Via Comics Worth Reading, apparently IGN is running a contest to win a trip to San Diego Comic Con to participate in an “Assignment.” Cool, right?
Unless you, like me, are a female over the age of 24. Though we too might like to meet District 9 director (and, um, Lord of the Rings director) Peter Jackson, we are apparently excluded. As Johanna notes, the rules of the contest state:
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
I can almost understand trying to restrict the contest to younger people–almost. But why on earth would this contest be restricted only to “males”?
Like there aren’t enough men in the comics/film/sci-fi fields already, we need to make sure that only boys get to participate in these type of contests? Like comic conventions don’t have enough guys at them, you need to import extras?
June 11th, 2009 at 6:54 am
Holy shit… Can they even do that, legally? I mean, I don’t know what kind of rules govern sweepstakes and stuff, or if this even qualifies as a sweepstakes, but there’s always a lot of legalese/fine print with those.
I just can’t believe any company would be stupid enough to restrict its contest to one gender or the other. What, Peter Jackson (who works with his wife) is only interested in meeting young men? Doubtful. I had no idea they were such asshats over at IGN. They deserve the crap they’re going to catch over this.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:10 am
Sounds like a weird casting call.
I doubt Peter Jackson has anything to do with this, other than having to shake someone’s hand and move on.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:13 am
Though this is probably just a typo, this one’s not:
http://tinyurl.com/2slfn
June 11th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Ah, the part that reads “This sweepstakes…” might’ve clued me in.
That’s what I get for trying to read at work and being discreet. Maybe it is a weird casting call thing, but it’s still stupid to limit it only to males. It would explain the age limits though.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:56 am
The “You are not welcome here” at the bottom of the sign is disturbingly (in)appropriate.
June 11th, 2009 at 8:21 am
Legally yes, if the assignment is specified as a male oriented thing.
June 11th, 2009 at 8:45 am
“You are not welcome here.” Thought it was referring to aliens but… Oh Wait… these are fanboys. Girls are aliens!
I’ll go back to staring into space and twirling my hair now.
June 11th, 2009 at 8:49 am
This is so weird it’s actually funny. Maybe they’re casting for Tintin on the sly.
June 11th, 2009 at 9:08 am
@Radomski Which does not seem evident or credibly arguable.
As I note in my comment on CWR, this is ripe for a class action lawsuit. Dozens have been filed & settled in California alone; I’m amazed that IGN’s lawyers gave this a pass, let alone its PR department.
June 11th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Maybe the assignment involves weird penis stunts. You never know.
June 11th, 2009 at 11:13 am
wow…talk about setting yourself up for a lawsuit….
June 11th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
It would probably help you Sarah to know that Peter Jackson isn’t the director of District 9.
June 11th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Some guy just sued the Oakland As for only giving away hats to the first 7500 women on Mother’s Day…and won. So, you know, anyone who wants to sue over this gender or age issue can feel pretty confident that they’ll get results.
June 11th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
What BS! I looked for a “contact us” link on that webpage so that I could email in and complain, coulnd’t find one. I should try harder.
June 11th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
I suspect this “Special Correspondent” assignment involves some kind of video recording, and since they knew they DEFINITELY couldn’t get away with “No Fat Chicks”, they decided to keep it males only.
At any rate, the fact that the prize includes some kind of journalism exposure (however soft), I would think, women could easily claim sex discrimination. I mean, this is something you could probably put on a CV for an internship or an entry-level media job. To deny such an opportunity to women is clear discrimination.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Ok, a rep from IGN showed up on Feministing (http://tinyurl.com/mxtnh7) and said this:
“The eligibility requirements for this contest were determined by Columbia TriStar Marketing, the marketing team behind the District 9 film, and were passed on as a directive to IGN as Sponsor of this particular Sweepstakes running on the IGN.com site. While IGN supports gamers of all ages, genders, shapes and sizes, these guidelines were created to foster a buzz for the film among a very narrow target group that the film’s promoters felt would be extremely passionate about the film’s subject matter. Thanks for listening, we hope this provides some clarification…
Also know that we’re aware of the frustration these guidelines created and will look to avoid such missteps in the future.”
So at least we know who to blame, but come on! That is still such bullshit. Never mind the fact that the teaser trailer was probably the best thing about seeing Wolverine in theaters, and that girls can get behind SF allegories of apartheid as easily as boys. I’m depressed because now I have reservations about seeing the film at all.
June 11th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
When is it appropriate to have a contest that discriminates based on age/gender/race?
June 12th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
When it’s gender appropriate, such as a girls beauty pagent, age approiate such as tickets to hedonism 2, race appropraite when it’s “Celebrate your Chinese heritage”.
I know it’s PC to get indignant when things like this pop up but let’s be real. it’s a private contest sponsored by a corporation. They can do what they want because it’s not a public venue. A man can’t compete for Miss America, A child can’t enter a contest sponsored by Wicked Pictures, race is different except when it’s a competition where ethnicity is a factor such as applying for as NAACP scholarship to send a black woman to Spelman university.
June 13th, 2009 at 5:47 am
Ahh they’ve backtracked, just checked it out and they’ve now stuck an extra clause for female entries, with extra time to apply. They also seem to have added an extra prize as well, ooh TWO people now, could that be a male and a female winner. I don’t know what’s worse being thick enough to forget a gender group or being thick enough to think no one would notice…
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