Is the Miss Video Game pageant counterintuitive for female gamers?

I love how one of the mission statements for Miss Video Game is to "make the gaming industry take women gamers seriously and treat them with respect as equals."  I think making a pageant out of it would make them be treated the exact opposite of what that mission statement says.  They also say that they’re here to "put female gamers o the map and to get them taken seriously."  I don’t know what rock they’ve been under, but female gamers have been around for years.  Just because we don’t post scandalous pictures around the interweb doesn’t mean we don’t exist.  Or maybe it’s because we’re too busy playing games to say, "Hey look at me. I’m a girl, hear me roar!"