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One of the many distinctions the IPL affords is the attractive female announcers and interviewers they have running the show. Now, despite me being a young male gamer, I do find something about this arrangement a bit discomforting. To put it bluntly, I think the way the ladies dressed was a least a bit unprofessional.
I like hot chicks as much as the next guy, but seeing Megumixbear and others parading around in a dress while all the men around her was dressed professionally was distracting and off putting, to say the least. It reeked of IPL parading around females for simple sex appeal; this idea was further reinforced by a poor understanding of the game by some of the interviewers. When compared to other tournaments and sports featuring a female presence, this issue becomes even more prominent.
Compare the dress code of the female faces of IPL to that of the OSL, GSL, and mainstream professional sports.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/tLyRo.jpg?1)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Qs9vb.jpg?2)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/VTtdC.png?1)
Note: I have no idea how to format pictures correctly on TL.
From left/top to right/bottom: Anna Prosser, at IPL4; Heidi Watney, of Time Warner Cable; Lee Hyun Joo, the former(?) Korean female GSL caster
While by no means a comprehensive spread of photographs, these are pretty good representations of their respective fields. I would say that the distinction between IPL and the rest of the professional sports world in terms of female dress code is pretty damn obvious.
I think that in the long run, dressing like this will do more to hurt ESPORTS as a legitimate industry than help it (“Hey, look at how they treat their women!”). Thankfully, the solution is pretty simple: dress up more professionally! Given the unprofessional-ness of gaming, with everyone wearing casual clothes, this is pretty easy – I think Smix had a decent getup in a simple jeans and tshirt (and still looked really good). For fancier events, or perhaps to earn credibility as a professional and legitimate sport, a second option is to dress up in professional clothes like the men – blouse, pant suit, business skirt – I don’t know what the female equivalent of the Tastosis suit is, but that would be a great place to start.
On a more personal note, at Blizzcon I was struck by how professional, as well as how good, the female GSL caster looked. I have a few really blurry pictures on my shitty digital camera, but I really think that that’s the correct way to go in order for ESPORTS to grow. Every time I saw an announcer go on stage at IPL, I was struck by how awkward they looked in dresses, showing off how sexy they were, when really SC2 has nothing to do with that aspect of life. While I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade, I just want to see SC2 continue to grow.
Edit: Thanks for the image formatting help!
Edit2: Removed "sexist"; poor word choice on my part.
 
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Two of the women in those pics are dressed appropriately. Don't agree with you at all.
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On April 16 2012 16:49 Zidane wrote:
Two of the women in those pics are dressed appropriately. Don't agree with you at all.
Depending on which 2 pics you're talking about, I would say that you have a good chance of supporting my argument? I'm saying that the IPL dress was (slightly) inappropriate, not the other ones.
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Remove the leading whitespace in your image tags. I kind of agree with you but at the same time I think IPL can get away with it because that was Vegas and the other one was Atlantic City. Anywhere else, i.e. on stage at MLG Columbus or something and seeing the host dressed like that would be strange, but maybe that's just me. I mean when you think who else has hosts like that, all I can think of is boxing & MMA (not saying that's a bad thing). Is the target audience the same? I'd say kind of yes, young adult males, but maybe SC2 is trying to be broader then that.
Can't deny that out of the current Sc2 tournys, the GSL has the best/most professional (esp on the Korean commentating side).
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On April 16 2012 16:51 milikan wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2012 16:49 Zidane wrote:
Two of the women in those pics are dressed appropriately. Don't agree with you at all. Depending on which 2 pics you're talking about, I would say that you have a good chance of supporting my argument? I'm saying that the IPL dress was (slightly) inappropriate, not the other ones.
I strongly disagree with you on this. First of all, these women choose their own dress, it wasn't that decision of IPL to put them in random dresses. Anna and Susie for example talked about how they wanted to dress this way because it was what they wanted, because it was their choice. How is that degrading of women in esports at all, is letting them have the choice of what to wear that detrimental? They looked much more modest than 90% of women who attend the Golden Globes and other such events, and no one complains about them.
As for helping you on the tags here you go
[img]http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/R1CH/IPL4/Day3/504_05555_t.jpg[/img]
[img]http://img2.bdbphotos.com/images/orig/o/f/ofalx5qwinxtafxx.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/lWxAq.png[/img]
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+ Show Spoiler +On April 16 2012 16:55 teamamerica wrote:
Remove the leading whitespace in your image tags. I kind of agree with you but at the same time I think IPL can get away with it because that was Vegas and the other one was Atlantic City. Anywhere else, i.e. on stage at MLG Columbus or something and seeing the host dressed like that would be strange, but maybe that's just me. I mean when you think who else has hosts like that, all I can think of is boxing & MMA (not saying that's a bad thing). Is the target audience the same? I'd say kind of yes, young adult males, but maybe SC2 is trying to be broader then that.
