Body Image / Israel Trip

[browngirl]

Two signal boosts:

My name is Alex Horwitz, a Junior at the University of Kansas. In my Holocaust Literature class, Eva shared her survival story and touched us all with her courage and perseverance in the face of horrific prejudice. He's spearheading a drive to send her to Israel.

Over at Dreamwidth, Damned Colonial posted a summary of results from a poll on body image and geek gatherings (various types of conventions, etc, I found it intriguing, and there are a lot of old-guard SF fans I'd love to show it to except for/because of how violently they'd react.

Comments

[mama-hogswatch.livejournal.com]

I'm not old guard anything, as I haven't been to a convention since 1993.

I've been to two conventions. Shatner was the GOH and it was right before the Star Trek movie with Nichelle Nichols did the fan dance came out.

The other one was in Baltimore and had Sophie Aldred and Sylvester McCoy as GOHs.

I did have to deal with a drunk author talking greendalek and my ears off. Apparently he was a Name in Doctor Who, but I'm damned if I remember who he was.

I suppose I always figured that since I'm not good looking enough to be considered a target, and I have a forbidding manner, it's unlikely that I'd be a target for worse than the occasional boorish behavior that neither frightens nor distresses me.

However, it seems that I have merely been lucky. I am distressed to learn that there are issues at cons. But I can't say as I am surprised. Forgive me for saying so, but science fiction is not a fandom known for its social graces. The Heinleins were notable for this because they were UNUSUAL. That's a real pity when you think about it.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*nod* One of the things that struck me about a bunch of discussions I've read is the frequency and... randomness? Of various kinds of harassment. I'm not sure how much it has to do with attractiveness -- one, I've met you and you are quite handsome and two, I'm a little round dumpling and I have my own war stories -- but it probably does help to have a no-nonsense attitude. In the end, though, I think it comes down to luck and to society. Conventions are part of society, and I think society continues to have problems with these issues; also, the SF ethos of freedom and acceptance can be twisted, like any other ethos, into reasons for some people to behave badly and to tell others not to object to it.

[mama-hogswatch.livejournal.com]

Apparently, his name was John Peel.

[ninhursag.livejournal.com]

Hmm... that is interesting, re:body issues and gatherings. I don't think my experience at conventions is really that different from my experience with the general public in terms of harassment/body image (maybe better-- geek boys are more likely to be intimidated by me, maybe?), but then I gather people want to imagine that fandom is better than the 'real world' not just part and parcel.

[sethg]

...or perhaps the sense that when you’re among fans, you’re among “your own tribe”, makes harrassment by fellow fans more painful, and more likely to trigger feelings of “there must be something wrong with me”.

[ninhursag.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, that makes complete sense. It's not a feeling I tend to get at general interest SF cons because it's still read like a big group of people I don't know, but I can see where someone would feel differently and then get slapped in the face by harassment :(.

Anyway you slice it, it really sucks. I'm always glad to hear when a con takes harassment seriously and takes action to minimize it.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*nod* This is definetely a factor in many of the situations I've seen and been involved in.

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

*nod* This poll was an interesting experience for me -- SF cons are where I learned I can be seen as attractive and desirable, but that doesn't mean my experiences there are an unalloyed bundle of goodness. I've learned over the years that, as you point out, fandom's not disjoint from the rest of the world.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

a summary of results from a poll on body image and geek gatherings (various types of conventions, etc

Interesting, and argues for much deeper investigation. OTOH, it seems to be obsessively "in your own head", and provides little leverage to distinguish what people are feeling from the behaviors/situations that cause them to feel them. (The latter being the things that you can try to get other people to change.) It's infamous the degree to which people's own feelings can be out of sync with the reality of their situations (in ways both good and bad).

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

It definetely is an issue that warrants deeper investigation -- I think that this survey is meant as a start, not an end.

It's infamous the degree to which people's own feelings can be out of sync with the reality of their situations (in ways both good and bad).


This is true, but it's true for everyone. It's not just that someone may feel uncomfortable when someone else doesn't intend for them to, but that someone may cause someone discomfort without intending to. I think in US culture we tend to say that the former person is just "seeing things" or "making it up", and not least since (at least in my experience of these situations) the former person tends to be someone with less social, economic, and even physical power, I think that warrants challenging.

[achinhibitor.livejournal.com]

And you get dangerous combinations, e.g., where someone experiences a low rate of actual ill-will, but it makes them fearful of random events of ill-will, which can lead to perceiving considerably more ill-will than actually exists. (I've seen research suggesting that this is easy to induce in people in many situations.)

I think that warrants challenging.

Unfortunately, ceasing saying that "someone is seeing things" doesn't actually relieve their discomfort. You've got to identify and change one or more of the causative factors. Perhaps the biggest cause is the pervasive looks-ism of US culture, but that's the one that one is least likely to be able to change.

I didn't recall the survey getting at any specific causes that might be corrected, but I hadn't read to the bottom of the OP. There are a few items that seem amenable to change:

"Booth babes" or other sexualised sales techniques present at the event (40.4% of respondents report observing this)
Official event tshirt doesn't fit you (40.4%)
Event didn't cater to my body-related needs (eg. disabled accessibility, activities not suitable for larger people) (14.2%)

Although I'm not sure if the incidence numbers are the number of people who witnessed this, or who found it disturbing.

It does look like event staffs do their jobs in this matter almost all the time:

Concerns about any of the above dismissed by other attendees (24.4%)
Complaints in relation to any of the above ignored by event staff (5.8%)