Quoted Anonymously from an Industry Mailing List wrote:

Let’s imagine for a moment that the original comic and t-shirt were not about rape but something that singles out a different minority – for example, imagine it was about the Klan and lynching blacks. Now imagine that black gamers and gamer professionals had pointed out that having thousands of white people at PAX wearing Klan themed t-shirts is creating a hostile environment. And imagine Gabe made the same type of flip reply to someone asking how it felt to encourage the lynching of blacks.

Would it still be as easy to dismiss?

Would PA and their 4chan supporters still be dismissing it? Posting photos and comments about lynching on web sites of black gamers/developers?

Somehow I imagine it would be taken much more seriously.

But it’s the SAME ISSUE. There is a minority, and they feel that PAX is no longer a friendly environment for them. It’s not less serious or more deserving of flippancy because most of the minority in this case are women or can be dismissed as “feminists”. It’s a matter of a public event choosing to provide a non-hostile environment to the public, which includes minority groups of various types. Flippancy and sarcasm are fine on a private comic strip, but not as a public representative of a public convention trying to claim it is welcoming to all gamers. If Gabe had made that comment about blacks, I suspect heads would be rolling and companies would be scrambling to distance themselves.