Because I don’t want to be associated with shit like this.
I’m going to take a different tack from Kevin and Sims and others here, and say “fuck yes, discuss it here.” I’m not sure what there is to discuss, really, beyond “this is bad and should not happen and Di Bello is completely right.” But have at it.
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“This is bad and should not happen and Di Bello is completely right.”
All I can add is “fuckin’ a.”
ok, yes, agreed entirely “this is bad and should not happen and Di Bello is completely right.” Abso-fucking-lutely….
Question I was wondering, though: Should DiBello have stepped in and called those guys jerks/pigs/whatever (or, yknow, handled it in a more polite manner or ANY matter at all) when he saw them commenting on grabbing that woman’s ass? Should he have stepped in when he saw other such instances?
I’m not saying he should go all vigilante on their asses or anything, but there’s that old quote I can’t quite remember about how evil happens when good men (and women!) do nothing.
I feel like I probably would have said something to those guys. If i saw something like the incidents described I probably would have tried to toss some shame around. I’m not saying there aren’t people at Comic Cons who do this… I’m just wondering where people stand on “We need to be able to police our own kind” and all….
Wow! That’s… That’s just… really? That’s creepy. I mean, these guys are total creepers, but I guess it IS a convention, so these guys aren’t RomCom leads, but the creepers who can’t get a date. Yeah, this does have to stop, it’ll drive more and more girls (and guys) away from these conventions.
This makes me want to go to cons, more. To dispense vigilante justice. With punchin’.
And what could be more manly than being thrown out of a comic convention for kicking some shut-in’s ass?
“NOTHING” IS THE ANSWER.
@ ghoast – I don’t really think that’s the point.
Never mind the fact that standing up to someone who has no problem harassing people like that puts you at risk – in this case, in an environment run by people who have made their apathy on the subject of these peoples’ behavior VERY clear – this kind of crap is so pervasive at ComiCon that the people who are willing to stand up to it are sadly outnumbered by the people who perpetrate it. While trying to “toss some shame around” is an admirable idea, what’s needed is a little more than that. There already ARE people who will say something to jerks who harass women at the con – but the problem persists, largely because it’s allowed to by not only a majority of the con-goers, but by the people facilitating the con itself.
Yeah and then these guys moan about how pretty girls don’t like comics or have any time for geeks.
I’ve been pretty lucky and not been harassed at a con, but I attribute that to a few things. One, I’m usually accompanied by my husband, and he’s 6 foot 5. Two, when I’m not accompanied by my husband, I’m usually in a group.
But the third and biggest reason is that at the cons I go to on a regular basis, there is some sort of behavior policy in place, usually summarized as, “If anyone is giving anyone else trouble, con security will step in. Really schmucky people will get banned.” I’ve known other people who have been harassed/stalked at the same cons I attend, and every time, the con security folks were willing to step up and stop repeat offenses. It doesn’t prevent schmucky people from going to the cons in the first place, but as long as the con com is willing to contain and control the schmucky people, everyone else can keep on having fun.
Asshats who sexually assault people for fun is not a con-thing, it’s an asshat-thing. These people aren’t just at cons.
And hey, if it means taking a few shots in order to set the goddamn example for people to start treating this unacceptable behaviour as unacceptable, then sign me up.
I bet dollars to donuts, these aren’t con-geek perpetrators we’re talking about here, either.
Ah, thanks Laura.
Honestly, I haven’t been to a con unless you count the MoCCA Festival here in NY, so I couldn’t speak to the issue and I was honestly curious.
I agree that support from the people facilitating the con would go a long long way to helping this matter. Other than blogospheric outcry, though, how and who upon does one exert pressure for this sort of thing?
Errrr also, i know it goes without saying but…. Good god is it pathetic that this even needs to be an issue.
Wow. Is this typical of cons? My (also female) friend and I are thinking of a trip to Comic-Con next year, but if this is typical…
(Although, another part of me resents the fact that douchey asshats are even making me CONSIDER changing my plans. Which makes me even more determined to go.)
