"I know how to end misogyny. Ban women!" Fucking genius (I can't make a title facepalm)

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

"I'd like to point out that no one, more than likely, would raise a fuss if it was an all girls/women event. There's a lot of hypocrisy and double standard in the world of sexism."

Couldn't have said better, first poster in original article. It's like the all girl trains in Japan... nobody complains about them, and the few that do are labeled molesters and rapists.
Anyway, I don't support any "only x gender/race/sexuality" gatherings and services, but I find that people only ever get mad when its "Only men" or "Only white people" while they turn a blind eye to "Only women" and "Only x race."
Edit: Plus... honestly, female gamers here, how many girls do you think would actually pay ~$50 to play BF3? They wouldn't get as much money if it was females only so, in the interest of making more money they probably did the right banning if any banning was to be made.

I'm now up to fourteen people who missed the point entirely. That's almost enough for a Fox News.

Alright, point out every flaw in my assessment of "Ok... I think I see where this came from."

The flaw is that you're missing the point. People aren't complaining about it being men only. There are events like that all the time and no one bats an eyelid. People are complaining about the faulty reasoning. Our men insult women, the best way to stop this is to get rid of the women. They're punishing the victims for the actions of misogynistic morons. That is unfair and daft, thus we complain.

Also, you may not have noticed, but in my edit I pointed out what I figure the real reason was that they chose to ban WOMEN [victims] and not men [offenders]: PROFIT and them knowing they will have decent turnout if its women that aren't allowed in.

Plus... honestly, female gamers here, how many girls do you think would actually pay ~$50 to play BF3? They wouldn't get as much money if it was females only so, in the interest of making more money they probably did the right banning if any banning was to be made.

Didn't add that in right away because I was washing my keys and it didn't occur to me right at that second. So yes, there IS logic in there, and its profit.

 

[manythings]

"I'd like to point out that no one, more than likely, would raise a fuss if it was an all girls/women event. There's a lot of hypocrisy and double standard in the world of sexism."

Couldn't have said better, first poster in original article. It's like the all girl trains in Japan... nobody complains about them, and the few that do are labeled molesters and rapists.
Anyway, I don't support any "only x gender/race/sexuality" gatherings and services, but I find that people only ever get mad when its "Only men" or "Only white people" while they turn a blind eye to "Only women" and "Only x race."
Edit: Plus... honestly, female gamers here, how many girls do you think would actually pay ~$50 to play BF3? They wouldn't get as much money if it was females only so, in the interest of making more money they probably did the right banning if any banning was to be made.

I'm now up to fourteen people who missed the point entirely. That's almost enough for a Fox News.

Alright, point out every flaw in my assessment of "Ok... I think I see where this came from."

People do complain about the women only train cars, it was one batshit insane harpy declaring these men rapists.

I'm more than willing to bet you can't find an "only x race" gathering anywhere and I've never even heard, second or third hand, of a women only anything. Chances are it's a "Men don't want to go" gathering that is happening.

Now tell me the answer to dealing with a racism problem is to ban other races. That the only way to deal with homophobia is to ban gays. The reasoning of a flat out ban was "Because women are killjoys" and you're going to tell me that's a real justification? Any way you slice it you're rewarding the worst traits of the community and creating a barrier against others who would be paying customers too. You're hurting yourself twice in the long run to help yourself once in the short-term.

 

[Notashrimp09]

I don't respect their right to do this, others may. At best, I tolerate their right to do this.

I think you need to respect their right to do this if you are an American. If you aren't, then you are totally okay in just "tolerating" it, since your country most likely has a very different cultural outlook on this sort of thing. But as an American, I find it important that other Americans respects anyone's right to say or do what they want (within reason), as all these freedoms are truly only tested when we allow and respect someone saying or doing something that we find reprehensible.

Hey, if people didn't respect people's right to freedom of speech, then that big SCOTUS case for video games would have ended very differently. It was only through respect of other people's freedoms and rights that the case turned out in our favor. But this is getting off-topic...

[snip]

Ultimately, we need respect what this group of people are doing, and how they choose to justify it. You might disagree with it, but you shouldn't let that disagreement make you think that they shouldn't be allowed to have a exclusive private event, nor that they shouldn't be allowed to justify that exclusion however they want.

