Dragon Con Harasment Policy

[next_friday]

What is Dragon*Con's stand on Scalzi's Convention Harassment Policy?

"We reserve the right to ask you to leave the convention
and refuse to refund your membership money
if you are behaving - in technical terms - like a jerk."  <- this is not reassuring.

Comments

[davidvcody]

We are working on it now and we will have something very soon.

[trybutez]

So this is going to come across as harsh. Sorry... but

[tardis_stowaway]

Yeah, I also went and looked at D*C's policies after reading Scalzi's piece. I agree that this is not reassuring. :(

It does give the con the option of throwing someone out for harassment, but I don't think it's enough. Explicitly stating that harassment is not allowed, with some definition of what that means, would make the rules clearer. That would both reduce the likelihood of harassers getting an out by claiming they didn't think they were being a jerk and also tell people who are victims of harassment that the con will support them if they lodge a complaint.

Looking at the con policies, it seems that they are trying to make the list succinct and humorous. That's understandable. Still, the weapons policy goes into a bit of detail and gives examples of some things that are not allowed. I think the same can and should be done with a clear harassment policy. It's fine to also include a general catch-all ban on behaving like a jerk, because people will always invent unexpected ways to do that, but they need to directly ban

[mrcell]

The back of last year's D*C badge states

[rap541]

Its actually not on the Ed Kramer boycotters agenda (or at least it wasn't)

I'm inclined to agree that the only thing that really would help beyond a symbolic gesture is more security, and more *visible* security and staff.

And maybe discouraging alcoholic consumption a wee bit.

[encarmencita]

This is not personally about DragonCon. A lot of guests, authors, actors, at many media cons have made commitments not to attend any cons where there are not clear harassment policies. Clear and enforced policies protect those being harassed as well as protecting the rights of those participants involved in consensual activities

[mrcell]

I agree that we probably don't have to worry about security at D*C making blameless people feel uncomfortable. My point is that any well intentioned movement can go too far. As others have pointed out, a policy is only as good as the quality of the enforcement. If the people charged with enforcing it are mature, fair and even handed, everything will be fine. But all it would take to have it go to far would be for a few Barney Fife or Paul Blart types to be involved. I'm sure folks like that wouldn't last long in a security postion at D*C, but they could be around long enough to cause a different kind of problem. In my personal experience, D*C security does a great job in a difficult situation. I have nothing but praise for them. But adding significant extra security to strongly enforce anti-harassment is bound to bring in a few untested or over zealous individuals who'll take a while to weed out. The problem needs to be addressed, but the solution has to be carefully considered and implemented. Let's not have another witch hunt.

[wookieegunner]

Well, I can say for certain that the "like a jerk" policy is at least 10 years old. They had it at my first D*Con (2002). Also, if you exclude the door guards which is an independant third party, Dragon*con Security is all volunteers, so if you are interested in more security I would talk to them about helping out.

[holli]

I won't say it's a deal-breaker this year, but not having a real policy definitely marks the con as being behind the times, and I expect them to get it together by next year.

This pretty basic: if you want your congoers to feel safe, have a policy in place to protect them from harassers.

[braidedmane]

I wouldn't hold your breath. This policy is an old one, and there was a LOT of talk (from attendees) last year about revising it, and D*C's response was far from encouraging.

Basically, they're aware of the problem, but they haven't so far seemed inclined to do anything about it.

I'd like to think that davidvcody is right above, and they're going to rewrite it to be legit, but frankly I'll believe it when I see it.

[mrcell]

It isn't just Dragon*Con that hasn't done everything that they could about this problem. This article in Wired is the best take I've yet seen about the nature of the problem, which appears to be happening at most large Cons and at least some small ones. Even the "sainted" Comic-Con International has been dragging its feet on this one.
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2013/07/convention-harassment-comic-con/

[braidedmane]

I definitely agree. My focus has just been on D*C because that's the only con I currently attend. Thanks for the link.