“Asshats who sexually assault people for fun is not a con-thing, it’s an asshat-thing. These people aren’t just at cons.”
While this is true, I think there exists a sort of Venn diagram between asshats and cons that allows shit like the so-called “open source boob project” to occur. I mean, I’ve never seen such egregious harassment (huh. I thought harassment had two ‘r’s, like embarrass) at, say, a ballgame or a movie theater. Of course, I realize that just because I haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t occur, but then again, I can’t imagine the OSBP occurring at a Yankees game.
At first I was disgusted, now I’m just sad.
This shows me that instead of spending all the time and money at some huge convention where with the increase in size means an increase in assholes, I’m better off staying home and going to the small local cons that are becoming a regular thing around my home town.
That ‘event’ seems rare enough that I wouldn’t use it as a good yardstick. The level of asshattery described in the OP is something I have no trouble imagining at other venues, though.
OK, all this was wrong, no question. But there are also a few problems with the reaction to it.
First off, San Diego has 125,000 attendees. This is the size of a medium city. If I wandered around a 125,000 person city for five days, anyone really think I wouldn’t see/hear about a similar number of harassment incidents or run into a similar number of jerks? Not that that’d be a good thing either.
Second, so San Diego doesn’t have an explicit write up that harassment is bad. They also don’t mention assault and battery, stealing, murder, dealing in restricting pharmaceuticals, etc. is bad. They list things specific to the con or venue which may or may not apply universally, but they can’t list every bad thing a person could do.
Finally, there’s the issue of how to report harassment/what the con’s expected to do about it. This is not a simple problem. Most of the “Elite” security types are low level rent-a-cops who I suspect have no training in how to handle this problem (heck, a fair number of them are unable to show common sense with regards to pedestrian traffic control; I sure wouldn’t trust them to handle any but the most blatant with tons of witnesses incident). And if it’s a random, one-shot, incident, well, the harasser has vanished into the crowd and there’s no way of tracking them down in that mess other than by accident or if they’ve been stupid enough to do such while wearing something that, for Comic-Con, is very distinctive. Also, there’s a difference between verbal harassment and physical harassment. Unfortunately, it’s not against the law to be a verbal jerk, and it’s very hard to prove someone went over the line verbally, even if you’re able to find them (see above).
Should there be a way of alerting the con that repeated harassment of someone by a specific person(s) is happening, and the con should be able to station someone to witness it and deal with it? Yep. Should people come to the aid of someone being physically harassed, or get a security type over there. Hell yeah. But pragmatically, there really isn’t anything the con can do about random verbal or one-shot sans witnesses mild physical harassment (brief inappropriate touching), any more than we’ve been able to stop such from happening elsewhere.
Wow. Is this typical of cons?
Yes.
Just look at how the medium treats female characters.
Look at anything by Frank Miller or Orson Scott Card.
Look at anything published by DC, then read a little about what DC’s offices are like.
Consider the TARGET AUDIENCE that all this is aiming for.
Then consider that said target audience does it’s level best to get to San Diego every year.
Ever heard the term “fanboy funk”?
Yeah.
I’m probably a terrible person for making light of the situation, but this does make me wonder if there’s a market for little aerosols of latex paint people could whip out and mark their harassers with….
Newsflash! Small cross-section of large group of people act like assholes! Updates as they develop!
Tom-
The problem is that the nature of the con encourages harassment, in ways that 125,000 people living and working in mid-sized don’t. For it to be an environment welcoming to women, what needs to happen is they need to work to change the nature of the con. Especially in San Diego, which is a major media event that extends well past comics (but, hell, comics-specific ones just as much, really), there’s no excuse for keeping the atmosphere as anti-woman as it is.
