Archive for the Now This Is Only My Opinion Category


Why We Tell Stories About Stories, at Harvard

November 8th, 2013

wtitle1Sorry for being away for so long. Obviously, I had to spend some days with my family. But in the midst of death life goes on.

Wednesday I had the chance to present my lecture on LGBTQ Audience Interpretation of Comics and Manga to a Gender Studies class at Harvard, thanks to the generosity of Prof. Kerey Luis, a good friend of ours at Yuricon. (And thanks to her wife and another good friend, Jude, for coming and getting us at the airport and chauffeuring us. Thanks so very much to both of you for dinner and fantastic conversation!)

This is the lecture I did at Montclair University’s Chibi-con this past summer and a similar lecture to the one I did in Kanagawa University last month. (Here is the the full-text of the lecture and companion slides to the Kanagawa University lecture. I hope to get the videos up soonish)

The basic idea is that we, as an audience, always reinterpret media as we consume it, through filters we create to fill our own needs. You can most easily see this in fanfic and fanart.. We recreate characters and situations to suit ourselves and tell the stories we want to hear. The first half of the lecture is me introducing myself, my writing and Yuricon, “Worldshaking” Fanfic and Okazu, and the second, more infinitely interesting half is comic pages presented without context, that the audience has to discuss and tell me what they think is going on.

The lecture went well, and the students were very receptive, and then we got to listen to them present and discuss issues of fandom. It was exhilarating, honestly.

Now that the lecture is done for the year, I’ve put the whole thing up, with my notes from Kanagawa on Slideshare. But since the good stuff is the class talking to me about how each panel makes them feel, you’ll have to do the work yourself to make the lecture interesting. ^_^

I am now taking applications for 2014, if you’d like to have me speak for your class, organization or event. Feel free to contact me!





So You’d Like Me to Speak at Your Event

October 22nd, 2013

As a person “invited” several times a year to events that then are confused as to what the word “Guest” entails, I wanted to explain a few things about inviting people to your event:

 

Before you invite someone to speak at your event, know something about what they do.

If you are inviting a funny, but controversial, comedian, you would attend a show first so you know what you are getting into.

If you invite me to speak, please do not assure me that the Yuri panel is all ages, until I get there and find that it has been listed as 18+ only. I do not do 18+ panels. They skeeve me. They are always the opposite of mature. Yuri is not about sex. It’s a genre with a literary history, about which I will gladly educate and engage in discussion.

I do not show videos. I guess some folks are no longer capable of enjoying a panel at an event if images are not beamed into their eyes. If you are asking me to host your zOMG sex! Yuri hentai hour, I respectfully decline. If you’re asking me for a suggestion of a decent Yuri anime to show at your event, just ask. You don’t need me there – the answer is Aoi Hana, contact rightstuf.com for permissions.

If you’ve attended a Yuri Panel or lecture by me, you have seen what I provide. I do not do something else.

 

When you “invite” someone to speak at your event, they become your responsibility.

If they are flying in they, need to know where they will be met and taken care of. If they are driving in they need to know where to park, where they will be met and taken care of.

Someone needs to be there at the airport, train station, car park, to help them through the minutiae of a strange city.

You are the host, they are the guest. Do not leave a guest to make their own arrangements for such things. Of course if you are local to me, I’m glad to handle my own arrangements, but as soon as an event outside my hour or so in the car ride radius, I’ll need you to step up.

You need to lay out what you will do to make their attendance at your event as friction-free as possible. Let them know what you are willing to do for them and what you cannot possibly do. In a sense, you are applying to them to get them as a guest.

 

Don’t assume your event is worth making an effort to get to. 

This is the #1 disconnect I encounter on a regular basis. Events ask me to speak all the time, but provide no transportation, accommodation or food options. (Or, possibly they offer me hot dogs and bagels in their staff room.) I am not a college student. I do not wish to spend my time and money attending your event, only to be given the option of sharing a room with staff, and eating warm yogurt in your green room. Thank you, but no. Unless your town is otherwise on my bucket list, I probably won’t come without at least a token effort on your part. Free admission to your event may not be a draw for me, if your event isn’t otherwise a must-go for me.

