Sexual Harassment and the Readercon Failure
I'm mostly going to be pointing you all to other links in this one, but the long story short is:
An award-winning guest attended this year's Readercon a couple of weeks ago. She was repeatedly approached by a man who made her uncomfortable with suggestive innuendo and physical contact then continued to hover around under the guise of apologizing. She reported him to the con staff and security, as they have a printed and stated zero-tolerance policy against any kind of harassment, punishable by a lifetime ban. The Readercon board chose instead to give a two-year ban and plan to change its policy retroactively so it wouldn't be disobeying its stated policy because either (1) the man in question is somewhat well-known in such circles or (2) when asked to explain himself, he said he was sorry. The board's published statement defending its decision did not mention the victim's feelings or point of view even once and none of the witnesses she could provide were contacted while he got to bring character witnesses for himself.
As you can imagine, this has not gone down well with a large portion of Readercon people. Authors and other industry types are saying they won't be back, attendees are saying they won't be back in droves, and many people like me who thought that they'd get there someday are now taking the con off our bucket lists.
At this time, a member of the general con committee has initiated a vote of all committee members to try and overrule the board's decision. There is also a petition intended to show the board just how many people will stop going or decide against going in the future if they do not change their decision to follow the original policy.
The original story
The victim's reaction to the verdict
A follow-up post from the victim
The 2008 victim's story, showing Readercon doing the right thing once upon a time
The 2008 victim's open letter to Readercon
Readercon trying to justify its totally unacceptable decision
A second victim of this year's harasser comes forward
One person's attempt to round up links to the relevant posts and reactions
The petition (which you can post to anonymously if you don't want your real name linked with your LJ handle), which is open for signatures for 48 hours
I highly recommend that anyone who has ever attended or wanted to attend Readercon sign, because they need to know now that not enforcing a stated policy to its fullest because the accused is a BNF or other well-known person is completely unacceptable.
It's already been a bad time for gender issues in and around fandom with DC Comics revamping both its payroll by jettisoning most of the female creators it had and its entire focus to capitulate to teenage boys by needlessly sexualizing and marginalizing its female characters, studio heads dismissing the possibility of a Marvel movie with a female lead and a creator telling a girl to leave because she mixed up a pair of characters, some moron insulting Felicia Day as not contributing anything to gaming, male commentators actually questioning whether the women who were shielded and saved by their boyfriends/husbands in the Aurora theater shooting were "worth it", some guy dares to accuse girls and women who cosplay at cons of trying to be the hot girl when they'd be the ordinary girl in "real life"and a PBS series about "cutting edge arts" is 90% about men even though some of its topics, especially fanart, are dominated by women.
The fact that the board of a con that previously did a pretty damn good job of giving women significant time and attention as far as guest lists and preserving attendees' safety would capitulate so easily to a man witnessed to be harassing a woman repeatedly...it's gut-wrenching. Whether it was because he has some clout or because [sarcasm]he said sorry so sweetly[/sarcasm], it was still the wrong decision by the board and could very well lead to the death of one of the last few literature-focused cons we have.
An award-winning guest attended this year's Readercon a couple of weeks ago. She was repeatedly approached by a man who made her uncomfortable with suggestive innuendo and physical contact then continued to hover around under the guise of apologizing. She reported him to the con staff and security, as they have a printed and stated zero-tolerance policy against any kind of harassment, punishable by a lifetime ban. The Readercon board chose instead to give a two-year ban and plan to change its policy retroactively so it wouldn't be disobeying its stated policy because either (1) the man in question is somewhat well-known in such circles or (2) when asked to explain himself, he said he was sorry. The board's published statement defending its decision did not mention the victim's feelings or point of view even once and none of the witnesses she could provide were contacted while he got to bring character witnesses for himself.
As you can imagine, this has not gone down well with a large portion of Readercon people. Authors and other industry types are saying they won't be back, attendees are saying they won't be back in droves, and many people like me who thought that they'd get there someday are now taking the con off our bucket lists.
At this time, a member of the general con committee has initiated a vote of all committee members to try and overrule the board's decision. There is also a petition intended to show the board just how many people will stop going or decide against going in the future if they do not change their decision to follow the original policy.
The original story
The victim's reaction to the verdict
A follow-up post from the victim
The 2008 victim's story, showing Readercon doing the right thing once upon a time
The 2008 victim's open letter to Readercon
Readercon trying to justify its totally unacceptable decision
A second victim of this year's harasser comes forward
One person's attempt to round up links to the relevant posts and reactions
The petition (which you can post to anonymously if you don't want your real name linked with your LJ handle), which is open for signatures for 48 hours
I highly recommend that anyone who has ever attended or wanted to attend Readercon sign, because they need to know now that not enforcing a stated policy to its fullest because the accused is a BNF or other well-known person is completely unacceptable.
It's already been a bad time for gender issues in and around fandom with DC Comics revamping both its payroll by jettisoning most of the female creators it had and its entire focus to capitulate to teenage boys by needlessly sexualizing and marginalizing its female characters, studio heads dismissing the possibility of a Marvel movie with a female lead and a creator telling a girl to leave because she mixed up a pair of characters, some moron insulting Felicia Day as not contributing anything to gaming, male commentators actually questioning whether the women who were shielded and saved by their boyfriends/husbands in the Aurora theater shooting were "worth it", some guy dares to accuse girls and women who cosplay at cons of trying to be the hot girl when they'd be the ordinary girl in "real life"and a PBS series about "cutting edge arts" is 90% about men even though some of its topics, especially fanart, are dominated by women.
The fact that the board of a con that previously did a pretty damn good job of giving women significant time and attention as far as guest lists and preserving attendees' safety would capitulate so easily to a man witnessed to be harassing a woman repeatedly...it's gut-wrenching. Whether it was because he has some clout or because [sarcasm]he said sorry so sweetly[/sarcasm], it was still the wrong decision by the board and could very well lead to the death of one of the last few literature-focused cons we have.