The extended Just Past the Horizon hiatus will be broken this week for a guest post by John DiBello, best known as the human companion of Bully the Little Stuffed Bull. John noticed serious problem at SDCC, and asked some of his friends to post the following article on their blogs so that it could reach the widest audience possible.
Overheard at San Diego Comic-Con while I was having lunch on the balcony of the Convention Center on Sunday July 27: a bunch of guys looking at the digital photos on the camera of another, while he narrated: “These were the Ghostbusters girls. That one, I grabbed her ass, ’cause I wanted to see what her reaction was.” This was only one example of several instance of harassment, stalking or assault that I saw at San Diego this time.
1. One of my friends was working at a con booth selling books. She was stalked by a man who came to her booth several times, pestering her to get together for a date that night. One of her co-workers chased him off the final time.
2. On Friday, just before the show closed, this same woman was closing up her tables when a group of four men came to her booth, started taking photographs of her, telling her she was the “prettiest girl at the con.” They they entered the booth, started hugging and kissing her and taking photographs of themselves doing so. She was confused and scared, but they left quickly after doing that.
3. Another friend of mine, a woman running her own booth: on Friday a man came to her booth and openly criticized her drawing ability and sense of design. Reports from others in the same section of the floor confirmed he’d targeted several women with the same sort of abuse and criticism.
Quite simply, this behavior has got to stop at Comic-Con. It should never be a sort of place where anyone, man or woman, feels unsafe or attacked either verbally or physically in any shape or form. There are those, sadly, who get off on this sort of behavior and assault, whether it’s to professional booth models, cosplayers or costumed women, or women who are just there to work. This is not acceptable behavior under any circumstance, no matter what you look like or how you’re dressed, whether you are in a Princess Leia slave girl outfit or business casual for running your booth.
On Saturday, the day after the second event I described above, I pulled out my convention book to investigate what you can do and who you can speak to after such an occurrence. On page two of the book there is a large grey box outlining “Convention Policies,” which contain rules against smoking, live animals, wheeled handcarts, recording at video presentations, drawing or aiming your replica weapon, and giving your badge to others. There is nothing about attendee-to-attendee personal behavior.
Page three of the book contains a “Where Is It?” guide to specific Comic-Con events and services. There’s no general information room or desk listed, nor is there a contact location for security, so I go to the Guest Relations Desk. I speak to a volunteer manning the desk; she’s sympathetic to the situation but who doesn’t have a clear answer to my question: “What’s Comic-Con’s policy and method of dealing with complaints about harassment?” She directs me to the nearest security guard, who is also sympathetic listening to my reports, but short of the women wanting to report the incidents with the names of their harassers, there’s little that can be done.
“I understand that,” I tell them both, “but what I’m asking is more hypothetical and informational: if there is a set Comic-Con policy on harassment and physical and verbal abuse on Con attendees and
exhibitors, and if so, what’s the specific procedure by which someone should report it, and specifically where should they go?” But this wasn’t a question either could answer.
So, according to published con policy, there is no tolerance for smoking, drawn weapons, personal pages or selling bootleg videos on the floor, and these rules are written down in black and white in the con booklet. There is not a word in the written rules about harassment or the like. I would like to see something like “Comic-Con has zero tolerance for harassment or violence against any of our attendees or exhibitors. Please report instances to a security guard or the Con Office in room XXX.”
The first step to preventing such harassment is giving its victims the knowledge that they can safely and swiftly report such instances to someone in authority. Having no published guideline, and indeed being unable to give a clear answer to questions about it, gives harassment and violence one more red-tape loophole to hide behind.
I enjoyed Comic-Con. I’m looking forward to coming back next year.
So, in fact, are the two women whose experiences I’ve retold above. Aside from those instances, they had a good time at the show. But those instances of harassment shouldn’t have happened at all, and that they did under no clear-cut instructions about what to do sadly invites the continuation of such behavior, or even worse.
