Texas Battlefield 3 launch LAN bans women from attending

Re:Texas Battlefield 3 launch LAN bans women from attending by Udo on Monday July 25, 2011 @10:21AM (#2802703)

> women are disallowed from attending in order to protect them from misogynistic insults

Fundamentalist religious societies often use the same line of reasoning: women are not allowed to walk around unveiled or allowed to do pretty much anything because they are powerless and ostensibly have to be protected from society as much as society needs to be protected from the unrest their public presence causes. The deeper "logic" here is that women are held responsible for the abuse they are provoking just by being around, and also that they're somehow not mature enough to handle themselves.

This is exactly the same reasoning as banning, say, black people on the grounds that they might cause unrest among KKK attendees who might be present.

In one line: this is the most insultingly stupid thing ever and it's happening not only in Texas but all over the world. I just wish it didn't happen in so-called free societies at all.

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Re:Texas Battlefield 3 launch LAN bans women from attending by gaius on Monday July 25, 2011 @11:19AM (#2802951)

So long as there are women-only gyms, scholarships, etc this argument falls a little flat. In other words, you can't have your cake and eat it.

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Re:Texas Battlefield 3 launch LAN bans women from attending by cmeranda on Monday July 25, 2011 @11:54AM (#2803097)

You could actually perceive women-only gyms and scholarships as a response to events such as this. How would you react to being told your presence caused bad behavior, and so you'd been disallowed? Why, you'd create a space from whence you couldn't be removed--by making yourself the only entity. However, that's not to say it is an ideal solution. Also, I've never really understood that aphorism, "Can't have your cake and eat it." WTF was the point of giving me the damn cake if I can't eat it?

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Re:Texas Battlefield 3 launch LAN bans women from attending by faboo on Monday July 25, 2011 @01:32PM (#2803620)

The adage actually makes more sense if you reverse it: "You can't eat your cake and have it too."

That is, once you've eat the cake, you can no longer hold it in your hands. It's (generally) used to refer to a situation where one stance or course of action (naturally) precludes another.

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Re:Texas Battlefield 3 launch LAN bans women from attending by div on Monday July 25, 2011 @12:25PM (#2803261)

Once you eat your cake, you no longer have it. Hence, you can't have your cake and eat it.

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Re:Texas Battlefield 3 launch LAN bans women from attending by cmeranda on Monday July 25, 2011 @12:39PM (#2803347)

I suppose that's a temporal difference...you had it, then you ate it. It appears that both things are possible, given sufficient duration and stomach.

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Re:Texas Battlefield 3 launch LAN bans women from attending by ugh on Monday July 25, 2011 @11:42AM (#2803033)

Reasons matter. Women-only gyms don’t style themselves as protecting men from women.

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Re:Texas Battlefield 3 launch LAN bans women from attending by esrauch on Monday July 25, 2011 @02:43PM (#2803963)

The reason for both is "women and men cannot do activity X together because of negative results for the women", they are both styling themselves as protecting women from men.

So I think I agree with you, but the actual wording is "who gets to make the decision matters" rather than "reasons matter".

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Re:Texas Battlefield 3 launch LAN bans women from attending by Udo on Monday July 25, 2011 @12:30PM (#2803284)

I don't disagree entirely, women-only stuff usually pisses me off as well - I didn't mean to defend only one gender, I meant to imply that discrimination sucks either way. Just yesterday, Cory Doctorow deleted my comment on BoingBoing because I implied that this comic (http://boingboing.net/2011/07/24/sexism-flamewars-explained-...) is stupid and inflammatory.

That said, there are milder scenarios for discrimination and there are severe ones. This one is severe in its stupidity.

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Re:Texas Battlefield 3 launch LAN bans women from attending by ajross on Monday July 25, 2011 @11:26AM (#2802969)

There are women who actually want to attend the LAN party (as evidenced by the fact that they used to be allowed, were present, and "caused problems"). Are there really men who really want to get into Curves? If that demographic exists, then sure: open the gyms!

But honestly, it seems like you're just nitpicking here because you don't want chicks at your LAN party. Some of us find that pretty hateful.

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Re:Texas Battlefield 3 launch LAN bans women from attending by gaius on Monday July 25, 2011 @11:32AM (#2802989)

Nah, I'm nitpicking because I truly believe in equality. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.

If a "women's" gym is the closest to his house and has the equipment he uses (e.g. I didn't know treadmills were gender-specific) then why shouldn't a man go? His money's the same as anyone else's.

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Re:Texas Battlefield 3 launch LAN bans women from attending by sp332 on Monday July 25, 2011 @11:46AM (#2803058)

The women's gym only exists because the atmosphere at the "open" gym is misogynistic. It's just a workaround. The real solution is to make the "open" gym friendlier. Then having a men-only or women-only gym would be stranger.

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Re:Texas Battlefield 3 launch LAN bans women from attending by bostonvaulter2 on Monday July 25, 2011 @02:00PM (#2803744)

Just curious, but what do you think about Japan's women-only subway cars?

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