Actually..........

According to their first statement, "Nothing ruins a good LAN party like uncomfortable guests or lots of tension, both of which can result from mixing immature, misogynistic male-gamers with female counterparts. Though we?ve done our best to avoid these situations in years past, we?ve certainly had our share of problems?" if they had stopped at a concept, they might actually be okay. However, when this controversial series of sentences is followed by, "As a result, we no longer allow women to attend this event,? you do run into a few legal troubles.

A private group can indeed organize and express their views under a spectrum of First Amendment specifics (free speech, freedom to associate, etc). But, because of our country's history of being run by the rich, white, privileged, and (presumably straight) male, later amendments and clauses--such as the Equal Protection Clause--do prohibit outright discrimination based on race, gender, origin, orientation, etc. This is exactly what these Texas LAN-boys have done: provided a case of blanket discrimination against an entire group (i.e. women). The Equal Protection Clause was created for the purposes of creating equal opportunities.

Equal opportunity being a descriptive term for an approach intended to provide a certain social environment in which people are not excluded from the activities of society.

Remember a little while back when games got officially recognized by the Supreme Court as a form of "art?" Essentially, these boys are restricting a social environment created for the intent of paying homage to a particular piece of art, and opening their event to an otherwise general public.

While they might have had a precedent by discouraging women from attending, or outright banning individual women--given reasonable and legal justification, of course--the fact that they went so far as to "no longer allow women," is where they come into some real trouble. They produced a general statement referring to an entire group of people, thereby issuing a statement of intent to discriminate. They later support this statement with their own attempt to clarify themselves, "This event is a 'gentlemen's retreat'; as such we do not allow women to attend," with a vague, hastily defined combination of words garnering no apparent meaning outside the limited information they provide in their own words.

As their defense, they gave a series of vague generalities that--if one is familiar with the daily dealings of FPSes on Xbox LIVE--can apply to just about every form of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or otherwise that does not apply to straight, white men of moderate income. "Nothing ruins a good LAN party like uncomfortable guests or lots of tension," is a vague statement. It offers no details that would otherwise be upheld by a high school English teacher, let alone in a Court of Law. It also wouldn't be remiss for them to link to specific "Reddit jackmongers" and provide support for their otherwise empty finger-pointing.

Rather than uphold their country's own values, like real Americans, these Texas boys instead opted for the option of handling "mixing of immature, misogynistic male-gamers" by banning women from attendance, which technically falls under "separate but equal," something the Supreme Court determined unconstitutional, for those who know a little something about American history.

As for their final re-restatement, "We actively discourage gamers from being the kind of mysogynistic jackwagons seen in the Reddit post, and such behavior should not be tolerated. Frankly, we don't like that kind of player either. So far as this event goes, it is an special event designed specifically for male gamers. Further, it is meant as a getaway designed to help said male contingent become better men both for themselves and for those who love us." The difference this time around is in this phrase: "designed specifically for male gamers." This could be interpreted as a discouragement (or for the brave, a challenge) to "female gamers," and would therefore fall under appropriate protection. It would give the boys freedom to huddle and shout all kinds of misogynistic slurs just like any other day online. They might have been able to save themselves on this if it weren't for the fact posting anything on the internet works in a similar manner to "anything you say can and will be used against you."

However, as we have already seen this is a re-restatement designed to clarify and defend a targeted intent to discriminate against an entire group of people. Unless someone is willing to provide a counter, I can't say any jury could be convinced anything they provided is "reasonable justification" Therefore, it actually isn't as legal as one might initially believe.

Now...if we are done with empty flag-waving, caps-lock-abused insinuations about how "Un-American" we all are, perhaps we should consider taking a good, long, hard look at a certain document some other "Americans" have previously written, studied, and interpreted (hint: where the real words about "free speech," and many other things come from). Just a thought.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

"I'd like to point out that no one, more than likely, would raise a fuss if it was an all girls/women event. There's a lot of hypocrisy and double standard in the world of sexism."

