I’m sure that most people on my friends lists are already aware of the sexual harassment incident at Readercon, but here’s my attempt at a link round-up:
The key links:
- July 16th: Genevieve Valentine: “Readercon: The Bad and the Ugly”. This is Valentine’s initial public report of what happened. (also at her official site)
- July 27th: Genevieve Valentine: “Readercon: The Verdict” (also at her official website)
- includes, in the comment thread, a report from Kate Kligman who also experienced harassment from Walling.
- July 27th: Readercon: “Statement from the Readercon Board of Directors”
- July 28th: Genevieve Valentine: “Updates to the Readercon Response.” (LJ)
- July 29th: Veronica Schanoes: “Letter/petition to the Board of Readercon” (now on page 2).
- Aug 5th: Readercon concom: “Public Statement By the Readercon Convention Committee”
- Aug 5th: Genevieve Valentine: “Readercon: The Outcome”
- Sept 10th: Genevieve Valentine: “Things You Should Know About the Fallout”
Other link collections:
- elf:
Reactions:
July 17th
- Jim Hines: “Another Con, Another Creep”.
- Tracy Hurley: Google+
- That Word Grrl in the inclusive_geeks LJ community: “Oh that just tears it…”
July 18th
- N.K. Jemisin: “Dear Fandom: Grow the Fuck Up”
- Timmi Duchamp: “Post Readercon”.
- Wis[s]e Words: “Minimise, Doubt, Excuse, Shift Blame”
July 20th
- Veronica Schanoes/We’re living in Gothic times: “Why not come forward?”
July 25th
- Alex Dally MacFarlane/foxfinial: “it’s the house telling you to close your eyes”
July 26th
- Liz Henry: “Readercon creeper”. I think that this post is the first (chronological) post that publicly identifies the person under discussion as René Walling.
July 27th:
- Alex Dally MacFarlane: “Readercon” (LJ)
- cme: “The Readercon mess”
- Dark Suburbia/Livia Llewellyn: “Oh, Readercon: NO.” (LJ)
- delux_vivens: “so, um, readercon.”
- E. J./glorioushubris: “On Readercon’s Failure to Enforce Their Harassment Policy”
- EugeneFischer.com: “On Readercon’s Failure to Enforce Their Harassment Policy”
- File 770: “Readercon Bans René Walling for 2 Years”
- James Nicoll: “Interesting detail on Readercon” (also LJ)
- Jaym Gates: “No Tolerance Doesn’t Always Mean NO Tolerance”
- Kate Nepveu/incidents and accidents, hints and allegations: “Readercon” (also LJ).
- Liz/hawkwing_lb: “some thoughts on why I don’t think I’d visit Readercon, now” (LJ)
- Lynne M. Thomas/Confessions of a Curator, Editor, Writer, Geek: “Why I won’t be attending Readercon this year as planned. [rant]” (also at her official website)
- Matt Cheney/The Mumpsimus: “An Unenforced Policy Is Worse Than None”.
- Nick Mamatas: “The Readercon Creeper”.
- Nick Mamatas: “Readercon speaks!”
- Nicholas Kaufman/International Bon Vivant and Raconteur: “Not Cool, Readercon”
- Nicholas Kaufman/International Bon Vivant and Raconteur: “Not Cool, Readercon — Part 2”
- pantryslut: (no subject) (also LJ)
- phoebe_zeitgeist: “the Readercon sexual harassment incident”
- p_zeitgeist/Alternate Lives: “the Readercon sexual harassment incident”
- Robin Laws on Google+.
- Rose Fox: “‘This is the opposite of what I wanted'”
- Rose Lemberg: “This is what I just sent to the Readercon board”
- sinboy/Future Shiok: “Real contrition”
- Tucker McKinnon/jazzfish: “nice things, not having, why, etc”
- yendi/Si, and I like potatoes: Shorter Readercon Board of Directors statement
July 28th:
- Abi Sutherland at Making Light: “How to have a problem with fannish things”
- anonymous on journalfen.net: “Readercon: Some harassers are more equal than others”
- Anne S. Zanoni/AZ Shea: “Zero tolerance should be ZERO.”
