Misogyny, Texas.
July 23, 2011 2:51 PM   Subscribe

This post was deleted for the following reason: This is sort of classic "look at these assholes" material. -- restless_nomad



 
Freedom of Association. It's in the Constitution. This is a private event, and -- unlike the Boy Scouts -- my taxes do not support it in any way. This does not bother me.
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 2:55 PM on July 23, 2011 [5 favorites]


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

So stop allowing men to come. Problem solved.
posted by grouse at 2:56 PM on July 23, 2011 [27 favorites]


"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," the organizers originally wrote in an event FAQ. "Though we've done our best to avoid these situations in years past, we've certainly had our share of problems. As a result, we no longer allow women to attend this event."

I have a better idea. If men are the problem, ban them.
posted by lydhre at 2:57 PM on July 23, 2011 [3 favorites]


Enjoy the hate, jerks.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 2:58 PM on July 23, 2011


Maybe everyone should be banned.
posted by fuq at 2:58 PM on July 23, 2011 [3 favorites]


Maybe they could just set real code of conduct guidelines and then hire a team of moderators to enforce them.
posted by hermitosis at 3:00 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Freedom of Association. It's in the Constitution. This is a private event, and -- unlike the Boy Scouts -- my taxes do not support it in any way. This does not bother me.

This is an excellent answer to the question "should this be legal"? It is not really an answer to the question "is this an asshole move"?
posted by foursentences at 3:01 PM on July 23, 2011 [33 favorites]


Maybe FPS games bring out the worst in people and we should ban the games.
posted by tomswift at 3:02 PM on July 23, 2011


Is that a question that needs answering?
posted by The Hamms Bear at 3:02 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


(directed to "is this an asshole move")
posted by The Hamms Bear at 3:03 PM on July 23, 2011


Fake... A retraction has been posted on the site saying the original poster of the reddit thread posted false claims...see updates on the link you posted
posted by By The Grace of God at 3:03 PM on July 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


Why do people even attend "LAN events" in the first place? They know there's an internet now, right?
posted by Sys Rq at 3:04 PM on July 23, 2011 [3 favorites]


Quakecon is a private event as well, and it allows women. Every Lan party I've ever been to has allowed women. They're assuming that people IRL are going to act like "the kind of mysogynistic jackwagons seen in the Reddit post" well, they won't, by virtue of the fact that a Lan party has face-to-face interaction.

Also, what problems have they had? Can they point to examples?

This is frustrating, because LAN parties are sort of a dying thing now that internet speeds are how they are, and that Bittorrent allows for the bulk of filesharing. The last thing they need to do now is to fuck up the public perception further.

I know that PAX has enforcers, Quakecon has volunteers, and every small lan party I went to everyone was nice enough to each other that it didn't require anything drastic to happen.
posted by hellojed at 3:06 PM on July 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


That *is* my answer, foursentences -- I am a woman gamer, and these guys are free, just as I am, to play with whom they want. So what?
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 3:09 PM on July 23, 2011 [4 favorites]


Christ, thems some assholes.
posted by IvoShandor at 3:09 PM on July 23, 2011


I am a woman gamer, and these guys are free, just as I am, to play with whom they want.

Unless, of course, you wanted to play with these assholes.
posted by IvoShandor at 3:10 PM on July 23, 2011 [3 favorites]


If this was real, they would definitely be assholes.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 3:12 PM on July 23, 2011



Unless, of course, you wanted to play with these assholes.

Fortunately we live in a world with a nearly endless supply of assholes.
posted by QuarterlyProphet at 3:12 PM on July 23, 2011 [7 favorites]


Fake

I don't see where the claims that this is a male-only event are fake, only that some ancillary commenting was.
posted by grouse at 3:13 PM on July 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


Are there other restrictions ? Yes. This event is a "gentlemen's retreat"; as such we do not allow women to attend. For more information on these types of retreats, go here.

Ok yeah, assholes.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 3:15 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


I wouldn't want to attend any party, LAN or otherwise, that doesn't respect its attendees enough to care enough to staff it well enough to make everyone feel safe, so they just uninvite more than half of the population. Ugh.
posted by inturnaround at 3:18 PM on July 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


That *is* my answer, foursentences -- I am a woman gamer, and these guys are free, just as I am, to play with whom they want. So what?

