An Open Letter to PAX East ’12, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik
Dear People of PAX East (that includes you, Jerry and Mike),
It was a pleasant day in New England and the convention attendees were flocking towards PAX East with excitement. Thousands of dressed up cosplayers put on their “Sunday Best” to get ready for the millions of photos that would inevitably be snapped of them that day. But one cosplayer, Jessica Nigri, experienced some difficulties. She was excited to be portraying Juliet from the upcoming game, Lollipop Chainsaw, because she was a gamer herself. Instead of being met with enthusiasm, apparently PAX received “many” complaints about her “inappropriate” cosplay, despite it being an accurate representation of the character. She wasn’t a booth babe, she was an excited geek who got to cosplay and work a booth she loved! So what gave?!
I understand how difficult it can be to be a constantly-aroused heterosexual man or adolescent, and how it can be even more frustrating to be a mother of a sexually aroused teenage boy attending a gaming convention. I mean, breasts are so obscene! Women’s bodies – gross! Women should cover themselves up more, because at “family events” like Penny Arcade Expo 2012, we don’t like seeing such un-Christian things like, heaven forbid, cleavage and abs! I mean, look, Penny Arcade is an incredibly family-friendly website and organisation, right?
They preach moral values, mantras like “thou shalt not kill”…
I mean, really, PAX has a very strict moral code to shield our children from the horrors of secular society. No nudity of any form on any person, because, won’t somebody please think of the children?! All those naked bodies could confuse and arouse them! But not at PAX ’12, because such exploitative images are banned outright, which makes sense why two of Jessica Nigri’s cosplays as Juliet from Lollipop Chainsaw got her kicked out of the convention until she complied and changed into something less tarty. Because, ew, gross, the human form! It doesn’t matter that her labia wasn’t hanging out of her outfit and her nipples and areola were completely covered – just the hint of nudity is enough to corrupt children in today’s world!
I, for one, am happy that PAX took a moral stand against the trollops of today’s society. I hope your next move is to censor all video games that have nearly naked ladies, obscene violence or sex completely. We can then move forward into an era where our precious babies are protected from such obscenities. I even have a great idea to pitch to Rockstar! Grand Donation Auto: Tiny Toy Town!
All my love,
Alicia “Practically A Priest” Michelle
For J3SS’ coverage of PAX East 2012: Day One | Day Two
Here here! The best part? Women’s bodies are only “inappropriate” because some asshole(s) decided that it was. Fuck that.
But your best point? It’s perfectly family friendly to hawk video games featuring violence, war, sex, naked women, etc. but to have a woman in character at the convention?
FOR SHAME. Preach it, Sister Michelle.
That much aggressive sarcasm confuses the issue lol. I had no idea what you were going on about until you finally mentioned, and only mentioned, the event that inspired it. You should actually state a goal, since for the most part you’re just stirring up anger and apparently hoping for someone else to come along to actually take action. I’m not the one here, but at least it did inspire me to read an article that actually explained the situation.
This seems to be a rare scenario (the 1st?) where the only reason she was asked to leave was because of a high number of complaints. This was not some moral-high-and-mighty, christian fundamentalist, human bodies are filthy situation; at least on the part of PAX (interesting note: Penny Arcade originally had a “no booth babe” policy, which was later rescinded by a fan vote). There was nothing that was “banned outright”. Let’s not be Rob Reiner from South Park’s Butt Out episode lol.
So this likely originated from the parents i.e. the people that complained. Still, PAX did indeed respond to complaints, but I think you’re wasting time trying to pin exaggerated reasons on them. Unfortunately, a situation like this requires sifting through a lot of hypocrisy and weird societal psychological issues.
On that note, one thing in you grazed upon in your article I do find interesting; that western society is fine with promoting violence, but represses sex – something that likely leads to a lot of the sexual violence in our society (and games like Lollipop Chainsaw).
On THAT note, the character from the game being from high school means she’s very probably a minor. Average high school age being between 13-18, you’ve got a 1 in 5 chance of being not (legally) a pervert. (P.S. Someone should probably arrest the school’s uniform designer regardless lol)
On yet another ‘that note’, I really don’t think this character is who you want to be using as a forefront of female sexual empowerment. The game itself is doing more damage to female sexuality than this PAX scenario. IMHO, cosplay appropriateness event policy is on the least of our worries list for women’s rights.
This whole kerfuffle will even likely be good for the game, since the designers were clearly trying for hypersexuality. They were trying to offend, and succeeded; not like it’s a difficult accomplishment or anything. And if they were trying to empower women, they wouldn’t have made her a vapid, popularity-seeking, rainbow-spewing stereotype.
I’ll stand beside you on some of the issues raised here, but I won’t stand behind the way you tried to lead the charge. Cool to see your article up on the site, though. Hopefully it’ll spawn a decent comment section.
What’s next, though? Another policy vote? An adult section of the event? Trying to get popular media to stop sexualizing kids so that human sexuality can actually evolve naturally?
Anyway, if I want to play someone sexy chainsawing zombies (since that fight mechanic clearly hasn’t evolved much), I’ll play the Evil Dead games again. Did I type that out loud?
Mike, you didn’t have to post this here as well as on my Facebook, lol.
Woot woot!