That’s booth bunnies, and artists who set up to sell sexy pictures of your favorite female hero for ten bucks a pop, and, yeah, stuff like the Mary-Jane-doing-Spidey’s-laundry statue, and all of the rest. When you create an environment where women are promotional tools to entice (mostly male) customers into buying things (created and sold mostly by men), then what follows is the sort of harassment Kevin’s discussing. That train’s never late! You set it up so that men, as customers, are courted by/with sexy women, and you end up with those men feeling like they’re entitled to treat women like products.
–d
I’m glad that Tom Galloway brought up the volume issue, because I don’t think anyone’s claiming this is an endemic con issue, and shouldn’t be read as such.
What I think John was getting at is there’s no reason for a Con to not have a very simple “harassment is not tolerated, we can throw you out at our discretion” policy. Then the whole issue of trying to *legally* prove harassment, or the distinction between legal and verbal harassment is essentially moot. Have security know that if someone approaches them that they don’t feel comfortable with someone/thing FOR WHATEVER REASON they should show that person the door (or to the security office to argue why they shouldn’t have their pass pulled).
This is absolutely a symptom of volume, not something endemic to cons, but their is a nugget of truth that this is a passtime that attracts the socially awkward, and some individuals with gender issues and so shouldn’t be entirely unexpected.
I’d expect no less of video game conventions, or (yes) sporting events (and if you haven’t seen a female heckled awkwardly by a drunk asshole at a sporting event, you need to go to more football games). The difference is, at (most) football games, you say something to an usher, and that person gets turfed.
It’s unrealistic to think there won’t be the ocassional asshole – what’s important is that you can limit their impact when they do surface.
And as an aside to those re-considering con plans because of this – I have no love for cons (I stopped going around 2000 for reasons covered in MGK’s post on the issue), but I’ve had some great times there with friends, and I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to get the impression that behaviour like this is the norm. Because, in my experiences (and those of female friends I’ve known) it’s not.
And what could be more manly than being thrown out of a comic convention for kicking some shut-in’s ass?
Being sentenced to hang by the neck until you are dead for gathering up a group of not less than fifty of the neck-bearded perverts, locking them in a room, and setting them on fire.
Sorry, guys and gals, but I’m going to have to disagree a bit.
A) First, that Di Bello witnessed or heard anecdotally about a handful of incidents which are awkward, uncomfortable, rude, or otherwise creeptastic, is unfortunate, but a certain degree of care should be exercised when busting out the “harassment, stalking or assault” hammers. Of the instances mentioned, only two are actual instances of sexual harassment. The rest fall somewhere between “unfortunate socialization” and “male-pig dickery.”
1) The Ghostbuster Girl who got a drive-by goosing to provoe a reaction: Yes, this qualifies as both harassment and assault. I’m not certain, but I think it would be hard to prosecute this offense, even as a misdemeanor, assuming the party offended had issued any kind of complaint. I’m also curious if the “Ghostbuster Girls” mentioned were “booth babes” or cosplaying convention attendees. Shouldn’t there be some sort of responsibility on the part of exhibitors to protect their employees’ safety and wellbeing (particularly those they place in possible demeaning or comprising situations, i.e skimpy booth babe costumes, etc.)? The fact is, given the massive scale of the San Diego Comic Convention and the blindingly obvious ineptitude of the security staff there, it is impossible for the people organizing the convention to police every human interaction that occurs. I agree that there should be clear, effective procedures in place to both report and deal with such events enacted by the convention promoters, but I don’t think the lack thereof clearly indicates an apathy towards such behavior, merely an oversight. I also don’t believe that it indicates any kind of encouragement or promotion of such behaviors, at least on the part of the convention organizers (as to the comic book industry’s relations to these issues – that’s far too large and complicated a topic to address here).