I don’t understand why there’s no such written policy about what is not tolerated and what to do when this happens. Is there anyone at Comic-Con able to explain this? Does a similar written policy exist
in the booklets for other conventions (SF, comics or otherwise) that could be used as a model? Can it be adapted or adapted, and enforced, for Comic-Con? As the leading event of the comics and pop culture world, Comic-Con should work to make everyone who attends feel comfortable and safe.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:45 am
I can see the reason why such behaviour doesn’t have a specific mention in the Comic Con guide.
It’s not acceptable anywhere. This type of behaviour is not allowable in the streets, in restaurants, in schools, in workplaces, in subways and in any sort of public gathering. It’s just straight up common sense. Don’t be hostile to other people. A woman’s body is her own. I don’t see why it needs to do be spelled out for everyone just because a few people refuse to behave properly.
The biggest issue seems to be the reporting aspect. I’m not blaming anyone for not reporting. I can understand the shame and stigma that is associated with events like this. I’ve seen women beaten badly who still refuse to report to the police or later recant their stories, so I can see why some women would rather just let it go. It can be a combination of also being judged by guards, police and others. I can feel a woman being unsure if others would think she was asking for it if she was wearing some costume that showed a little skin.
The New York City subway system recently employed a campaign to get more woman to report sexual harassment and groping after learning that many cases were going unreported. If there appears to be an increase of inappropriate behaviour at SDCC, then maybe they should employ such tactics to get more people to report, but in nearly every type of situation like this, it’s impossible to act if you cannot even get someone to report the offenders.
I don’t really seen anything wrong with the behaviour of the con staff. It seems like they did everything they could in this case. It’s also somewhat unreasonable for them to have written out policy for something that they are unaware about. If someone was being treated this way in the street, I imagine they would tell their attacker to leave them alone or they would have to contact the police. The con situation should be similar.
I do hope that more women who were mistreated at this con read this and write letters to the people in charge of the con so that others know that this happening. I hope that they feel safe enough to no longer remain silent.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:52 am
That people are doing this is despicable. Sadly, this tends to happen in events that attract so many people. Atlanta used to have a music festival called Music Midtown. One year that I went, I saw a guy (had to have been a teenager) groping a girl that was crowd surfing as she went by. When I told him to knock it off, he just kinda looked like a deer in headlights and made his way through the crowd. I think he was surprised that anyone called him on it. I’m sure stuff like this happens a lot, but I guess I never realized it until then.
I would encourage anyone who experienced similar issues to contact Comic-Con.org. If you go to their website, there are several different methods to contact them (email, phone, snail mail, fax). If they get enough complaints, hopefully they’ll do something about it. I would suspect that the reason you see things in the booklet like “no bootleg videos” and “personal pages” because they’ve been issues in the past. I would also contact the San Diego Convention center (http://www.sdccc.org/contactus/) to let them know that this is happening. I would guess that they are in charge of security. Spread the word far and wide. The more people hear about it, the bigger the issue it becomes.
Okay, completely off topic, but this is the third time that I’ve tried to post this. I keep getting a WordPress error saying that either cookies aren’t enabled or JavaScript isn’t, but then it says that both are enabled so it must be something else. I get this a lot. Tends to happen when I’ve been viewing a post for an extended period.
August 15th, 2008 at 8:48 am
“a man came to her booth and openly criticized her drawing ability and sense of design.”
This is a crime?
August 15th, 2008 at 9:30 am
““a man came to her booth and openly criticized her drawing ability and sense of design.”
This is a crime?”
I wondered about this as well. I suppose it depends on the guy’s actions, but just from the description, it sounds like he hurt someone’s feelings, and they didn’t like it. Not sure you can really report that as a crime. If the guys is repeatedly returning to the booth to yell at you, then you might have a reason for complaint. Still not sure that’s a crime, though, due to the pesky First Amendment and all.
August 15th, 2008 at 9:35 am
Did you guys forget to read the next sentence?
Reports from others in the same section of the floor confirmed he’d targeted several women with the same sort of abuse and criticism.
It wasn’t the criticism that was being objected to, it was the harassment.
August 15th, 2008 at 9:41 am
This is a crime?
