对于Gamergate的毒性，目前还没有已知的解毒剂，但有一个很好的恢复方法，那就是将你的注意力引导到一个名为Tampon Run的游戏背后的青少年创造者身上。17岁的索菲·豪斯和16岁的安德里亚·冈萨雷斯是在一个暑期项目中认识的，这个项目是由编写代码的非营利女孩们举办的。在他们的最后一个项目中，纽约市的高中生们**了一个游戏，让玩家向敌人射击卫生棉条（而不是枪），试图消除月经的耻辱感。这款游戏给早熟的创作者（以及禁忌话题）带来了如此多的关注，以至于两人今天在苹果应用商店推出了一款新的改进版**。不相信月经来潮就是禁忌吗？试着带着卫生棉条穿过你的办公室。在你去洗手间的路上，停下来和一个男同事聊天。那就想象一下中学版的那种交流吧。”豪斯在12月举行的TEDx性别与科技讲座中解释说：“大多数**一生中所得到的东西都是令人尴尬、粗鲁和可耻的。”。

他们的平等议程还包括一个关于猫叫声的游戏，这个游戏是在斯坦福大学的一个黑客竞技场上**的

But the duo’s equality agenda doesn’t end there. After launching Tampon Run, Houser and Gonzales were named finalists at a Stanford hackathon for a game called Catcall Run. In that rapidly strung-together version, the player flings "tools of empowerment" like pencils, computers, and notebooks at oncoming catcallers, who then switch over into "graduation garb because they had been educated," Houser told The Verge. In fact, a shared interest in women’s issues is what brought the pair together. When it came time to find a partner for the final project at Girls Who Code, "I was in the social activist corner, and Andy was in the art corner," said Houser. Gonzales pitched a project about "the hyper-sexualization of women in gaming," and Houser "made a beeline" for Gonzales because she loved the idea of using code as a creative tool for activi**.

They eventually settled on Tampon Run, an old school 8-bit online game. In it, the girl character throws tamp*** to destroy her enemies, who will confiscate the tamp*** if she lets them pass by. The notion of weaponized tamp*** is a reference to a 2013 incident where Texas state troopers confiscated tamp*** (as potential projectiles), but not guns, from visitors who were trying to get inside the Texas State Capitol to observe a controversial vote on abortion restricti***.

武器化卫生棉条指的是德克萨斯州发生的一起真实事件

The online version of Tampon Run is simple, literal, and light-hearted, but that's what they were able to do with limited training and time. The iOS version of Tampon Run gets more challenging over time and includes a flying enemy and leaderboard. In the TEDx talk from last month, Houser and Gonzales said their larger goal was to encourage more girls to experiment with coding. "I don’t think a guy would have made Tampon Run, and I don’t think Andy or I would have made it if we were in a co-ed computer camp," Houser told the crowd, lighting up when she described how great it felt to get the character to jump after two frustrating days of coding. Continually overcoming those difficulties is what makes you feel successful, she explained. The iOS version of the game, which launches today, was built with help from Pivotal Labs, which volunteered its expertise pro bono for seven weeks. Pivotal, a development c***ultancy, typically works on projects for clients like Twitter, Groupon, and Best Buy.

Houser readily admits that she and Gonzales have caught some lucky breaks. For example, they were introduced to Pivotal through investor and entrepreneur Nihal Mehta, the hu**and of Girls Who Code founder and CEO Reshma Saujani. Mehta is a member of the non-profit's "Brain Trust." Houser thought they were going to Pivotal for a "scoping session." The girls answered questi*** about what they wanted to build and how long that would take. "We couldn’t be at Pivotal all day. High school," Houser said, with what sounded like a shrug. Pivotal decided to offer up a dedicated team for seven weeks. In a statement, Catherine McGarvey, NYC Office Director at Pivotal Labs said: "Pivotal values diversity and enjoyed supporting an initiative that fosters inclusiveness in the tech industry." All the good-intentioned attention hasn't yet translated into traffic for the game, which has had 232,000 unique visitors since it launched last September. Houser said the numbers were "surprisingly low based on the media coverage." (They've been featured everywhere from Fast Company to Teen Vogue.) Perhaps "people were sharing the news articles and maybe not clicking and playing the game." If the app doesn’t get traction, there's a chance a book will fare better. Houser and Gonzales are talking to agents about writing something "that would encourage girls to code."

“我想像个女人一样站在这里。”

豪斯今年夏天才学会编码，他致力于主修计算机科学。她和冈萨雷斯密切关注科技行业的性别差距，一直在仔细观察被Gamegate骚扰的**。”她说：“这绝对是可怕的，我们非常幸运，卫生棉条的运行只收到了一些来自反**控制的人的仇恨邮件，因为我们有一个关于视频游戏中暴力的小信息。看着游戏机展开“是可怕的看到和听到，”豪斯说但奇怪的是，这让我更想待在这里。我想像个女人一样站在这里。我要坚守阵地。”