45% of gamers are women, but don't you dare suggest women be the protagonist in a game!

Maybe it's just me, but some days I really feel like things are getting worse in the tech industry.  These two articles came across my twitter stream this week that seem like they must've been written on different planets.

The first one is from SF Gate where Derrick Lang noted the low number of female attendees at the E3 gaming conference, and how that was surprising because 45% of gamers are women. Let me say that again: 45%!

This was explained away that E3 was more for developers and not consumers (back to my post from last week).

That aside, how can I now explain that in the same universe, Anita Sarkeesian was attacked online for complaining that the latest XBox console launch didn't include any games with a female protagonist.

The attacks included these gems:




How is 45% of the marketplace not a significant number?  How is it that more than 50% of the human population is neither interesting nor capable just because of their gender?