- Arinn Dembo: “Zero Tolerance Policy”
- baggyeyes/Metal Heart: “Readercon Blows Itself Up”
- Bee Faced Girl/Stuff. Things.: “Readercon: Some Members are More Equal than Others”
- blairmacg: “Where the Boundaries Are Drawn”
- blue shark of friendliness/ckd: “Readercon”
- Brynn in the inclusive_geeks community of LJ: “Readercon’s failure to abide by its own policy on harrassment”
- The Calyx of the Heavens: “Readercon and harassment” (LJ)
- Clarkesworld Magazine and Wyrm Publishing: “Very disappointed “
- Cogitationitis: “I don’t know what to think…”
- delux_vivens: about readercon.
- devilc: “Good Ole Boy’s Club wins again”
- DXMachina/dxmachina: “Readercon, R.I.P.”
- ekaterina sedia: “That Readercon Thing” (LJ)
- elisem/Honour Your Inner Magpie: “Readercon”
- emilytheslayer/What’s an Emily?: “SIIIIGGGGHHHHHHHHH”
- EugeneFischer.com: “More on the Readercon Harassment Issue”
- fengi/Greetings Fellow Comstoks!: “I can’t believe you guys didn’t notice.”
- firecat/party in my head: “Readercon $fail” (LJ)
- frotz: “on lowering the level of discourse”
- matociquala/Elizabeth Bear: “what is the sound of one heart breaking?”
- Lynne M. Thomas/Confessions of a Curator, Editor, Writer, Geek: “Readercon follow-up: still not going.”
- secritcrush/A Journal of Impropriety: “Shorter Readercon: Harassment is OK as long as you are a Big Name Fan (and can fake contrition)”
- sparkymonster: Readercon Harassment Happened [Oh the triggering for sexual assualt & violence] (also LJ)
- supergee/Arthur D. Hlavaty: “Readercon” (LJ) and “Zero Tolerance redux” (LJ)
- yendi/Si, and I like potatoes: “A sincere apology to Readercon”
- SF Site: “Walling Banned from Readercon for 2 Years”
- Samantha Henderson: “Are you freakin’ kidding me?”
- theweaselking: (no subject)
- The King of Elfland’s Second Cousin: “Readercon Harassment Debacle”
- P.R. Kaye’s Presence: “Readercon Board Screw-Up”
- Mely/coffee & ink: “Sexual Harassment at Readercon” (LJ)
- V. Schanoes/We’re living in Gothic times: “Open letter to the Readercon board”
- kradical/KRAD’s Inaccurate Guide to Life: “why I’m not likely to ever go back to Readercon now”
- Mels/lovelylikebeestings: “Sexual Harassment is NEVER Okay.”
- fjm/Wherever I lay my cat, that’s my home: “Readercon”
- Elizabeth Bear/throw another bear in the canoe: “if every angel’s terrible why do you watch her sleep?”
- Patsquinade: “Readercon”
- Leah Bobet/Drowning Nor Waving: “When the person doing the harassment is a person you like.”
- anonymous_sibyl/It’s a beautiful, romantic to listen to from end-to-end kind of record: “Regarding Readercon’s decision about harassment.”
- Life with Redbird: “Friendship. Boundaries.” (LJ)
- Laughing at the Abyss: “ReaderCon Board: Acting Like Small Town Judges?”
- Larry Sanderson: “Readercon” (link post only)
- Lucy/cereta: “Patriarchy: 1 Women Who Attend Readercon: 0” (LJ)
- inkstone/Phoenix Rising: “Sexual Harassment at Readercon”
- suricattus/Where Personal and Professional Life Collide…: “Boosting Signal on the Readercon Fail, and fallout”
- Orrin Grey: “Livia Beat Me To ‘Oh, Readercon: NO'”
- ogre_san/Richard Parks: “ReaderCon”
- Keith R.A. DeCandido/KRAD’s Inaccurate Guide to Life: “more on the Readercon mishegoss”
- omnia_mutantur/Keys and locks, roots and branches: (no subject)
- Lenora Rose: (no subject)
- starlady/Electra: “Readercon values BNFs over safety of its members, integrity of its policies”
- Stella Omega/dharma_slut: “The current Readercon debacle”
- Scarlett Letters/scarlettina: “Observing the Readercon situation”
- Scheherazade in Blue Jeans/shadesong: (no subject)
- Steph: “Just A Bag of Parts”
- st_emma: “oh, readercon, no”
- That Word Grrl in LJ’s backupproject community: “Readercon’s zero-tolerance policy”
- vass: “I’m just saying”
- Xiphias Gladius: “My thoughts on the Readercon sexual harassment debacle”
- yendi/Si, and I like potatoes: “So, what do I want from Readercon?”