Couldn't have said better, first poster in original article. It's like the all girl trains in Japan... nobody complains about them, and the few that do are labeled molesters and rapists.
Anyway, I don't support any "only x gender/race/sexuality" gatherings and services, but I find that people only ever get mad when its "Only men" or "Only white people" while they turn a blind eye to "Only women" and "Only x race."
Edit: Plus... honestly, female gamers here, how many girls do you think would actually pay ~$50 to play BF3? They wouldn't get as much money if it was females only so, in the interest of making more money they probably did the right banning if any banning was to be made.

I'm now up to fourteen people who missed the point entirely. That's almost enough for a Fox News.

Alright, point out every flaw in my assessment of "Ok... I think I see where this came from."

People do complain about the women only train cars, it was one batshit insane harpy declaring these men rapists.

I'm more than willing to bet you can't find an "only x race" gathering anywhere and I've never even heard, second or third hand, of a women only anything. Chances are it's a "Men don't want to go" gathering that is happening.

Now tell me the answer to dealing with a racism problem is to ban other races. That the only way to deal with homophobia is to ban gays. The reasoning of a flat out ban was "Because women are killjoys" and you're going to tell me that's a real justification? Any way you slice it you're rewarding the worst traits of the community and creating a barrier against others who would be paying customers too. You're hurting yourself twice in the long run to help yourself once in the short-term.

Thing is: THEY DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT MALE TURNOUT. Female turnout would be the problem. There probably wouldn't be as many women going even if it was desegregated. And who the hell said I was saying I AGREED with them? My thing with Japan is why stop with making some female only carriages and not segregating the whole thing and get rid of the problem of both harassment and false accusations. Who said I said to ban other races? Did you even read my observation that they were seeking profit, not banning who the real problem? After all, WHO ARE THE PEOPLE MORE LIKELY TO ATTEND? Yes, men. The way I see it, "women are killjoys" was just the first justification that wasn't "making sure we get good turnout and profit from this" that they thought of.

 

[Bobic]

"I'd like to point out that no one, more than likely, would raise a fuss if it was an all girls/women event. There's a lot of hypocrisy and double standard in the world of sexism."

Couldn't have said better, first poster in original article. It's like the all girl trains in Japan... nobody complains about them, and the few that do are labeled molesters and rapists.
Anyway, I don't support any "only x gender/race/sexuality" gatherings and services, but I find that people only ever get mad when its "Only men" or "Only white people" while they turn a blind eye to "Only women" and "Only x race."
Edit: Plus... honestly, female gamers here, how many girls do you think would actually pay ~$50 to play BF3? They wouldn't get as much money if it was females only so, in the interest of making more money they probably did the right banning if any banning was to be made.

I'm now up to fourteen people who missed the point entirely. That's almost enough for a Fox News.

Alright, point out every flaw in my assessment of "Ok... I think I see where this came from."

The flaw is that you're missing the point. People aren't complaining about it being men only. There are events like that all the time and no one bats an eyelid. People are complaining about the faulty reasoning. Our men insult women, the best way to stop this is to get rid of the women. They're punishing the victims for the actions of misogynistic morons. That is unfair and daft, thus we complain.

Also, you may not have noticed, but in my edit I pointed out what I figure the real reason was that they chose to ban WOMEN [victims] and not men [offenders]: PROFIT and them knowing they will have decent turnout if its women that aren't allowed in.

Plus... honestly, female gamers here, how many girls do you think would actually pay ~$50 to play BF3? They wouldn't get as much money if it was females only so, in the interest of making more money they probably did the right banning if any banning was to be made.

Didn't add that in right away because I was washing my keys and it didn't occur to me right at that second. So yes, there IS logic in there, and its profit.

Yes, I understand why they did it, business is about money and all that. Doesn't make the reasoning any less scummy.

Also, you could sell tickets to both sexes and then kick out the misogynistic wankers when they do assholey stuff. Which helps improve the community, rather than degrade it.

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

"I'd like to point out that no one, more than likely, would raise a fuss if it was an all girls/women event. There's a lot of hypocrisy and double standard in the world of sexism."

