Links for the SF/F Community
Rather than blathering on today, I want to direct folks to a number of posts I feel are important to read and be aware of.
- The Geek’s Guide to Disability, by Annalee Flower Horne. Some very good information about what disability is (and what it isn’t), and the erasure, exclusion, and stereotypes face by many disabled people.
- Mark Oshiro talks about racism and harassment he faced as Fan Guest of Honor at ConQuesT.
- Jesi Pershing on why she stepped down from the ConQuesT committee.
- K. Tempest Bradford on the damned if you do, damned if you don’t trap of reporting harassment, abuse, etc.
- Aliette de Bodard on Tokenism.
- Zen Cho on PoC/Queer/Marginalised People in Western SFF Fandom.
- Dear Regional SF/F Conventions: Enough Already, from Rachel Caine.
- Current ConQuesT ConChair Keri O’Brien says they are taking this seriously and working to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
- ETA: A Statement from the KaCSFFS Board of Directors
- Huge Congratulations to the Nebula Awards Nominees! (I needed something upbeat and celebratory in here.)
- Submissions are open for UP AND COMING, the 2016 anthology of Campbell-eligible authors.
Sally
February 21, 2016 @ 3:07 pm
Jim, your link about Oshiro goes to the Geek’s Guide to Disability.
But wow, a GoH? Usually it’s “the little people” who get that treatment.
The absolute least harass-y con I ever went to was Westercon 66. No coincidence that it was run by a nice married couple — of men. Never saw so many (apparently) trans people at a con either. However, plenty of flirtation still managed to happen.
Jim C. Hines
February 21, 2016 @ 3:19 pm
Crud. Thank you. Should be fixed now.
Pat Munson-Siter
February 21, 2016 @ 6:41 pm
I am getting really tired of the folks decrying ‘PC culture’ when what is really happening is that someone is telling them to stop being a jerk and downright rude. ‘Telling it like it is’ has come to mean ‘I don’t care who I hurt or offend by what I say.’ Hey, folks, what you are doing is not ‘speaking truth to power’ (whatever the he!! that means), it’s acting like a rude jerk and d********.
Laura Resnick
February 21, 2016 @ 6:42 pm
Mark Oshiro’s account of his weekend as GoH at ConQuest is jaw-dropping. Any one of those experiences would have made it a weird weekend, memorable in a bad way. The combination of them is eye-popping. Crowned by the cherry on top, wherein absolutely nothing is done about the official complaints Mark filed and the recommendations made by the committee members who interviewed him.
Erica
February 21, 2016 @ 7:46 pm
Thanks for this. I’m definitely bookmarking it for reference.
mjkl
February 21, 2016 @ 10:17 pm
I am especially flabbergasted by the treatment Mark received in his role as Guest of Honor. How can I be surprised that the committee didn’t respond to his reports when they treated him that way at the conference?!
Sally
February 21, 2016 @ 10:45 pm
MRK ‘splains it in words and in a cute picture.
http://maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/thoughts-about-how-to-add-diversity-real-simple-thoughts/
Patrick
February 22, 2016 @ 10:30 am
The good news is that Mark’s terrible experience is an example of so many things that marginalized groups experience: outright homophobia/racism, general cluelessness, toxic ally syndrome, half-assed diversity measures, people thinking they are doing the right thing and then not listening when people tell them they aren’t, etc.
The panel foolishness needs to stop. If you were doing a panel on self-publishing, you would not fill it full of traditionally published authors with only one self-published author, and then proceed to ignore him/her, or use the panel as an opportunity to challenge the value of self-publishing, or trivialize the benefits of doing so. You’d find self-published authors, and if you didn’t know many you’d ask the few you did know who might be good for the panel. You’d try to get people with a range of experience. And you’d moderate it so that when people raised the ‘ol, “but the only way to really make it is with a traditional publisher,” you’d tell them that the purpose of this panel wasn’t to question the model, and to please refrain from making similar comments. Maybe if con planners thought of panels about race or gender in the same way they thought about panels on self-publishing or YA, they’d do a better job of getting the right people on the panels?
Laura Resnick
February 22, 2016 @ 3:49 pm
Excellent point.
Patrick T
February 22, 2016 @ 3:59 pm
And he set a pretty high bar for what to complain about, and a low bar for what he realistically thought could be done about it. And if I had totally offended someone, I’d want to know.
Megpie71
February 24, 2016 @ 2:08 am
In regards to the Geek’s Guide to Disability – although the author is not exclusionary about invisible disabilities (mental illnesses, metabolic disorders, chronic fatigue disorders, neuro-atypicality – basically anything where some nincompoop can say to your face “but you don’t look disabled” when you point out your problem), the comments definitely head in that direction – there’s a very strong “the only REAL disabilities are the ones which affect mobility” flavour to those. (Or at least, that was and is my perception of said comments). People with invisible disabilities may want to avoid the comments, or choose to read them on a Good Day, or similar.