Latest comment from Readercon:
We greatly appreciate the feedback we've received on the board's recent decision. The convention committee is working on a response.
— Readercon (@readercon) July 28, 2012
Also: from Rose Fox:
https://twitter.com/rosefox/status/229265442089345024
July 29th
- Ann Leckie: (no subject)
- Ayesha/browngirl: “Two Posts addressed to the better angels of our nature”
- The Accidental Beard: “Remorse, reform, and Readercon”
- Brit Mandelo: (no subject)
- camille_is_here: “Harrassment and Cons”
- Carrie Cuinn/There’s A Story In Everything: “Readercon 2012 – the sexual harrasment edition”
- Catherine Lundoff/Dwelling in Probabilities: “Projects and things and…harassment in fandom”
- Con Girl/Welcome to my convention! Programming Track: Me: “Rene walling and me.”
- creature57: “Sexual Harassment at Readercon”
- delux_vivens: (no subject)
- DXMachina: “Readercon Update”
- elf: “Writing 101: Pronoun Reference Errors”
- kouredios/Saga City: “On Readercon’s Harassment Fail” (LJ)
- Letters from Alifros: “Readercon. Boy Am I Mad.”
- mechaieh/bronze_ribbons: “Readercon protest/petition” (LJ)
- Mike Allen/The Plasteel Spider Factory: “ReaderCon”
- Rose Lemberg: “Enough with the Aspie bit already”
- seekingwillow: “Sexual Harassment at Readercon”
- Shea Wong: “When enough is not enough: Rene Walling, Genevieve Valentine, and Readercon.”
- trinker: “When does Zero not mean Zero?”
- tway-blade: “Sexual Harassment at Readercon”
- V. Schanoes: “A couple things to address”
- Xiphias Gladius: “Pulling out to the top level a few more thoughts on the sexual harassment Readercon situation”
July 30th
- amelia_petkova: “But the sexual harasser said he was sorry!”
- Andi S.: at Google+
- Brit Mandelo: (no subject) (links)
- Catherine Schaff-Stump: “Readercon–It’s Not Rocket Science. It’s Litigious.”
- Catheryn Valente: “Concerning Readercon” (DW) (LJ)
- Carrie Cuinn: “Why I’m Not Abandoning Readercon Just Yet”
- Charles Tan/Bibliophile Stalker: “July 30, 2012 Links and Plugs” (links).
- Cheryl Morgan: “On Harassment Policies” (LJ)
- con-news.com: “Readercon zero tolerance debacle”
- cucumberseed/Erik Amundsen: “Careless Product of Wild Imagination”
- The Daily Dot: “Sci-fi blogosphere blasts Readercon over sexual harassment”
- Dash/spacehawk: “Zero Tolerance Policies (And Con Harassment)”
- David Anthony Durham: “Readercon: The Bad and the Ugly”
- demiurgent/Websnark: “Losing Readerconfidence: or how napalm doesn’t make for an effective fire retardant.”
- Don’t Be A Ruiner: “Zero-Tolerance Except if Sowwies, aka That Noise Happening with ReaderCon”
- Douglas Cohen: “On Readercon”
- drcpunk: “Thoughts on Readercon 2012”
- elf: “Round 3: Apologetics, begins”
- elynne: “What the actual fuck.”
- fierynotes: “People who don’t get boundaries at cons, part the millionth.”