2) Woman friend of Di Bello’s working at a con booth: The first incident is NOT EVEN REMOTELY WHAT WOULD BE CONSIDERED STALKING. It is socially inept, yes. It is creepy, yes. It is annoying as hell, yes. However, without being privy to the actual exchanges between the two, I have to wonder: did the woman in question feel her privacy, physical or mental security were threatened in a way that either in the immediate moment or continuing over a lengthy period of time in a manner that showed menace aforethought and indicated that without some kind of action, such instances would continue to be a problem in the future? Or was she just twigged out by a guy who, on perhaps the only day he visited the Con, didn’t now when to cut his losses and piss off? At any rate, this doesn’t sound (from the admittedly scant details I’ve read) like something that would really require authorities.
However, the four guys entering her booth and groping her – that clearly is harassment and assault. Again, it would have been nice if procedures had been in place for Di Bello’s friend to seek redress. Again, I doubt if anything could have been done in a timely fashion, or have been actionable in any way. Incidentally, I’d also like to see what kind of language, if any, is included in whatever sort of contract or rules are agreed upon between the convention center and the exhibitors at the convention. I’m certain, for instance, that the convention doesn’t agree to safeguard every single item that exhibitors might have on display from the threat of vandalism or shoplifting. I expect the convention organizers assert something to the effect that they will take all reasonable steps to protect exhibitors’ wares that they can, but that during the day-to-day bustle of the convention floor, some amount of vigilance on the part of the exhibitors is expected in regards to their merchandise. If there’s not a similar clause regarding the well-being of employees, should there be? There are many instances in other industries where employers are legally obliged to guarantee the safety of their employees (the amount of legal obligations a strip club owner in San Francisco has towards his dancers, for instance, are fairly comprehensive, just to name an industry that could also be considered sexually charged).
3) The artist whose work was lambasted by the guy who seems to have made a habit of picking on women: Not harassment, stalking, or assault, unless he somehow verbally threatened her. The guy may be a woman-hating dick, he may have just been dumped by his girlfriend, or he may not even have realized he was singling out women specifically at all. None of these are specifically illegal or easy to regulate. I bet if you too a brief census of the artists who heard any commentary about their work while at SDCC, approximately 100% would say that on at least more than one occasion, someone took a proverbial “shit in their cornflakes” while expressing their opinions about something. Unfortunately, some people use “criticism” or “just being honest” as an excuse to be an asswipe. In that respect, if you’re going to be an artist and your going to put your stuff out there for scrutiny, best for all parties involved that you develop a healthy tolerance for all such people.
B. “Is this typical of all cons?” NO. Absolutely not. There is this pervasive attitude that all comic fans, and therefore all comic convention goers, cannot be anything but maladjusted, socially inept man-children nerdlings, as fluent in Klingon as they are unfamiliar with personal hygiene. Honestly, while the convention was in progress, how many iterations of “Let Your Freak Flag Fly” or “Hoo, Boy, These Comic Guys Sure are Zany and They Love Harry Potter, Star Wars, Cheetos and Obesity!” did you see in the media coverage about the con? Well, not to drop names, but Church, Sims, Dave Campbell and Mr. Bird himself seem like relatively normal, non-gropetastic people to me BUT THEY LIKE COMIC BOOKS SO OH MY GOD HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?
