Still Not Wanted: Girl Geeks

1. The keynote speaker at the Flashbelt convention gives a wildly inappropriate presentation that includes, among other things: slides of "a woman's lower half, her legs spread (wearing stilettos, of course) and her shaved vagina visible through some see-thru panties that say 'drink me'," doodles of a penis coming on a face, and "a self-made flash movie of an animated woman's face, positioned as if she's having sex with [the user], who gradually orgasms based on the speed of [the user's] mouse movement on the page." The speaker and the event organizer insist the material was not misogynistic.

2. In association with next month's Comic-Con in San Diego, IGN runs a contest that is open only to men:

The other day, comics blogger Johanna Draper Carlson broke the news that video-game site IGN was running a contest tying in with District 9, the new movie directed by Neil Blomkamp and produced by Peter Jackson. District 9, of course, is the movie about aliens landing on Earth and being forced into horrendous internment camps, thus demonstrating the evil of segregation and treating intelligent beings like second-class citizens. But this message was lost on IGN and the film's publicists, who put together a contest aimed only at males:

This sweepstakes is open only to males who are both legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and Washington D.C. and who are at least between 18-24 years of age as of July 23, 2009.

The winner of the contest would go to Comic-Con where he (and it has to be a "he") would take part in a "journalistic assignment" relating to District 9, interviewing people connected to the movie, under the supervision of someone from IGN.

…When the controversy continued over the weekend, IGN finally backed down and created a second contest, just for women. Men have until June 22 to enter their contest, women have until July 3, since their contest was created later. Still, the fact that IGN's contest was originally for men only sends a terrible message, and I'm left wondering if the contest's female winner will have the same "journalistic assignments" as the male one.

3. Also in anticipation of Comic-Con, the LA Times runs "The Girls' Guide to Comic-Con 2009," which explains Comic-Con isn't "just for nerdy guys anymore," and helpfully offers advice to the ladeez since "we've got a pretty good idea of what eager girls can expect (aside from one heck of a line for the 'New Moon' session)."

Women can look forward to "rushing the stage, offering to do star Jake Gyllenhaal's laundry on those washboard abs that he acquired for [Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time], since he spends much of it fighting, shirtless or both. Jake, we don't want to know how to quit you." (Oh, hello there, gay joke. Nice to see you amongst the misogyny, as per usual.) And naturally, women need nothing more—nothing!—than "the hunkiest Aussie to ever play the undead," unless it's a werewolf to "keep you warm [and] sympathize with your monthly curse." Dire.

The rest is just as grim.

4. I don't even know what to say anymore:

Nintendo DS owners that pre-order the limited edition game Strike Witches will be treated to a pouch shaped like Bloomers (buruma) shorts—the shorts traditionally worn in gym by Japanese schoolgirls.

Bookmark this post for the next time someone asks you where all the girl gamers are.