Brenda Romero Resigns IGDA Post Over GDC Party - UPDATED

[magicmonkeybars]

Game development has NEVER been and won't ever be a "boys club" you do a great disservice by ignoring the women who have been a part of the industry since its inception.
This party wasn't "the industry" and plenty of women present had no problem with the dancers, the lady who objected could have just left, if Brenda Romero wasn't required to be present neither was she.
Female sexuality is nothing to be afraid of, why is a scantily clad woman so offensive ?
Beside that, why should those female dancers not be allowed to be at a party ?
Do you feel women shouldn't be allowed to pursue the career of their choice ?
Should we deny them work because it might offend ONE PERSON ?

I think you misunderstood my use of the words `boys club`. I should have put it in sarcastic airquotes.
Also not sure where you got me saying women shouldnt pursue careers. That came out of nowhere.
An industry party is not the place for that kind of thing, especially in an industry that struggles to break away from the shitty `boys club` mentality.
Either way, you and I are clearly not going to agree here. So I shall agree to disagree.

Dancing is a career, dancers work at parties, an industry PARTY is where dancers work.
If by "that sort of thing" you mean women doing their job then we must disagree.

You don't seem to understand that this isn't a problem faced by the game development industry but a problem faced by all of human civilization.
Game development isn't a walled garden isolated from the rest of the world, this isn't a culture that sprung up in a single place and proceeded to fester and infect the whole sector.

How can I understand when you've failed to explain what you mean when you say "boys club", do you even know what you mean when you say that ?

Are you a misogynist ?
You seem to dislike women a great deal.

 

[Phasmal]

Are you a misogynist ?
You seem to dislike women a great deal.

Yeeeahh... we're done here.
Not that it wasn't funny while it lasted.

This is what women get when they speak up against the industry perpetuating a work environment that is unfriendly to them.
Luckily I have been around for these debates long enough to know when to leave them.

 

[Xanex]

I believe those poor dancers need to sue the feminist organization for defamation of character and loss of future jobs. How dare anyone discriminate against their chosen profession. They should be able to perform their jobs without harrassment from anyone of any gender.

 

[luckshot]

well on the first page someone linked to the night club's site...and there appeared to be dancers in costume.

could it be the organization simply reserved the night club and the night club used their own in house dancers as part of the entertainment the same as they would a DJ?

 

[Oltsu]

Gaming seems to be turning into a grey blob of political correctness.

I'm really starting to think that gaming isn't being taken seriously because of reactions like this. In any other industry, ANY other, everyone would just have enjoyed themselves and went on with their lives. If you do not enjoy the dancers, don't look at them. Dancing in silly outfits wearing too little is what bought showroom floor girls/guys like this do. This event isn't even about a place that was supposed to be professional, it's about a party for gods sake!

Yes it's advertising and entertaining based on sex appeal but there's nothing wrong with that. It's not demeaning or threatening to anyone but the kind of people who actually think like this:

Of course I might be wrong, can someone please explain how exactly this is harming someone aside from offending someone (you literally can't avoid offending someone).

I have this crazy dream that one day instead of trying to stop pandering to group X people would actually just pander to everyone.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

What is it about video game development that makes people loose all sense of professionalism? If you are professional people, representing a mule-cultural/multi-ethic/muli-gender company you don't hire scantily clad female dancers.

As a professional geek, I certainly know my bounds and won't hate on no professional dancer.

If that's reason enough to quit a job, well, I believe it's rather hard to keep a job... any job that comes with any kind of responsibility or proper payment.

I am feeling, speaking and thinking from a position of general wariness of any and all stunts labelled 'feminism', though. I am not in sync with sexists, macho men, dude bros and other bottom feeders. But, to me, they're just the same intolerant, annoying bunch like the majority of not quite enlightened pseudo feminists going berserk on society and themselves in a fit of rage-quitting frenzy of potentially good thoughts and mostly random stupid deeds.

 

[Woodsey]

I wonder what she must have thought of all the female cosplayers at PAX.

And the relevance of such thoughts is... what, exactly? These were hired by the event organisers.

OT: It'd be more useful to stay in the position and help maintain course correction, instead of just up and quitting, would it not?

 

[TheCommanders]

I have little knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the actual party, but no matter the case, resigning doesn't seem like the right move. "I know! I disapprove of something that happened, and am in a position that I might be able to do something about it. So I'm going to give up that position as a shortsighted misguided statement or some shit... and then not be in a position to do anything about it anymore." I really don't understand the mindset behind that choice.