 

Before you “invite” someone to your event, make sure your Con Chair and the entire organizing committee is backing you.

I cannot tell you how often I am invited by Programming or the Guest Person, only to agree, clear my schedule then learn that, oh wait, the Con Chair already spent that money on some other guest. To be very honest. this has happened so many times that at this point I no longer say yes to small events unless they can confirm upfront that they are not wasting my time. “Informal” invites, are not invitations – you’re asking me to pay my own way to your event for your own entertainment.

 

Talk to your Organizing Committee, come up with a formal procedure for inviting guests.

To make your event process as smooth as possible, develop a Chain of Command on guest invites. For instance: Anyone can suggest  potential guest. Org Com. votes on it. If suggestion is approved, Guest Chair writes out proposal – Programming and Con Chair have to approve it, so they know what they will be on the hook for. Then you ask potential Guest.  Have your offers and answers ready – We’ll provide XYZ, you provide ABC.  No, we can’t fly you First class, but we can offer a plus one, etc, etc.

 

If it doesn’t work out, there are no hard feelings.

Please do not be annoyed if I reject your offer. I’m not annoyed at you, I promise. This is business. It just isn’t going to work for me to fly myself out to your event, pay for my own hotel room, so I can sell a few books and do a panel for you. Thanks anyway.

 

I know you’re doing your best to run your event. Consider this advice from someone who has been there before you and wants you to not have to reinvent the wheel. ^_^





A Very Important Thing About Licensing Manga Fans Don’t Really Understand

October 17th, 2013

In response to the news about Whispered Words, being licensed, a fan expressed a wish that One Peace Books also rescue Poor Poor Lips.  This gives me a good opening to discuss something I’ve been meaning to talk about for a while here. There is one very important component to licensing manga that most fans don’t understand.

Sasamekikoto, as I explain in my NYCC report, is owned by Media Factory (who also owns Strawberry Panic!). Poor Poor Lips is owned by Takeshobo. One Peace Books has a relationship with Media Factory, which is how they got this title. Unless they have a relationship with Takeshobo, it is not likely they can get Poor Poor Lips.

All Japanese manga licensing is done based on prior relationship. (This goes for almost every other kind of licensing, as well, but we’ll confine ourselves to discussing manga.) Companies cannot just email Japanese publishers and ask for what individual series they want. It takes time and effort to build personal relationships with the publishers. So do not be surprised if One Peace Books never, ever gets Poor Poor Lips no matter how often you ask them. Seven Seas cannot license a Kodansha title, and Viz gets first dibs on Hakusensha titles (and can block other publishers from getting them, even if they don’t want to publish it themselves.)

This is why, even though Strawberry Panic! might have been popular, it had exactly zero impact on whether we’d ever see Maria-sama ga Miteru in English. In fans’ minds, the titles are similar. In reality, the Media Factory title has no connection at all to the Shueisha title.

In the same way that the demographic target of a book may appear irrelevant to you as a reader, but it informs the way the book was written; it may not seem important to you to understand that one story you read was published by Hobunsha and another by Futabasha. Indeed, to you the “publisher” may be Lililicious or Dynasty Scans. But in the actual business of manga, these distinctions have real meaning. You do not need to know who publishes what book, but be aware that when you send a letter to a western publisher and they reply, “We won’t be getting that book” that is, really, the final word on the matter. Bags of mail can’t change that.

