One of the panels I went to at PAX East was a train wreck. I’m recapping here via copy/pasting my tweets with a bonus sack of flaming poo, aka I don’t understand words mean things, full on transphobic faux-pology on their FB page at the end.

Because I’m a shady ass, lemme talk about how bad that sexism in gaming panel was yesterday. It was poorly put together, the slides were useless & one female panelist thought throwing out FemFreq was going to impress. Then their content was short, 20 min if that then did Q&A. Which included hawking their teeshirts & crowd funding.

The only female panelist also said women before trans-women per tweets coming out of the audience. The question I did hear was asking for actual take-aways from the panel. Which no one could answer.The one female panelist brought up being harassed while playing LoL.

Again did not answer the question posed by audience member. To recap, a panel on Sexism in Gaming, 2 dudes, 1 woman. All white, all from same “Organisation” I have that in quotes for reasons. They had no web presence anyone could discern, only a FB page selling their (ugly IMHO) teeshirts. No site, nothing tangible.So that makes me wonder how they pitched this panel if that was how they ran it.

The woman was nervous, but come on. When I go to panels, I have an expectation you are bringing things I may not know, or have considered. Not below baseline info. Also, one of the male panelists said men experience sexism in gaming too with no follow up, context. Me: 😒 Why was a panel about sexism in gaming allowed to run with a 2/3 male panel anyway? I hope panels are better vetted than that.That has been the worst panel I’ve seen in a long, long time at any con.

Here is the post they put up on their FB page:

Nerds Want Equality for cis people.jpg

And it turns out the leader of this groups is literally 15. How did a group led by a 15 year old get to do a panel at any convention, that is not youth programming? They just posted a rant on the group about how everyone is so meeeen. Well you shouldn’t have been allowed to panel on a topic you clearly know nothing about.

tantrum nerds want equality

 

Published by cypheroftyr

Tanya DePass is the founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a non-profit organization based in Chicago, which is dedicated to better diversification of all aspects of gaming. I Need Diverse Games serves the community by supporting marginalized developers attend the Game Developer Conference by participating in the GDC Scholarship program, helps assist attendance at other industry events, and is seeking partnership with organizations and initiatives. Tanya is a lifelong Chicagoan who loves everything about gaming, #INeedDiverseGames spawn point, and wants to make it better and more inclusive for everyone. She founded and was the EIC of Fresh Out of Tokens podcast where games culture was discussed and viewed through a lense of feminism, intersectionality and diversity. Now she’s a co-host on Spawn on Me Podcast. Along with all of that, she’s the Programming Coordinator for OrcaCon, she often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at multiple conventions throughout the year. Her writing about games and games critique appears in Uncanny Magazine, Polygon, Wiscon Chronicles, Vice Gaming, Paste Games, Mic, and other publications.

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