“Is this typical of the SDCC?” Sigh. It didn’t used to be so. Over the last fifteen years, I’ve gone to ten of the fifteen San Diego Comic Conventions. But Hollywood found the SDCC, and has been encroaching more, and more, particularly in the last five or so years. CBS had a booth on the convention floor this years. All the big movie studios do, as well. LAst year, NBC had a “Heroes” booth, but this year, it was a full-blown NBC booth. With the Hollywood company come the Hollywood mega-panels, and with those come thousands of people who are not in the vain of “Hm… I don’t know if I’m more a Spider-Man or a Batman type of guy” but rather people who are more about “I CAN SEE ELIJAH WOOD, HUGH JACKMAN, THE CAST OF BSG, AND A BUNCH OF CLIPS ABOUT SHOWS AND MOVIES HAVING NOTHING TO DO WITH COMICS!!!!!”. Is this a bad thing? Um… I think it is, but I also think my opinion is pretty subjective. But what it does mean is that a lot of people (we’re talking thousands and thousands the last couple years) with no vested interest in comics, the San Diego Comic Convention itself, or anyone who gives a damn about comics, are swelling into the convention hall. This is naturally going to screw up the atmosphere. I’ll point to the San Francisco Castro’s annual Halloween party as a similar example. The Castro Halloween Party started out as a celebration for the Castro residents, who had to struggle against considerable adversity to carve a safe place for themselves, even in San Francisco. For years, it was a (relatively) subdued event. As time passed, however, people started coming to the Castro from further and further abroad. People with no ties to the Castro. People who didn’t care about the residents or businesses in the Castro. People who interpreted the initial celebratory aims of the party as an excuse to get drun, engage in foul and harassing behavior, and ultimately to bring violence and death to what had once been a simple community event. Net result – no more Castro Halloween Party. The Castro is actually now barricaded off, to eep non-residents from coming and causing trouble. Is the SDCC that bad? Not yet. Yet.
Allow me to share a pet peeve related to this topic:
And what could be more manly than being thrown out of a comic convention for kicking some shut-in’s ass?
What would be more “manly”? How about understanding that a show of “manliness” to protect the poor defenseless female members of your community, especially when said show of “manliness” involves answering violence with violence, only perpetuates the same sense of women being objects and “less than” the male members of the community that the original infraction did. Believe me when I say there is nothing appealing or comforting about some guy assuming that I am helpless, and that he must “kick some shut-in’s ass” in order to protect my delicate sensibilities.
I am not a con-goer, nor even remotely the target audience for a con. But what I’m saying here applies to any situation, and not just cons.
If you’d like to help a female friend find the right channels for bringing charges in truly criminal situations, or at least get help from security or management in situations that aren’t criminal but are uncomfortable, then by all means help. But shoving her aside so you can show her that you’re a “real man” will only make her feel worse, and make you look like just as much of a neanderthal as the guy whose ass you are attempting to kick.
What Amy said. I’ve yet to see one of these discussions about sexual harrasment in comics not end with a small group of posters yukking it up about castration or setting human beings on fire.
To Scott: the behavior may not be criminally wrong in all cases, which kind of makes the point MORE important that the con have a policy on dealing with crap like this.
I’m of the “let’s all take a deep breath and act sensibly about this” school. First, let’s not fly off the handle and use this as proof that all comic conventions are like Tailhook, only with more Simpsons T-shirts. Yes, there are lots of women who have horror stories about harassment at cons. You know what? Sad to say, there are lots of women who have horror stories about harassment at work, in restaurants, in airports, bus stations, and pretty much anywhere the two genders have to interact. I don’t really think it’s significantly worse at cons than at anywhere else.
That said, THAT IS NOT AN EXCUSE. (I hate myself for speaking in all caps, I really do, but it’s a fairly important point to make…) There’s no reason to tolerate this kind of behavior at all, and no reason why cons shouldn’t be places where women can feel like they have a safe space to enjoy their hobbies. SDCC should have a policy in place on harassment, and it should be one that makes it very clear that they will not put up with this kind of behavior. It’s just common sense.
Odd thing is, I’ve never heard of any problems at Frolicon, which is all about the Venn of sex and geekery…. Then again, they have explicit rules agaisn cretinous behavior, and the pervs are actually more polite about their debauchery than people you would expect…
I yuck it up about setting people on fire, you ride in on the high horse leading holier than thou cavalry. It’s the circle of life.
I think comics are really doing some damage here when we stop considering lighting people on fire as a legitimate and valid response to undesirables.
Amy:
A’ight. How about if I erect a big tent near the con grounds and offer free martial arts lessons and bagtime to any woman in costume?