I don’t think anyone here is trying to lead a charge for female rights. I believe the actual issue is “sexual gratuitousness “, which is a term I hate. Why? Because it is subjective, and vague in its description. She didn’t wear the costume to be provocative, Ms. Michelle is sexy just being her (come on, have you seen her?).
Now, if its a question of appropriateness, the argument is whether of not the costume is appropriate given the event and pageantry. She probably wouldn’t wear it to a funeral, as it wouldn’t be proper attire. However, in a scene of ultra-violence and hyper-sexuality, I don’t find any reason why this costume would be under scrutiny.
On the women’s issue, I’m not one to debate whether or not this demeans or empowers women. That’s not what she’s arguing, its not about forwarding gender equality. The issue here is a person’s right to wear whatever the fuck they want to in a venue like this. And if you can let some dude walk around in a Machoke costume, speedo and all, Alicia should be allowed to wear said costume(s).
So, PAX can claim that they got complaints from parents/attendees about the cleavage being over 9000. I wonder how is her costume any different than the gratuitousness displayed by the video games shopped by vendors at the same location. If these patrons do not wish to expose themselves or their children to boobs, then they should either explain to their children the birds and the bees, or simply not show up.
On a personal note, while growing up, my father was the one who actually spent the time to just sit in the same room as me, and watch what i was playing, watch the same movies that I was viewing, and even listen to the same music (Yes, dad endured listening to Mudvayne during my angst years). When saw me playing Mortal Kombat when I was 8, he told me no more, and that was that. I wasn’t a dumb kid, I knew why he stopped me, shit was violent as fuck. “When you’re older and understand better, you can play this game all you want. Right now, just play your Donkey King Kong.” Good parenting.
Its not the event’s responsibility to make sure children and teenagers are being corrupted, that lies solely on upbringing, period. And if you have to rely on event staff to outright ban a woman’s costume because little timmy (or sally) might get “feelings”, then as a parent, you have a lot of work to do on yourselves.But, Penny Arcade eXpo is a business, and they will do what will generate the most business. In the end, it always comes down to money. Dirty, hypocrite-making money.I’m sorry your right to express yourself was taken away, Alicia. I wish people would be more open to other people’s decisions and preferences. Its not cool, but sometimes, we get the shaft. See you at FanExpo.United we geek,-DJai DanielsP.S if you ever feel the need to express yourself, you are more than welcome to come over to my place and wear whatever you want. 🙂
lol, I am not the cosplayer in question. But I would consider myself to be pretty hot, too. 😉
Alicia’s post is discussing what recently happened with Jessica Nigri (a famous cosplayer) @ PAX East (to clarify), but that doesn’t take away from any of the points you make which are spot on. I was actually going to reply to Prof. Grumbles but after reading your post anything I was going to say would be redundant. Thank you for adding to the discussion, you hit the nail on the head! xx
“Many Complaints” was most likely one person that had some one piss in his cheerios that morning and had to take it out on someone.
I chose to do so because there are two different groups of potential responders.
Societal issues notwithstanding since those are things that need societal action; personally, I would recommend having a floor plan that allows people to be aware of, and make the choice, to visit some of the more adult game sections (adult including both sex and violence). Then, the event coordinators could have something to defend themselves from bullshit like lawsuits, etc. i.e. they could say they offered a reasonable amount of information and choice and that the responsibility at that point belongs to the parents/guardians, etc.
So, as someone who attends a number of different conferences in a professional sense, my issue with booth babes isn’t the skin. Skin’s nice; skin’s great. My issue has always been that it’s demeaning to the audience; it says “yeah, i know you’re here at N CON to see a lot of N. Our N is only ok, but we think you’re so weak of mind that breasts will make you come like our N.”
When that N is the games I love, it’s pretty insulting; just because you didn’t pay the booth babe, doesn’t mean that’s not her function.
Shows what I know. Jeebus. Can’t even get people’s names right. Sorry for being confusing. I just saw “hot girl gets kicked out for being hot” and decided to “rabble”.
Gabe had this to say over at PA:
“Last year we were given all kinds of shit for the Duke Nukem booth
babes. How could we allow women to be used as sex symbols just to sell a
game? How could we allow them on the show floor in their school girl
outfits while children and families were walking around? We were
vilified for not kicking them off the show floor on the very first day.
Now, exactly one year later I am also a monster, but now it’s because I
am “punishing women” by asking them to cover up. I’ve been asked why I
find the female body to be “obscene” and told that I must really hate
women.”
I do believe you should get your facts right. The girl who was cosplaying was fan of the game but she was also hired by the game company to hang out at the booth. Meaning she was officially a “booth babe” not just a regular attendee. Meaning she had to adhere to the policies that PAX has about the booth babes, that they must follow a certain dress code, stay in the booth area, and finally be able to inform people about the game. Thus she was asked to follow the rules that had been laid out due to the backlash that PAX got years before with Duke Nukem booth babes.
What’s your point? It’s still sexist to separate “real woman geek” to “fake woman geek” based on some fucked up sexist ideal. What happened with the Duke Nuken booth babes was equally as sexist.
I talked to Gabe about this on Twitter, tbh, and he ended up being a huge dick about it. Penny Arcade is notoriously known for being sexist and total shitheads to people who disagree with them on anything. Mike, specifically. Jerry just kind of hangs out in the background these days.