Comments Off | Posted: August 15th, 2008 | Filed under: SDCC2008, Think About It Won't You | Tags: san diego comic-con, sdcc, SDCC2008, sexism, sexual harassment
John DiBello, if you weren’t aware, helps out Bully with his site by paying for cookies, holding open the scanner, and making sure that he gets to bed at 9:00 on the dot. I consider John one of my better friends, so when he asked me to run this piece, I didn’t hesitate, as he tackled this difficult and frustrating topic in a way that I never could.
Overheard at San Diego Comic-Con while I was having lunch on the balcony of the Convention Center on Sunday July 27: a bunch of guys looking at the digital photos on the camera of another, while he narrated: “These were the Ghostbusters girls. That one, I grabbed her ass, ’cause I wanted to see what her reaction was.” This was only one example of several instance of harassment, stalking or assault that I saw at San Diego this time.
1. One of my friends was working at a con booth selling books. She was stalked by a man who came to her booth several times, pestering her to get together for a date that night. One of her co-workers chased him off the final time.
2. On Friday, just before the show closed, this same woman was closing up her tables when a group of four men came to her booth, started taking photographs of her, telling her she was the “prettiest girl at the con.” They they entered the booth, started hugging and kissing her and taking photographs of themselves doing so. She was confused and scared, but they left quickly after doing that.
3. Another friend of mine, a woman running her own booth: on Friday a man came to her booth and openly criticized her drawing ability and sense of design. Reports from others in the same section of the floor confirmed he’d targeted several women with the same sort of abuse and criticism.
Quite simply, this behavior has got to stop at Comic-Con. It should never be a sort of place where anyone, man or woman, feels unsafe or attacked either verbally or physically in any shape or form. There are those, sadly, who get off on this sort of behavior and assault, whether it’s to professional booth models, cosplayers or costumed women, or women who are just there to work. This is not acceptable behavior under any circumstance, no matter what you look like or how you’re dressed, whether you are in a Princess Leia slave girl outfit or business casual for running your booth.
On Saturday, the day after the second event I described above, I pulled out my convention book to investigate what you can do and who you can speak to after such an occurrence. On page two of the book there is a large grey box outlining “Convention Policies,” which contain rules against smoking, live animals, wheeled handcarts, recording at video presentations, drawing or aiming your replica weapon, and giving your badge to others. There is nothing about attendee-to-attendee personal behavior.
Page three of the book contains a “Where Is It?” guide to specific Comic-Con events and services. There’s no general information room or desk listed, nor is there a contact location for security, so I go to the Guest Relations Desk. I speak to a volunteer manning the desk; she’s sympathetic to the situation but who doesn’t have a clear answer to my question: “What’s Comic-Con’s policy and method of dealing with complaints about harassment?” She directs me to the nearest security
guard, who is also sympathetic listening to my reports, but short of the women wanting to report the incidents with the names of their harassers, there’s little that can be done.
“I understand that,” I tell them both, “but what I’m asking is more hypothetical and informational: if there is a set Comic-Con policy on harassment and physical and verbal abuse on Con attendees and exhibitors, and if so, what’s the specific procedure by which someone should report it, and specifically where should they go?” But this wasn’t a question either could answer.
So, according to published con policy, there is no tolerance for smoking, drawn weapons, personal pages or selling bootleg videos on the floor, and these rules are written down in black and white in the con booklet. There is not a word in the written rules about harassment or the like. I would like to see something like “Comic-Con has zero tolerance for harassment or violence against any of our attendees or exhibitors. Please report instances to a security guard or the Con Office in room XXX.”
The first step to preventing such harassment is giving its victims the knowledge that they can safely and swiftly report such instances to someone in authority. Having no published guideline, and indeed being unable to give a clear answer to questions about it, gives harassment and violence one more red-tape loophole to hide behind.
I enjoyed Comic-Con. I’m looking forward to coming back next year. So, in fact, are the two women whose experiences I’ve retold above. Aside from those instances, they had a good time at the show. But those instances of harassment shouldn’t have happened at all, and that they did under no clear-cut instructions about what to do sadly invites the continuation of such behavior, or even worse.
