Women call for sexual harassment policy at Comic-Con

[bnmc2005]

Geeks for CONsent brings sexual harassment to center stage at San Diego's Comic-Con convention

July 28, 2014 4:53PM ET Source is here:
by Marisa Taylor   @marisahtaylor

An estimated 130,000 people attended Comic-Con International in San Diego last weekend, but the annual celebration, where many fans dress as fantasy heroes, seems to have brought out

Comments

[soleiltropiques]

So far, in my (not so well informed) opinion, it doesn't look as though cons are doing such a good job of addressing harassment.

(1) There was the Readercon debacle in 2012, where a woman complained about being harassed by a man, and the con board contravened their own policy to merely ban the guy for 2 years (despite having an existing policy of lifetime banning in response to this). It was only as a result of substantial pressure and people openly stating their intention to avoid the con in question that they finally elected to follow their own policy. (See here for a summary: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_and_Readercon)

(2) Wiscon 2014: in 2013 a woman complained about a harassment incident and made a formal report. The next year the man was back at the con. (I haven't summarized things very well here, but here is a WAY better summary: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2014/07/28/what-happened-after-i-reported-elise-matthesen-wiscon-and-harassment/. See also here: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/SFF_harassment_revelations_2013)

Also, I'd REALLY suggest avoiding the comments at the source, which are basically variations on blaming the victim.

*is depressed*

[moonshaz]

It sounds like Wiscon may at least be trying to address the situation you're talking about:

Concom update for July 26th, 2014
Update From the Concom, Monday, July 21, 2014
WisCon Subcommittee Statement on Jim Frenkel, Friday, July 18, 2014
Statement from Joanna Lowenstein, WisCon 38 Co-Chair, Monday, July 7, 2014
Statements from WisCon Safety Chairs, Monday, June 30, 2014

The situation seems to be evolving as we speak. I am favorably impressed by the (at least seeming) transparency of this process, and I think it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

[soleiltropiques]

Not disagreeing with you, but I do find it unfortunate though, to put it mildly, that it takes this amoung to public pressures for cons to even live up to their own anti-harassment policies (and that's if they even have them).

It's very depressing, IMHO.