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!!!
I've seen girls ruin social gaming venues twice. The first was at a LAN party when a regular attendee decided to bring his girlfriend. She was repulsive, rude, controlling, and so disgusting that she would burp as loud as she could and then say "Tee-hee 'scuse me!" The guy sitting next to me looked like he was ready to kill her after she did it twice. She was never invited back.
The second time was on a small Discord server with a couple acquaintances. The room was mostly memes, inside jokes and gaming chat; but overall people mostly idled. Then two girls were invited to the server; both of whom have what I assume are selfies for their avatars. Those two girls make up 60% of all new messages, most of which are about themselves. You cannot post anything without at least one of them replying. Any time people connect to voice chat, you can count on them showing up and doing most of the talking. And it's not about gaming.