Please Change "Spouse Activities" Category Name
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Posted by david campbell

What if changing the name offends me? Just want to be sure we are covering all the bases...:)

Posted by eingellis lehane

lehane wrote:
eingellis wrote:
lehane wrote:
buffythecatslayer wrote:
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?

Yes, because every time someone (in this case, a single person) gets offended by something, we should drop everything and cater to that person's whims.
What about the people that will be offended by changing the name?

If you find someone that's offended by "Non-Gaming Events" let me know. 
I wasn’t referring to people offended by a potiential proposed new name, I was referring to people offended by changing the name. 

Oh I see, sorry I misunderstood you. 

Is that something that could offend someone? It's difficult to see but I'm open to hearing the reasoning. 

Posted by lehane

Me, personally don’t find the current name offensive in the slightest. I don’t see any reason to change it and find the concept that it needs to be changed to be offensive as there is nothing wrong with it. 

It it is a What is good for the goose is good for the gander deal. If you don’t take the opinions and slings of those who are fine with it into consideration why should the opinions and feelings of those who don’t like not be considered. 

Posted by stahlnee

None of the categories carry a meaning on whom can sign-up for events segregated under that category.

One must look at each individual event to find any restrictions on whom can sign up for it.

This always leads to questions what does this category title mean.

The category title may be how Gencon segregates events in their database. No more no less. Who knows? For us attendees it means ziilch.

Posted by eingellis lehane

lehane wrote:
Me, personally don’t find the current name offensive in the slightest. I don’t see any reason to change it and find the concept that it needs to be changed to be offensive as there is nothing wrong with it. 
It it is a What is good for the goose is good for the gander deal. If you don’t take the opinions and slings of those who are fine with it into consideration why should the opinions and feelings of those who don’t like not be considered. 

I understand your point. Could you elaborate on why you find the concept it needs to be changed offensive? I'm genuinely interested. Obviously if the idea it should be changed offends you it warrants discussion.

Posted by boc_mage

I don't 'get' the impetuous behind the name and trying to keep track of who(s) not(currently) offended and really don't care to be honest.

What i care about: It's the 1st event category i search and go over end to end every year. I go looking for cool to me and new to me things to sign up for which is really why i attend Gen Con.  It's also my only real escape from (true)Dungeon during con.

 

Posted by stahlnee boc_mage

boc_mage wrote:
I don't 'get' the impetuous behind the name and trying to keep track of who(s) not(currently) offended and really don't care to be honest.
What i care about: It's the 1st event category i search and go over end to end every year. I go looking for cool to me and new to me things to sign up for which is really why i attend Gen Con.  It's also my only real escape from (true)Dungeon during con.
 
There are other similar activities under other categories. For instance, there are a variety of brewery, winery and distillery tours on the event schedule. However, only part of them are under this category while others are under a separate category.

Posted by indynat raidkillsbugsded

raidkillsbugsded wrote:
Fun fact: the symbol in the event catalog ten years ago for ‘spa’ events was a ball and chain...
Gee, that's not confusing at all.  LOL

Posted by lehane eingellis

eingellis wrote:
lehane wrote:
Me, personally don’t find the current name offensive in the slightest. I don’t see any reason to change it and find the concept that it needs to be changed to be offensive as there is nothing wrong with it. 
It it is a What is good for the goose is good for the gander deal. If you don’t take the opinions and slings of those who are fine with it into consideration why should the opinions and feelings of those who don’t like not be considered. 

I understand your point. Could you elaborate on why you find the concept it needs to be changed offensive? I'm genuinely interested. Obviously if the idea it should be changed offends you it warrants discussion.
Because if a hypothetical female gamer has a spouse (regardless of if it is a male or female spouse) that is not interested in gaming then they can look under spouse events for things that will appeal to them. It has be stated in other posts on this thread that there is a wide range of things to appeal to various people under them. The same would hold true for a hypothetical male gamer with a male or female spouse that isn’t into gaming. 

These events are convientiently searchable under the spouse activities grouping. We have a catch all grouping already with Isle of misfit events, and everything under Spouse activities easily fits into that section. But IMHO it is sperated for ease of searching. 

There is nothing offensive about calling these spouse’s activities. The name suits their purpose well and is easily identifiable. 

If if anything is offensive on this it is the concept that spouse’s activities are something for the ladies to do well their husbands game. We had left that concept behind us as the grouping shows plenty of events that appeal to both genders. But that falls on these individuals to change their way of thinking, if they are so willing. 

Posted by ritamotto

I agree that the name should be changed, or the category gotten rid of all together. Looking at the events listed under the "Workshop" category, you have everything from Burlesque dancing to chain mail necklace making, while Ballroom dancing and chain mail bracelets are categorized as "Spouse Activities". There's also brewery tours and peddle pub tour under ZED- Isle of Misfit Events. 

It seems to me that there's no real reason to have the Spouse Activities category when you have better categories that aren't sexist and regressive. 

#JustSayin'

Posted by stahlnee

You have a number of what I think of as non-gaming events ranging from DrunkAss to Craft Making to Dancing to tours outside of the convention, etc. Why not have a category for these events.

