Al Franken: R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

Harvey Hits the Bottle

Sexual Harassment at Comic-Con?

Say it ain't so! I'm going to to go out on a limb here, don my kid gloves, walk on thin ice and mix metaphors with abandon as I broach this subject.

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

C.S.I. -Herman Cain's Car

Does anyone know what kind of car Herman Cain was driving that night? Or just exactly how large that front seat might be? Because I'm not sure this woman's story holds water. You have Mr. Cain and Ms. Bialek sitting side by side in the front seat. Cain is behind the wheel. He turns towards her and supposedly puts his hand on her leg and runs it up under her skirt. (00:45) Okay. Which hand?

I'm 6'3", with pretty long arms. Sitting in my car today, I tried reaching over with my left hand to where a passenger would be sitting. I had to lean forward to get anywhere near the top of a passenger's leg. It was awkward and uncomfortable and even more awkward if I would have tried to run my hand up the passenger's leg. My right hand, on the other hand (pun intended) reached easily and comfortably. So, let's assume for the moment that a person in the driver's seat could put his right hand up the skirt of someone in the passenger seat.

"He also grabbed my head and brought it towards his crotch." (00:53) Okay. At the risk of being crass...which hand? We pretty much established his right hand would be otherwise engaged. So, he must have used his left? I tried reaching around to simply touch the headrest on the passenger's side. It was even more awkward and I could barely touch it, much less imagine grabbing anyone's head and pulling it towards me. But again, with my right hand, I could do it easily.

But, she said..."also". As in, "at the same time"? Or was their some finite amount of time between the two events? Time in which to say "no!" or "WTF do you think you're doing?", or, "I'm not that kind of girl!" Something. I don't see anyone slyly slipping his left hand up her skirt or crossing his arms to grab her head, while in the front seat of a car, so if the sexual advances took place at all, would not the first action be an indication of more to come? (Pun also intended.)

And here's the tricky part. (Trick? Oblique pun intended.) If a man were to bring a woman's head towards his crotch, would he not first have needed his trousers unzipped? Wouldn't that have been a very large and definite indication of his intentions? In that situation, how did we get hand up the skirt, trousers unzipped, and head pulled down all before you tell him "no"?

Ladies, here's a clue: If the guy in the car with you unzips his pants, it's probably not so you can do his laundry! But she didn't say he did, and it seems odd that any man might pull a woman's head to his crotch so that she could admire the weave of his slacks. So, is she leaving out details of the story or making one up?

Seems to me, the only way her story would work, would be for them to be sitting very close together, with perhaps, at least some initial cooperation on her part. And there was alcohol involved. They met for drinks. How many? What kind? Anyone know if they had wine with their dinner? How much? Alcohol would impair judgment, both his and hers.

And finally, they were already friendly with one another, sat together at conferences, she met him for drinks, went out to dinner with him, and to one degree or another, perhaps under the influence, someone gave off the wrong signals or someone saw signals that weren't there? If it happened at all, and it's hard to be sure with the "he said, she said", I still don't see Herman Cain as a sexual predator. Maybe someone would have to present some kind of tangible or concrete evidence first.

Frankly, I would also be more inclined to believe Ms. Bialek's story had she not come into the clutches of Ms. Gloria Allred. Allred is a Democrat operative who has torpedoed Republican politicians before for fun and profit. This smells a little too contrived. And isn't it odd that none of this came out during Cain's run for the Senate?

I'm not saying it couldn't have happened, but before we assassinate the man's character, maybe we could establish a slightly higher bar of evidence than "He said, she said"?

The Lady doth protest too much, methinks.

TSA Worker Accused Of Assault Had Prior Record

It's good to know you're being felt up by professionals!

ATLANTA -- Channel 2 Action News has learned a TSA security worker accused of abducting and sexually assaulting a woman had previously been convicted of misdemeanor harassment and stalking.

Randall King remains hospitalized following a suicide attempt. Police said last Wednesday, King agreed to drive a woman home from the airport. Instead, investigators said King took her to a MARTA station parking lot and placed novelty handcuffs on her.

Investigators said he drove her 50 miles away to his home in Troup County and sexually assaulted her. The woman told police that King gave her a suicide note, his car and let her go, investigators said.

Forget "Fly the Friendly Skies"! The airport is where all the action is!

H/T Memeorandum

Cross posted at LCR, Say Anything.