SAN DIEGO — Amid the costumes and fantasy of this weekend’s Comic-Con convention, a group of young women drew widespread attention to a very real issue — allegations of sexual harassment at the annual pop-culture festival. Geeks for CONsent, founded by three women from Philadelphia, gathered nearly 2,600 signatures on an online petition supporting a formal anti-harassment policy at Comic-Con. Conventioneers told Geeks for CONsent they had been groped, followed and unwillingly photographed during the four-day confab.
Okay. Groping? That's a no brainer. I would go so far as to not only tell those hormonally raging geeks to keep their hands to themselves, but tell them not to touch the ladies with any appendage they are fond of and/or wish to go home with. Personally, I don't see groping as sexual harassment, but assault:
"an intentional act by one person that creates an apprehension in another of an imminent harmful or offensive contact"Groping could lead to civil or criminal liability.
But following or photographing?? I dunno. Ladies, have you thought this through?? You go to a convention that is predominantly male, with perhaps the highest percentage of socially maladjusted males in the country, with a high percentage of adolescent males of all ages, and you show up in public in a sexually provocative outfit and you expect guys not to take your picture?? Isn't that the idea? To show up with the best costume, or body (or both) and get people's attention?
Adolescent males are a herd animal, easily frightened. Consider the buddy system when cosplaying your sexy self. A nice Iron Man or Hercules can tell these guys to shove off or make some other display of testosterone. Female buddies can give you strength in numbers, but pound for pound, my money's on the neo-Neanderthal.
Probably not the best "buddies" to keep guys from following/photographing you.
Remember too, that even though you don't mean it, you're leading some of these guys on. They may not be socially adept, but when you dress up as a comic book or anime character, you might be mistaken for a...fellow nerd. In other words, these guys might think they actually have a shot with you. (I know! delusions die hard!)
Ladies, if you have trouble dealing with adolescent males, comic book conventions might not be the best place for you. If some guy touches you inappropriately, call security, whip out your camera phone, take his picture and call the police. Toss his sorry butt in jail. (That might teach him more about groping than he ever wanted to know!) But, if some guy just takes your picture, consider it a compliment. Happens to celebrities all the time. On the other hand, if some guy is stalking you, certainly call security. Personally, I would think a well placed, unkind word or two would cause most of these guys to turn tail and run, leaving their bruised and bloodied egos in the dust behind them. Some of you ladies are good at this. Really. Really.
“The kind of behavior that needs to be modified is somebody taking a photo of you bent over while you’re signing a print.”-Toni Darling, a 24-year-old model dressed as Wonder Woman
Mm. I think they call that "castration". Toni, have ever even met a guy? If you want to modify that behavior, you need to take him home to mother and make a project out of him. It may take years. It may never be completely successful, but, hey! You'll have a ring and half his house!
That'll teach him!
Cross posted at LCR
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Passive-aggressive kabuki. They dress up in "look at me" costumes, then get the vapors when a horny guy looks at them.
ReplyDeleteThis (like most things) is about power and control.
Like you, I also noticed how they conflated actual criminal behavior (groping) with more innocuous ogling and "following," and you said it better than I ever could.
Thanks! There's a thin line between exhibitionism and "blaming the victim". Guys should be cool and show restraint. The ladies who are looking for attention should be careful what they wish for. Sexy costumes and multitudes of horny guys away from home may tempt some of them to think "What happens at Comic-Con, stays at Comic-Con."
ReplyDeleteDamn, now I have this urge to grope a good looking babe. Maybe she'll forgive an old man.
ReplyDeleteHold that thought, Odie. In fact they have a place for holding thoughts like that. They call it a "holding cell".
ReplyDeleteIs there a bus stop for that?
ReplyDeleteNah. Just hail a cab. One of those black and white ones with the light bar on the top. You may have to throw a rock or something at them to get their attention to get them to stop. They can take you right there.
ReplyDeleteStarted out as great article. Then I saw the fotos and.....wait, what?
ReplyDeleteA picture is worth 1000 words!
ReplyDeleteGeeks for CONsent thinks an online petition will fix the groping issue, yeah right
ReplyDeleteOh No! we cant have guys photographing paid models
Don't know if there's a real problem here or just a small disgruntled group disappointed that the world doesn't respond the way they think it should.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's a real problem - just a bunch of self-promotion noise
ReplyDeleteThe picture that accompanied the article I read had three gals in bikinis. I don't know if they were with Consent or not, but the one in the middle had a ...Green Lantern bikini. Now, if you wanted to dress up like Green Lantern, you'd use a lot more cloth, shall we say. There's a lot of "Look at me!" going on at Comic-Con.
ReplyDelete