Arguing that you have lack of expertise (or, perhaps, disinterest) in the nitty-gritty of manga genre and publishing is not a strong defense. There is nothing wrong at all with wishing for a thing, of course, but letting fan delusion get in the way of understanding reality, makes it harder to comprehend the why things are the way they are. ^_^

The 600-lb. gorilla in the room is the fundamental fact that western fans often ignore – Japanese manga is published for a Japanese audience. They buy far more of it than we do, by orders of zeroes. Japanese publishers don’t much care if we aren’t happy with panty shots, or can’t tell the difference between a shounen or a seinen title. And it really doesn’t affect them if we ask random publishers to get books they have no access to. But it does, honestly, effect the western publishers. Imagine being the poor schlub who answers emails at Viz, if we all sent them emails begging them to license Collectors. (Which they have first dibs on, since it is a Hakusensha title.) You’d have feel bad for them, wouldn’t you? ^_^; And how much worse, when a publisher gets a license request for something they can’t even ask for, because they don’t speak to that publisher. There’s only so many times they can answer a question like that before it becomes soul-crushing.

It’s perfectly fine to hope that you’ll get to see your favorite manga licensed. It is less fine to respond to news of one license with misguided, randomly targeted desire for something else. Imagine, if you gave your best friend a gift and their response was, “Cool! I really hope I’ll also get this other thing I want, too.”

I encourage Yuri fans to rise above the general level of cluelessness of fandom. The more we know, the better we, as fans, can leverage our buying power and focus it intelligently.





Now This Is Only My Opinion, 2013 edition

August 25th, 2013

Your know that we’re up to our necks in Yuri when it takes me 2 years to find time to answer random questions about stuff. And, in fact, it’s been months since I solicited these questions and am only getting to them now. Viva la Yuri. ^_^

You asked me questions about…life, love, blogging, anime, manga, Yuri, whatever. And I did my very best to answer you without lifting a finger to do research. ^_^ For previous editions, check out the Now This is Only My Opinion Category here on Okazu, and take a look at the kinds of things people have asked previously.

Here were the (increasingly complex) rules for Okazu’s Q&A feature:

1) I will not answer questions about “what is your favorite….” I find them difficult to answer, as I really don’t have favorites.

2) No A/B choice questions like “ham or cheese” or “Coke or Pepsi” questions, please.  They aren’t all that interesting for any of us and I can tell you honestly, the answer is almost always “neither of the two.”

3) If you want to ask me what I see as the future of Yuri or why I like Yuri, I beg you to read all the previous iterations of my answers to these questions. If you have a real question about Yuri that I have not previously addressed, bring it on!

4) Please, please, no questions that can be answered by 30 seconds of actually READING one of my reviews here. Also, asking me “what do you think of so-and-so anime/fandom” is not going to give you the external validation you crave nor will I rise to the bait of using it as a springboard to rant about a fandom, either. Don’t know if I’ve reviewed a thing you want to know about? Look to the right-hand sidebar —->

See that empty box on the sidebar that says “Search Okazu”? Try that first.  ^_^

5) Lastly no “define the term” questions. The answers have been posted here: https://okazu.yuricon.com/glossary/.

With these in mind, here’s the 2013 edition of “Now This Is Only My Opinion”!

***
Jin asks: Yes, hello, I had two questions please. I had wondered if in all this time involved in anime, manga, etc., have you felt discouraged, to say, that you have felt a desire to give up on these arts? I do not know if I have asked this properly. For all the anime and manga I love, especially in Yuri genre, sometimes my frustration or ill feelings about the misogyny, sexism, poor writing and such, brings a despair rather than a happy feeling and being entertained.

I also wondered if there is a place where one can ask some small questions concerning plots or other things in regards to light novels especially Oyuki Konno Maria-sama?

E: One of the most amazingly frustrating things about anime/manga fandom is that it is constantly changing and inconsistent. What you want out of anime may not be what someone else wants. So while Yuricon communities focus on female-positive anime and manga, some Yuri fandom is looking for porn pictures of girls having sex. So, yes, of course, sometimes I am discouraged – especially when series I dislike are popular and manga I really would love to see as anime never gets the chance. But there is so much out there to read and watch, I don’t let it bother me too much. It’s entertainment. If I’m not enjoying myself, I’ll go do something else. ^_^ I also avoid a lot of fan spaces, so I don’t get involved in the drama.

I can tell you this – you can ask questions about plot and character all you want in any Yuricon community. Yuricon Mailing List and Yuricon on Facebook. Of course you can ask questions here, as well. I’ll always do my best to answer.