Absolutely not. But it’s endemic of the sort of behavior that people think they can get away with and, from what I have heard, was specifically targeted towards several women exhibiting at the con. That’s serial behavior.
If this were the only instance of behavior I’d heard about I would have chalked it up as someone being jerky and moved on. In conjunction with other (unrelated) activities, however, I’m trying to show the range of ways that people exhibit unacceptable behavior at conventions. Some of it’s illegal and some of it’s merely rude, but none of it is acceptable.
August 15th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Yes, Joe S. Walker, it is a crime. It’s harassment. The guy went to several booths solely to criticize female artists.
August 15th, 2008 at 10:00 am
I don’t really seen anything wrong with the behaviour of the con staff. It seems like they did everything they could in this case. It’s also somewhat unreasonable for them to have written out policy for something that they are unaware about.
It’s not unreasonable; many, MANY cons have rules and procedures set up for this, and it’s a little baffling that a con as huge and storied as SDCC does not. That’s the problem here.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:10 am
There are many public gatherings this size and many sizes over that don’t require written rules. My playbills never state anything like this.
The lack of rules do not indicate that the laws outside the con do not apply. The general understanding is that the con rules are on top of the pre-existing rules. I doubt they have to state all the other types of unapproved behaviours that could possibly occur.
I also kind of don’t think that 2 lines in a guide that most people rarely read is going to change things. I hope John’s article will get more people to come out about this behaviour. I hope the victims can find the strength to share their stories. Without their voices, I don’t think we can really make it easier for people to come forward when things like this happen.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:54 am
I think the problem is, cons are at higher risk of this kind of behavior. You’ve got a bunch of strangers together, there’s a casual atmosphere, a lot of people think they can get away with stuff. So I think the con needs to be more responsive, and having a solid “chain of complaint” as well as some explicit rule that lets them chuck out offenders would help greatly.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
We should mention that some women and some men also target male pros. One guy on Comic Book Resources bragged about grabbing Grant Morrison’s ass, and I heard a number of male pros complain that some women were way too grabby and familiar with them.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
I also kind of don’t think that 2 lines in a guide that most people rarely read is going to change things.
Two lines in a guide will provide an enforceable rule and hopefully generate SOME kind of procedure other than “um.. check the other desk?”
Elektra:
I see no reason why genders have to be specified in harassment wording.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Ken: I don’t either, it’s just that no one mentioned aggressive female fans and some male fans make unwanted advances at pros, too.
I’ve heard many women claim that when harassment comes from women, it’s not real harassment because it is not as threatening from a woman as it is from a man. Sad to say, some women who’ve complained of harassment have been some crotch grabbers themselves, and I’ve seen it with my own eyes. If a man treated them like that, they’d be calling the cops. But going up to Frank Miller and grabbing him, that’s OK. If he did it back, there’s be lawsuits.
Works both ways, women. It’s not cute and it’s not funny.
Go read this:
http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/626115.html
“Thank you for this! And I was actually present and a first-hand witness of fan asshattery towards James Marsters.
I was at one of Marsters’ shows in LA, at a small club. He was incredibly sweet, coming out afterwards to take pictures and sign things and generally chat and be awesome with his fans.
The crowd was pretty tight, but people were being cool about it, waiting their turns, and so on. And then suddenly he yelled “HEY!”
Someone had grabbed his ass. Not just grabbed, but seriously pinched, he said.
He asked everyone to be quiet, then pointed at the girl who did it. “She grabbed me,” he said, and he sounded pissed. “I’m a person, not just a thing that you can grab whenever you like. Go to the back of the line.” The girl, looking shifty, sort of chuckled uncomfortably and just stood there, like, “hey, good joke.” He kept staring at her. “No, really, get to the back. Everyone let her out.”
He kicked her to the back of the line.