“No cameras, guys, no spectators. Need a workout to get the con crud out of your system? Step right up! And, Leia, if someone grabs your ass on the floor, you grab their wrist and do -this-, kay?”
Better?
“I bet if you too a brief census of the artists who heard any commentary about their work while at SDCC, approximately 100% would say that on at least more than one occasion, someone took a proverbial “shit in their cornflakes” while expressing their opinions about something. Unfortunately, some people use “criticism” or “just being honest” as an excuse to be an asswipe. In that respect, if you’re going to be an artist and your going to put your stuff out there for scrutiny, best for all parties involved that you develop a healthy tolerance for all such people.”
Heh. Yeah, totally familiar with this, and not just with my own work. The Internet seems to have created more critics than academia, and most are worse if only because they generally have trouble both having a cogent thought and spelling it correctly. That said, I don’t see why wanting to share one’s work with other people includes the necessity for developing a healthy tolerance for asswipes. Fuck asswipes.
*Odd thing is, I’ve never heard of any problems at Frolicon, which is all about the Venn of sex and geekery…. Then again, they have explicit rules agaisn cretinous behavior, and the pervs are actually more polite about their debauchery than people you would expect…*
As someone who has been to Frolicon a few times I can say that is because harassment or any dick behavior is vigorously warned against. It’s in every literature you receive, it’s posted on walls and the security there has zero tolerance. Having said that, BDSM people are some of the better behaved people you’ll run into in a group setting.
I am surprised that SDCC doesn’t have a policy at all, That just seems to be asking for trouble.
1. A city of 125,000 people is going to have a real police force with official police powers, and also have a quick & easy way for any “resident” to contact a policeman with a complaint or to report a crime, even if that policeman does not happen to be standing right there.
2. A con (any con) doesn’t need to explicitly list every possible (or even likely) illegal activity as something that goes against the the con rules (that’s what books of laws are for), it just needs to list any con rules that go above and beyond the local laws. (Such as the “No costumes made out of peanut butter” rule.) However, a con does need to have some way to either enforce local laws themselves or make it possible for the local police to do so (at least insofar as invoking the con’s right to refuse service, or in more extreme cases, passing on victims’ statements or the suspects themselves to the local police, just as stores do with shoplifters and the like). This is especially true for a con that results in a sudden increase of population to the tune of 125,000 people, for which the local police force may not have sufficient additional staff to handle. In other words, see #1.
I really didn’t see any of this at NY Comic Con the past two years. I’m also from NY and are used to crowds everywhere I go. But seriously why does this shit have to go on the internet, it sort of just feeds trolling. A simple letter to the con organizers suffices. And seriously, with all the people there just saying fuck off out loud could just solve the situtation. The NY Comic Con had very tight security and were pretty strict at any no filming times and were able to enforce that. As for dergatory comments to anyone (bring the woman and comics into this discussion is totally irrelevant), that’s common everywhere and can only be dealt with by ignoring the person. If this is a serious recurring issue, then yes extensive security needs to occur, but seriously if your willing to go dressed as whatever, I doubt your going to be scared off by this.
I’m pretty glad I decided against going to Comic-con this year.
I heard some women cosplaying as Maenads killed and ate a guy.
Well, remember that incident a while back with the ‘Open Source Boob Project’?
Anyway it spawned the Open Source Women Back Each Other Up Project… because a lot of women are damn tired of men just doing that and people looking awkward and ignoring it.
http://community.livejournal.com/backupproject/ (and yes, I am aware of the irony of posting a LJ link here).
Also, yes, I do realize that cons are huge affairs with tons of people attending, but really… this happens to people on a regular basis. Of course not just at cons, but is it too much to ask to have it in the rules that you shouldn’t do that? Sure, they might not have tons of security to enforce it, but to just go out and say it would mean a great deal. It would mean that yes, people are aware of it and are not just thinking girls should be blamed for it or that it’s not that big a deal.
