Post-con update
Nov. 1st, 2011 04:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceYeah, so I don't feel good now. Sick and sad and angry, that's how I feel.
The sick is nothing; my throat is scratchy and my head is fluff. I have whisky and honey and lemons, I have pills of many colours, I'll be fine.
But? All the WFC round-ups I'm seeing this morning are talking about one guy, and a sequence of harassment and assault that seems to have gone on way too long before anyone took meaningful action. Jaym Gates has a detailed summary here. And the thing is, you feel sad and angry for the victims and their friends, and then you feel sad and angry at a good con soured, and maybe you clutch your head a bit and cry "How long, O lord, how long?" - and then you read Jaym's post again and start wondering if there's anything you can actually do to help, at future cons or betweentimes. And - if you're me, at least - you realise suddenly that you're drawing up a long and very convincing list of reasons why you can't help, why there isn't anything you personally can usefully do. You're not physically imposing or personally assertive, you're not a black belt in anything, you're the wrong gender, you're not connected or influential, etc etc. And that, right there? Is one of the reasons why the situation perpetuates, why people go on behaving this way and expect to get away with it, because some of us find too many reasons not to get involved.
So, yeah. Jaym gets an email from me, and I am now officially involved. For whatever use I can be, and whatever value that has.
The sick is nothing; my throat is scratchy and my head is fluff. I have whisky and honey and lemons, I have pills of many colours, I'll be fine.
But? All the WFC round-ups I'm seeing this morning are talking about one guy, and a sequence of harassment and assault that seems to have gone on way too long before anyone took meaningful action. Jaym Gates has a detailed summary here. And the thing is, you feel sad and angry for the victims and their friends, and then you feel sad and angry at a good con soured, and maybe you clutch your head a bit and cry "How long, O lord, how long?" - and then you read Jaym's post again and start wondering if there's anything you can actually do to help, at future cons or betweentimes. And - if you're me, at least - you realise suddenly that you're drawing up a long and very convincing list of reasons why you can't help, why there isn't anything you personally can usefully do. You're not physically imposing or personally assertive, you're not a black belt in anything, you're the wrong gender, you're not connected or influential, etc etc. And that, right there? Is one of the reasons why the situation perpetuates, why people go on behaving this way and expect to get away with it, because some of us find too many reasons not to get involved.
So, yeah. Jaym gets an email from me, and I am now officially involved. For whatever use I can be, and whatever value that has.