Should You Support PAX Even If You Don't Support Its Figureheads? Here's What You Need to Know

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

If you're not familiar with the concept of "Dickwolves", I envy you. I envy you because this is a mess on an epic scale that has been going on for 3 years now, and I think my world would be a little brighter if I had never known about it myself. But here we are. It's far too much for me to sum up, but here's an incredibly thorough timeline of the controversy if you'd like to get up to speed. In a nutshell: A wildly popular webcomic makes a tasteless rape joke; people are upset/affected by it; the artist paints them as censors; he and the others behind the comic begin selling t-shirts featuring said rape joke for supporters to buy and wear... But thankfully the t-shirts are eventually removed and it all fades out of the public consciousness. Admission of guilt, the end, roll credits.

Right?

Well, like an incredibly low-budget horror movie franchise, the Penny Arcade Dickwolves controversy just keeps coming back.

This time it reared its head on the very last day of PAX Prime, a convention in Seattle that started as a get-together for fans of Penny Arcade and over the years turned into one of the top video game cons in the world. On stage, Penny Arcade artist Mike Krahulik admitted that he thought removing the Dickwolves t-shirts was a mistake. That listening to people who were upset and even hurt was a mistake.

And then the crowd applauds enthusiastically. Whistles and howls, even. See for yourself.

Now it was only a matter of months ago that Krahulik was in hot water about some ignorant and transphobic assertions he made on Twitter, which was the straw that broke the camels back for some. The Fullbright Company, creators of recently-released (and pretty damn excellent) game Gone Home, publicly explained why they would not be attending PAX Prime. They weren't alone, but at the same time many others chose to attend anyway, and I bet those are the groups and individuals that feel particularly upset with Krahulik's comments on the last day.

I know that incident made a lot of my friends and acquaintances in attendance feel less-than-great about the time and money they'd just spent at that convention, but this isn't a "Hah hah, told you so!" moment for anyone. Their choice to attend wasn't a bad choice or a wrong choice, because PAX was better for it. This year PAX Prime had many outstanding panels about marginalized groups in gaming, with women's issues particularly well represented. ironically enough Krahulik and partner Jerry Holkins often beat their chests about how inclusive a space PAX is, and the event has honestly done a lot to earn that pride, right down to banning booth babes. PAX as an organization has earned its stripes, even with Krahulik off to one side being as brazen and off-putting and downright gross as humanly possible.

This is the real heart of the dilemma. It's easy to stop reading Penny Arcade itself, but in PAX's case it's not as simple as voting with your wallet. On the one hand, you have the option to attend an event and bring your perspective to the table even if it means tacitly (and financially) supporting one less than enlightened event figurehead. On the other, you have the option not to attend, which removes that element of support... But also removes your perspective entirely.

If everyone who rolls their eyes in disgust at some of the things Mike Krahulik says opted to stay home, PAX wouldn't collapse. It would just look very different. PAX is big, and loaded with firm supporters as well as people who just aren't interested in a boycott for any number of reasons. Maybe they don't think it would make a difference, or maybe they don't feel the issue is quite so black and white. That's an opinion they're entitled to have. PAX is also an incredibly important event for indie game developers; the Indie Megabooth was one of the most trafficked areas of the event, and that exposure is desperately needed for many indie devs. While stepping back from PAX the way The Fullbright Company chose to is laudable, many indie devs just don't have the economic flexibility to do the same.

For many it's a no-win scenario, which puts a lot of gamers and developers in an awkward position... And I don't think there are any easy answers to be had until there are more options available to everyone. Given the crowd's response to Krahulik's statement, the sooner those options are available, the better.

If you'd like to read more (in addition to part 1 and part 2 of the debacle timeline) I highly recommend Mammon Machine's blog post about Penny Arcade's failed satire, developer Christine Love's open letter to Penny Arcade writer Jerry Holkins, this NeoGAF post that's been making the rounds about PAX's status as an "inclusive" event, and Elizabeth Sampat's post which takes a much firmer stance than I have. Personally I don't think I'd attend a PAX event in the future, but I also don't begrudge anyone who would. Let me know in the comments where you fall on the issue.

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Iris Ophelia (@bleatingheart, Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Art]

I want to boycott companies that exhibit at PAX. I want that to be the solution to this but I'm not sure that's possible. It would be like boycotting auto manufacturers who exhibit at the Detroit Auto Show.

[Adeon Writer]

"I want to boycott companies that exhibit at PAX."

A noble stand, but it requires giving up on videogames entirely.

[zzpearlbottom]

Well when a Judge in MY Country decides that there was no rape cause the victim was not a virgin at the time of the rape, what can i say more?

