How pinball's feminist uprising got its start in the Bay Area
`League of their own' has transformed the world of competitive gaming
When you're talking bumpers, flippers and gobble holes, you might not immediately picture a woman releasing the plunger. At least you didn't a decade ago when an Oakland player decided to make the competitive pinball world a more inclusive space. Today, this “league of their own” has transformed what once was a niche hobby into a wildly popular pursuit that welcomes everyone.
Echa Schneider fell for pinball in 2013, playing at Oakland's Radio Bar every day after work. But while she loved pinball, she didn't love being one of the few — and sometimes only — women at competitive pinball events. She was sidelined, dismissed or told she was “good for a girl.” Even the vintage pinball machines that lined arcades, bars and competitive events portrayed women as cartoonishly sexualized.
So Schneider launched a competitive women's pinball league of her own, The Belles and Chimes.
The first Belles and Chimes event that same year drew about a dozen players — and swift pushback from some male pinballers.
“It was shocking to me how controversial the idea was,” Schneider says.
She was told that women weren't interested in pinball and was accused of deliberately creating divisions in the community. Hateful Facebook messages flowed in from men around the country.
But female players around the Bay Area loved the group's welcoming atmosphere and camaraderie from the get-go.
“It's like `Sex and the City,' but with pinball,” Schneider says.
Soon other women began setting up chapters of their own. A Belles and Chimes group opened in New York City the following spring, followed by half a dozen more in locations from Eugene, Oregon, to Oklahoma City. Even the male naysayers began coming around.
By 2015, IFPA — the International Flipper Pinball Association, which organizes events and tracks rankings — was ranking female players and permitting women-only events. The league instituted codes of conduct that prohibit outbursts, physical aggression and sexual harassment, behavior that had been a major problem. A year later, IFPA hosted its first Women's World Championship.
“That was a huge milestone for women's pinball,” Schneider says.
It grew from there. Where once just four women were ranked among the top 1,000 players, today there are 44. And female leagues have popped up across the country, from Belles and Chimes chapters to Seattle's Babes in Pinland and Portland's Fantastic Ladies in Pinball (FLiP for short). Leagues have popped up in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and Mexico, as well.
“Over the last 10 years, I've seen such a real increase in the number of women playing competitively,” says Zoe Vrabel, a former women's world pinball champion from Portland. “I think I'll be happy when every city that has an open league also has a women's league, and every expo that has a major tournament has a women's tournament.”
These days, the Bay Area Belles and Chimes is helmed by Brandy Thompson, who says there's more to the game's appeal than competition. Pinball teaches patience and provides a sense of community, she says. Plus it's fun.
“It's almost a meditation. It makes you focus in and be gentle,” Thompson says. “We get to come together and be kids for a few hours.”
As the demographics of the game have broadened, so has its geographic footprint here and in Canada, Australia, Europe and Asia. Chicago's Stern Pinball, the world's largest pinball manufacturer, announced plans in February to more than double its research and development, production and office space, reporting that its business has grown 20% to 30% each year.
The owners of San Francisco's Outer Orbit have seen some of that popularity first-hand. The Hawaiian restaurant is the home base for Bay Area Belles and Chimes players, who gather on Mondays to play.
“It's blown up,” says Christian Gainsley, who co-owns the eatery with partner Elisabeth Kohnke, a Belles and Chimes member. Pinball draws a cross-section of people — from dog walkers to lawyers — who might not otherwise cross paths, Kohnke says.
Meanwhile, Schneider would like to see the women's league approach used to make pinball yet more inclusive. “The way it has created a welcome space for women,” she says, “could serve as a model for people who want to invite other, more diverse communities — queer players or people of color — into pinball.”