Besides what if someone has more than one spouse.

Posted by divachelle stahlnee

Besides what if someone has more than one spouse.
Or, *gasp* what if someone doesn’t even HAVE a spouse?

I think the name of this category should be called Random Activities, Non-Gaming, or RANG. 

Posted by boc_mage divachelle

divachelle wrote:
Besides what if someone has more than one spouse.
Or, *gasp* what if someone doesn’t even HAVE a spouse?I think the name of this category should be called Random Activities, Non-Gaming, or RANG. 

Or the obvious and very much RNG, Random Non Gaming which actually sounds pretty cool as a category name for this.

Posted by raidkillsbugsded

Other fun fact:  This category actually DOES have another name:  Supplemental Activities (SPA).  No, seriously, look far enough down the rabbit hole that is this very website, and you will find what I just did...

Posted by bugwar ritamotto

ritamotto wrote:It seems to me that there's no real reason to have the Spouse Activities category when you have better categories that aren't sexist and regressive. 

You mean 'label', not 'category' right?
Cuz near as I can tell, all you want is to put a different label on the exisiting category, right?

The best reason I can think of for keeping the existing label is that it follows in the great traditions of progressive thought like the Congressional Black Caucus, or California's Legislative Women’s Caucus, or even the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

All of those labels are for groups that are very EXCLUSIVE in who can join, one is very SEXIST in their acceptance of new members, one is RACIST in their membership, and the last one has a very REGRESSIVE title.

So even progressive thinkers celebrate traditional labels ... when it suits their purpose anyway.

Posted by selene314 ritamotto

ritamotto wrote:
I agree that the name should be changed, or the category gotten rid of all together. Looking at the events listed under the "Workshop" category, you have everything from Burlesque dancing to chain mail necklace making, while Ballroom dancing and chain mail bracelets are categorized as "Spouse Activities". There's also brewery tours and peddle pub tour under ZED- Isle of Misfit Events. 

It seems to me that there's no real reason to have the Spouse Activities category when you have better categories that aren't sexist and regressive. 

#JustSayin'


Could you explain what is "sexist and regressive" about the phrase "Spouse Activities"? I am truly mystified by this. Is any mention of marriage too heteronormative, even when the words are chosen to not assume the gender of the gamer or their spouse?

Or is the title fine, but you object to the contents of the category?

The SPA category isn't going away as long as gamers bring non-gamer companions along on their vacations. Its participants will be majority female as long as gamers are majority male (I believe Gen Con's gender ratio is around 2:1). Its events will be whatever appeals to those participants, which yes, means some events will be activities more popular with women.

That said, I would support adding a "Crafts" category to remove some of the ambiguity. It could be helpful to separate crafts from writing workshops, and to refocus SPA on things like pub tours that take up a significant length of time offsite.

Keep in mind that each individual event-runner chooses what event to run and what category to submit it under. That's why you can get similar events under all of SPA, Workshop, and ZED. More categories makes it clearer to the host what category their event belongs to, but also makes it harder for attendees to pick through the long list of events. Conversely, a large SPA category may feel like it's excluding gamers, but makes it easier for those spouses to find non-gaming things to do.

Posted by raidkillsbugsded raidkillsbugsded

raidkillsbugsded wrote:
Other fun fact:  This category actually DOES have another name:  Supplemental Activities (SPA).  No, seriously, look far enough down the rabbit hole that is this very website, and you will find what I just did...

I’m not kidding...

Do a Google search for Gen Con Spa (don’t use quotation marks )and see what comes up.  There is a link to this website (The Gen Con website) to Spa where it’s called Supplemental Activities rather than Spouse Activities (with zero use of the word spouse on the page); funny thing is, it’s not linked to any drop down menu here on the site itself.  Weird...(maybe a little too weird...)

Posted by xcoconutmonkey06x

This post = *Face Palm*

Posted by raidkillsbugsded xcoconutmonkey06x

xcoconutmonkey06x wrote:
This post = *Face Palm*

This is the kind of thread that hasn’t been around much lately this year. It’s a reminder of the timeworn days of such arguments as baby strollers in the dealer hall, Gen Con’s best potential location, and how Gen Con has turned away from its ‘roots’ as a gaming convention...

Posted by stahlnee raidkillsbugsded

raidkillsbugsded wrote:
raidkillsbugsded wrote:
Other fun fact:  This category actually DOES have another name:  Supplemental Activities (SPA).  No, seriously, look far enough down the rabbit hole that is this very website, and you will find what I just did...

I’m not kidding...Do a Google search for Gen Con Spa (don’t use quotation marks )and see what comes up.  There is a link to this website (The Gen Con website) to Spa where it’s called Supplemental Activities rather than Spouse Activities (with zero use of the word spouse on the page); funny thing is, it’s not linked to any drop down menu here on the site itself.  Weird...(maybe a little too weird...)
I saw it a few years ago and was disappointed it wasn't spa. I could go for a foot massage on Saturday afternoon at GenCon.

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