Apparently that was the last time he came out and just hung out with the crowd after a show. I don’t blame him a bit.”
and this:
http://adistantsoil.com/blog/?p=606
August 15th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
I guess it’s not mentioned because these things are a criminal matter. But some people don’t understand that unsolicited touching or verbal harassment are harassment, or assume that it’s somehow justified by the victim’s provocative costume, or the harasser’s own “Free Hugs” sign. Sometimes having it spelled out at least serves as something that can be pointed out to the offender who says “I didn’t know!” “Well, it’s printed right here, dimwit.” I’ll bet that out of a 120,000 people there are a few that would read it beforehand and say to themselves “Huh, I had no idea.” I’ve had enough face-palm moments in online message boards to know that there are folks out there who really just don’t know.
I agree that some kind of easily located central security contact coordinating with SDPD officers in the convention center would probably be helpful. The harassers are wearing name tags so it shouldn’t be difficult to report them. I assume that there is a police presence at the con besides the ones directing traffic out front, but I don’t recall seeing them. With these kinds of incidents, unless they’re violent, the victims are often reluctant to call 911, but she or he might be more inclined to report it to a contact within the convention center. At the very least, the aggressor might have their badge taken away.
p.s. I’m getting the aggravating WordPress error too. I took KentL’s tip, left the page and followed the link that first got me here to try posting again.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
I have some strong opinions about this, but I’ve never really been the victim of harrassment like this at a con. Do any people who have been harrassed at a con or other events similar to this have had issues dealing with authorities in reporting them?
If you did, what were they? If you did not report them, do you think guidelines like the ones proposed would have made it easier? What else do you think should be done?
August 15th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
@Alan Coil: “Yes, Joe S. Walker, it is a crime. It’s harassment. The guy went to several booths solely to criticize female artists.”
No–that’s not harassment. It’s sexist and offensive, but it isn’t harassment. I can choose to criticize people based on their race, sex, religion, personal beliefs, national identity, and sexual orientation. It may be offensive and wrong to do so. Criticism, even unjustified or harsh criticism, is not harassment.
Refusing to hire someone or penalizing someone based on certain criteria _may_ be illegal discrimination, but that’s not even cut and dried. (For example, it’s legal to fire someone on the basis of sexual orientation in most states–it’s not right, but it’s the law.)
That being said, several of the other incidents described could be considered assault and battery. Why didn’t the women approach security when this happened? For the most part, women are capable of making their own decisions–do you really feel the con should be paternalistic?
@original post: “1. One of my friends was working at a con booth selling books. She was stalked by a man who came to her booth several times, pestering her to get together for a date that night.”
Guess what? If he just came to the booth several times to ask her out, that’s not “stalking.” Stalking is a very real and very serious crime. Don’t conflate a boy acting like an ass to a man stalking a victim. Again, it might be wrong and it might be offensive, but it is not necessarily criminal.
Incidentally, if she found the man who was “pestering her” cute and she accepted his offer of a date, would that have been okay?
August 15th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
sg: if the behaviour makes the person on the receiving end feel concerned for his or her safety, it is harassment. If the criticism is not merely constructive critique but is verbally abusive and serial, it is harassment. Someone refusing to leave someone else alone in spite of requests to do so is stalking. Whether or not it is criminal, is another matter, but these are all behaviours that could escalate to criminal behaviour. You don’t know the exact nature of the “pestering”. Whether the man was “cute” or not would have absolutely no bearing on the matter. There are plenty of good-looking predators out there. It’s a matter of whether or not she found his behaviour threatening. Apparently she did.
If there was a reporting system in place it could identify people with a pattern of unacceptable behaviour. They don’t need to be arrested or even turfed on one offense of making a person uncomfortable, but if they’re doing it repeatedly to lots of people all over the floor, then further action could be taken with justification.
Women may be reluctant to approach security to report such things because they fear being dismissed with comments just like yours.
August 15th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
All this stuff about ‘chains of complaint’ and demanding creepy people be escorted from the con is kinda fascist. Not to mention elitist and socially inept in it’s own right.
You might feel threatened by a weirdo but until you are actually threatened it’s just an uncomfortable conversation.
Obviously inappropriately grabbing a person is assault and that’s illegal inside and outside the San Diego convention center.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
@maija: “If the criticism is not merely constructive critique but is verbally abusive and serial, it is harassment.”
