Before I forget for another day, fellow VPXIII ("The Fightin' 13th") Miranda Suri has a new blog. Miranda is seriously fun to know, and she's going to be one of those kick-ass new SF/F writers you'll be hearing about soon.
Jim Hines has a post with contacts and links for "what to do if you're sexually harassed at a SF/F convention. You may remember the complete idiocy of "open source boobs" last year (or whateverthehell they called it). To anybody who wants to put up a fracas, understand there is a difference between what two connecting adults do, and what happens when one person takes advantage of another. While sexual (or any) harassment at a social event is just total douchebagness, when you add in the perceived power differences between an author and a fan, or an editor/publisher and a writer, it becomes a field of land mines. And just as a reminder, setting of land mines is never good for anybody; not the person who triggered it, not the person who set it, and most certainly not for the land mine itself.
Here's a Gallup poll on the differences between the Ds and Rs on compromise. Can't say there's much surprise there, at least from my experience. Heck, you don't have to have my experience, just do a roll of the political conversation from the time of the election.
Speaking of elections, is it me, or is this year full of "newly elected but not sworn in" officials trying to direct the course of the outgoing administrations? Um, yeah. While I would think it's just a "we're chomping at the bit to get started" I'm also taken aback by the presumptiveness of it all. But then, it also feeds into the (false) public perception about who was responsible for TARP.
Here's another "after election" poll. This one on what voters really want (short notes, they'd rather tax the rich than cut Social Security). Of course, before Cassie makes the comment, the PPP poll and PCCC aren't exactly non-partisan players. However, their results to track to other exit polling stats I heard from election day (on various news outlets) and was part of my earlier comment on how it only took 24 hours to go from "we know people were voting 'against' more than 'for'" to "we have a mandate!" (Which, BTW, I continue to hear a ground swelling of the "mandate" echo chamber effect).
Hey, more "non-politcal" links. Maybe I'm having a break through.
4 comments:
Hey Steve,
Thanks for plugging my blog! Guess I'd better go think of something scintillating to post today!
I read Jim Hines' post earlier today and remembered the "open source boobs" atrocity. That was the day that I decided I would not take my daughters nor encourage my son to go to a SF/F con. It made me sad to think that way.
So when I read Hines' post - I was not impressed. "Consenting adults" were fondling each other in public - that's the atmosphere of a con? Forget it.
I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to go to World Con in Chicago. But I don't want to pay $$$ to risk being in that kind of atmosphere. Prude? Yep.
Sadly,
Anonymous Cassie
Hey Miranda, no worries. As you can see, I don't always post scintillating material every day. Just be regular.
Cassie, well I can tell you that the majority of people at cons don't act that way. Which is why such activity stands out (and hopefully as you can see in Jim's post and follow ups, the publishers are interested in stopping such actions). Bu then, I'm a guy so I may be missing some of the subtle stuff going on.
That said, there are a lot of things that go on at cons that depending on your own morals, you may not want you children to be exposed to. World Fantasy is very professional oriented, so you don't have much more than writers, publishers, and agents with a smattering of fans thrown in the mix. Other cons have more fans and include various tracks on media, filk (songs), anime, etc. While the vast majority of it is very safe, you will meet polyamorous people, costuming people, people in costumes (as different from "costuming") that you might find objectionable, etc.
Cons, for the most part, realize they have families (many of the authors bring their families, including their kids) and make the cons very safe. But if you find women in corsets, scanty dress, etc you might have to deal with them for a few minutes during the weekend (especially if you stay for the parties).
I'm probably making them sound worse than they are. I wouldn't be ashamed to take my mother to any of the conventions I normally go to.
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