Sexual harassment.

[la_marquise]

jimhines has some important things to say here about sexual harassment. Go and read. I'll still be here.

It looks, I know, as if this is a subject some of us keep banging on about. It's a subject I know I rant about, and people's eyes glaze over and they turn away. But the thing is, I rant because this is a big deal, a big problem, and it isn't going away. I've been going to sf conventions since I was 13. I had my first brush with unwanted male attention at a con when I was 15. (Outside a convention? I was 12.) The last time I experienced harassment was last August, from a drunk in a pub. Being female all too often means being treated as if you are in some ways public property every time you step outside your front door (and sometimes before then, too). It never lets up. How you move, look, speak, stand, breathe, dress: it all comes in for attention. And it can be all but impossible to get others to listen to your concerns, let alone do something about it.
Jim is one of the good guys. There are a lot of you out there, I know. It takes men and women together to deal with this stuff. Speak out, speak up: it's a sad fact of our culture that men are listened to more than women. So use it.
And to my female friends, we're in this together. I've got your back.