There are other Yuri communities, although they change all the time. The ones we link to are usually pretty friendly. ^_^

Remember, opinions are always personal – and only the creator can ever be 100% right about what happened. You get to have your opinion, even if other people disagree.

***

Josh wants to know: Do you find Yaoi being more popular than Yuri a hindrance to creating a stable Yuri market in the states?

E: What an interesting question! On the face of it, it seems like there ought to be a correlation between these two genres, but really…there isn’t.

When manga was first brought over to the west, one of the reasons it became so almost instantly successful was that it tapped into a previously under-served market – female comic readers. And of those readers, while some of them might like romance and/or sex between women, more prefer romance/sex between straight couples or between guys. (If this seems confusing to you, ask a few of your straight male friends which they like best – straight porn, lesbian porn or gay male porn. Chances are a lot of straight guys are going to feel uncomfortable with the idea of watch gay guy porn – especially if those guys you’re asking are sexually immature. It’s the same for some women.)

Because of the double standards around porn – and the double standards around women’s interests in general – it was easier for women to talk about an interest in BL than it is for men to discuss an interest in Yuri (especially when, for many guys saying “Yuri” meant bodily-fluid-gouting porn.)

So Twilight is excoriated, 50 Shades of Gray is the butt of jokes…but they make millions. BL is the same. Guys pay no attention to it, they disparage it if they mention it at all, but it makes lots of money.

Where in Japan, it’s seen as an expression of pure fandom to be the first on line, to buy the super-special exclusive books…here in the west, a big bulk of Yuri fandom are downloading Yuri…but not as often buying it. That college age guy audience that is the presumed core audience for games, TV and movies (and Yuri)? Hardly buys anything. Games, books, movies, manga, anime. It all gets downloaded. Later they’ll buy it, when they have a job. So the largest chunk of guys who like Yuri in the west is also the demographic that spends the least on it. Female fans buy it, but not as many as buy BL. So the market is wayyyyyy smaller than the audience.

And, as I’ve discussed here many times, Yuri is not one thing. If you like moe, Yuri looks like Yuru Yuri. But if you like actual stories of lesbians who actually love each other, it looks like Morishima-sensei’s or Takemiya-sensei’s work. They aren’t anything the same, but they are all called “Yuri.”

So, we have a smaller audience than the BL audience *and* a market that’s smaller by orders of zeroes. So the Yuri audience sticks with scanlations and sometimes buys a book, if it’s something they already know. It’s a vicious cycle and unless I hit the lottery, there’s little chance for it to end at the moment.

I don’t resent BL in any way. I have other resentments, though they are the topic of some other conversation. ^_^

***

Mara is curious: What was it about Girls und Panzer that turned you off it as something to watch?

I ask because now that the series is over I cannot help but notice that it has many of the conventions you said you liked in stories that have sports/training elements in them. My apologies if this seems to prying or cruel a question.

E: Everything. Sorry. I like adult characters and am vastly, heartily sick of moe military-fetish schoolgirl series. I disliked Sora no Woto, I cannot stand Strike Witches. While I deeply respect Nogami-sensei and Dan Kanemitsu, the whole fandom creeps me the fuck out.  I’m reading Marine Corps Yumi (Marine-ko Yumi) and enjoying it, but then…no school girls and it’s not moe.

***

Justin S asks: I have a question, we’ve seen a few good Sci-Fi Yuri anime and manga, but what are some sci-fi settings/tropes/concepts that you would like to see in a Yuri story?

E: This is an almost impossible question! ^_^

Let me begin with  – what I want to see in Yuri is women who actually have affection for each other. THEN, it would be cool to see a good sci-fi series built up containing that.

What you probably don’t realize is that sci-fi was one of the first genres where lesbian fiction thrived. Lots of women-only spaceship and colonies…and they were all excruciating, because an idea is not a story. ^_^

Bodacious Space Pirates is benchmark series. It has a great Yuri couple- and it is great sci-fi. And really, that is the point. When a great sci-fi story has some lesbian characters and it’s not ” a very special episode” of the story, then it’ll be a good Yuri sci-fi story.

