i'm just wondering if maybe you might want to take a step back and ask yourself the question of what a convention like this is. there's a bit of a generational disconnect (when i was your age, this stuff was just barely getting off the ground); the comparable attraction when i was young was raves.

some guys were into the music, and i'm sure there's plenty of dudes that are actually into the anime. but, if you asked an average male rave party goer in the early 00s why they were showing up to these parties, the answer would be "it's full of half naked women". then, they'd go home and listen to tool.

it's an old story. consider bars that throw "ladies nights" where drinks are half price. they do that because they have difficulty attracting women, and they know that guys want to go to the bars where the women are.

what i'm getting at is that the industry is likely focused much less around the topic of the convention and much more around the idea of doing things that they think will attract women for guys to ogle.

you're likely actually the product.

it's just another reason to not show up. but maybe it's a bit of a perspective shift to kind of realize that and get your head around it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgKhGIkWfJo

if these conventions are really important to you, you're probably better off starting your own than expecting any kind of serious reaction from the organizers, who are no doubt aware that their entire business model collapses if they try and stand up for you with anything more than empty language.

Luna Lanie
+deathtokoalas While I appreciate your input I don't agree since I've been to other cons and there wasn't this problem. Maybe it's the fact they aggressively marketed this con to the general public but it has changed and I have many people saying the exact same thing about this years environment

deathtokoalas
+Luna Lanie it's just that there's a pattern that comes up if you look at these counter-cultural generational trends - raves, punk rock, hippie festivals. they start off being meeting places for people trying to live alternative lifestyles. but, that turns the attendants into the product, as a market develops. each generation ends up struggling to reassert the foundational principles that were initially present and inevitably fails in the end.

something that worked for a little while when punk rock went hardcore bro in the early 90s was the riot grrrl movement, which attempted to reclaim a female-friendly space through a diy ethic.

as time continues, the continued commercialization is likely to overpower any attempts to reassert foundational principles, and the issue is likely to get worse. if you really want to reclaim the space, you're likely going to have to re-organize alternative structures away from that commercialization in order to do it.

Luna Lanie
+deathtokoalas I totally understand now what you are saying. Time to start planning LunaCon!