A few days ago, I posted this about my resignation as a fan from Context Convention, in response to the way the board and some members of the con-comm were dealing with reports of harassment at the con (i.e. not addressing the harassment and blaming the victims). If you've been paying attention to such things, you may have noticed that I was far from alone in this.
The good news is that people do, apparently, listen and things may be getting better. According to a followup blog by Steve Saus, the Board has been dissolved and the con is starting over from scratch. I'm not sure what the results will be, but I am at least cautiously optimistic at the moment.
This is potentially a huge win in what has become a major fight at conventions and will likely have ripples. I'm glad to see this occur, even if I didn't want to see it occur this way to a con I love so dearly. But it needed to.
As a message to any other cons out there that may be watching what has occurred: This is all about trust. We have to be able to trust that we can feel safe at these events. Even though I personally have never experienced any harassment, I need to know that my wife can feel safe, since I really like to share the things I love with her. I also tend to push these convention pretty heavily among the student I work with, but I could not, in good conscience, suggest to a twelve or thirteen year old girl that she attend a convention where she may have to be affected by such behavior. More so, I cannot consider suggesting it to a boy of the same age knowing that how he sees other men treat women will shape his own future actions.
As I said before, this is important.
While I can't say that my trust has been completely returned (it is much easier to maintain trust that to win it back, once lost- another lesson I hope other cons take to heart), steps seem to be going in the right direction.
The good news is that people do, apparently, listen and things may be getting better. According to a followup blog by Steve Saus, the Board has been dissolved and the con is starting over from scratch. I'm not sure what the results will be, but I am at least cautiously optimistic at the moment.
This is potentially a huge win in what has become a major fight at conventions and will likely have ripples. I'm glad to see this occur, even if I didn't want to see it occur this way to a con I love so dearly. But it needed to.
As a message to any other cons out there that may be watching what has occurred: This is all about trust. We have to be able to trust that we can feel safe at these events. Even though I personally have never experienced any harassment, I need to know that my wife can feel safe, since I really like to share the things I love with her. I also tend to push these convention pretty heavily among the student I work with, but I could not, in good conscience, suggest to a twelve or thirteen year old girl that she attend a convention where she may have to be affected by such behavior. More so, I cannot consider suggesting it to a boy of the same age knowing that how he sees other men treat women will shape his own future actions.
As I said before, this is important.
While I can't say that my trust has been completely returned (it is much easier to maintain trust that to win it back, once lost- another lesson I hope other cons take to heart), steps seem to be going in the right direction.
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