I don’t understand why there’s no such written policy about what is not tolerated and what to do when this happens. Is there anyone at Comic-Con able to explain this? Does a similar written policy exist in the booklets for other conventions (SF, comics or otherwise) that could be used as a model? Can it be adapted or adapted, and enforced, for Comic-Con? As the leading event of the comics and pop culture world, Comic-Con should work to make everyone who attends feel comfortable and safe.
I’ve turned comments off for one reason: I want you to discuss it elsewhere and
get the word out. Post on message boards, mention this to people you know, or even better, talk about it on your own blog.
2 Comments | Posted: July 30th, 2008 | Filed under: Art Appreciation, SDCC2008 | Tags: j jonah hameson, jjj
3 Comments | Posted: July 29th, 2008 | Filed under: Art Appreciation, SDCC2008 | Tags: j jonah jameson, jjj
6 Comments | Posted: July 29th, 2008 | Filed under: SDCC2008
2 Comments | Posted: July 28th, 2008 | Filed under: Meta, SDCC2008
You know, when you come back from San Diego having spent no small amount of money on comics and comics-related accessories, it’s really amusing to have a DCBService box sitting on the kitchen counter that contains:
- Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg! Volume 1
- The Complete Popbot
- That new ZOT! book
- Scud The Disposable Assassin: The Whole Shebang!
More tomorrow, ok? Maybe after all this stuff falls on me and snaps my spine.
3 Comments | Posted: July 27th, 2008 | Filed under: SDCC2008 | Tags: san diego, sdcc
1.
Can’t write good. Brainleeches. I require victuals and coffee like you have read about on the internet.
2.
Finally saw some of the people I’d been meaning to, including Cliff Chiang (oh he drew a lovely thing for me) and Wil Wheaton (who I know through a mutual friend and who is as nice as the day is long and may or may not suspect that pal Josh and I are a couple and I’m pretty sure I insulted him within the first minute) and the Hernandez Brothers (oh Jaime drew a lovely thing for me) and the internet’s very own Carla Hoffman, who came with her husband Lance, who I thought was named Dennis for some reason or another.
The flip side of this is that you never get enough time with a lot of the people you want to see, which is a damned shame because it’s not like they’ve done anything wrong; it’s just too rush-rush-rush. On top of this, my Blackberry was being a total dick and I wasn’t able to turn the damned thing on for a good two-hour stretch. I suspect this may have been because I wanted to see if it would float in a pint glass full of hefeweizen. This was done in the name of science, dammit. Science.
3.
The secret to enjoying SDCC if you’re not tied down to a booth? Long lunches with a friend and his wife and their too-cute toddler son. You relax, enjoy some conversation, and let the din of the con floor fade completely from your ears for a while. Then you go back into the madness and can play “Count The People Costumed Inappropriately For Their Body Type.” I won with 87!
4.
Seriously, what the fuck is up with the goddamn furries? Your miserable, semen-stained costumes make me want to eat a gun each and every time I see one of you. Stop breaking my faith in humanity!
5.
There must be something wrong with me: I am thinking about getting a Small Press table next year and doing some things for the show with both The Rack and BeaucoupKevin.com branded merchandise, such as polo shirts, golf head covers, and an exclusive line of scents for the discerning oh am I just pulling your leg. Probably a mini and some swag for the strip.
6.
Thank god today’s the last day and I can just sort of chill and sleep early tonight. I can’t imagine being in the airport for the great Nerd Exodus like my writing partner Josh is going to be. Honestly, though, waiting in line for some guy with a Death Note costume to explain that no, he’s really not really a death god and the plane won’t go down in flames because of him? Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
7.
I’m probably not going to update until I’m back in Boston, tomorrow night. Remember to check out The Rack on Monday morning for an all-new strip featuring a slightly recycled gag. If the news from San Diego has proven anything to me, it’s that nerds love the same thing over and over and over with minor variations. Hooray comics!
3 Comments | Posted: July 26th, 2008 | Filed under: SDCC2008 | Tags: san diego comic-con, SDCC2008
1.
I ended up going down the floor late, kind of wandering around, talking to people I know, and having long, leisurely lunches with friends from LA, before going back just in time to leave again for dinner with some fantastic creators, like Adam Shaw. I then crashed out early because Thursday’s evening excursion left me drained of my victuals in a manner most disturbing. Also, there were massive fuck-off blisters on my feet that had me soaking them for an hour while reading the new Love and Rockets book. I was asleep by 11:30 or so, and I’m OK with that.
