Arisia - Monday and beyond
Monday
Dragged myself out of bed early to catch The Myth Of Fannish Tolerance. The panel was meant to discuss stuff like RaceFail, wherein the supposedly liberal/tolerant fandom community resists engaging with more advanced issues around race, orientation, gender, etc. But there was also some discussion from the audience about how people who are generally considered mainstream outside the con, like Christians and conservatives, are pushed to the fringes in a liberal-fannish space like Arisia. Someone, brought up the point that we need not be tolerant of intolerance, and that's absolutely true - but on the other hand, there's a tendency on the part of some liberals (especially religious minorities like Pagans and Atheists, both heavily represented at Arisia) to get defensive around Christians in general, as if the mere act of identifying oneself as Christian was as good as saying "I'm a homophobic bigot". And y'all, that's just not true. It was not the discussion I came expecting to have, but it was very interesting nonetheless.
Next up was Sexual Harassment And Assault In Fandom, which is always interesting and educational (I liked the strategies for helping when you see someone being harassed), but seemed kind of misplaced at the end of the con. I mean, that discussion itself is never a waste if even one person learns something from it, but it would have been really useful to have it at the beginning of the con. Also, major props to the panel on two points: (1) insisting on gender-neutral language when discussion perps and victims, so as not to erase anyone, and (2) tackling the thorny topic of people using autism spectrum disorders to excuse harassment or assault.
Post-Antibiotic SF was a panel about diseases in SF, particularly as drug-resistant bacteria become more of a problem in real life. The panel veered kind of off-topic, but the panelists ended up telling funny stories, reciting rhymes about why Bubonic Plague couldn't have been the cause of the Black Death, and generally being really entertaining and excited for a Monday morning panel. I didn't come away with any book recs, sadly, but one of the panelists offered to e-mail me some. Yay!
Next Year
I'm going to propose a panel on feminist sci-fi: what it is, what makes it feminist, what's new in the field. I'm also gonna apply to be on it, 'cause why not? I've got the feminist cred, at least.
Thinking of making up some "the turtle moves!" fliers or posters. Or possibly some Omnian pamphlets to hand out. Something Discworldy.
Also running some ideas through my head for having a sobriety meetup of some kind before the parties get going. I can't be the only sober person who felt a bit left out by not being able to attend parties and hang out with certain people, so I'm thinking it might be nice to have a check-in session where we can (1) share what's on our minds (2) see that we're not the only uncool sober people, and (3) be able to look for each other if we need support during the con.
Dragged myself out of bed early to catch The Myth Of Fannish Tolerance. The panel was meant to discuss stuff like RaceFail, wherein the supposedly liberal/tolerant fandom community resists engaging with more advanced issues around race, orientation, gender, etc. But there was also some discussion from the audience about how people who are generally considered mainstream outside the con, like Christians and conservatives, are pushed to the fringes in a liberal-fannish space like Arisia. Someone, brought up the point that we need not be tolerant of intolerance, and that's absolutely true - but on the other hand, there's a tendency on the part of some liberals (especially religious minorities like Pagans and Atheists, both heavily represented at Arisia) to get defensive around Christians in general, as if the mere act of identifying oneself as Christian was as good as saying "I'm a homophobic bigot". And y'all, that's just not true. It was not the discussion I came expecting to have, but it was very interesting nonetheless.
Next up was Sexual Harassment And Assault In Fandom, which is always interesting and educational (I liked the strategies for helping when you see someone being harassed), but seemed kind of misplaced at the end of the con. I mean, that discussion itself is never a waste if even one person learns something from it, but it would have been really useful to have it at the beginning of the con. Also, major props to the panel on two points: (1) insisting on gender-neutral language when discussion perps and victims, so as not to erase anyone, and (2) tackling the thorny topic of people using autism spectrum disorders to excuse harassment or assault.
Post-Antibiotic SF was a panel about diseases in SF, particularly as drug-resistant bacteria become more of a problem in real life. The panel veered kind of off-topic, but the panelists ended up telling funny stories, reciting rhymes about why Bubonic Plague couldn't have been the cause of the Black Death, and generally being really entertaining and excited for a Monday morning panel. I didn't come away with any book recs, sadly, but one of the panelists offered to e-mail me some. Yay!
Next Year
I'm going to propose a panel on feminist sci-fi: what it is, what makes it feminist, what's new in the field. I'm also gonna apply to be on it, 'cause why not? I've got the feminist cred, at least.
Thinking of making up some "the turtle moves!" fliers or posters. Or possibly some Omnian pamphlets to hand out. Something Discworldy.
Also running some ideas through my head for having a sobriety meetup of some kind before the parties get going. I can't be the only sober person who felt a bit left out by not being able to attend parties and hang out with certain people, so I'm thinking it might be nice to have a check-in session where we can (1) share what's on our minds (2) see that we're not the only uncool sober people, and (3) be able to look for each other if we need support during the con.