- fjm: “How con-runner politics work (please link)”
- House out of Focus: “Say something”
- Hoyden About Town: “Pushback Awesome: another community having the anti-harassment policy debate”
- imnotandrei: “A comment on the Readercon business”
- James Nicoll: “This I believe” (LJ)
- Jim C. Hines: “The Readercon Mess”
- Josh/irilyth: “Readercon”
- Kauri’s Katharsis: “Readercon”
- liv: “Internet justice sucks”
- ljgoldstein in theinferior4 LJ community: “Yeah, It’s a Post about Readercon”
- Locus Online: “Readercon Responds to Harassment Complaint”
- M. David Blake: at Google+
- Mari Ness: “Readercon, again”
- The Marvelous MERV/Merv’s Very Secret Personal Log: “My thoughts on the Readercon ’12 Harassment Situation” (Warning: harassment-apology) (also: here Original looks like it might be by Thomas Jarean?)
- mondyboy: “The Readercon debacle”
- megpie71: “On Being ‘Socially Awkward'”
- Mely/coffee & ink: “Readercon addendums” (LJ)
- Michael J. DeLuca/The Mossy Skull: Dear Readercon
- Michelle/msagara: “As the mother of an Asperger child”
- Names Is For Tombstones, Baby/yagathai: “That Readercon thing 2012 edition”
- Nicholas Kaufmann : “See What You’re Missing By Not Following the Readercon Discussions?” (LJ)
- Nick Mamatas/nihilistic_kid: Worldcon’s Kansas City in 2016 bid committee
- Not Your Teachable Moment: “Taking Back Our Fandom”
- onalark: “regarding the readercon crap”
- Outline of Ash: “Readercon Thoughts”
- palmwiz: “two lessons”
- Peter Huston: (no title) (Warning: harassment-apology)
- Rachel Elizabeth Dillon: “Readercon: This Isn’t The Only Reason Not To Go.” (LJ)
- Rose Lemberg: “More on Readercon – the Board”
- Shakesville: “Monday Blogaround” (short reference, plus discussion in comments)
- Scott H. Andrews: “Gutless”
- Sonia Connolly: “A resigned idealist”
- sovay: “With regards to Readercon”
- syrens: “Angry Feminist is Angry About Rape Culture (sky also blue)”
- Team Valkyrie FTW: “Zero-Tolerance Except if Sowwies, aka That Noise Happening with ReaderCon “
- yendi: “So” (LJ)
July 31st:
Rose Fox stresses that things are moving:
https://twitter.com/rosefox/status/230209843909246976
- absinthe & whiskey / poetry & prozac /anonymous_sibyl: “Readercon harassment decision update.”
- Amy Sundberg: “Sexual Harassment: Not Something to Just ‘Get Over'”
- Ayesha/browngirl: “Three More Signal Boosts: Flirting, Harassment, and The Broken Stair”
- Crystal Huff/chaiya: “Readercon Update, Safe Spaces, and Personal Experiences” – a post from Readercon’s chair.
- Dave O’Neill/daveon: “Readercon Thoughts: Fandom as a Safe Place…”
- Don/warm fuzzy freudian slippers: “‘Funny how things come undone…'”
- dynamicsymmetry: (no subject)
- Farkle’s House of Thwartation: “on the Readercon thing”
- Genevieve Valentine: “Readercon: Updates, Responses, McMuffins”
- Incandescent Quill: “Don’t Go To Readercon, And Tell Them Why”
- James Nicoll: “What would” (LJ)
- Jim C. Hines: “Reporting Sexual Harassment in SF/F” (LJ)
- John Scalzi/Whatever: “Readercon, Harassment, Etc”
- Julie Andrews: “The Readercon Thing”
- lavendertook: “Who is being punished here: Readercon and Protecting its Membership.”
- legionseagle: “In the words of Victoria Wood”
- Mely/coffee & ink: “Issues with the Readercon Board”
- mondyboy/The Hysterical Hamster: “Readercon Delay – Rose Fox Clears Up My Confusion”
- Patrick Cahalan at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen: “Zero Tolerance Policies Are Stupid”
- The Science Fiction Dictionary of New Criticism: “Readercon Diet, The” (Trigger warning: diet language)
- Shea Wong: “I’m done making excuses for your excuses, the mental health/Readercon edition.”
- shelleybear: “Note to Readercon: Rules are Rules “
- Simpson’s Paradox: “Just A Compliment, Geez”
- Thomas Jarean: “My reply to ‘Nick’….”
