For the Love of Geekdom....

A week ago, Bully's partner-in-crime John wrote a serious piece on sexual harassment at comic conventions that ended with a call to action of sorts. It is a very well done piece, and I encourage you to check it out if you haven't had an opportunity.

As a response to this, the Con Anti-Harassment Project has been established. It appears to be an excellent place to start. The CAHP encourages a letter writing campaign and gives policy tips for conventions to help establish a policy. It also has a safehouse forum of sorts for folks to share their experiences and a link to the "Back Up" Project that resulted from the boob touching that occurred awhile back at a few of the gaming shows..

I want to encourage everyone to take this seriously, as it has obviously become the white elephant in the room that we can no longer ignore. No one should fear attending a show because they are frightened or intimidated. The convention is a public atmosphere and it should breed fellowship, not alienation.

It really makes me sad that it has come to this. I am glad that John stepped up and made the issue be noticed. The only part that really bothers me is that there have been women up in arms about treatment for quite some time, and it took this post to capture the attention of everyone. I don't know if it is because John is male or because he just made so much damn sense that people cared, but either way I am glad it is in the forefront.

The fact that we have to get sexual harassment policies installed at shows makes me feel sick. It should never have come to this. It is a sad commentary on how poorly folks have behaved at these shows. If I was a single female, I don't know if I would brave the shows.

It is surreal to me that a show like Emerald City Comicon may institute policies. It has been a show that I have enjoyed so much since it's inception. Never once have I heard a peep of any problems there, but maybe it is because it is a smaller show and because I have always attended with my husband. I can't lie- I am furious that the behavior of a bunch of dickheads is inflicting itself on the conventions I so look forward to.

Please do what you can to make others aware of the letter writing campaign and the CAHP site. If we do something now, maybe we can prevent something from happening in the future.