[Arcadia Codesmith]

The comic itself looked to me like No Big Deal. I capitalize "No Big Deal" because when you accumulate 10 or 20 or 50 of them every single day over the course of a lifetime, you end up with a humungous steaming pile of No Big Deals that form one very impressive Big Deal. And next to every pebble that makes up that mountain stands a boy (usually) who's looking at you all hurt and defensive and whining, "What? It's No Big Deal!"

I'm very sorry the boys get their feelings hurt, but the only way to dismantle Big Deal Mountain is the same way it was formed - one pebble at a time.

And if a particular No Big Deal is No Big Deal, then it's No Big Deal to let go of it. You can't simultaneously argue that it's so criticly important that you have to take a heroic defense against censorship to defend it, yet so trivial that your opposition is blowing it entirely out of proportion. That's cognitive dissonance in action.

I have advocated for and will continue to advocate for freedom of expression. But when my expression contributes to somebody else's Big Deal Mountain, I stand up for their right to criticize me. We achieve nothing by howling our POV to the heavens and never listening to any response that is not an echo of agreement.

[Pete]

I was linked to this piece on twitter, and went back and read a few of your other pieces about PA and Dickwolves. Thanks for writing this, and thanks especially for writing this with such a calm tone and expository manner.

I've had an incredibly difficult time understanding so much of the issues surrounding Krahulik because I just don't understand a lot about trans culture.

I thought I did, I consider myself an ally for gay and lesbian friends and have always been the best friend and supporter I could be to them. But there's a lot about trans culture that I didn't and don't understand, and trying to learn more during the PA situation has been wildly difficult.

There's a lot of words and terms being thrown around that I truly didn't understand, and when I tried to ask people on twitter, I got either venom or apathetic mocking. I didn't know what cisgendered even meant until a few weeks ago. I thought it was some kind of hate term, because everytime I saw it, it was usally used in "death to cis white men" tumblr posts.

This has already gone on too long, but thank you for writing about this in a way that doesn't talk down to someone unfamiliar with a lot of the culture involved and just wants understand the foundation of what they did wrong, and how I can be more more accepting in my conversations with transsexual people and in regards to trans culture.

Thanks, and if you have any further recommended reading on the subject, I'd be very interested.

[Information Chef]

Great article! There's a great related new post by Daniel Griffiths on Forbes analyzing this from a brand & business sense for PA & PAX. Good read. http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielnyegriffiths/2013/09/05/pax-problems-censorship-and-sensibility-in-the-penny-arcade/

[Pussycat Catnap]

No Big Deal mountain...

That's a very good analogy Arcadia.

I think what needs to be done is to pressure one of the big development houses into not attending. Do this by reaching out to some of their key developers that seem enlightened, so it becomes 'office talk'. Which means reaching out to them without aggression, but with discussion. If that requires contacting female developers first and only - do so. The 'Good Old Boys' will have a lot more trouble standing up for hate when the pressure starts coming from people they work with and like/respect.

I've had it on my sig on the SL forums for a while, and its my response to those who say we need to 'get over it' with offensive conduct:

Bigotry has been "hiding" behind the "its your problem for getting offended" line for far too long.

- When they say 'it no big deal' or 'its just a joke' they do so because they either lack empathy or worse, possess hate. And that is no joke.

[Ordinal Malaprop]

The message I get from it all is "this is not a conference for you or people like you. This is a conference for people who wear dickwolves t-shirts and complain about liberal feminist censorship on the internet. Look, here they are! And here's one of the founders encouraging them! Look at them cheering!"

Given the number of people now saying they are tired of this shit now and won't bother next time, it looks like it _will_ increasingly be just the dickwolves brigade and people who want to sell games to them. That's what happens when you set out your stall in this way.

[Iris Ophelia]

@Pete First and foremost, thanks for commenting, and thanks for making the effort. If you're specifically interested in gathering more perspective on the trans issues involved in this discussion, I really recommend Samantha Allen's writing, specifically "Trans 101"( http://srlp.org/resources/trans-101/ ), "7 Ways To be a Trans Ally" ( http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/7-ways-to-be-a-trans-ally/ ), and "How to React When You're Called Out for Transphobia" ( http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/how-to-react-when-youre-called-out-for-transphobia/ ). For more general discussion, Gamers Against Bigotry is a great resource, and they even have their own post up about this fresh Dickwolf B.S. ( http://gamersagainstbigotry.org/2013/09/do-not-engage-dickwolves-again/ ). Krahulik also released (a rather underwhelming) apology today, so I suspect lots more opinions and articles will be published in the next few days.

Hope that helps! :)

[Adromaw]

"Thanks for writing this, and thanks especially for writing this with such a calm tone and expository manner." -Pete

Indeed it was very well written/expressed. Even taking a moment to consider potential effects of actions people may consider taking.

Well done Iris.