Couldn't have said better, first poster in original article. It's like the all girl trains in Japan... nobody complains about them, and the few that do are labeled molesters and rapists.
Anyway, I don't support any "only x gender/race/sexuality" gatherings and services, but I find that people only ever get mad when its "Only men" or "Only white people" while they turn a blind eye to "Only women" and "Only x race."
Edit: Plus... honestly, female gamers here, how many girls do you think would actually pay ~$50 to play BF3? They wouldn't get as much money if it was females only so, in the interest of making more money they probably did the right banning if any banning was to be made.

I'm now up to fourteen people who missed the point entirely. That's almost enough for a Fox News.

Alright, point out every flaw in my assessment of "Ok... I think I see where this came from."

The flaw is that you're missing the point. People aren't complaining about it being men only. There are events like that all the time and no one bats an eyelid. People are complaining about the faulty reasoning. Our men insult women, the best way to stop this is to get rid of the women. They're punishing the victims for the actions of misogynistic morons. That is unfair and daft, thus we complain.

Also, you may not have noticed, but in my edit I pointed out what I figure the real reason was that they chose to ban WOMEN [victims] and not men [offenders]: PROFIT and them knowing they will have decent turnout if its women that aren't allowed in.

Plus... honestly, female gamers here, how many girls do you think would actually pay ~$50 to play BF3? They wouldn't get as much money if it was females only so, in the interest of making more money they probably did the right banning if any banning was to be made.

Didn't add that in right away because I was washing my keys and it didn't occur to me right at that second. So yes, there IS logic in there, and its profit.

Yes, I understand why they did it, business is about money and all that. Doesn't make the reasoning any less scummy.

Also, you could sell tickets to both sexes and then kick out the misogynistic wankers when they do assholey stuff. Which helps improve the community, rather than degrade it.

Yeah, I know. Anyway, as I said a million times, I see why if they were banning anybody, it would be the women for monetary reasons. I never said that the entire act of banning was reasonable [it wasn't], just that I understood why they chose to ban who they chose to ban. But, I figure I'm still missing the point or something by not foaming at the mouth in condemnation...

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

I'm not surprised they opted for the easy solution, they have business needs that they probably put before casting themselves as moral-guardians, setting an example for the rest of the world to follow.

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Big ol' snip

That was masterpiece!
[end of quote]

Well this was completely stupid!
'Buuuuuuuh, how do we stop people discriminating against teh girls?'
'Duuuuuuuuuuuuh, pretend tey don't exist?'
'Huuuuuuur good idea!'

Words cannot describe how unbeleivabley stupid this is.

From an observers point of view, Texas doesn't seem that great...
I should just point out that it's from what i've seen in the media, with the death penalties and the sexism and the racism...

But it may be different!

 

[lacktheknack]

I don't have issues with the follow-up statement. They shouldn't be forced to include women if the organizers just don't want it.

That said, wonderful tact, original Reddit poster. Just. Absolutely. Brilliant. You should join politics.

 

[Sylveria]

Wow. They'd better hope the local feminists don't hear about this. This is like like hitting someone in the face, then forcibly removing the victim to let the abuser be more comfortable. Oh well, let's see how well this goes down for them.

The "local feminists" already have. The Border House has already covered the story. [http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=5811]

I have no words for how offensive is. If they want to make it a "boy's night out" that's fair enough - I have no problem with single-sex events - but to claim you're protecting people by banning women? You can't protect people by discriminating against them.

If they had any sense they could have completely avoided this by making half the event men only and half the event women only rather than saying. Or, ya know, ban the people causing the problems, not their targets.

Also, I dunno, a lot of men hanging out together in a dark, poorly lit space. No girls allowed. Sounds kinda gay.

 

[mandaforever]

Ya, what are we women doing in the gaming community, distracting all the menfolk with our boobies? Women don't deserve to have fun and play games because, after all, we are only fodder for harassment and the butt of sexist jokes. Who cares if we enjoy the same entertainment as men? The gaming world is a manly men's world and women are but mindless distractions. Take them away so that men can have all their needs and wants met at their every whim!

 

[shrekfan246]

My god, why in heaven and earth would you not want women and their luscious boobs there?! Idiocy I say!

I agree. To me it seems that the type of people who would actually attend something like this would enjoy being around females who share a love for their hobby. I mean, what, do they all still have the mentality that girls have cooties? Another step backwards for getting rid of the "Manchildren" stereotype, I suppose.

