No girls allowed! *narf*

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Okay, so I really didn't know what to title this (I rarely know how to title things) but this just makes me see RED.

I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that girls weren't allowed to like geek culture or cosplay their favorite characters without having to worry about jerks coming up to them and treating them like sex objects. When I say jerks, I do honestly mean both women and men, despite the title.

It pisses me off just as much when a girl makes some disparaging remark about another girl's character choice or costume.

She has the confidence to wear what she wants, so fuck off.

Seriously though, what the hell?

Notice the rape culture idea of "She was asking for it by wearing a short skirt" shows up here.

"She was asking to be sexualized, objectified, and harassed by choosing to cosplay that."

Blarg.

[anakhouri]

Hmm, I have been cosplaying for almost 15 years and have never run into this kind of behavior. Not once. I am either very lucky or very unattractive.

I'm not saying it's not happening, I'm sure it is. And it's disgusting. It falls not only into the rape culture thing, but also into the mindset that girls who cosplay are poseurs who just want male attention (part of the 'fake geek girl' thing- that I honestly think doesn't exist).

I mean, cosplayers DO want attention, that's why we do it. But not that sort- generally we want to talk to people who also like the character and fandom. There's no excuse for that kind of behavior toward any cosplayer, I don't care if she's Ivanova from B5 (dressed head to toe) or Slave Leia.

Like I said, I am very lucky never to have run into this myself.

[Ginger Tea]

I know con's are cosplay heaven for atendee's, but for gaming event's especially those aimed at the press not the gamers the scantly clad booth babes were only ever there to be eye candy.
Although the trade attempted to clean up their act (no idea how far they went) they were still guilty of objectifying women to gather interest in their game and those stood there with swords bigger than they were were paid to stand there and be leered at.
But I don't think any ever actually interviewed a single booth babe, perhaps they were not allowed to answer any questions.

Now the 'booth babes' are atendees not hanging around the Namco stand for 8 hours a day they probably feel that they can foist a camera infront of some random woman in cosplay and sucker punch them with an inapropriate comment, regardless of how it's handled they can use the footage.
Without context a video posted of a woman looking disgusted at the camera man enforces their agenda that these women are too good for gamers, even though the edited out part has them propositioning them.

I took the line 13-31 Lara's to mean age groups not a number in the region of, so yeah asking questions about sex around 13 year olds, classy.

[anakhouri]

Ginger Tea makes a very good point. At Gencon at least, booth babes are still very much in evidence, though they are more likely to be running games while dressed in a scanty manner rather than just standing there.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

Just because they are booth babes (which the Lara Croft cosplayers weren't) doesn't mean they deserve to be treated in such a manner. They're there trying to earn a paycheck (because yes, they are actually hired.)

And now, actually, more and more "booth babes" are actually famous cosplayers - a lot of the hired characters, both male and female, at PAX EAST last year were - that the companies are hiring to cosplay for them, so it is more and more common to see "booth babes" that are either fans of the game, or are gamers themselves.

PAX is not just for the press, though it might have been in the beginning. It's evolved into a game convention for the gamers, so when you go there it's very likely you'll see cosplay from games (just like you would at anime conventions.) I went to PAX EAST last year and saw plenty of cosplay from League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Mass Effect... etc.

I honestly don't care if a booth babe doesn't give a flying flarg about any games and is just there for a paycheck. Doesn't give anyone the right to treat her poorly.

I hold the same opinion of sex workers. She's just trying to earn some money, using whatever she has available. You can like it or not but don't begin to think they deserve or are asking to be harassed (fetishes not withstanding.)

Back to the article;

The women and girls cosplaying Lara Croft here were not booth babes. They were just women who attended PAX while cosplaying Croft, and were informed there was going to be a cosplay competition at XX time on Saturday. They all love the character, the game, and are gamers.

[Ginger Tea]

But alot of it stems from the press only days that DID have booth babes, one 8/16bit game in the UK even had a page 3 model on the cover, she also did a spread for Mayfair round that time too (thankfully not in character), this was the late 80's early 90's, booth babes may not have been around at early CES shows and the likes, but they became more prominant during the later years of the Mega Drive/SNES era and into the PSOne generation where game shows were still a closed doors press event.

Yes booth babes (more so in the days of yore) may not be gamers or even know who they are dressed up as and have to keep it clean as what they say can be seen as representing the company.
interactions with booth babes is limited, perhaps by unwritten laws akin to those within strip clubs, hell some may even be working at one after the event, but that doesn't matter. You are right, in both trades they are employed to look nice and in most cases not be touched or talked to and I am not judging their choice of employment/attire.