If someone is verbally abusive from a legal point of view, that is potentially simple assault. And that is a criminal matter than can be acted upon.
@maija: “Someone refusing to leave someone else alone in spite of requests to do so is stalking.”
In the context of a single set of incidents at a convention, this is not stalking. It may be rude, and it may even rise to the level of assault or criminal harassment, but it is not stalking by any stretch of imagination. Stalking is a very real and very serious crime. I know victims of stalking who would find your description bizarre at best and offensive at worst.
@maija: “You don’t know the exact nature of the ‘pestering.’ [...] It’s a matter of whether or not she found his behaviour threatening. Apparently she did.”
That’s correct–I don’t. And I don’t think you do either. Where was it described that she found his behavior “threatening?” There’s a large difference between being pestered and being threatened. Unless the woman who was “pestered” talked to convention organizers, I fail to see why they should change their policies based on second- or third-hand information. Did she even try to talk to the organizers? What was their reaction?
“Women may be reluctant to approach security to report such things because they fear being dismissed with comments just like yours.”
I’m sorry you find my comments dismissive–they are not meant to be.
To be perfectly clear, I am not trying to defend the assholes who were sexist, derogatory, offensive and made women feel uncomfortable at the con. And let me be clear that people who commit outright assaults should be ejected from the con immediately and arguably reported to the police.
That being said, I do not believe the con should act in a paternalistic manner. Should they tell men and women dressed in skimpy and revealing clothing to cover up? She they tell adults who smell that they need to take a shower or face ejection?
In his original note, John wrote, “She directs me to the nearest security guard, who is also sympathetic listening to my reports, but short of the women wanting to report the incidents with the names of their harassers, there’s little that can be done.”
An herein lies the problem: if people are feeling harassed or assaulted, they need to report the problems directly and quickly. John’s note, while identifying real problems, reeks of paternalism. And that is offensive in and of itself.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
It probably just never occurred to them that they’d need to include a prohibition against behavior that is already unacceptable and/or illegal. Sort of like listing that it’s against convention policy to steal stuff from booths when the proprietor is not looking.
Saying, “Don’t harass your fellow con-goers” is not likely to stop people from doing so, because they’re probably not reading the policies page anyway. On the other hand, saying, “If you get harassed, report it to the nearest security guard” and having a procedure in place for handling those reports is likely to help.
P.S. WP-SpamFree is again preventing me from posting, presumably because I took the time to actually read the other comments before making this one. Same bogus message about how I have to enable JavaScript and Cookies, because JavaScript and cookies are enabled. (No, that’s not a typo. The error message is just that messed-up.)
Might I suggest trying another anti-spam plugin? There are about a zillion of them for WordPress.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
It’s sad to think that we live in a society where everything has to be spelled out for us. While they are adding that they should also include more guidelines:
1. No setting fires on the exhibit floor
2. No peeing in the lobby
3. Storm Trooper are not allowed to verbally bash Ewoks.
The list would go on and on.
August 15th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
If people were regularly setting fires on the exhibit floor, then yes, they would have to add this guideline.
Why shouldn’t the Con take steps to prevent this beyond what they’re doing now? What harm would it do to make it clear to patrons that this behavior won’t be tolerated and that those who have been victims of such harassment can report it to specific personnel at a specific place?
August 15th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Charlie@:
“While they are adding that they should also include more guidelines:
1. No setting fires on the exhibit floor
2. No peeing in the lobby
3. Storm Trooper are not allowed to verbally bash Ewoks.”
Heh. Reminds me of a convention I used to attend when I lived in Texas; rule 11 in the book stated that “All convention attendees must shower at least once in any given 24 hour period.” And whenever my wife and I go to cons now, it’s always just a matter of time before we spot Rule 11 violators everywhere…
Granted, one year a violator was actually tossed out of the con into the hurricane rains in order to clean him off… thus proving that they were serious about those violations.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Reports from others in the same section of the floor confirmed he’d targeted several women with the same sort of abuse and criticism.
