Massive crowds flocked to San Diego this week for the 40th Annual Comic-Con Convention. This multi-genre convention caters to fans of comics, video games, sci-fi/fantasy films, anime and more. The convention has grown every year, and for the first time ever in 2008, sold out entirely in advance.

So with over 9,000 vendors vying for attention from over 123,000 attendees (numbers from 2006 statistics) [1],  what can a company do to stand out? Well this year, EA Games has come up with a new way to beat the competition – pimp out their booth babes.

EA’s contest, a promotion for the game Dante’s Inferno, encourages fans to hunt down EA Booth Babes at the convention and “commit acts of lust” with them. One fan “wins” two girls for a night, including dinner, a limo ride, and “booty,” apparently. [2]

For an industry that is trying to include more women [3] and accommodate the thousands of fangirls in attendance at Comic-Con this year, it’s surprising EA didn’t recognize how alienating and misogynistic this crude promotion could be.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: John from the blog “Comics Oughta Be Fun!” describes instances of sexual harassment at Comic-Con last year, and how he saw it go generally unnoticed and unacknowledged by CC staff. (Read John’s post here)

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Sources:

Thanks to StilettoREVOLT Reader Kai Porter for this story!

[1] “Comic-Con International ‘07 to Draw Big Crowd to Convention Center” (Preston Turegano) San Diego Business Journal. July 23, 2007

[2] “EA Puts Sexual Bounty on the Heads of Its Own Booth Babes” (Ben Kuchera) Ars Technica Online News. July 24, 2009

[3] “Game Industry Finally Notices Girls” (Jason Ashley Wright) CommercialExploitation.org. January 13, 2009

The feminist movement must have some serious back-peddling to do in the eyes of the X and Y generations, because somehow, people got the idea that all equal rights activists are fuming with anti-male agendas. It’s just not true.

Some angry extremists have been preaching anti-male sexism for a long time, and they’ve been good at getting media attention. However, most are not that way, especially not the fourth-wave, young, millennial activists. You might as well call every Muslim a terrorist, if you consider every feminist a “feminazi” (Thanks, Rush Limbaugh).

In a recent interview with a Norwegian journalist, pop artist Lady Gaga gave insight into a double standard within the music industry. Her frustration showed a desire for fairness in treatment of both sexes. She recoils from the word “feminist,” though, as if she were being called a racist or homophobe.

Ending ignorance about this is the only way to reach unity and understanding between the sexes. Any feminist who says otherwise is doing an injustice to the movement, and to herself.

Source:

“Why Lady Gaga, Why?” (Vanessa) Feministing.com, August 4, 2009

Former President Jimmy Carter is leaving the Southern Baptist Church after 60 years of service. The reason? Gender equality.

Last week, he released an open article entitled “Losing My Religion For Equality”, where the man whose “faith is a source of strength and comfort … to hundreds of millions of people around the world,” said he’s finally fed up with the church’s derogatory views of women.

It was “an unavoidable decision” when, on the grounds that “Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, [Southern Baptist leaders] ordained that women must be ’subservient’ to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.” He said it was painful to sever ties, but he could no longer participate in such a rigorously sexist organization.

Carter’s criticism extends beyond just the Southern Baptists, saying that many faiths hold prejudicial views of women.

“The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable,” Carter says. “The impact of these religious beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. … [It] excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.” [1]

Aside from being the 39th President of the United States, a former officer in the U.S. Navy, and offering consistent religious service as a deacon and Bible Study leader, Carter is also a member of The Elders. This group, assembled by former South African president Nelson Mandela, is an assembly of global peacemakers, who have recently focused on the relationship between human rights and religion.

Carter was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, during which he maintained that God was a still a major presence in his life: “I worship Jesus Christ, whom we Christians consider to be the Prince of Peace.” [2]

Carter offers no reason to believe he will denounce Christianity altogether, but he believes that many misguided people are making unjustifiable discriminatory choices in the name of their higher power.

It’s an unequivocal display of backbone and humility for such a staunch Christian to stand up and initiate change. Faith and feminism are too often considered to be polar opposite mentalities. And with successful books like Lorraine Murray’s “Confessions of an Ex-Feminist”, it’s obvious that gap is continuing to widen. There is no doubt that change is necessary, and Christian activists like Jimmy Carter are perhaps the best equipped to take on the challenge.

Sources:

[1] “Losing My Religion For Equality” (Jimmy Carter) The Age Online. July 15, 2009

[2] “Jimmy Carter – Nobel Lecture” (The Nobel Foundation) NobelPrize.org. Oslo, December 10, 2002

[3] “Biography of Jimmy Carter” WhiteHouse.gov