2.
The new Love And Rockets book is so, so, so good.
3.
The Eisners. Congratulations to everybody that won, with one notable exception.
I don’t want to be that guy, but why the hell did my guy Fred Chao get blanked while Buffy The Vampire Slayer walked away with a goddamn Eisner for “Best New Series”? A tie-in (no matter how high-quality it is now or how many copies it sold) shouldn’t beat material created for the native medium in this category, particularly when the competition was so strong.
4.
Jason Ho gave me the best idea for a thing that I am now seriously considering doing. It’d be my first work in video, but the majority work required is well within my skill sets and the end result could be…hilarity.
5.
I need to find some goddamn coffee. It’s 9:30 and I should think about starting my day.
1 Comment | Posted: July 25th, 2008 | Filed under: SDCC2008 | Tags: Add new tag, san diego comic-con, SDCC2008
1.
Fucking hell, my fucking feet. Next time, remind me that I should be gellin’ from the begellin’. (No, that makes no sense to me, either. Ignore the crazy old man, kids.)
2.
The crowd seemed to move in surges and actually flattened out around 5pm or so and started to diminish. That’s what I thought, of course, until I walked out around 6:30 and suddenly found myself in a scene akin to the end of Soylent Green with bodies pressed against each other all moving in a shuffle-step that may become the next great dance craze for those that want to appear to be zombified.
3.
If BOOM!’s preview for The Muppet Show comic book is any indication, there’s going to be some happy kids in spring of next year. Myself, I am not a fan of Muppets (as they are a form of puppet and I hate puppets like Hitler hated…everything) but I think the property could do a lot for BOOM! if they move out of the direct market with it and into other venues. This appears to be the intention of everybody working there.
4.
I got to catch up with Jeff Lemire over lunch yesterday, and that was just terrific. He’s got some news coming up soonish that makes me very, very, very, very happy.
5.
I’ve not kept track of one single piece of news from this show, and neither has anyone else working in booths, etc., but there’s a great rundown over at Blog@Newsarama. I’m most excited about Agents of Atlas as an ongoing and Cooke’s Parker adaptations and Kevin Smith’s Batman miniseries featuring a character that speaks in sound effects. (One of those may be a lie. I’ll let the regular readers suss out which one it is.)
The best comments about the show, though, belong to a little stuffed bull. I honestly have no idea how he types as much as he does with those hooves, but I presume that his friend John got him a special keyboard.
6.
Today, I gotta buy some minis and pick up a piece of art I’ve been longing for. Longing, I tell you, and avoid spending much more money on things that aren’t alcohol or alcohol accessories. More on that later.
8 Comments | Posted: July 24th, 2008 | Filed under: SDCC2008
1.
Arrived safe and sound, where I immediately shuttled to an In-n-Out Burger, a chain that simply will never come to the East Coast in an attempt to drive me stark raving mad. You may have heard of them before and thought their reputation was exaggerated; you would be wrong.
2.
I’ve not had a chance to hook the camera up to the computer, but will likely do that tonight or tomorrow. Took just a few photos of people. I think that’s what I’m more interested in: portraiture of people I know during Comic-Con, not Oh Hey There’s The Nite Owl’s Ship because, you know, there’s going to be quite enough of that.
3.
Preview Night crowds may be big, but they’re bearable. I have no idea how Saturday, with its estimated 125,000 people dressed like Naruto (seriously, how is that still a thing?,) is going to shake down unless there’s going to be swat teams and riot control police on site. I may just choose to hide under one of the multiple tables framing BOOM!’s booth and whimper on occasion.
4.
My purchases for the night were copies of the Scott Pilgrim color special, the New Love And Rockets Stories #1 and Tales Designed To Thrizzle #4. Jeff Lemire was kind enough to ensure I got a copy of the new Essex County Tales book, but I think that may be because I’m buying him lunch today.
5.
If I listed the freaks I’ve already seen, you wouldn’t believe me. The worst may have been the mentally-ill fellow working his way rapidly through the small-press section while rubbing his toy raccoon in a manner that I’ll say was sensual.
6.
I’m part of the CBR Live Blog for the event. I may well be uploading photos from the Blackberry to that along with pithy updates.
