Friends of Lulu
Apr. 11th, 2006 10:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizwilliamsVia ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jlassen:
More details on the sexual assault and embarrassment of female Comic book professionals:
>http://www.popcultureshock.com/features.php?id=1357
They're asking for donations to fight a court case. Please go and look. I have never had any experience of sexual harrassment at a convention myself, but of course it does go on, just as it does within the macrocosm, and I don't need to add that it's unacceptable.
jlassen:More details on the sexual assault and embarrassment of female Comic book professionals:
>http://www.popcultureshock.com/features.php?id=1357
They're asking for donations to fight a court case. Please go and look. I have never had any experience of sexual harrassment at a convention myself, but of course it does go on, just as it does within the macrocosm, and I don't need to add that it's unacceptable.
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Date: 2006-04-11 02:48 am (UTC)If I had the money, I would donate.
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Date: 2006-04-11 03:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-11 03:20 am (UTC)Unfortunately, a lot of people (mainly women, but some men as well) have. Harassment is the Elephant In The Room of fandom; nobody wants to admit it happens, because we convince ourselves that our culture is too nice for this sort of thing to be going on, or even worse rationalise ourselves into tolerating it. I commented on this in my piece in the PR4 for Concussion:
"There is a common assumption in our subculture that conventions are a venue where unorthodox behaviour is not so much tolerated as embraced and even celebrated. Certainly, fandom has long been welcoming to alternative lifestyles and views, and many of the people who regularly attend conventions regard them with some good measure of justification as islands of friendly acceptance in a society that can often be intolerant of the ‘other’. But has fandom become so tolerant that it turns a wilfully blind eye to behaviour or attitudes that make some of its members very uncomfortable? When does one fan’s ‘safe space’ become another’s hostile environment?"
In the worst cases, there do seem to be a few people who interpret the tolerant and expressive nature of fandom to be a sexual free-for-all. Combine this with the Geek Social Fallacy that "it's wrong to criticise anyone in our subculture" and you have a recipe for a small but nonetheless very distressing level of inappropriate conduct.
We have scheduled what I hope will be a though-provoking panel on this:
Sat, 1300-1400, Argyll 1
Fandom - A Safe Space?
What is a 'safe space' and is fandom one? How can fans and conventions reconcile the desire to express yourself freely and the desire to be in a welcoming and friendly environment?
Unfortunately your reading is also scheduled for 1300 (sorry about that) but I'll let you know how we get on.
Simon
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Date: 2006-04-11 04:33 am (UTC)I came across it (as I say, not personally) when I first started going to cons, and that was in 1983. You get it in pagan circles, too - there's also the assumption that everyone is going to be nice and ethical, but plenty of abusive behaviour goes on - mainly power trips from women and sexual predation from men. No one wants to cop up to its existence, because it seems to give justification to the mainstream view that there's something sleazy about the occult. However....
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Date: 2006-04-11 03:53 am (UTC)-=Jeff=-
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Date: 2006-04-11 04:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-11 08:38 am (UTC)The media has been very helpful in breaking through the, "You can't get there from here" and the minimizing of nasty incidents bullsh**.
Maybe they could do an investigation on Mr. Escalating Sex Predator BEFORE he gets up to actually raping women.
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Date: 2006-04-11 11:45 am (UTC)Mind you, given that the UK authorities are apparently focusing on 'warning' rapists as opposed to prosecuting them (not quite accurate, but close), I sometimes despair.
Oh, Yes....
Date: 2006-04-11 03:10 pm (UTC)Then I went back to my room, told my roommate she was right to worry, changed into jeans and disappeared into the convention. A friend of the fellow told me later that he was hopelessly unfaithful to his wife, a smart lady who ignored it, but he was not a rapist and I should not worry about farther trouble.
He was right. It was never brought up again, and he's always been civil to my face, if he even remembers the incident. I don't know if he's ever done me harm professionally, but I don't think so.
It goes on. I was lucky -- he was a gentlemanly rogue. In today's environment, I would not accept anything more than tag-along to a party to meet someone, and if it was away from the hotel I'd hesitate if I didn't know the person throwing the party.
But of course, we shouldn't have to worry about things like this. Many people don't believe that female GIs are dying in their sleep of dehydration in Iraq because they won't drink enough water and use the portapotties at night -- they might get raped on the way to the john.
I'm very poor right now, but will spread the word.
Re: Oh, Yes....
Date: 2006-04-12 02:12 am (UTC)Oh, great. What a nerve! I've never had this sort of thing personally but I've certainly heard plenty about it. Also, I've heard stories from a couple of (male)BNAs about opening the hotel door to a knock in the middle of the night, and being confronted by a small huddle of female fans saying, basically, 'take your pick.' The person who told me this said he was terrified and slammed the door! :-)
>He said: "You know everyone is going to think you slept with me." I responded that perhaps, but I would know, and on this strike, I was the only one who mattered.
That's a nasty form of (im)moral blackmail and actually, you know, they wouldn't. I'm sure everyone knew exactly what was going on.
I suspect that there are wannabe writers who think they can get ahead by sleeping with authors or editors. Maybe they can. I don't know anyone female who has - or who, at least, is admitting to it.
Chris Priest, however, tells a story about the Hollywood actress who was so dumb that she thought she could improve her career prospects by sleeping with the script writer. Hah!
Re: Oh, Yes....
Date: 2006-04-12 09:42 am (UTC)Actually, I don't know who was being referred to, though I might guess, but I did hear of an editor who said she wouldn't look at submissions from anyone she was sleeping with -- so it might backfire in this market.
LOL on the actress! Unless he was also the director or producer. And so often it's a he -- never heard of a man chasing a female producer, but it must happen. I know of another fellow in the SF world who cheats on his wife regularly (or did -- haven't been at the same con with him in years.) It got embarrassing, since his wife once chewed one of their friends out for cheating on HIS wife. Apparently the look on the first fellow's face was priceless. And the other never let it slip that she was in the same position.
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Date: 2006-04-11 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-12 02:13 am (UTC)