 

[mandaforever]

My god, why in heaven and earth would you not want women and their luscious boobs there?! Idiocy I say!

I agree. To me it seems that the type of people who would actually attend something like this would enjoy being around females who share a love for their hobby. I mean, what, do they all still have the mentality that girls have cooties? Another step backwards for getting rid of the "Manchildren" stereotype, I suppose.

this pretty much proves that "manchildren" is not just a stereotype, there really are a ton of manchildren in the gaming community. Uggg. Barf.

 

[Gindil]

Well, that's friggin fantastic for gender roles.

Guys "Ug, me fight all day in gentlemanly way"

Girls - "Oh, we're too pretty and dainty to fight in an online shooter"

It's obvious that women can be just as deadly in what they do, though [http://outpostnine.com/editorials/teacher65.html]

We both looked at the nearby girls court. Standing in the center of the court was the smallest ichinensei girl, and let me emphasize this in case you missed it, THE SMALLEST ICHINENSEI GIRL, standing meekly with her hands above her head. "Oops! Sorry!" She calls out. The ball is returned and the game continues. Another small ichinensei girl gets the ball. But it's no longer the *stepstepstep* *pitiful toss* "Oooh! Sorry!" *stepstepstep* in once was. No. She ran forward and chucked that Dodgeball like Moses hurling the Ten Commandments off the mountain. Complete with a Zena Warrior Princess war-cry that could bring any man to his knees. Suddenly, the cutesy ichinensei girls dodgeball game had become *run* "AI-YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYA!" *dodgeball chuck with all the Unleashed Furies of Hell behind it*.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I do see their logic and it does make some kind of sense, slightly twisted and easily taken out of context as it may be. But surely someone on their staff should have noticed that that statement was going to go down like a Lead Zepplin.

To be honest i 100% expected this thread to be a joke thread...

 

[Condiments]

Wow, we're really going out of our way to make sure that the videogame industry remains an immature boys only club. Rather than deal with a problem...lets just not allow all those "pesky females" to join in our fun.

I just LOVE all the males taking legitimate offense to the "DOUBLE STANDARD" while ignoring all context. I'm sure all the these ladies can go to their "Girls only events" for Battlefield 3 for some big competition.

Lets be serious here for a moment, these guys are within their rights to do this. However, you cannot fault people for criticizing the REASONING that goes behind this decision. Our industry(core) is without a doubt male dominated to the point of absurdity in this day and age. We can't keep back diversity because of the difficulties that may be a result of it.

 

[Sylveria]

My god, why in heaven and earth would you not want women and their luscious boobs there?! Idiocy I say!

I agree. To me it seems that the type of people who would actually attend something like this would enjoy being around females who share a love for their hobby. I mean, what, do they all still have the mentality that girls have cooties? Another step backwards for getting rid of the "Manchildren" stereotype, I suppose.

this pretty much proves that "manchildren" is not just a stereotype, there really are a ton of manchildren in the gaming community. Uggg. Barf.

Eh, this isn't really an issue of manchildren. Most manchildren would love for there to be boobs there, they'd be too scared to talk to the boobs, but they'd be on their best behavior on the slim hope that said boobs may talk to them.

This is just a bunch of good ol Texas, redneck wife-beaters-to-be blowing off steam before their clan rally. Without us bitches around to ruin the party, they'll just go on with the racial and homosexual slurs. Then they'll get drunk and engage in some good, old fashion, all male, homoerotic butt-slapping and tea-bagging. Ah it's like the 50s all over again.

I really question why they didn't ban homosexual males, blacks, hispanics, asians, arabs, europeans, or any other ethnicity or group that could potentially be offended by the language that is commonplace at these type of events. Just cut the pretense.

 

[DracoSuave]

Us pesky women really are the problem, being all harassable and such.

How dare you bring reasonability and sensibility to muh chat! How can I call you a fag when I gets my ass shot up if you got them girlier parts!

MY ATTITUDE IS ALL YOUR FAULT!

[/toungeincheek]

 

[Dragunai]

Rule 1 of understanding Guys:

We give each other grief, its what we do. At a gaming event its even worse because its now competitive and thus egos and pride are being waved around like red flags in a bull fighting pit. Meaning we are going to be even more offensive and condescending toward other each other because its what we do.

