About

Welcome to ‘mental shaman, a blog that explores elemental shaman, intersectional social justice, mental health in WoW, and the World of Warcraft in general.

About Pewter

Twitter: @mentalshaman
AIM/MSN/GTALK: mentalshaman/mentalshaman AT googlemail DOT com
Email: Use the contact form or the above address

I’m a Brit. I’m a woman. I have a thing for Dr Who, Lie to Me, Glee and a lot of other random ‘guilty pleasure tv’. I’m not really a gamer outside of WoW, but I enjoy my scifi, my fantasy, my philosophy, and playing Munchkin every now and then. Oh, and I adore Terry Pratchett, and a whole host of other authors. I am a founder member and administrator of the best Shaman Community site, TotemSpot, and I participate in WoW_Ladies, the largest and most active World of Warcraft Community for Women.

You can find me at

Raidwarning as part of their Totem Recall: Shaman Roundtable Event

The Obscurecast as a guest on Episode 10 and Episode 15. I also joined the podcast as a fulltime host on episode 20!

Just recently I was accepted as the Elemental Columnist at WoW Insider.

My post on Sexism in World of Warcraft appeared at the Geek Feminism Blog.

I post as Pewter at TotemSpit, Plusheal, and various other forums.

About Warcraft

I’ve been playing warcraft, off and on, since 2006. In my time I have been an RPer, a casual raider, a min-maxer, a slacker, a guild officer, and many other things besides. I played a Holy Priest in Vanilla, and a Shadow Priest in The Burning Crusade right up until just before Ulduar was released. I returned to the game when Trial of the Crusader was released, and started playing my Shaman as my main at that time, wishing to leave behind the baggage of my old character. Currently I play Caenerys on The Sha’tar EU as part of the guild Immortalis.

I am definitely focused on PvE and raiding, although I enjoy PvP and achievement hunting, those activities really aren’t a priority for me in the same way that chilling out with some friends is. So I only tend to PvP when I go with a group of guildies to battlegrounds. I am trying to be better at PvP, but it simply isn’t a priority.

About Feminism

I am a Geek Feminist. I am new to the feminist field, so I will not be 100% perfect in my attempt to dissect or discuss feminist topics. This blog isn’t about being a girl gamer (and there are plenty of us) but about looking beyond the obvious tropes of individual female empowerment. I also am strongly supportive of intersectional movements, such as LGBTIQ, People of Colour and Players with Disabilities. I  believe that the invisibility of marginalised groups in videogames is something that has to change eventually, and that videogames are worthy of critique as they are a conduit for perceptions, fantasies and conventions that reflect the world we live in as much as Art, Film or Literature.

I do not identify with Second or Third Wave Feminism – indeed I am still learning about the history of the movement. I am a big fat, sex positive, feminist, cisgendered woman in a heterosexual relationship, and I strive to own my able-bodied, straight, white, cisgendered privilege. If you have specific questions about my ideologies (which I am still figuring out), please get in contact with me.

About Intersectionality

I think it is a duty for feminists to learn to check their own privilege when it comes to other marginalised groups, especially those that have even less visibility. It is possible to be an ally without getting things badly wrong. This means that this blog will, from time to time, touch on gaming with disabilities, on fat hate, on matters of gender. I also actively invite guest posters for these topics, because I do not want to make the mistake of speaking for people who are very able to speak for themselves.

I am also attempting to make this blog accessibile for readers with disabilities. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to improve the accessibility of this blog.

About Mental Health

This is the topic that is most difficult for me to write about, as it is a topic close to me personally and to my family. I want to broach this topic without resorting to the tired tropes of ‘gaming addiction’ and treating World of Warcraft as a mental poison, but I also want to work to remove the stigma and ignorance attached to Mental Illness by the gaming community at large.

On being a Frontier Blog

If this was a pure feminist & allied space, I would have a much stricter comment policy and would simply not bother approving comments that fall into the derailing traps that often plague feminist discussions. This is not a feminist 101 blog, but my writing is intended to highlight these topics in a way that is calm and accessible to everyone, and not just couched in feminist rhetoric. That said I highly encourage my readers to check out Derailing for Dummies and the Finally, a Feminist 101 blog to see if their comment falls under the common mistakes that are made. I try not to be snarky, but if you’ve missed every single point made in the blog post, then I may grump at you.

Contributors

From time to time I get guildies or friends to contribute posts on related topics. They are listed here.

Dr. Feelgood – A guildie who contributed some resto-shaman articles for 3.3.5

Zelcandor – GM of Immortalis. He isn’t resident, he is just crashing on the couch.

Catulla – Loremaster, fellow Merlin fan, and a boomkin (don’t hold that against her.)