This will be my first time attending GenCon with my husband and friends, and when I saw this category name in the event filter, I was first intrigued. However, when I looked what events were in there, this category is basically "wife activities". This is really demeaning. 

You can still have activities that are targeted towards women, but to have a category that is labeled this way is insulting towards women. Some events in there sound really fun, but this label makes it sound like women are put here while their husbands do other things.

I feel like the intentions behind having this category were genuine and that they were attempting to provide activities for non-gamers, but calling them spouse activities does not reflect the openness that I would expect from GenCon. These events could be fun for anyone who needs a break from gaming during the con, not just someone's spouse (husband or wife).

"Intro to Sword/Stick/Knife/Blindfolded Fighting" are all spouse activities, as well as various brewery/winery tours. I personally don't find any of the activities to be implicitly female oriented, and most of them look like couples' activities. Hell, my buddy and I are considering the sword fighting class, and I've been mulling over if I want to wake up and do yoga one of the days that's happening. 

In short, I think being offended by the name of the category is a bit of a stretch.

spouses is generic for either men or women who are married. I'd not get so caught up in the name. It fits. the only other optio I see would be "events for those who want to do other than game which is way too long

"Non-Gaming Events"
"Auxiliary Events"
"The Not-Game Events"

There are a million options. If it offends sone people just change it. If you don't care what it's called why protest it being changed?

Regardless of whether it offends any of the other people who posted here, it made me feel bad. It made other people I know feel bad. I feel like it doesn't accurately represent what is in this category. It's not just for spouses. It sends the wrong message.

But again, first world issues are hard to fight against...

G
 

Fun fact: the symbol in the event catalog ten years ago for ‘spa’ events was a ball and chain...

• Arts and Crafts
  
• Exercise
  
• Intro to weapon combat
  
• Walking Tours
  
• Pub Crawl
  
• Dance Lessons
  

SPA (spouse partner activties) is an easy to assign label (for event grouping) and beats "Spouse, partner, significant other, companion, we haven't had the talk so I dont know what to call us, I'm only here because I didn't want to stay home alone, etc events"

Simply put, there is no one term that will encompass all those who travel to gencon with someone to support them but not necessarily participate in gaming events. 

It really is retrograde

So is playing board games at 50... but people still do it. :)

G

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The word "spouse" is not gendered. The events in the SPA category are not gendered. If you are reading them as "insulting towards women", then YOU are the one (a) classifying them as women's activities, and (b) finding something insulting about them. 

The SPA category was indeed meant to give non-gamer spouses (of either gender) something tangentially related to do while their gamer spouse is immersed in a 12-hour D&D marathon or whatever. My cynical interpretation is that Gen Con wanted to capture the additional badge/ticket revenue from people who would not otherwise have attended. Yes, gamers can join in as a break from gaming, but that wasn't the original purpose of the category.

There are a million options. If it offends sone people just change it. If you don't care what it's called why protest it being changed?

This is the type of well-reasoned, rational argument thread that’s generally been missing so far this year...

That being said, it can be called the “Pursuing Other Options” category, although I really can’t imagine how that might be turned into an acronym...

My issue with the name of this category was just understanding what it entailed/implied. I had to spend some extra time figuring out if those were events that you needed a spouse/partner/friend/etc. to attend, or if could I go to them alone. Especially since the 'Isle of Misfit Events' category already seems to capture the miscellaneous events, I'm still not sure what the distinction is between those events and the 'Spouse Activities'.