- Tracy Hurley: at Google+
- Wis[s]e Words: “Readercon, harassment and all that”
Latest from Readercon:
The committee is agreeing on actions amid travel and day jobs. We promise we are putting all possible time and effort into this.
— Readercon (@readercon) July 31, 2012
We will make a statement as soon as we can. We want to be sure it accurately reflects our decisions and does right by Readercon's community.
— Readercon (@readercon) July 31, 2012
Aug. 1st:
- australian_joe: “Harassment, symmetry, privilege” (LJ)
- Crystal Huff/chaiya: “Readercon ‘edited to add’ Note”
- Charles Tan/Bibliophile Stalker : “August 1, 2012 Links and Plugs” (links post)
- Cheryl Morgan: “Further Thoughts on Harassment”
- delux_vivens: one more post readercon observation.
- dichroic: “the Readercon thing” (DW)
- Dwelling in Probabilities – C. Lundoff’s Journal/catherineldf: “SF/F convention harassment resources”
- elf: “Sitting on hands.”
- Eric Rosenfield/Wet Asphalt: “Sometimes an Organization Breaks Your Heart”
- gaudior: “Another thought on Readercon: on the purpose of punishment”
- John Scalzi: “A Trio of Caveats”
- Jezebel: “John Scalzi Helpfully Explains Just How Not Okay It Is to Sexually Harass Someone at a Sci-Fi or Fantasy Convention”
- Katherine Coble/Just Another Pretty Farce: “Prose And Cons OR My Biggest Fear Unveiled”
- Mark Bernstein: “On Conferences” (Given the current context, I read this as harassment-apology, but the author asserts that it isn’t — see comments)
- metaphortunate son: “tale as old as time”
- Mary Anne Mohanraj: “1 August 2012, 9:30 AM”
- Mary Anne Mohanraj: on Facebook
- Neil Clarke/Clarkesworld: “Editor’s Desk: Finding the Good in a Dark Day”
- Nonprofit Quarterly “Sci-fi Convention, Penn State Serve as Liability Reminders”
- Ron Drummond: “An Open Letter to the Readercon Board of Directors”
- Selki: “Apologies and Warnings”
- SF Signal: SF Tidbits for 8/1/12 (links post)
- Stella Omega/dharma_slut: “Readercon and ‘The Lady Vanishes'”
- Thomas Jarean/Jarean’s Folly My reply to ‘Stella Omega’ (Warning: harassment-apology. Part 3 in a series!)
- Tim Lieder/marlowe1: “Ok. Fine. Conventions”
- Vile Goblin/You say potato, I say pass the jumper cables : “But here’s the more extensive answer”
- Will Shetterly: “zero tolerance: for people who love black and white”
- Veronica Schanoes: “Memories”
Aug. 2nd
- colonelrowe: “Replace ‘harassed’ with ‘robbed'”
- Crystal Huff/chaiya: “Re Timeline of Readercon Response (thus far)”
- Doctor Science/Obsidian Wings: “The trouble with Apollo: harassment at geek cons”
- File 770: “Readercon Updates”
- Galactic Suburbia: “Episode 65: 2 August 2012” (Podcast)
- helen-louise/baratron: “Harassment, and Codes of Conduct”
- Keith R.A. DeCandido/kradical: “a bit more on Readercon”
- kouredios: “Have we lived and fought in vain?”
- Kyriacities: “Readercon Fail”
- Letters from Gehenna: The World on a Slant: “Readercon: On ‘Socially Awkward'”
- londo: “Readercon”
- Lloyd Penney: “Loc on Ansible 300 & 301 (Dave Langford, ed.)”
- marydell: “Assholism is not a neurological condition”
- Michael Matheson/A Dark and Terrible Beauty: “By Words We Rise, By Words We Fall”
- The Momus Report: “The Tontine Link-A-Lot #12”
- Nicholas Kaufmann: Readercon: The Monday Morning Quarterbacks Have Arrived”
- R.B. Wood: “‘We interrupt our program…'”
- sunhawk: “the dark side of ‘prom for nerds'”
- Thomas Jarean: “Enough.” (Warning: flounce)
- Tiny Cat Pants: “The Asperger’s Defense”
- Veronica Schanoes: “Rage”
Aug. 3rd
The entire Readercon board has now either resigned or announced intention to resign at the next meeting.
