NOCTILUCA June 2017

OPINIONS Appleton, Wisconsin June 2017 Volume XXII

Issue VIII Page 5

Gaming provides individuals with important skill sets With the approach of summer, students are looking more and more to its warm embrace. As schedules open up, and people relish their newfound inde- pendence, the question arises: “what should I do with all this time?” Amongst the vacations and the summer plans, many will fill their free time with video games. If you’re a gamer, you know how infuriating they can be at times. By Jake Zajkowski Gaming offers an alternative approach to obtaining academic and communication skills. Photo by Jake Zajkowski

to compete on the same field. While some people have their grades, or their courts, others find that gaming is what gets their blood pumping. Incorpo- rating split second decisions and lots of multitasking, the brain is stimulated in many ways that nurture growth and learning. Furthermore, players must learn to adapt to various situations. These changes are constantly being implemented into the ever shifting “meta” and keep play- ers on their toes, thinking of so- lutions around these challenges to succeed. This skill of adapta- tion is also extended into puzzle and strategy games that require the player to formulate a plan to succeed. These games can also create an interest in history and sci- ence. Many games are based around historical events provid- ing historical information in an enjoyable and interactive way. Games like these can foster a love for science in children and are more enjoyable than learn- ing in a classroom setting be- cause they combine creativity, logic and fun to showcase these ideas.

would be uncomfortable going into the same bathroom as a person who is trans, and that’s just blatant transphobia. There is no arguing otherwise. If you are unaccepting of the fact that yes, a trans woman is really a woman, and yes, a trans man is really a man, (and yes, a trans nonbinary person is a nonbinary person) then you are in fact dis- playing transphobia. In the most extreme cases, the government is telling people who they are and what they can and cannot do in direct relation to how they identify. In the least extreme cases, they are asking for you to out yourself to your parents if you are a transgender student in school to get special permission to be allowed to use the restroom you identify with. We don’t have to let this stand. Students, teachers, employ- ees, business-owners-- anyone and everyone can write to their legislators. Call officials, take action, participate in elections, stand up for equality. If there is one thing you will stand for in 2017, please let it be equal- ity. Respect other people and their identities, respect their re- ligions, their sexual and roman- tic orientations, their different physical and mental abilities, re- spect their race, their ethnicity-- respect other human beings, and we are on our way to respecting the world. There is a social component to gaming as well. Some stu- dents, anyone really, may not have that many friends in real life. Weather it’s because of shy- ness, anxiety or some other lim- iting situation, games give these people ways to interact without fear, or even create entire friend groups through people met on- line. Naturally, players want to perform well for their friends, and if they fail to do so, it can cause frustration. With that also comes a sense of disap- pointment, in that they did not play up to what they think their friends should see. This internal criticism is only compounded when an outside source ridicules a player for showing their frus- tration. Such negative forces on students, and players in general, creates the opposite outcome for what games at their core should be: a form of relaxation and fun. These are just a few exam- ples, and it leads me to wonder: with all of the benefits, skills, and growing experiences found in gaming, how can it be a bad thing to find passion in it? Is it really just a game?

birth. These 16 states have sug- gested that, with varying nu- ances, transgender students at schools must use the bathroom of the gender they were as- signed at birth, a single-person bathroom, a unisex bathroom, or a faculty bathroom. Usually, these transgender students do not even have all of these op- tions, because, for some rea- son, a trans girl using the same bathroom as a cis girl is seen as a threat by the proposers of this legislation. This is interesting because there have been absolutely zero documented cases of a trans person harassing anyone in a bathroom, but there have been countless documented cases of trans people being harassed in bathrooms (NPR, Mic, the Ad- vocate). Claims have been made of sexual predators pretending to be transgender as an excuse to harass people in bathrooms, which is quite an offensive comparison. Yes, there have been cases of sexual predators assaulting people in bathrooms, but these individuals were not transgendered individuals-- they were sexual predators. Thinking that the two are even comparable is abhorrent. There have also never been any re- ported cases of a person “using” their identity as a trans person to harass people in their respected bathroom. Even before the bath- While games are made as a leisurely pastime, it has many benefits for students and chil- dren that are easy to overlook through the lens of “it’s just a game.” While an immediate thought can be drawn from puz- zle games and the likes when looking for beneficial outcomes of gaming, even games like Call of Duty can yield positive skills. Multiplayer games teach chil- dren immediately that there is success in teamwork; countless shiny new tablet for one thing: fun! That is why people play games after all. So why does this “age of technology” con- demn players for showing their frustration? It can be argued that one cause is as simply put as: ig- norance.

