No wonder some people download comics off the internet instead – why should a comics fan go out of her way and endure bad treatment by the staff in order to get comics when she can get the same comics in the comfort of her own home with less harassment?

Sorry I hadn’t addressed your comments sooner. Beginnings of the school semester are busy times. Any rate…

Cisco:
I think everybody’s pointed out the issues women have with comic shops, and I don’t deny that’s an issue. I think the conventions are a bit more of a risk zone, because there’s a much larger space and population involved. There’s just an attitude from too many people that conventions are a place to go to act on the impulse to take advantage of people.

However, there needs to be a movement towards inclusion in fan culture, which goes all the way top-to-bottom. Thanks for the comment

Teresa:
I agree, I think safety should come before the inevitable tendency to analyze or point fingers towards the cause. I think there needs to be a movement focus towards an inclusive environment, women and minorities. I like what Rachel Edidin’s working on, CAHP, if you haven’t heard about it.

As obnoxious as people carrying signs could be at Comic-Con, I couldn’t imagine the grief an African-American guy would have received for carrying or responding to one of those signs. White and male still sadly seems to be the default fan experience, with women grist for fantasy and objectification–women are the ones that dress in “sexy” costumes, while even men who dress in revealing costumes aren’t truthfully considered to be “sexy.”

As an aside, Rachel–It’s a shame I never got to say hello in San Diego. I was trying to meet as many Comics Scholars List denizens as possible.

Probably worth noting that gender isn’t the only factor that plays into sexual harassment at cons–women of color often find themselves facing a whole additional spectrum of nastiness and entitlement:

http://www.digitalfemme.com/journal/index.php?itemid=932
http://delux-vivens.livejournal.com/801997.html
http://delux-vivens.livejournal.com/805218.html

Which goes a way toward explaining the con organizers’ neglect of this issue so far. Until we’re confronted with it, most of us never even see this stuff as needing to be explicitly forbidden, because it’s so far beyond what we think of as acceptable behavior. And how much we recognize at all will depend on how much of it applies to us. Cheryl Lynn’s story floored me, because she describes something I’ve never had to deal with directly–which I’d been privileged enough to able to cheerfully fail to notice until someone said “Stop and look.”

Which, at this point, is what we need to do. Con organizers (for the most part) aren’t malevolent, but sometimes it takes that “Stop and look” to break through the haze of good intentions.