The fifth annual PAX East is occurring in Boston, April 11th–13th, 2014. Since I live just outside of Boston, this will be my fifth time attending. I really look forward to the games, to the cosplay, and especially the panels—and I'm thrilled to announce that this year, I'm going to be moderating a panel.
I'm a big fan of the work of Anita Sarkeesian and her YouTube channel Feminist Frequency. I think there are a lot of areas of society where gender equality still hasn't been realized. Anita's doing a lot to bring awareness to that topic in the video game industry—and I want to help!
That's why at PAX East, I'm going to be moderating a panel called "Sex, Sexy & Sexism: Fixing Gender Inequality in Gaming". I've assembled an all-star cast for this panel. I'm going to be speaking with Susan Arendt, managing editor of Joystiq.com; Brianna Wu, head of development at Giant Spacekat, an indie development studio right here in Boston; Tifa Robles of the Lady Planeswalker Society; and Duane de Four, activist and advocate with HowManly.com.
We're going to be talking about how women are represented — or potentially misrepresented — in gaming and what the consequences of that are. What impact does it have on us as gamers, and what benefits are we not reaping from more gender equality in gaming—not only within the games, but also in the industry, where most of the game developers are still guys.
The creators of PAX have caused some controversy in the past with statements that they've made that make PAX a potentially unsafe or unwelcoming environment for certain groups. I think that makes PAX the perfect stage on which to have a dialogue on those very issues.
So I hope you'll come by. If you are not already registered for PAX, then this video is sort of a tease, because the event sold out within an hour of tickets going on sale—I'm sorry! But if you are registered for PAX East, please stop by the Dragonfly Theatre on the morning of Sunday, April 13th at 11:30 AM and engage with us in this very important discussion. After the panel is over, hang around and say hello—I'd love to meet fellow YouTube users! So if you're coming to PAX East, I look forward to meeting you there, and I will see you in Boston.
[Special thanks to Anita Sarkeesian, Maddy Myers, Andy Molloy, T.J. Awrey, Monica Castillo, and Rosie Huntress for their help assembling this panel!]