"Man you suck," "You're going to get owned in the FACE!" are such terms you may hear or variants of. Their purpose? To get inside the other guys head and soften him up.

Females don't seem to understand this. They think when we pass out the aggro its fo' real real not just fo' play play and they get bent out of shape about it.

This happened to me at a gaming event I went to, where I had called a dude out and literally said "Yo man you wanna go!" arms out, chest puffed in a mock taunt, he did the same thing back and we laughed about it later. I had met the guy like 20 minutes before that.

I said around a female "Yeah girl gamers only exist to push up my score," and she got whiney, threw a beer on me and told on me. True story.

Case en point.

Rule 2:

We don't care if you're offended at the games event. Outside,Yes we will probably be like, "Sorry I didn't mean to offend," but inside the gaming hall your feelings are our welcome Mat.
Guys understand this and if you get genuinely offended and act sullen you're just asking for even more abuse.

Females seem to think that if you get aggro and are offended by it then someone HAS TO PAY!
No. No. No. Noooooo. You're at a competitive event surrounded by male Egos. You got more chance of curing cancer with peanut butter than getting a heart felt apology.

Rule 3:

If you force us to accept something we will hate it with more passion than you ever thought conceivable. Yes, we like women. Women are great. Girlfriends are that special flower we turn to and allow ourselves to be vulnerable around, exposing our feelings to. As friends they are a nice alternative to the above aggro factories that are male friends because a girl who is a friend will give you aggro from time to time but you can pick up in her voice tone that its not meant to offend and is just a bit of fun and we love them for it.

They can be just as much fun if not more than our male friends just for hanging out or whatever (and this statement is made based on the people not the gender. For example I have male friends I don't wanna see that often and female friends whose company I enjoy a lot).

In what is effectively a war ground we want to be allowed to give each other shit. If we can't because the refs say "Got females around watch what you say," then it becomes a challenge to offend them and get away with it or simply to alienate them because their presence restricts our fun.

A good reference point for this statement is basically. Look at internet humor. Its mostly if not entirely offensive toward some facet of humanity and mostly spurred on by us males.

***

I think a valid point to make as well is, if you look at popular media. Such as TV shows and movies. Women are always emphasized to find gaming to be equivocal to catching the plague.
"You're a gamer? Ewww geek!" etc.

This is also found to be true in the real world. How many of us guy gamers have been back handed by our less game orientated friends for mentioning games around females?
THAT is the emphasize of modern society. You DON'T talk about games around females because its a turn off and they think you're a geek / nerd / loser for doing it.

May not be the fact, but its what we have been forced to perceive.

Perhaps you agree with me, perhaps you don't
I intend no offense with the above. It is simply the given stereotypes that the world is living with. Your personal view will most likely conflict with this, but flip on any movie or TV show where these subject matters come up and you will 90% of the time see girls finding the guy gamers to be losers or out of sync with the "real world" (Big Bang Theory is a good example of this)

And its these stereotypes that have lead to this thread.

 

[mandaforever]

My god, why in heaven and earth would you not want women and their luscious boobs there?! Idiocy I say!

I agree. To me it seems that the type of people who would actually attend something like this would enjoy being around females who share a love for their hobby. I mean, what, do they all still have the mentality that girls have cooties? Another step backwards for getting rid of the "Manchildren" stereotype, I suppose.

this pretty much proves that "manchildren" is not just a stereotype, there really are a ton of manchildren in the gaming community. Uggg. Barf.

Eh, this isn't really an issue of manchildren. Most manchildren would love for there to be boobs there, they'd be too scared to talk to the boobs, but they'd be on their best behavior on the slim hope that said boobs may talk to them.

This is just a bunch of good ol Texas, redneck wife-beaters-to-be blowing off steam before their clan rally. Without us bitches around to ruin the party, they'll just go on with the racial and homosexual slurs. Then they'll get drunk and engage in some good, old fashion, all male, homoerotic butt-slapping and tea-bagging. Ah it's like the 50s all over again.

You are right, which makes this even more sad. Us womenz are just so distracting and intimidating with the boobies and stuff. It's much safer for guys to just hang out with each other and slap each other's asses.