So, that having been said, I am currently working on a cyberpunk novella myself, in which I am combating tropes like the all-female world or damseling a character. (It seems easy to remember to be diverse in creating characters, then you look back and see that everyone is one race, or one sex or all cis or something – merely by not mentioning that they aren’t. You can say someone is dark- skinned, dark-eyed, and still find her played by a white girl in the movie version, because the privilege of privilege is not noticing their privilege. How does someone mention a character’s ethnicity without calling attention to it? Or how do you have the girl save the girl without damseling one of the girls? Really not as easy as you’d think.)

I like Space Opera, I like action. I like complex world/systems-building and I like stories in which two women can be in love without it being a plot complication.  ^_^

***

ArcaJ wants to know: With the upswing of quality Yuri titles (or Yuri-ish titles) available, is there still a place for EPL’s (Evil Psychotic Lesbians)?

E: Sure thing! More Yuri with class, doesn’t mean there isn’t place for cheeseball crap. I submit the popularity of Sharknado as Evidence A. Crap is fun. Evil Psychos are fun. A really full-on EPL baddie would be terrific in an anime, if they didn’t go all coy and loser-y on us. ^_^

***

David wonders : Are there any good manga / anime series you’d like to recommend but haven’t because they lack the Yuri content to make it onto this blog?

E: Hrmmmm…..I read tons that never end up here. (I’m not as voracious a reader of English manga as Sean Gaffney – you might want to follow his blog: A Case Suitable for Treatment for more suggestions than I can supply.) Anime is harder. I don’t watch much, honestly and most of it makes it here.

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit is a must-watch. No Yuri at all, so I’ve not really been able to mention it here too often. It’s amazing all the way around. Story, characters, animation – all fantastic. It’s out in English from Media Blasters and is family friendly. It was a good enough story that I’ve been reading the Light Novels and reviewing them here. Check out the Light Novels category for the reviews.

I’m winding down reading the manga for Yakushiji Ryōko no Kaiki Jikenbo, which was turned into a fantastic anime some years ago. Neither anime nor manga are released in English, but I desperately wish the manga would have an ounce of Yuri, so I could review it here.  Spider women and giant snakes! ^_^

***

Brian asks: Are there any Yuri visual novels you have experience with or would recommend?

E: I get asked this alot. The answer is no. I don’t read/play VNs for many reasons I’ve discussed here before. The time it takes to make one’s way through a VN for not-terribly much content is not a sacrifice I find worth making. I’ve tried a few and end up wanting stab my eyes out from boredom. So I’m not really the person to ask. We’ve had a few guest reviews here, check the Yuri Games category for any applicable ones.

***

dm00 wonders: With regard to the Friedman Addendum to the Bechdel Test, what defines “male hero things” and, more specifically, what makes them inherently “male” to the point that when a female lead does them that it makes the female lead really a male lead in a female-shaped body?
gveret adds: Ooh! Can I second this, and add: how do you make that distinction, considering gender is dependent on nothing but a person’s own sense of identity?

In this sense, I am defaulting to gender roles “as understood by Hollywood execs.” Male hero behavior in the Rambo/Chuck Norris tradition. Semi-covert assault on overwhelmingly superior odds that magically are defeated one-soldier-at-a-time – while wearing skintight body suit with at least one scene where said “Strong Female Protagonist” finds herself slowly slinking through vents, shafts or other small crawl spaces, only to magically find GIGANTIC gun at the end of all this and blow the bad guy away. It doesn’t really take a Freud to see what’s going on there. ^_^

***

Michael is curious: I’m heading to Japan for a five-week visit this summer. I’ve travelled there several times in the past, for a total of almost a year, so I have some experience getting around. I have some facility with the language — enough to read “Yotsuba” and, with some work, “Amanchu.” So, can you recommend any places I ought to visit? Places that might not appear in the usual “top 20 things to see and do on your trip to Japan”, perhaps those which are out of the way and not marked on lots of maps? Or maybe just your favorite parks/bars/bistros/bookstores/hangouts?

