Retailer and commentator Chris Butcher returns from vacation, and revisits a pair of heavily discussed Comic-Con-related issues from earlier in the summer.
The first is John DiBello’s widely circulated call for Comic-Con organizers to create and enforce a policy addressing harassment — sexual and otherwise. It’s a reasonable and, apparently, necessary suggestion. Still, some argued that efforts to curtail verbal abuse would infringe on their First Amendment rights. (They wouldn’t.)
But Butcher, who attended the recent Penny Arcade Expo, comes back with the gaming convention’s seven simple rules, which are written with humor and, it seems, posted without protest. He notes that they appear at all of the entrances to the exhibit hall, and in the convention booklet.
“Why is this so hard for comics?” Butcher writes. “Why all the hand-wringing and endless debate about nothing?”
He also links to a San Diego Union-Tribune article about the other big Comic-Con issue. No, not the 900th incarnation of “Is SDCC Still About Comics?” I mean the pre-convention debate about whether to boycott the Manchester Grand Hyatt because hotelier Doug Manchester donated $125,000 to support an anti-gay marriage initiative.
The newspaper reports that, despite assurances by the hotel that boycotts by various groups haven’t affected business, the company’s chief financial officer warned Manchester in July that he could lose millions of dollars and alienate the gay community. Manchester asserts that the hotel has actually picked up business since the boycott began.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:09 am
It isn’t hand wringing or a discussion about nothing. That’s a little dismissive. That’s like someone calling your side of the argument ‘cry babies’.
No one is for harassment. But some of us find the potential for harassment in vague convention rules set up and enforced based on someone’s tolerance for criticism or lack there of.
The door swings both ways here. There are creeps on the floor but not everyone on the other side of the booth is a swell, stand up person.
When a vendor calls security are they really gonna get to the bottom of it or just boot the dude who’s wearing the Magneto was Right shirt and wandering around awkwardly by himself? A rule won’t suddenly make everything morally justifiable. It just expedites the process of punishment and makes everyone ‘feel’ safer, as if ‘Don’t harass people!’ will stop an offender.
Don’t you read comics? The bad guys never think that they’re the evil one.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:41 am
“Why is this so hard for comics?” Butcher writes. “Why all the hand-wringing and endless debate about nothing?”
I wouldn’t say it’s just a comics problem. I used to frequent a Nintendo news site and there were just as many frivolous BS arguments there as there are here. I think it’s just the respect that the guys at PA garner as opposed to the people actually create this entertainment for us. No one wants to tick off Gabe and Tycho, but if Miyamoto makes one bad game or Bendis makes one bad comic then they get asked things like “Yeah, why do you suck?”
September 15th, 2008 at 11:45 am
Another thing is other conventions tend to be about the huge revelations and news stories. While PAX is about fans coming to hang out and have fun interacting with each other.
September 15th, 2008 at 4:55 pm
I disagree with the rule “Drugs are bad!” What, I can’t show up to a convention, where Klingons and Supermen walk around, stoned? What’s the point of showing up at all, then?
September 15th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Re: The boycott.
Even if the hotel lost customers, they wouldn’t admit it publicly. It’s a long standing corporate procedure to deny anything that can’t be proven one way or another.
Did the boycott do any good? I wouldn’t know, but the attention brought to the situation will allow some people to steer their money to other venues as a means of protest.
Does it matter that I refuse to buy gasoline from Speedway? Probably not to Speedway. The reason I do not is that Speedway has a habit of slowing down the speed of their pumps (for whatever reason), and when the wind chill factor is 10 below zero, I’m not spending any more time pumping gas than I have to. So even in warmer weather, I don’t shop Speedway. I steer my money elsewhere.