There has been a bit of a firestorm over Gen Con's handling of a blog posting complaining about their SPA icon.
The icon has been offensive to attendees over the past couple of years. The icon is being found offensive because of its depiction of women and which has been debated heatedly in several blog postings including the original Critical Hits blog by Matt Dukes.
The issue of the icon being offensive has been raised over the years in other blogs and posts. Here is a comment from 2009.
Just an FYI, one comment I heard a few times this past con, both in the halls and at our women in gaming seminar, was the use of the ball and chain for the spa icon. The main concensus was that just about anything would be less offensive. Any chance of changing it to perhaps a craft icon, people or just a house? (any other suggestions?)
http://community.gencon.com/forums/t/21923.aspx
The entire dialogue is fairly tame without anything coming of the discussion.
This year's discussion is entirely different. The arguments and complaints appear to be the same from previous years, what is different is the way Gen Con chose to handle the response.
Here is Jeannette LeGault's response to the criticism of the SPA icon:
GEN CON’S RESPONSE TO THE OPEN LETTER
Thank you all for your comments. Let’s go over some facts to set the record straight as some incorrect assumptions are being made here. Hopefully these facts will shed some light on this topic.
• Gen Con’s majority shareholders are women.
• Gen Con’s CEO is a woman and the staff is primarily made up of women.
• I picked the icon. I consider myself an independent, liberal minded woman. I picked it not because I thought it represented who or what I was or as a reflection on women, but because I thought it funny and I liked the irony. Yes it might be base, I’ll give you that, but I’m getting off point.
• The SPA icon has been around since the program began four years ago – it is not a new icon.
• Now in its fifth year, the SPA program has grown exponentially and boasts over 90 events in its offerings for 2010. Not all events are knitting or scrapbooking. The program also includes such events as wine and beer tasting, walking tours, chainmaile classes, Pilates, Irish Dancing, yoga, etc.
• SPA events are very popular with all types of people, gamers, gamer widows and widowers. A lot of the events sell-out.
• Events at Gen Con are submitted by fans for fans. While Gen Con hosts and sponsors some events, the majority are run by you. If you don’t like the offerings don’t go to that event, if you want to see something specific, host an event yourself! Simple as that.
I respect that we all have opinions, believe me I know I do … I find it ironic that the author of the open letter has his website sponsored by cougarlife.com. But I digress. I wonder if such passionate responses on such a non-starter issue might be better served on issues that really matter to women such as domestic violence, health, slavery, prostitution, the list goes on sadly.
Vanir you mentioned you were a karate instructor; it would be wonderful to have a beginning/intro to Karate class to include as part of the programming at this year’s show, SPA or otherwise. Since I’m the director of events at Gen Con you’ve come to the right spot, let me know!
Thank you all for your opinions and for calling attention to a wonderful program that Gen Con is proud to support. The process for picking the icon was not an arbitrary one; thought was put into it. It’s hard to pick one “icon” for such a diverse group of people and event types and to find one that wouldn’t be misconstrued as something else. The icon was chosen for its tongue and cheek aspect, nothing more and will remain as is for the time being.
If you want to talk to me directly about SPA or anything Event related please feel free to do so. My email address is jeannette.legault@gencon.com.
Best,
Jeannette LeGault
Director of Event Programming for Gen Con LLC
Unfortunately for Gen Con, Jeannette's response come across as aggressive, non-apologetic, and an attempt to justify.
Gen Con has everything to lose and nothing to gain with this response. She attacks the original poster and claims he is a hypocrite, thus attempting to discredit his statements by discrediting him.
She uses the defense of being a woman and that Gen Con's staff is primarily women to attempt to invalidate the offensive nature of the icon.
She states that the decision for the icon was not an arbitrary one, but then states that it will not change and is not open for discussion.
Credit goes to Jeannette for taking ownership for the decision and providing a means for communicating with her for those who wish. But it is very clear that she isn't changing her decision simply because of someone's opinion that differs from her own.
What is the harm in changing the icon? There is nothing to lose and everything to gain by demonstrating a sensitivity to your customers.
It takes years to build up a strong brand and image. That image has to be protected or a small event or issue, similar to this one, can do tremendous damage in a matter of moments.
Here is hoping that Gen Con quickly puts this issue to rest with a swift change of the icon and a thank you to the community for bringing it to their attention.
If they don't, then it will be a bigger issue next year.
Gen con misses opportunity with image irresponsibility.. He-he-he :)
Posted by: richardbliss.typepad.com | 04/24/2011 at 12:28 PM
FYI - Possibly in response to this, Gencon (this morning) sent an email asking for submissions to a contest to pick a new SPA logo during this years event.
Posted by: CW | 05/07/2010 at 09:22 AM
Meg, I don't know if you've studied practical stats, but if you believe in the objectivity of data then perhaps you haven't. Data is not objective, it is objects. The data-collectors and -interpreters aren't objective either. This is why there is an entire, challenging field of work and research in how to properly conduct research to eliminate researcher's lack of objectivity.
This survey suffers from all three basic errors that skew survey results:
- measurement error, because the question is slanted to favour one side ("offense" is not the point to the anti-icon people)
- coverage error, because as The Game Whisperer points out, those who object to the icon (not "who are offended") are not going to be easily capture by this survey, but the already-established side of "you can't take a joke!" people are easily reached
- non-response error: I find the attempt to put something that I see as a matter of human rights and dignity to a popular vote to be disgusting (not the data collected) means that I refuse to answer the survey
So this survey is probably, due to the lack of effort put into eliminating researcher bias, going to simply confirm the beliefs of the person who created it.
Posted by: d7 | 04/27/2010 at 11:24 AM
d7- The survey is completely bias free- I'm actually curious as to the numbers with no agenda behind it. Curious as to why you automatically assume that collecting real information is a mob of voices? I think the whole point is to see if it is a "mob"- I personally find the whole issue ridiculous, but am curious to see if I'm in the vast minority.
Data is objective and not "disgusting" by itself.
I posted the link in the blogs that were against the link to try and get an accurate representation of people. If I wanted to sway the results, I would've just asked my friends or people who I thought would vote in one way. This survey has nothing to do with me- if anything, posting it in a blog post actively dismissive of the icon is swaying it in a direction.
Posted by: Meg | 04/25/2010 at 07:57 PM
Meg,
d7 brings up a valid point. The number of people who are offended or not offended doesn't remove the offensiveness.
There is data to show that some people have been offended over the years but have not known how to communicate it to someone that can affect change.
Also, the survey will be from a group that are actively interested in Gen Con, who go to the event, and who use Twitter. There is a good chance the many of the non-gaming spouses are NOT in this selection group.
Posted by: The Game Whisperer | 04/22/2010 at 10:36 PM
Meg, do you think treating people disrespectfully and as people not worth listening to is OK if we vote on it? That's disgusting.
You posted on my blog with this same link (which I edited out). Trying to raise a mob of voices to shout down the few voices demanding women be treated fairly? Why do you think this is a good idea? It's not like the devil needs yet another advocate here.
Posted by: d7 | 04/22/2010 at 04:45 PM
Meg,
Thanks for posting the survey link. I had RT the link to my Twitter feed but completely forgot about posting it here.
I'm interested to see what the results will show.
Posted by: The Game Whisperer | 04/22/2010 at 04:39 PM
So let's actually see how many people are offended by the ball and chain icon:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GVZFNH8
Cast your vote and spread the link! Real data is always preferable to guesses and voodoo!
Posted by: Meg | 04/22/2010 at 10:16 AM