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.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

If only we were that organised... But in theory the laws are there, but con committees and fans worry about external interference and so forth, and some fans see the whole issue as 'bringing fandom into disrepute' -- the same old excuse.

[anna-wing.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I have no great patience with fannish omerta (though obviously my involvement in fandom is so peripheral now that I can afford to say this; it is not a significant part of my social life or livelihood). Fandom is already brought into disrepute when it fails to deal with such actions. Going to the hotel management or the police is merely seeking a remedy for its internal failure. A bit of gaiatsu in such circumstances might actually be helpful.

In any case, now that I think of it, it would only take one or two well-publicised instances of someone getting a criminal record (and a fine, gaol, flogging, whatever suits in the jurisdiction in which it occurs) to scare a lot of the scum into moderating their behaviour. Because they will never be sure that their next victim (or the con committee) will not do the same. Heads on spikes, that's the ticket.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

That would certainly work. I suspect one of the problems is that the offenders generally stick to low-level harassment, and it can be hard to get the police to take that seriously.