 July, 2016. Keep an eye on this page for some behind-the-scenes insights into Inspirefest and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram & Google
Visit our website to buy tickets while the Super Early Bird offer lasts.
