Stardust and Privilege: This is not the Loncon you were looking for

[a_d_medievalist]

(trigger warning -- talk about harassment, bullying, sexual assault, PTSD, and other such things

Comments

[x_los]

Heya, I thought this post was really thoughtful, but just to let you know, I think you might have some coding errors at a few points?

[a_d_medievalist]

thanks! Stupid LJ's auto-formatting's attempts to 'fix' an incorrect tag...

[x_los]

Haven't we all faced that great evil? x_x

[lollardfish]

Yes, well said.

I wish I could arrange to introduce you to my friends (especially my fiddler) at the con, but they will be insane helping Seanan stay sane.

I hope you enjoy it and find it a safe space.

[taldragon]

if you're @lollardfish on Twitter, i saw your brief conversation with Mr Ross about witchhunts etc and thought you made very good points. even if he wasnt listening.

[a_d_medievalist]

He is -- Lollardfish, medievalist and RL friend, meet taldragon, enabler of my geekery and RL friend.

[taldragon]

"taldragon, enabler of my geekery "

i resemble that remark!

[ahistoricality]

Lovely use of "Stardust", too.

[a_d_medievalist]

Thank you. :-)

[la_marquise_de_]

I do know the chairs, as it happens (one of them is a dear friend) and, while I don't know details, I'm pretty sure that they weren't influenced by the fame factor over much. I also don't think that the gender of the big name was a factor here in the sense of how much influence.
I suspect we will never know exactly what happened, but, while I was personally uncomfortable with the announcement, I do believe that they acted for what they considered good reasons which were not to do with the fame of either Mr Ross or Mr Gaiman, seriously.

[a_d_medievalist]

That's nice to know. I used the word Stardust instead of fame deliberately, though, because I think there is a difference. Fame seems to me to be less personalised, while Stardust is a sort of glamour that affects different people differently. Fame, and celebrity, seem crass reasons for smart people to do things. But glamours... people don't even realise they are there. In that sense, I think privilege in general is a variant of Stardust, if you see what I mean.

[la_marquise_de_]

I do that's a good analogy, in fact.

[a_d_medievalist]

*beams* thank you. That means a lot.

[shermarama]

Aha. I've been reading about bits of this as it went along but not closely enough to really get the bigger picture; thanks for this.