Gosh Michael. You mean other than the 7000 “shopping for manga in Japan” guides online? ^_^;

I don’t have a favorite hangout. I hit up the stores in Ikebukuro (which recently all shifted around, so are even more BL-focused than they were) and Akihabara, Nakano Sun Mall and Shibuya, just like everyone else. Last year I wrote this update on shopping for Yuri in Ikebukuro, Akihabara and Nakano. Danny Choo did a recent overview of places, which isn’t too out of date (as they often are). Check that out, too.

Other than that, I spend a lot of times visiting Shinto Shrines and Buddhist Temples. I’m not a monotheist, so Japan is a refreshing change of pace in terms of religious edifices. ^_^ Pretty much the largest complexes are the best ones for festivals and junky food and souvenirs – check any guide book for their suggestions. I don’t do bars or clubs, so I’m hopeless in that category.  Sorry. You know what our secret hangout really is? The Yamanote. We <3 the Yamanote Line and spend a lot of quality time with it. ^_^

If you look up “Tokyo Trip” on Okazu here, you’ll find dozens of entries on places we’ve gone, things we’ve done and seen. They are all my favorites. ^_^ /cop-out

***

Steve M asks: Anyways, I know you’re not big on dubs in general but are there any you’ve heard that have stuck out as particularly good? I won’t ask you to compare them to the original Japanese, as that’s an unnecessarily contentious question, just any dubs that you felt were very good or appropriate for whatever reason.

Yes, I actually do have a recommendation. The Shinesman dub is the best dub ever. The story is a short OVA spoof of sentai series. It’s very funny and the dub is even funnier than the sub. It’s a pretty old, obscure series, but sometimes you can find it on DVD still. The Digimon Tamers  dub was pretty good – I watched the whole series on TV when it first ran. It was the first Saturday morning cartoon I watched religiously since the 80s. ^_^

***

That’s it for this time, I think. Thanks to everyone who sent in a question. This time, we’re going to finish it off a little differently – I’ve got a question for you!

What do you want to see from Yuri in the immediate future?

Answer in the comments section. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!





Convention Harassment and What We Can All Do To Help

July 5th, 2013

If you have read any comics industry news in the last year or so, you’ve probably run into reports of a person having been harassed at a convention. For many of you reading this, you may have been the victim of harassment for one reason or another.

As we’re in full convention season swing (and I am moving at the rate of molasses through my piles of books to review,) I thought it might be nice to note that the issue is getting some very excellent commentary these days – that is to say, it’s not just the loud obnoxious few who are being heard.

In particular, I want to draw your attention to John Scalzi, who is the Hero of Nerds everywhere. A few weeks ago, he wrote a post about a female friend who had been harassed at a convention, and he gave his well-read blog over to her article Reporting Harassment at a Convention: A First-Person How To. If you, for any reason, have been harassed, please read this post.

Some folks thought the article was putting the responsibility on the victim to make something happen. On Twitter, Matthesen pointed out that that was not her meaning, but that if a report is going to be made, there was a more effective way to do it, and a less effective way.

A lot of people were talking about the post, and a conclusion of sorts was reached that there are three responsible parties in any harassment situation – the lion’s share of the responsibility is with the harasser. But the convention must also take some responsibility. Events should have publicly posted anti-harassment policies that are consistent, with staff that knows how to implement them. And, should someone flout the policy, it’s good idea to keep Matthesen’s rules for “How To Report” an issue in mind.

This week Scalzi put into place the first thing WE can do. When he gets an invitation from an event to be a guest, he is now going to check and confirm the event has a publicly posted anti-harassment policy.

And it dawned on me that we can all do something like that. We’re not all famous, but as con-runners, staff, volunteers, vendors, guests, industry and yes, attendees, each one of us can do *something* to make events safer and more welcoming for everyone.