Well, besides the fact that’s not abuse as described, do we know that he didn’t similarly criticize any men? Maybe he’s just an art snob.
August 15th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I’d be interested to read comments from the SDCC officials on this.
Are they aware of reports such as this? Do they have any comment on the article? Do they have anything they’d like to say to people who feel victimized? Are they preparing any policy changes or statements for next year, such as may be included in a convention guide or schedule, or in a badge agreement? Will they be re-evaluating the security coverage? (accumulated incident reports would be one way they to assess the potential need for this)
Whether or not behavior may be legally classed as assault or harrassment or whatever, and whether SDCC may or may not be able effectively take action on incident reports, it really is in everyone’s best interest for everyone to basically feel safe there. And apparently not everyone does.
August 15th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
“One of my friends was working at a con booth selling books. She was stalked by a man who came to her booth several times, pestering her to get together for a date that night.”
That is not stalking per say, but if she said no and he continues to pester her it’s harassment. Which should get you the boot.
“Reports from others in the same section of the floor confirmed he’d targeted several women with the same sort of abuse and criticism.”
Depends on what was said. Was he yelling names at them? That should get you kicked out. If he was just going on about how the art looked too “girly” or whatever, then an eye roll and considering the source is the appropriate response.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
As someone who worked SDCC this year as a vendor (we had actor autograph signings almost all weekend), I’m surprised that there is not harassment policy in place for the organization as a whole. That’s just the smart thing to do.
As many have pointed out, you can quibble about what actually constitutes harassing behavior (sometimes it’s not so clear, but if someone is seriously creeped out, I’m going to err on the side of the person feeling creeped out – sorry) but knowing that there is a written policy in place could go along way in helping someone who otherwise might not speak up to do so.
Our booth had our own clearly posted policies about our autograph signings. When someone wanted to argue a point, I told them that SDCC’s own written policies in the event book gave us the right to set our own rules. When they argued further, one of the Elite security folks (not a red shirt – we were required to have real security because of the actors involved) backed us up and told them that there was indeed written policy about booths.
I think Elektra’s point (above) regarding male pros is quite right and should be acknowledged. For every reasonable person who knows how to act right at a con, there’s going to be two more (and their friends) who think they have the right to act a fool in front of or to the object of their obsession because they’re a fan.
One last thing, at a convention where men still outnumber women by a fairly hefty margin, rolling your eyes at someone being an asshat may not always be enough. If another person stepped in when they saw something happening and provided some support – doesn’t have to be rude (looming works), that could go a long way in making it all feel like folks have each other’s backs.
August 15th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Man, this hypersensitivity at its worst! NONE of the actions you mention can be constituted as “harrassment” (except for the groping, but you did not witness that so it’s hearsay). Your post sounded like as if you were pointing your finger at SDCC, like they were responsible for controlling the behavior of the 125k attendees. So let me ask you this, next time you’re in in a restaurant and a patron next to your table “hits” on your female friends, are you going to complain to the restaurant manager that there is no “blurb” in their menu about offensive behavior not being tolerated on property??? That sounds absolutely ridiculous! You’d go and complain to the manager, yes, and ask to have that person removed from the property, or you would most likely leave and take your business elsewhere.
At the same time, most of these scenarios sound like the result of the lack of social skills amongst the parties at fault. Surprise surprise, you’re at a comic convention. Perhaps the companies hiring the female workers should spend some time beforehand teaching their employees how to handle these exact situations if they were to arise?! Was that ever discussed? I doubt it.
Suggestion: next time, go find a security guard (there were tons of them in red shirts) and make a report, write down the offender’s descriptions and then follow up with a written letter to the show organizers! Make sure that person if kicked out of the show. And if it was a serious enough issue, you should have found a policeman and made a police report!!
Bottom line is, these events occur in normal everyday life situations. Responsibility falls upon your own individual actions first and foremost. You (and your friends) need to take the first step in making formal complaints in person, writing and notification of organizers (they were easily found in the registration areas all weekend) immediately, not three weeks after the show. Stop using the “helpless card” and use your brain.
