As I was writing my last VIP, I wrote about how certain gaming companies were accused of having a "frat boy culture" by government agencies that were collecting complaints from people inside these companies.
I almost stopped and went on a mid-article rant about the phrase, but thought it'd be better suited as its own piece, because I think what's being referred to as the "frat boy culture" is actually not what the name would imply. Honestly, I see it as a wildly unfair label for a work environment that actually creates far better work and is a far richer soil for innovation and creativity.
To catch you up, in my last article, I kind of gave you the view from above on how the government infected major video game developers through their HR departments:
Companies like Blizzard began facing lawsuits alleging sexism and discrimination, prompting the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to launch an investigation. Around that same time period, California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit against Activision over the same "frat boy" culture. As a result, gaming corporations began adopting DEI hiring/firing/promoting practices, like other corporations from other industries, to avoid government scrutiny. "Consulting firms" were hired that not only oversaw the diversity and inclusion of employees, but also the products.
Read: Gaming Continues to Be a Fortress Against Censorship and Government Oversight Thanks to Valve
I'm not going to say that all of these accusations were untrue, but I've had too much experience in the corporate space not to be able to put a lot of money on most of them being false. If the #MeToo movement proved anything, it's that a lot of accusations leveled against men are a mixed bag of true and false, and a complaint can be triggered by a completely inoffensive comment taken the wrong way. Oftentimes, something being taken the wrong way is a choice based on an underlying motive, not actual wrongdoing.
It's for this very reason that I've never actually liked HR departments, which have become portals through which outside influence from special interest groups and authoritarian agencies creep into businesses and influence them for the worse, but I digress.
But this gave rise to the idea that within every corporation and business looms the shadow of a "frat boy culture," or the idea that men will abuse their power, especially against women, if not put on a leash of some kind. Indeed, a lot of corporations spend an egregious amount of time and money on "sensitivity training" on various topics, a lot of which is teaching men how to and how not to treat their female coworkers.
Do I blame women for corporate sterility and woke culture? In my honest opinion, that'd be like saying the knife and fork are to blame for a person's obesity. Many women work within male-dominated spaces with little to no issue and love the work they do. They lend creative ideas and put in the work, and they adapt to the humor and relaxed environs that a lot of these male-dominated spaces create. I've seen this with my own eyes on more than one occasion.
I think the sterility that comes with corporate culture is more of a fear of government lawfare and avoiding lawsuits from special interest groups. Many found that the easiest way to get what you want out of a corporation is to start throwing around accusations of sexual misconduct and discrimination, and even if you fight back and prove innocence, the media has already painted you with that brush. The only thing louder than the accusation is the announcement of a "fix," which the media is also happy to put on blast because it can be framed as an admission, even if it isn't one.
Don't you think it's funny that the "fix" for these issues is always a leftist agenda item? DEI? Feminist-based training? Investment in some sort of leftist program?
Don't you think it's weird that when these "fixes" begin, the company ends up producing products that promote or cater to leftist ideals?
The enemy isn't women, it's corporate sterility, which uses the excuse of "boys club" or "frat boy culture" to move in and kill the personality of a business that made it fun and innovative. It's using the excuse that something is predominantly male, thus unrefined, and even unsafe, to get a foot in the door to infect a business with leftism and turn it into a carrier for "the message." That's been the playbook of leftist authoritarianism for ages.
Going back to the video game industry, you'll notice that a lot of the most creative and innovative games don't come from compromised corporations, but indie developers who live in that culture of freedom. They, too, have female employees. Sandfall Interactive's head writer is a woman, and they created something that will go down in history as one of the greats with "Expedition 33."
What we need to protect isn't "frat boy culture" because that's not what the culture really is. What we need to protect is the culture of free expression and personality that allows a business to thrive in its own way. I'm not saying that women should feel unsafe and get over it, but I do think there has been an abuse of HR departments and media outlets by agenda-driven groups to amplify every accusation, exaggerate every situation, and encourage over-sensitivity to mundane situations because it gives them the ability to begin the infection.
Yes, male social circles and female social circles operate differently, but I feel like these differences are exaggerated to a point where nothing but the contrasts are highlighted, and one is labeled good, and the other is labeled bad. The next thing you know, the soul of a company is squashed, and the innovation stops. The only thing that grows is bureaucracy, sterility, bad products, and bad blood.