But the women in the OP were not booth babes, they were joe public, the booth babe rules do not apply and they feel they do not need to be held accountable as getting kicked off the Namco stand for propositioning a booth babe damages your and your news outlets reputation with Namco and the industry in general, same as hitting on a bar maid may get you thrown out of a pub.
But saying the exact same thing to a woman walking around is seen as fair game.

Analogy:
The industry gave them a closed shop men only bar staffed only by women, but they were not allowed to talk to the women except to order drinks. Now women are alowed into the bar and they can talk to them, in their minds, however they like.

[Greenday]

I need to start going to these events so I can make judgements myself...

Really though, I don't see why anyone cares. It makes you wonder when they complain about hot chicks showing up in scantily clad outfits though.

[anakhouri]

I honestly don't care if a booth babe doesn't give a flying flarg about any games and is just there for a paycheck. Doesn't give anyone the right to treat her poorly.

I didn't say it did, and I don't think Ginger Tea was saying that either. Using women to attract attention to products is an old, deeply rooted tradition at gaming cons. We're just saying that this is part of the problem too.

[XCashier]

Okay, so I really didn't know what to title this (I rarely know how to title things) but this just makes me see RED.

I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that girls weren't allowed to like geek culture or cosplay their favorite characters without having to worry about jerks coming up to them and treating them like sex objects. When I say jerks, I do honestly mean both women and men, despite the title.

You might also want to check out this article by a fashion designer who dressed as Black Cat for Comic Con and got sexually harrassed by an "interviewer".

To the guys who do this: you're setting male/female relations back several millenia by your attitudes. You visibly drool over the female cosplayers, talk to their breasts, make sleazy remarks, catcall, howl, treat them like they're not fellow human beings but living sex toys...and you still can't figure out why women don't like you. Seriously?!

More to the point; you don't like being treated like an inferior species because of your interests. So why do you treat others the way you don't like to be treated?

[Duelist925]

I like looking at hot cosplayers. I'm guilty of staring at certain bits.

But...fuck, man, this is...how the fuck do people do shit like this and not immediately punch themselves for being a dick? If I even thought about doing this my "being a dick" meter would burst, and I'd be obliged to kick myself in the crotch. >.<

You don't ask questions like that of people ya don't know!

[Ginger Tea]

Semi related, within sports especially Formular One there have for the longest time been women, slim atractive women at that, hanging around the grid before the race starts holding team/driver's country flags car number lolly pops etc, as none are driving in the race they have little, scratch that, NO relevance in the sport, but they are as ubiquitouse as hats at Ascot.

Granted the link is to do with cycling and not motorsport, but even F1 drivers don't get trophy women draped on them for finishing first, yet foisting two women on the winner for 30 seconds (or whatever) gives people the impression that a quick ass pinch is acceptable.

[siead_lietrathua]

related video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0ggK9-TBVY

I agree so much with this girl's comments. it's irritating to be thought to be involved in geek culture just for attention. and it's not just girls dressed in revealing costumes. i've gotten grief from dudes while in (passing) male cosplay, once they knew i was a girl.

and yes, oh god, the quizzing. why is there an incessant need to out-nerd eachother! argh.

[Gravekeeper]

i've gotten grief from dudes while in (passing) male cosplay, once they knew i was a girl.

Seriously? Who doesn't like Rule 63? Philistines, thats who.

[protege]

and yes, oh god, the quizzing. why is there an incessant need to out-nerd eachother! argh.

Because many of these dorks have nothing going on in their lives...and have a huge need to either prove that they know boring stats...or they enjoy making others feel stupid. It's not just cosplay or similar groups either.

For example, my railroad historical society has had a couple of people leave...because of some of the know-it-alls. These guys have way too much free time on their hands. They think nothing of memorizing all of the differences between the various classes of Penn Central boxcars. There are literally *hundreds* of classes--some bought new by PC, others inherited from predecessors. I know a few--like the X29s used in maintenance-of-way service...simply because they showed up constantly on the line near Great-Grandma's place...or the X79 cars, because I built a couple for my model railroad. Otherwise, I have better things do with my time than pore over rosters and photos :P

There are a couple of guys who will drone on for *hours* about locomotive numbering schemes, models, or anything else. Some of them are simply trying to be helpful. Others...are being assholes. They're showing off.

[siead_lietrathua]

Because many of these dorks have nothing going on in their lives...(and rest of post)

i honestly have taken to just frigging with those types of guys now. if i get asked random quiz question, i'll reply something asinine like "i dunno, it's blue and super shiny so i like it!" in the sarcastic toddler voice.