| Kantor said: The women are described as "scantily clad" when they were nothing of the sort, and these "inappropriate activities" appear to be just dancing. So when a woman does anything you deem to be inappropriate, wearing something you deem to be classified as "scantily clad", of her own volition and free will, you personally find that offensive? This is something I really don't understand about modern feminism. How can you simultaneously say that women should be free to do as they wish without anyone telling them what to do, and in the same breath tell them what to do under the rather transparent disguise of saying "oh, they don't really want to do it, society is making them." So instead of being conditioned by society and having some free will in the matter, you should tell them how they are allowed to behave and blame other people when they decide to do something you disapprove of. |
Have you actually read the thread? Or even just my post? I don't find offensive any attire in the right context. I've been in churches and mosques were even shorts are frowned upon, I've been to clubs and concerts were clothing and dancing might be considered extreme. I've even been to nudist beaches a few times, with friends of both sexes.
I don't consider what the dancers did offensive. They are working girls, and I don't know them of their personal situation to give tranchant judgments about how happy they are with this gig.
I consider what the sponsor did offensive and inappropriate.
Once again: at GDC there were panels about the difficulties of women workers in the game industry. Follow the links from the news pieces about the IGDA story and you'll find the cases of stunted careers, demeaning jobs, sexual harassment both explicit and low-intensity that women working in the field have to put up with every day. Because it's a boys club.
Every year many woman attendants to game events anonymously protest against the "tradition" of booth babes, because they feel their career would be jeopardized or at least they might be socially impaired on the workplace if they did so openly. Because it's a boys club.
IGDA's Executive Director Kate Edwards herself about gender issues in the industry on this very Monday. And Brenda Romero spoke at GDC about how the use of purely physical female image at game shows creates a barrier that makes most women uncomfortable, and that makes them feel extraneous. Because it's a boys club.
And then workers of both sexes are invited to meet and socialize at a IGDA party, and the sponsor can't come up with anything better than having an exhibition of (female) club dancers. How skimpy their outfit was is partially a matter of personal taste. What is objectively undeniable is that they were there to provide sexy eye candy for the boys.
Once again: a boys club. The female attendants disturbed by a one-way sexually charged atmosphere can walk in and socialize, because they must, because even a party or social meeting is a part of the job. They just have to put up again and smile.