games are implementing ways to aid the player’s’ interactions with each other. It provides an environment that promotes lead- ership without giving any seri- ous consequence. As students grow intellectually, socially and physically, skills they learned while playing “just a game” could prove pivotal in their scholarly career. Research has even been done by the Ameri- can Psychological Association showing students gaining posi- tive social skills just from play- ing video games. These games also provide a healthy and safe place to har- bor friendly competition. Let’s face it, school can be very com- petitive. And while that may be the case, not everyone wants

Should we, as the United States of America, as the land of the free and home of the brave, allow transgender individuals to use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity? Gender identity, as defined by the Human Rights Campaign, is “one’s innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both or neither – how individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. One’s gen- der identity can be the same or different from their sex assigned at birth.” The reason that allowing cer- tain people to use certain rest- rooms is even a topic of debate is because, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 16 states have proposed legislation to “restrict access to multiuser restrooms, locker rooms, and other sex- segregated facilities on the basis of a definition of sex or gender consistent with sex assigned at birth or ‘biological sex.’” Essentially, 16 states (and this is just in 2017-- other states have considered “BathroomBills,” as they have been dubbed, in past years, 24 in total between 2013 and 2016) have proposed dis- criminatory legislation based on cisgender people’s comfort levels. The term “cisgender” means that you identify as the gender you were assigned at The common response to game rage is “get over it, it’s just a game,” followed with an ensu- ing sense of shame in the player for letting themselves allow an emotional response from some- thing as simple and insignificant as a video game. As a gamer, I find that this view of “it’s just a game” is one that is more dam- aging than beneficial. In this age of technology, children are being exposed to an ever ex- panding world of gadgets and games. This exposure has begun at younger ages, and of course, what comes with technology? Games. Now, naturally, children want to use their newfound iPhone or By Skye Iwanski

Government condoned discrimination, known as the bathroom bills

Sixteen states considered bathroom bills in 2017, and 24 states considered bathroom bills between 2013-2016. Infographic by Kate Bennett

room bills were proposed, there were many documented cases of trans people being harassed about their bathroom prefer- ences. One woman decided that she would feel much safer if she brought her gun into a Tar- get bathroom to protect herself from trans women, in light of the store’s declaration during the spring of last year. Target announced that it would allow transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds with their identity. This woman acted as such, because, as she stated in an interview with Orlando Weekly in late April of last year, her gun “identifies as [her] bodyguard.” This isn’t only an incorrect use of the word “iden- tify;” it’s an attempt to devalue the word itself. Another woman protested Target’s decision by holding a Bible over her head while marching down the aisles, declaring that the store was an

unsafe place and urging moth- ers to “get [their] children out of this store,” according to an article by Syracuse, also in the spring of last year. Because of these women’s and others’ ac- tions, over 700,000 people have pledged to boycott Target stores as of April 28 of last year, ac- cording to USA Today. Some people are more threatened by transgender people than by gun- wielding people in bathrooms, which seems more than a little backwards. What is more dan- gerous?Ahuman being who has to pee or a human being who is prejudiced and holding a gun? Why would our government willingly put legislation in place that makes an entire group of people feel unaccepted and marginalized? This is not the only case in which this has been done, but the BathroomBills are especially prominent in the me- dia as of late. Some people argue that they