I’ve had my boobs groped on many occasions (not comic cons though since hey, sweden), it tends to happen when people get drunk and I have cleavage. I have no idea what it is with the female body really, it’s like it hypnotizes some guys and makes them lose all control of themselves. But, since I am 6’3″ tall and rather built, this just made me smirk a bit and push them away. It never made me afraid because I was fairly certain I could kick their arse in a fight if they didn’t back off.
If I had been 5’4″ and scrawny, I would have been bloody terrified and my experience of the whole thing ruined.
Notice that when Amy exposes some thinking in these comments that features similarities to the offenders being mentioned, there’s a stiff response from a couple of these guys, offended for being called out, offended for having their intentions and beliefs scrutinized in the way they were scrutinizing others.
Maybe we’re all handling ourselves with too much gravitas. We’ve figured it all out, haven’t we? We don’t need to posture with any humility, or avoid blanket statements, or examine our own thinking before we condemn the philosophies of strangers we only know from anecdotes. Here, on a semi-popular blog, we can all speak ex cathedra.
Is this a major problem at concs? I don’t know, I’ve never been to a con. It sounds like a problem, it sounds like several paying customers were failed in a major way (yes, that’s part of what bothers me. Someone who pays to get into an event like this should expect reasonable service). I appreciate those posters who point out that sexism is pretty well-established in the types of media being promoted at these cons. It’s really easy to externalize the problem: _I_ don’t harass people, _I_ don’t ask artists to draw Power Girl in chains, _I_ don’t buy statues of a vulgar Mary Jane doing laundry. Maybe not, but what do you buy? What do you watch? Where does your money go? Do you put pressure on the industry to change, or just complain and say “What can _I_ do, there’s a market for this?”
It’s sad when things like this come up, because I often see people come out swinging with their big e-bats, ready to smash anyone who won’t support the blanket statement condemnations and solutions they’ve advocated. I appreciate Mr. Galloway and Mr. Seavey. Sometimes on MGK.com, it’s hard to voice a contrary opinion, not because one is afraid of Mr. Bird (who would be? he’s a likable and skilled debater), but because of the commentators cropping up here who seem a bit more dedicated to establishing dire, quotable comments on society instead of hoping through discussion to weigh their own assumptions and arrive at a consensus that will inspire action.
Then again, I bet all of us have e-mailed the San Diego Comic-Con to complain instead of judging complaining on the Internet. Prove me wrong, cats.
The SDCC is not Satan Incarnate. It seems odd to me, having no con experience, that they don’t make clear their policy on harassment. Doesn’t mean that they intended for this to happen, or that they’re passive about the experience, or that they deserve to be indicted as women-haters. Maybe they just need pressure to publicly apologize and change their policy.
Or, the not fun option, maybe those with a conscience should not go. Oh, I know, it’s sad that fans can’t go to such a major event. But maybe it’ll send a message of the Internet “geek” community, instead of just complaining, decides to contact SDCC en masse, and if their response isn’t satisfactory, just not go to their event. Vote with your dollar.
Regarding the criticism of female creators’ work– it’s unclear to me whether it was just one guy coming up and saying things one-on-one, or totally getting up in her face in an invasion of personal space, or doing the loud ranting and raving bit.
There is a line between simple verbal criticism of one’s work and harassing verbal criticism of one’s work. If it’s done in an abusive way, it’s harrassment.
Dan Solomon is really, really right on.
R
C. Carter is right on point. And at the end of the day, there are people who complain about everything from how people are dressed to at cons to the awkwardness of meeting your favorite creators. Spreading word on the internet is sort of like spamming up our internet comic community with what a simple petition, several letters, or phone calls should have fixed. This shouldn’t happen period we all agreed, but to say its comic cons fault is absurd. Trying to make this seem like a major issue involving women and comics or anything of the sort borders on trolling for stuffed bulls or even geek-hat wearing comic demi gods.