Geek Girl Con is an oasis of acceptance

[MikeTheBard]

@Bobo

t’s a little sad that it’s still necessary that there is a need for “inclusive” events that are targeted at specific groups.

I totally support the idea of a marginalized group (or truthfully, any group) setting aside an exclusive time and place to create safe space- Women’s professional organizations, ethnic cultural events, GLBT groups, religious retreats- However you define “us”, everybody needs some time to “ourselves” now and again.

I also strongly support inclusive events where people of different backgrounds get together on equal footing to either work out their differences or put them aside entirely for a while to focus on a common interest- In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to set aside a special place for that, but for now it seems like we do still need to.

Anyway, to be fair, the name of the con does kind of imply the first of these, rather than the second. I would have assumed that guys / transfolk wouldn’t have been particularly welcome there- Which I don’t begrudge, mind you. Geek girls are awesome and I’d support their stuff whether I was invited or not- It just sounds more like a “women’s event” than an “inclusive event”.

[devophill]

@boingboing

When we went through the participants list we found that 42% of the participants were women. Which is almost the same proportion as the speakers. Last year 39% of the attendees were female

That sounds suspiciously less than 100% female. In fact, that seems to be LESS THAN 50% FEMALE. It sounds like the men showed up, despite not being “targeted”, so you can stop fretting.

[Bobo]

Perhaps the first is necessary for people to feel comfortable enough to be able to engage in discourse on what seems like a more even footing…