Your only legit complaint would be if the show did not provide enough security or take appropriate action once a potentially dangerous situation was reported, but neither were the case. There was plenty of security and local law enforcement officials on hand and no official complaint was submitted to the proper show organizers for them to take action. And while you can whine about no notification methods in the program book, common sense would tell you to find show organizers who were mostly located at the registration areas.
August 15th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
dumbfounded: That’s really a kneejerk response there. “OMG THIS CAN’T BE TRUE THIS IS HYSTERICS AND HEARSAY DON’T CHANGE ANYTHING.”
Which is curious because, if Comic-Con put in notifications that behavior like that will not be tolerated by staff and made it clear that anyone harassed can report it to so-and-so on the convention floor or someone else at reception or wherever else is handy… would ANYTHING change for the courteous and non-maladjusted folks at the convention? Seriously, this is close to a no-cost proposition here.
August 16th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
Evan, I never said “this can’t be true”. Just like a wannabe comics writer to add words where none existed…
There are two questions in play with this scenario: (1) did the actions reported by John actually constitute “harassment” – either in the context of workplace “sexual harassment” or in the more serious legal sense which would constitute interjection by law enforcement officers; and (2) what to do about it and/or who should be responsible. when you make a claim of “sexual harassment”, that is a serious issue which should not be discounted, but at the same time, we owe ourselves the ability to objectively review the facts of the case to determine first off, if such an offense took place and to what severity actions should be taken.
In my opinion, most of the scenarios explained were things that occur in everyday life situations — regardless of whether it is confined within the walls of the convention center/on the sidewalk leading up to it/the parking lot where you got out of the car/etc. — it’s human nature for men to want to talk to women. Albeit in this scenario, there is a high probability that the men involved lacked proper social maturity. And with that, developed the events that were reported — second hand, and sometimes third hand. However, even at that, I still don’t think that what John described cannot be constituted as “sexual harassment” in a legal sense, and thus falls upon a gray area of common sense and sensibilities. Which leads me to the “hypersensitivity” issue and his efforts to have show organizers post a “policy” related to this.
Finally, do you truly believe a two-sentenced blurb hidden in a program book is the solution to this? It won’t solve a single thing, Evan. There will always be jerks walking the show floor hitting on attractive women, there will always be guys asking to get their pictures taken with cute girls, and there will always be unwanted criticism from lunatic fans — I mean, would you think the guy was any less crazy if he went around and only gave praise to female artists?!? At the end of the day, that guy is still an idiot, and we live in a world full of them.
August 16th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I’m not talking a two-sentence blurb, I’m talking an explicit policy and a clear method showing aggrieved guests just to whom they should report this. Other cons do this, and again, what would be the drawback?
August 18th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
The behaviour isn’t necessarily the issue (though the behaviour cited ranges from merely rude to downright criminal). When you have a crowd of this magnitude you’re bound to get a few ass-hats running around. What is unacceptable is that there was no clear policy telling security how to deal with the behaviour and no information provided to the con-goers as to who they could complain to. You’ll find nearly every employer has procedures set up to deal with complaints of sexual harassment, why not the SDCC?
Oh, and the fact that people seem to be defending the ass-hattery is just another part of the problem.
August 21st, 2008 at 11:29 am
“All this stuff about ‘chains of complaint’ and demanding creepy people be escorted from the con is kinda fascist. Not to mention elitist and socially inept in it’s own right.”
“At the same time, most of these scenarios sound like the result of the lack of social skills amongst the parties at fault.”
“Albeit in this scenario, there is a high probability that the men involved lacked proper social maturity.”
So what?
Metal fans, football fans, art-house film fans, etc. aren’t expected to put up with this shit. Us comic fans shouldn’t have to put up with it either.
August 28th, 2008 at 1:05 am
Thousands of men who have never felt a woman’s touch find themselves surrounded by thousands of women woeful and clueless enough to appear nonthreatening. Awkward attempts at courtship ensue. More news at 11.
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