They are free to play games with whomever they like. You are free to shrug. I am free to conclude that they are assholes. The question of who is free to do what is rarely an interesting one in the US. Although you're free to raise it, I'm free to assert that it's not the point here.
posted by foursentences at 3:22 PM on July 23, 2011 [6 favorites]


My friend started running a poker night with about 10-12 players. After a couple of slow games, he decided that the problem was that the ladies slow down the game by not knowing when it's their turn. He decided on "no girls allowed."

A couple games later, we were short players, so he let is girlfriend play. After she won all our money, we went back to no girls allowed.
posted by esprit de l'escalier at 3:23 PM on July 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


I'm especially loving the commenters: "Oh yeah well you wouldn't care if women excluded men! Reverse sexism! Booyah!"

Actually douchebags, I wouldn't like that either.

I'm going to assume that the real reason they're excluding women is because they're angry at being laughed on Fat, Ugly, or Slutty.
posted by emjaybee at 3:24 PM on July 23, 2011


I honestly don't know how to form a coherent response to the level of thoughtlessness the event organizers have here. I'm as confused by their inconsistent reasoning as I am offended by their blanket exclusion of women. It reads like even they don't know why they're doing this, exactly.

Also, this thread title? Ehn.
posted by byanyothername at 3:27 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


....FLAMES
posted by Space Kitty at 3:29 PM on July 23, 2011 [4 favorites]


That *is* my answer, foursentences --I am a woman gamer, and these guys are free, just as I am, to play with whom they want. So what?

Assuming you really are a woman gamer. Given the nature of online gamers, I'd say there's a better chance that you're a dog.
posted by happyroach at 3:35 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


OK, four -- but neither is calling someone an asshole on the internet exactly a fascinating novelty.

You are, I think, a man -- you may or may not be a gamer -- so you find this offensive either because you prefer gaming events to include women (a) for your own sake, or (b) on behalf of women. If (b), I think most women would agree with me that that don't want to play with men who don't want to play with them -- or really, really *do*, and don't know how to behave. If (a) -- that's an interesting idea. Do male gamers have a better gaming experience when women play too?
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 3:35 PM on July 23, 2011


As another female gamer and someone looking forward to Battlefield 3 (even though I lack the time to put in to be good at FPSes), yeah, this is a dick move. It's legal and that's fine, but the reasoning just reeks of victim blaming and is incredibly patronizing. Instead of some sort of moderation or people to keep things civil (denying that men don't have issues or with or attack each other ever would be downright stupid), they place the nebulous blame on women and exclude us. With reasoning that thin, will they also be excluding other marginalized groups too? Will this be the White, Cis, Able Male retreat?
posted by cmgonzalez at 3:40 PM on July 23, 2011 [2 favorites]


"We actively discourage gamers from being the kind of mysogynistic jackwagons seen in the Reddit post, and such behavior should not be tolerated."

I think they've confused "discourage" with "encourage." Banning jackwagon targets does nothing either active or passive to discourage jackwagonry.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:42 PM on July 23, 2011


Do male gamers have a better gaming experience when women play too?

Do they have to have a better experience when women are playing too? No, that's not a qualification here. Have I personally found that mixed gender groups seem to have a better time overall? Anecdata says yes. It's almost certainly more rounded an experience. That isn't to say that if a guy wants to play with his male friends that isn't okay -- it certainly is, but holding a large-scale event like this and being so blatant about the discrimination and victim blaming attitude is what makes this particular thing a dick move.
posted by cmgonzalez at 3:43 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Will this be the White, Cis, Able Male retreat?

Don't forget Hetero!
posted by desjardins at 3:44 PM on July 23, 2011


Yep, I meant to include Hetero also.
posted by cmgonzalez at 3:46 PM on July 23, 2011


"We actively discourage gamers from being the kind of mysogynistic jackwagons seen in the Reddit post, and such behavior should not be tolerated."

"Nonetheless, we're are organizing a party that will welcome mysoginists, whose money we don't despise" ..I guess.
posted by elpapacito at 3:52 PM on July 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


Look at these assholes! Just look at them!
posted by dialetheia at 3:55 PM on July 23, 2011


jackwagons

If you're gonna go there, go jackanapeses.
posted by mrgrimm at 3:57 PM on July 23, 2011


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