I saw a recent poll done by the usual suspects showing that like 48% of the ticket buyers for comic cons are women and of course the article said that women have every right to nerd out without being bullied. I long ago stopped believing women were getting bullied in nerd spaces or at least the actual bullying is few and far between if that, but these polls are tiresome and they just make me wonder if the people conducting them have ever been to a convention. You still have guys at the booths buying stuff you expect guys to by. Like the small ones I work (selling comic books and vintage toys) as expected, the overwhelming majority of people who buy comic books are guys.
This is like the poll showing that women make up half of comic book fans when they asked if they were interested in comics. During the height of the MCU I saw plenty of people say they were interested in comics but never bought any because most normies like the idea of comic books, star wars, etc. but don't actually do a deeper dive.
Of course we all know the "50% of gamers are women" stat that is constantly thrown around despite the fact when you break it down it makes perfect sense because it shows what games women play versus what games men play.
If only these hobbies could've remained niche, or anyone who does adapt a book series has to face a panel of nerds. I'd love to interrogate the moronic showrunner of Wheel of Time.
It will never cease to amaze me how these companies see a hobby where men are 90% of the audience but apparently you can't make any decisions based on that data, but let one woman buy call of duty and you have to make sure the whole gaming industry caters to her. Shouldn't these massive waves of female fans be self evident? I mean the Marvels should've been just as popular as Barbie with women.... just saying.
Also, it really is a shame that LEGO didn't have the guts to stand by THEIR OWN STUDY!!!
TBF there are ALOT of women at comic cons because most of the cons have extended to have stuff about tv shows, movies, anime, etc. and they tend to bring in big celebs to draw in as many people as possible. And there is a large segment of women that use it as an excuse to cosplay and dress like a slut. You don't have to be a comic fan to go to comic cons anymore.
That is true. I stopped going to the large ones partly because of that. The smaller ones are a lot more fun
I think looking at the Tales of series in Japan can be rather insightful on this point.
The fan conventions there (Tales of Festival) are well known to be dominated by women, many of whom are fujoshi. But it’s not exactly a secret that the audience that buys the games is overwhelmingly male, and I doubt very many people go around pretending otherwise.
For the most part they seem to understand that in general women and men prefer different things even when it comes to the same franchise.
What does Fujoshi mean again? I have to believe that American companies know that women and men tend yo like different things but they refuse to admit it. Like super hero comics.
Fujoshi (腐女子) literally means rotten girl, and is used to describe yaoi fans. That is to say, women who ship male characters together.
I think US companies are full of a mix of true believers, grifters, and people doing it for ESG reasons. As weird as it is to think, there do seem to be some people who accept the modern junk “science” that male and female brains are the same and the only reason for any differences in preference must be cultural.