What if changing the name offends me? Just want to be sure we are covering all the bases...:)

Is that something that could offend someone? It's difficult to see but I'm open to hearing the reasoning. 

Me, personally don’t find the current name offensive in the slightest. I don’t see any reason to change it and find the concept that it needs to be changed to be offensive as there is nothing wrong with it. 

It it is a What is good for the goose is good for the gander deal. If you don’t take the opinions and slings of those who are fine with it into consideration why should the opinions and feelings of those who don’t like not be considered. 

None of the categories carry a meaning on whom can sign-up for events segregated under that category.

One must look at each individual event to find any restrictions on whom can sign up for it.

This always leads to questions what does this category title mean.

The category title may be how Gencon segregates events in their database. No more no less. Who knows? For us attendees it means ziilch.

I don't 'get' the impetuous behind the name and trying to keep track of who(s) not(currently) offended and really don't care to be honest.

What i care about: It's the 1st event category i search and go over end to end every year. I go looking for cool to me and new to me things to sign up for which is really why i attend Gen Con.  It's also my only real escape from (true)Dungeon during con.

These events are convientiently searchable under the spouse activities grouping. We have a catch all grouping already with Isle of misfit events, and everything under Spouse activities easily fits into that section. But IMHO it is sperated for ease of searching. 

There is nothing offensive about calling these spouse’s activities. The name suits their purpose well and is easily identifiable. 

If if anything is offensive on this it is the concept that spouse’s activities are something for the ladies to do well their husbands game. We had left that concept behind us as the grouping shows plenty of events that appeal to both genders. But that falls on these individuals to change their way of thinking, if they are so willing. 

I agree that the name should be changed, or the category gotten rid of all together. Looking at the events listed under the "Workshop" category, you have everything from Burlesque dancing to chain mail necklace making, while Ballroom dancing and chain mail bracelets are categorized as "Spouse Activities". There's also brewery tours and peddle pub tour under ZED- Isle of Misfit Events. 

It seems to me that there's no real reason to have the Spouse Activities category when you have better categories that aren't sexist and regressive. 

#JustSayin'

You have a number of what I think of as non-gaming events ranging from DrunkAss to Craft Making to Dancing to tours outside of the convention, etc. Why not have a category for these events.

Besides what if someone has more than one spouse.

I think the name of this category should be called Random Activities, Non-Gaming, or RANG. 

Other fun fact:  This category actually DOES have another name:  Supplemental Activities (SPA).  No, seriously, look far enough down the rabbit hole that is this very website, and you will find what I just did...

The best reason I can think of for keeping the existing label is that it follows in the great traditions of progressive thought like the Congressional Black Caucus, or California's Legislative Women’s Caucus, or even the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

All of those labels are for groups that are very EXCLUSIVE in who can join, one is very SEXIST in their acceptance of new members, one is RACIST in their membership, and the last one has a very REGRESSIVE title.

So even progressive thinkers celebrate traditional labels ... when it suits their purpose anyway.

Or is the title fine, but you object to the contents of the category?

The SPA category isn't going away as long as gamers bring non-gamer companions along on their vacations. Its participants will be majority female as long as gamers are majority male (I believe Gen Con's gender ratio is around 2:1). Its events will be whatever appeals to those participants, which yes, means some events will be activities more popular with women.

That said, I would support adding a "Crafts" category to remove some of the ambiguity. It could be helpful to separate crafts from writing workshops, and to refocus SPA on things like pub tours that take up a significant length of time offsite.

Keep in mind that each individual event-runner chooses what event to run and what category to submit it under. That's why you can get similar events under all of SPA, Workshop, and ZED. More categories makes it clearer to the host what category their event belongs to, but also makes it harder for attendees to pick through the long list of events. Conversely, a large SPA category may feel like it's excluding gamers, but makes it easier for those spouses to find non-gaming things to do.

Do a Google search for Gen Con Spa (don’t use quotation marks )and see what comes up.  There is a link to this website (The Gen Con website) to Spa where it’s called Supplemental Activities rather than Spouse Activities (with zero use of the word spouse on the page); funny thing is, it’s not linked to any drop down menu here on the site itself.  Weird...(maybe a little too weird...)

This post = *Face Palm*