Con-runners/Organizers – Sit down with Senior Staff and discuss your con’s anti-harassment policy. You and I know that attendees may be literal-minded and if your policy is not specific they will argue with you that it “wasn’t against the policy.” Be specific. Otakon, for instance has a very non-specific policy in 2013: We also have a general policy that we do not tolerate disruptive behavior of any sort, and we can and will take action when we see something we feel is dangerous or disruptive. That is, IMHO, a terrible policy, because flawed human nature makes it really easy to see the crying victim as the “disruptive” party.

2018 Note: Otakon’s policy this year is even worse. It has detailed discussion of everything…except harassment, which is mentioned once: “The sorts of things that may trigger such action include but are not limited to: fighting (fake or real), heckling, impeding traffic flow, offensive behavior, harassment, failure to observe basic hygiene, public inebriation/intoxication, or any other failure to follow the rules and directions of staff members. ” 

That’s not a policy. 

A much better policy would specify that “any speech or behavior that is prejudicial, harassing, demeaning or discriminatory on the grounds of color, race, religion, dis/ability, sexuality, gender or gender presentation will be considered disruptive” would be much less open to interpretation.

2019 Update: Otakon has taken this much more seriously this year. It’s a stark improvement. Now they need to work on the procedure.

Every con should have a policy. Period. It’s the first step every event can and should make to ensure the event is safe for everyone. Which leads me to:

Con Staff – If you’re working with a con in a position of any rank, check right now to see if your con has a specific, enforceable policy against harassment. If not, make it your business to get one added to the con site and program book.  To see if the con you volunteer with has a clear policy, check out the Geek Feminism’s Conference Anti-harassment Policy page – or if you know your con does have a policy, make sure it’s public, visible, and known! Know *who* on staff is responsible for what. Who gets notified – what will happen? Make it your job to tell the folks working with you and for you, so everyone is on the same page.

Every single staff member and volunteer should know the 1-2-3 Steps for handling harassment issues presented to them.

  1. Make sure the person is OK. (If not, get help *immediately* Even if that means you’re not watching that door anymore.)
  2. Know who to contact to handle the situation. (Junior staff and volunteers should not be taking reports like this. Have a person or persons on staff whose job it it to immediately address these situations.)
  3. Do NOT try to Fix the situation. If it can’t be fixed with duct tape, it cannot be fixed by you. Find the person who is trained to handle it – as quickly as possible –  then hand the person off with encouragement and comfort.

Volunteers – When you get your training and/or assignment, make it your business to learn what the policy is, what you can and can’t do, who to contact, etc. If no one tells you, ask! Ask what the policy is, who you should contact and where they might be found.

Industry and Vendors – At the very least make sure all your representatives know the event policies (and your policies) and ensure that they do not find themselves on the wrong end of them. If one of your reps is involved, please be prepared to take responsibility. Report harassment when you see it – so, know who you need to contact. Vendors, especially, if you can be counted on to be a safe haven when a problem arises, that would be nice. I know you’re busy, but someone might really need an act of kindness just then.

Guests – I’m not asking you to follow Scalzi’s lead,but…yes, I am asking you all to follow Scalzi’s lead. You are a Guest and you have some pull. Require the events that host you to step up to the plate and have a clear, public policy.

Attendees – Look for the con’s policies online, in the program book, or on a sign. If you do not see one, ask if there is one and how can people learn about it? Read the policy. Ask yourself – if someone was vile to you or someone you love, would that policy protect you? Go to the con after-session, write the con chair and ask for a public, specific policy if there is none. Make it your business to make your con a safer place for everyone. Don’t go vigilante on the con – work with them. Ask politely *who* is responsible for taking reports. Ask them if they can make the policy clearer, or assign a senior staff member to take reports. Don’t confront, don’t harass, just offer to help. And, if something happens to you, don’t be afraid to report it. You didn’t do anything wrong.

We’re at the tipping point. Fandom is for all fans and so it makes sense for all fans to take a hand in making fandom a safe, welcoming space for everyone. ^_^