Women Most Welcomed
One thing that seems to surprise people the most is when I tell them I absolutely love gaming. From RPGs (role-playing games) like The Legend of Zelda or the Final Fantasy series, to MMORPGs (massive multiplayer online roleplaying games – it’s a mouthful, I know) like League of Legends, to fun party-friendly games like Mario Kart and Raving Rabbids, I’ve always been game to geek out. And thank goodness for my trusty Nintendo Switch and Animal Crossing during lockdown in 2020. It was my form of escapism, and gave me the much desired mental break I needed when it came to grappling with the new norm then.
Esports as an industry is estimated to rake in billions of dollars in revenue every year, and while a large portion of games are currently played by men, there has been an emergence of professional female gamers and fans in recent years.
The fact that Louis Vuitton collaborated with League of Legends on a special in-game capsule collection in 2019, merging the worlds of high fashion and fantasy effectively, signalled to me that the once male-dominated arena is already becoming increasingly democratised.
It’s not just the world of online gaming that has seen an uptick in female participation. Physically demanding activities like boxing, biking and wrestling are no longer seen as masculine sports. Just ask the go-getters we featured from pages 108 to 111.
Plus, it’s always heartening to hear of women breaking the glass ceiling in traditionally maledominated spaces like the world of tech and IT. Did you know that everyday apps like Grab, Shopback and Policypal all have female co-founders or CEOs?
Gina Wong, managing director of Kyndryl, outlines her inspirational journey from falling into IT “by chance”, to heading the world’s largest IT infrastructure provider that counts Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft and Google as its clients (page 100).
Ever ahead of the curve, cover girl Fiona Xie (page 38), too, shares about immersing herself in the world of start-ups, cryptocurrency and NFTs (nonfungible tokens). Singaporeans might know her for her roles in My Genie (2001) or Crazy Rich Asians (2018), but these days, the 40-year-old star comes across as an astute businesswoman first.
And that’s something to applaud, don’t you think? After all, the theme for our April issue (The Great Glow Up) is all about celebrating becoming more confident, self-assured and attractive on our own terms, even if it means excelling at something not traditionally seen as “feminine”.
You glow, girl.