Observing the Readercon situation

[scarlettina]

Short version: Author Genevieve Valentine attended Readercon and was repeatedly harassed by a big name fan called Rene Walling. Readercon has a publicly-stated zero-tolerance policy for harassment, and anyone guilty of harassment is supposed to receive a lifetime ban from the convention. Readercon has enforced this policy strictly in the past. In

Comments

[suricattus]

Someone, someone show me evidence of positive social evolution please.

The Readercon convention committee is voting on overturning the Board's decision. Many of them were Not Happy. So there's that.

(sadly, there are also some "well, it was an ALLEGED predation, why is he being punished at all" going on, despite the fact that the board's investigation upheld her claims. No surprise that it's mostly men saying this....)

[kehrli]

Also some, "Oh no, now will flirting be outlawed!?" which is... just such a depressing response.

[scarlettina]

Oh yeah--that thought definitely occurred to me because, well, it's one of the reasons I like conventions: Intelligent people wittily complimenting each other. ::sigh::

[kehrli]

Ah, I mostly found those comments depressing because I don't think the behavior being punished here / in sexual harassment policies has anything to do with flirting.

[twilight2000]

I'm a little confused - the Rene Walling I know is a woman? What am I missing?

[scarlettina]

Different person. This was a man who touched her without permission and stalked her throughout the convention.

[twilight2000]

oh dear - I hope our Rene doesn't catch any mis-directed crap! I read G's post - GAH!

[bedii]

It may depend on the board. If the board for the concom I most associate with had this problem come up the only discussion would be where to hide the body.

[scarlettina]

The Board made this decision. According to suricattus the word is now that the concom is looking into overturning it which I think is the only possibly acceptable move at this point.

[bedii]

Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. I meant to say that this may be an example of what damage a concom board can do--especially if because of the makeup of the board it isn't paying attention to the concom or the members of the convention. I don't know much about the Readercon board, except that they seem to have decided that BNF trumps sexual harassment to the degree that they find witnesses for the sexual harasser but don't contact the witnesses for the sexual harassee, which makes me angrier than you'd care to see--the victim shouldn't have to put up with this shit.

[prettyshrub]

Would female guests stop coming to Readercon if they felt they would be harassed? Would male guests support them and not come either?

[scarlettina]

Based on the responses to the announcement over at the Readercon LJ community it looks like that's exactly what people are saying.

[anaka]

This is the most positive change I know of, and I'm proud to have contributed to it:

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?638304-Policy-change-Threadcrapping-in-sexism-related-discussion

[scarlettina]

That? Is pretty great. You've also introduced me to a new word: threadcrapping. Thank you!