Can't deny that out of the current Sc2 tournys, the GSL has the best/most professional (esp on the Korean commentating side).
Yeah, I thought about the location of the tourneys too. It is true that the gambling cities have a bit more of a "glamorous" feel to them, but is this something you really want ESPORTS to be associated with? They call Vegas "Sin City" for a reason. While it is a possible path, I'd rather not see SC2 go down that way.
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I agree. Although you think the way they dressed was sexist? As in it was being forced upon them and they had absoulutely no say in the matter? I sincerely doubt this was the case. Some woman are comfortable to dress that way. Especially aspriring models. I do believe it has no place in presenting a professional event though.
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On April 16 2012 16:59 Imbu wrote:Show nested quote +On April 16 2012 16:51 milikan wrote:On April 16 2012 16:49 Zidane wrote:+ Show Spoiler +Two of the women in those pics are dressed appropriately. Don't agree with you at all. Depending on which 2 pics you're talking about, I would say that you have a good chance of supporting my argument? I'm saying that the IPL dress was (slightly) inappropriate, not the other ones. I strongly disagree with you on this. First of all, these women choose their own dress, it wasn't that decision of IPL to put them in random dresses. Anna and Susie for example talked about how they wanted to dress this way because it was what they wanted, because it was their choice. How is that degrading of women in esports at all, is letting them have the choice of what to wear that detrimental? They looked much more modest than 90% of women who attend the Golden Globes and other such events, and no one complains about them. As for helping you on the tags here you go [img]http://www.teamliquid.net/staff/R1CH/IPL4/Day3/504_05555_t.jpg[/img]
[img]http://img2.bdbphotos.com/images/orig/o/f/ofalx5qwinxtafxx.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/lWxAq.png[/img]
Having a dress code is nothing new to any industry at all; I don't think requiring people to wear slacks and a dress shirt to work is "forcing them" to do it at all. In any case, there's a purpose to every article of clothing worn, it's not just a matter of putting on whatever you want. What you wear sends a message. I'm saying that we may want to consider what message we send out.
PS Thanks for the help with the code.
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On April 16 2012 17:06 PandaTank wrote:+ Show Spoiler +I agree. Although you think the way they dressed was sexist? As in it was being forced upon them and they had absoulutely no say in the matter? I sincerely doubt this was the case. Some woman are comfortable to dress that way. Especially aspriring models. I do believe it has no place in presenting a professional event though.
Yeah, I guess it was worded a bit badly. I would say that it appeared sexist, since all the men were dressed professionally, and all the women were dressed, well... for a dinner party? It didn't sound like they minded, but I will say it may not have been the best idea in retrospect.
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Is every other imaginable issue regarding esports already solved? I think it must be, considering there is a blog about this -.-
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This blog is hilarious...
The first thing that came into my mind is race girls:
![[image loading]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_pDK95H0p43g/Sb0XyKb7w0I/AAAAAAAACKk/CBfJNnOUXc0/s400/KoreanRaceGirls_22.jpg)
They are "RUINING M-SPORTS" (m-sports = motorsports).
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On April 16 2012 17:20 enslaved[t] wrote:
Is every other imaginable issue regarding esports already solved? I think it must be, considering there is a blog about this -.-
Well, I managed to convince Dustin Bowder to throw in LAN last night, so I figured I'd tackle this problem next.
On a more serious note, yes, I realize this is not exactly a pressing or super important issue. It was just something I noticed and decided to write a bit about.
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How is a pretty dress sexist?
If they were demanded by someone to dress in one way or the other, with no say on the matter, now that might just be sexist.
I want to wear a pretty dress, but I don't because it might look a bit silly.
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The only thing sexist towards women here is having you tell us how we should and shouldn't dress.
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I too feel like their attire was inappropriate for the occasion. Largely though I feel that it's because there is such a disparity between player attire and the hosts' attire which made for a rather awkward interaction between them. The fact that the hosts knew little about sc2 emphasized this. I don't think an esports event is the best place to show off your sexy elegant outfits when the people you are interviewing don't match it in the slightest.
Ultimately however, I feel that how the hosts dress doesnt make that much of a difference if they could relate to gamers a little better and ask some more interesting questions.
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Kennigit
Canada19447 Posts
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They're wearing dresses not bikinis, television news anchors wear more revealing clothes than this. What is the male equivalent of a dress anyway? do you think it could be a suit, maybe?
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It's a show not a god damn funeral 
Speaking for myself all of them looked quite professional.
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Seems you're not used to go into casinos or high standing hotels. Not that I'm used to it, but this is super standard to be well dressed, especially for women (:D), in those places.
edit
This is a different topic, and I agree more on it. The contrast between them and the gamer on stage, focused on his next match can make it awkward.
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EPT
