Please note: this is an older post. Please don't comment on it without having read the Nov.1 entry. Thanks so much.

Last week was World Fantasy Con, and it was wonderful. Seriously wonderful.* Many, many, many thanks to those who volunteered to work and chair the convention. Convention staff aren't paid--they don't even get to attend for free, and if you think it's easy to throw together a convention--particularly one as huge as WFC... well... you don't know shit. Which is why I hate bringing up any SFF convention flaw. (Every convention has them.) However, the problem of sexual harassment at SF cons needs to be addressed in a serious way. NOW. So, here I go. I'll attempt to do my best to communicate well, but try to understand I'm more than a bit jet-lagged. Above all, please understand that I don't wish to berate the well-meaning con committee. They just weren't prepared to deal with this kind of issue. No con committee is, in my experience. Therefore, my problem is with an inadequate system. Again, this could've happened at any convention--and often does.

On Thursday night a man groped my breast during one of the parties. Of course, he was drunk, and he did it in such a way that it was difficult to tell whether or not it was done on purpose. (That's how these assholes work.) I didn't report it at the time.** These things happen. You just learn to avoid the man in question, which I did. The next day I started hearing stories about how the same man (we'll call him Motorhead after his t-shirt) had harassed other women. Motorhead claimed to be working for a small publisher. He also claimed to be a professional writer from Canada. He told me (and others as well) that he was a "dark mage." (It was easy to see he was off balance, mentally.) There were many stories of how he'd touched other women's breasts, how he'd said that all he had to do to get a woman to sleep with him was compliment her. That he wouldn't leave when asked. That he refused to back out of women's personal space when they clearly didn't want him there--on and on. That was when I started putting it together. (Each attack started with a compliment regarding the woman's looks, including the "accidental" breast grope in my case.) As the con progressed nothing was done and Motorhead grew more and more bold. I rescued my hotel room-mate from the jerk on Friday night before she could be victimized. (He had her cornered on the balcony.) Since I couldn't do it myself without escalating--he'd only change targets--I asked my friend Keffy for help. (Keffy did a wonderful job. Thank you, Keffy!) Women started complaining among themselves that nothing was being done. You see, each time an incident was reported the only result was a lot of outraged talk and how they would do something "next time." Frankly, I was told that there was a no tolerance policy regarding sexual harassment. In fact, by the time late Friday night rolled around the asshole got so bold that he attempted to kiss and grope several unwilling females at the Aussie party. When he was escorted out, he just returned (to the same party) a few minutes later. My friend (who was one of the women he attacked at the Aussie party) said he shouted over the crowd to her. "See? I'm back! You can't do anything about it!" By Saturday morning, again, we were told that there wasn't enough evidence. It hadn't happened enough. There weren't enough documented reports or witnesses or proof or... What the fuck is wrong with people? It took until late Saturday night--three nights into the con before anything substantive was done. You know what happened? Jayne (I'm sorry, I don't have her last name) called hotel security to have him removed. I don't think she was on con staff, but she might have been. (I've had too little sleep at this point to remember.) This was after I got Jason Sizemore (bless him) to strong arm the creep out of one Saturday night party. The jerk only showed up at the Brit party two rooms over less than five minutes later. I pointed it out to Jason. Jason got angry. I told Barry. (He heads my literary agency.) He got angry. That's when Jayne stepped in. Her call to security had three big security guys show up and remove Motorhead from the hotel by car. I left at 11am on Sunday. I don't know if Motorhead showed up again. It wouldn't shock me if he did.

For the record: it didn't occur to me to call security because it wasn't my party, nor was I in charge. Frankly, I should've. My bad.

Anyway, as I understand it, there is some sort of motion being worked on regarding not allowing the creep back into another WFC. They have his name, after all. Right. I wish I felt like that meant anything. You see, Motorhead knows the system. He'll just move to another party... I mean SF convention. He won't see any sort of real consequence for his actions, and he knows it and so do the women attending the conventions. The issue seems to be getting worse and worse. Which brings me to my question...

At what point is enough enough? Seriously. How many times does it take? What's the number? This creep wasn't even a big wheel in the industry. He was just some jackass in a Motorhead t-shirt. (He was white and male. I guess that's all it takes.) Frankly, I feel that if someone is called out for this kind of behavior one time and then repeats the offense his membership should be history. He shows up at the convention again? Police should be called to forcibly remove him from the hotel. THAT'S what no tolerance looks like, boys and girls. Oh, and by the way, World Fantasy Con is a professional convention. There were no costumes, no women in Slave Leia outfits or whathaveyou. (There's a strict no costume rule.) Just professional writers, editors, agents, publishers, translators, artists and such from all over the world. Every one of these women was dressed in normal street clothes--including myself.*** Hell, I was wearing a bulky, definitely non-sexy turtleneck when I was attacked.

So, come on SFF people. What the hell does it take to actually DO SOMETHING? Let's make a substantive change. How about having a specific person whose responsibility is to deal with these situations? A volunteer whose job is to be clear on the laws/policies involved, has ready access to the police and hotel security, and is prepared to deal with the victims in a thoughtful way? That's a lot of work, but so is volunteering for ANY staff position at a SF convention and that's the truth.
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*I'll post about how wonderful it was shortly. I promise.
**Ask any woman. That kind of crap happens all the time. You learn to shrug it off. You have to because a)there's no proof and b)even if you do have cast iron proof, witnesses, photos, and forms filled out in triplicate--society at large is more inclined to let the matter slide in favor of the scumbag.
***Not that I buy that what a woman wears dictates a man's behavior. I absolutely don't. Men aren't weak-mined little babies, and women's clothing doesn't have a mind control switch. If it did, I'm thinking groping the wearer wouldn't be the result of turning that sucker on.