Slightly Off Topic:

I'm really bored of the sexism conversation. That may seem like a kind of shit thing to say, but while I'm not one to ignore problems like racism/sexism/ageism/height-ism... etc, I think that overexposure of a problem can actually cause more harm than no exposure. It's pretty hard to, for example, mellow out about... let's say people with blue eyes... when every other day someone is angry about blued eyed people, questioning something about blue eyed people, questioning if something something else did is offensive to blue eyed people, questioning if the questioning of the something someone else did is in itself offensive to blue eyed people. The end result is that the discussion has created more animosity than the actual issue, and the various camps have been pushed farther apart and fractured rather than coming to a consensus. Not to sound like a hippy, but I find the best way to get along and understand others is to chill and talk WITH them... not about them.

 

[ResonanceSD]

so she resigned for this?

i can understand why, but at the same time it just boggles my mind how you can just throw your job away because of this.

Because no one would rather have fun at a party if they can jump on a bandwagon instead, apparently.

Captcha: Toe the line - pfft.

 

[Atmos Duality]

How about the next time there's an event in the tech industry, all the women wear burqas.

That way there's no risk of offending anyone.

Heh.
And the funny thing? That's just trading exploitation for discrimination.

 

[GAunderrated]

Are you a misogynist ?
You seem to dislike women a great deal.

Yeeeahh... we're done here.
Not that it wasn't funny while it lasted.

This is what women get when they speak up against the industry perpetuating a work environment that is unfriendly to them.
Luckily I have been around for these debates long enough to know when to leave them.

I do take issue with your last sentiment. His response isn't due to you being a woman, honestly his comment could have easily been directed at a man and have the same context. While I don't agree with everything that gentlemen said you do seem to be projecting.

On a separate note no one is denying that the industry doesn't make the female demographic as important as they should be. But one thing I can't help shake my head at is you guys are supposedly fighting for your right to equal treatment of women by getting other women fired or less work available for women in their chosen profession. It just seems you are putting your tastes above other successful women's livelihood and careers.

I am actually sad that we lost a strong women on top that could really help smoothing things along when it comes to equality among the industry and instead became a scapegoat over such a minor offense.

 

[Uhura]

Got to love the hyperbole in some of the responses here. Apparently expecting a modicum of professionalism and inclusiveness from industry related events is totally out of line.

 

[TheCommanders]

-snip-

Your off topic is overall a nice point. I would find it very hard for the people who like to accuse and lambaste people as sexists to actually have the gall to call them sexist if they actually got to sit down and got to know em or got to see a day in their life. Hell if it wasn't for the forced online multiplayer only option the ability to actually sit down and play a game is actually one of the best ways to break the ice.

It's weird, because I always thought games were a great way to bring people of all different backgrounds, genders, races, sexual preferences, whatever, together. I've been playing some Mass Effect multiplayer recently and you meet people from all over, and you get to work together towards a common goal. Still we (gamers) somehow manage to consistently end up at each others throats over issues that we should be united in our efforts to improve. Sigh, real life sucks...

 

[Zeraki]

Well that was an insanely stupid idea(hiring the dancers), considering all the controversy swirling around the industry as of late.

Other than that I have nothing more to say on the subject, lest I be sucked into the abyss and eaten alive by both sides of the argument... Woohooo neutrality!

 

[Quadocky]

Gaming seems to be turning into a grey blob of political correctness.

Hah! I wish.

EDIT: Though usually Political correctness is more like "Turning the game industry into a place where there is less overt awfulness."

 

[Quadocky]

Got to love the hyperbole in some of the responses here. Apparently expecting a modicum of professionalism and inclusiveness from industry related events is totally out of line.

I wish I could somehow elevate this post above others and hold it like an sign of enlightenment among a sea of bizarre nonsense.

But of course such nice response like this will probably be met with goal post moving.

My favorite hyperbole so far is the one relating to Burkas.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

so she resigned for this?

i can understand why, but at the same time it just boggles my mind how you can just throw your job away because of this.

You can understand why? Have you ever been to any party or night club ever? This is nothing. Hell, the girl on the right is dressed pretty modestly compared to most girls' average party attire.

What the hell do gamers have against pretty women? I'm legitimately asking. Booth babes, "fake" gamer girls, and now they're not even allowed at our parties. Nobody is holding a gun to their head and telling them to dress like this. They probably see this gig as getting paid to party. Since they seem to have no unifying factor other than color id even be willing to bet their dress code was "wear white" and THEY were the ones who chose to dress like that.

The rectally inserted sticks of some people geez.

 

[Hjalmar Fryklund]

That is fine if you don't want to cite a bunch of stuff. I'm not interested in denying any actual scientific work that has been done which defends your point of view. It's easy to sit there and say something isn't scientific enough or the study is conducted with large enough test groups, I see that on here all the time. And while it should always be scrutinized, I doubt anyone around here is qualified enough to deny the results of any scientific studies.

Tried to find the post I made in the Anita thread, but apparently it's no longer on my profile. Maybe the thread got deleted.

Completely off-topic, but if the thread you have in mind got locked (as Sarkeesian-related threads are prone to) it would have been automatically deleted some period after it was locked. I think the period length is two weeks or so, but I am not entirely certain.