Conventional Behavior
Ordinarily I would be entrancing you all with my pithy review of Green Lantern Corps. This however, is slightly more important. Over on Bully's site, as well as Kevin Church's and Chris Sims, and a few others, Bully's friend John has written a VERY well-done essay about misbehavior at the large (and small) Conventions recently, and how there is no fixed policy concerning it. Go ahead and check it out at Bully, or BeaucoupKevin, or Chris's Invincible Super stuff. I have them bookmarked over on the side.
I know it would be easier if I had one of those little highlighted thingies, but I don't know how to do it, and there isn't a teenager handy at the moment. Go and read it. I'll wait.
He raises a valid point eh? I have never been to a big convention, but I have been to plenty of comic book shops, and smaller shows and such, and although I'm getting to be a bit long in the tooth nowadays, that was not always the case. I have had my share of getting pinched and propositioned, and it is ALWAYS a pain in the ass, not to mention occasionally frightening. I can't even imagine what it must be like for the women who wear the costumes. Just because a woman is dressed up like Black Canary DOESN'T mean that she wants you grabbing her or leering at her.
Boys, how would you like it if a group of women started grabbing YOU by the ass and making comments? I specifically used the word "Boys", not men. Real men don't do stuff like this.
I am also disturbed by John's discovery that while there are clear and concise rules about smoking and aiming your faux rayguns, there is NO policy concerning harassment nor how to report it. That is ridiculous, and the Convention organizers should rectify this immediately. A few signs posted would be nice, as well as something in the brochures. It's either that, or they can start handing out complimentary tasers to all the women. And wouldn't THAT be fun!
posted by SallyP @ 6:58 AM
8 Comments:
I hauled off and slugged a guy once for pinching me in a comic book shop. I'm not kidding. I was in my mid-20s, and a regular customer at this particular shop (the owners all knew me and were very nice to me). BUT, I was practically the ONLY female customer, and I could always tell when a new (male) shopper was in the store because I almost ALWAYS heard comments the second I walked in. The proprietors, bless 'em, always told the commentators to shut up, when they could. They weren't always handy, though.
Finally, the day came when some loser actually pinched my butt when I was filing through a long box. I didn't even think -- I was nothing but anger and adrenaline. I turned around, grabbed the guy by the shirt collar (luckily he wasn't much bigger than me), hauled him out to the sidewalk, and punched him in the face right there and then. The creep got up and RAN AWAY without saying anything. I remember one of the other guys in the store saying, "That's why you shouldn't mess with chicks who read about superheroes!"
Good for you! It's a shame, but I think that just about EVERY woman who reads comics has a similar tale to tell. Granted, there are pigs everywhere, but is it me, or do they seem to proliferate at conventions or signings or whatever?
I don't know if it is the feeling of entitlement from drooling over scantily-clad females in the books or just stupidity, but guys, you really shouldn't be doing stuff to REAL women.
Can you imagine what Power Girl would do at a Convention? It would be...beautiful.
LOL! Yeah, but it also might land her in jail! ;-)
Yeah, sad to say, I think you're right -- I think every female fan has encountered the sorts of problems Bully reported upon. The thing that surprises me is that it took this long for someone to say something about it. You CAN'T tell me this is the first time this sort of thing has happened at Comic Con!
I have to admit that retaliating against the guy who pinched me felt awfully good -- except for what happened to my hand. Darned near broke a finger punching that guy. No one ever told me that punching people in the face hurts your hands! ;-)
That's why I like slapping. Then just your palm hurts.
K2daN, ladies. Knee to the Nads.
Sally, open up a new tab on your browser (I'm assuming you're using Firefox), go the website you want to link to.
Highlight everything in the address bar.
Hold CTRL & C
Go back to where you are writing your post and highlight the words you want to be the blue link thingy. Click on the picture of the picture with the chain (it may have an earth & a chain.
In the popup window hit CTRL & V.
You should be good go go
Thank you Dwayne!
"Granted, there are pigs everywhere, but is it me, or do they seem to proliferate at conventions or signings or whatever?"
Probably because they think they are more likely to get away with it at those places. Which is the whole problem John was shedding the spotlight on.
It sucks that a relative few but annoyingly vocal number of jackasses has to ruin things for others like this.
Going for the nards, as Dwayne suggests, is effective. I'd also suggest a good poke in the eye ala Moe Howard.
And Dwayne, can I get some tips on how I can set up my links list? I'm currently using "Blogger" and I'd like to list other recommended sites (like Sally's) somewhere other than in my individual posts (where I know how to hyperlink).
re: encouraging SDCC and other cons to establish clear personal harassment policies, I'm trying to jumpstart a letter-writing campaign here: http://www.girl-wonder.org/insideout/2008/08/18/blogging-isnt-enough/
if you're interested in sharing info / promoting / organizing, let me know.
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