— Readercon (@readercon) August 3, 2012
- bodlon: “Friday Linkdump is working long hours”
- Cat Sitting Still/catsittingstill: “Update” (passing reference)
- colonelrowe: “Friday Night Massacre”
- Crystal Huff/chaiya: “Readercon Board Resignations”
- handful_ofdust: “Wow. One Entire Week.”
- ironed_orchid: “readercon board to resign”
- James Nicoll: “Readercon developments”
- Keys and locks, roots and branches/omnia_mutantur” “‘for a moment that I could just understand'”
- Nicholas Kaufmann: “Readercon Takes A Step Forward”
- Rose Fox in the Readercon community: “Board resignations”
- yendi: “Wow”
- Veronica Schanoes: “Another reason women don’t come forward”
Aug. 4th
- Adventures of a Bookonaut: “Learning from Readercon”
- Cat Sitting Still/catsittingstill: “Readercon and stray dogs”
- chomiji/Notes From an Ayewards World: “An Old-School She-Geek”
- cme: “More comments about harrasment and conventions”
- Cheryl Morgan: “ReaderCon Update”
- contrarywise: “The Readercon Debacle”
- Delilah S. Dawson: “dear dudes: don’t tell me how to lace my corset”
- The Grumpy Owl: “Blacklists, Readercon & A Good Old Fashioned Fuck You”
- Grenacia’s Random Thoughts: “Pondering on how being teased as a kid might affect response to harassment as an adult”
- James Davis Nicoll: “Because this detail has come up a couple of times”
- legionseagle: “My positively final post on the Readercon debacle, yes, honestly”
- The Mandelbear’s Musings: “Signal boost – Readercon”
- Naomi Gayle Rivkis/pocketnaomi: “Readercon and me”
- Peter Huston: “Readercon Hysteria: More thoughts on what’s wrong with reflexive, unthinking PC intellectualism.” (warning: harassment-apology. Like one couldn’t tell from the title.)
- Rafe: “Fractally Stupid”
- raincitygirl: “Am sleepy but can’t sleep. It’s 2 am, dammit!”
- Universal Hub: “Entire board at local science-fiction convention to resign over handling of sexual harassment at recent event”
- Worlds Without End: “Readercon Harassment Reax (UPDATE: Readercon Board resigns)”
- Xiphias Gladius: “A useful development in the Readercon/Rene Walling situation “
Aug. 5th
- Fearless Blogging: “Why are men so terrible?” (warning: harassment-apology)
- Quaff Nepenthe: “Bad At The Internet”
- Scott Lynch/Lynch Industries: “Failure Isn’t Forever, and the Man Who Wasn’t There.”
- thnidu: “Readercon and stray dogs (signal boost)”
- yendi/Si, and I like potatoes.: “Sigh”
Please read the Readercon convention committee's statement on recent events: http://t.co/IkJ9Uo54 http://t.co/tJSwFQj6
— Readercon (@readercon) August 5, 2012
After the announcement:
- alexx_kay: “Readercon Result”
- burger_eater: “One of the most dangerous things I do, productivity-wise” (brief)
- Cheryl Morgan: “ReaderCon Makes A Statement”
- chomiji: “‘Public Statement by the Readercon Convention Committee'”
- drcpunk: “Quick Readercon Update”
- Emily the slayer: “Readercon public statement”
- greygirlbeast: “‘Thou art the Mars of malcontents.'”
- horace_hamster: “Oh, well done, Readercon!”
- James Nicoll: “Readercon: Public Statement”
- jazzfish/Tucker McKinnon: “having nice things after all”
- Nicholas Kaufmann: “The Last Word on Readercon (Hopefully)”
- Outline of Ash: “Randomness”
- Pasquinade: “Readercon Update”
- pjvj/The Crazy Lady Down the Street: “Gratitude Project – Day 5”
- Samantha Henderson: “Readercon Update”
- sparkymonster: “Readercon Harassment Update: A good one” (LJ)
- sovay: “Public Statement by the Readercon Convention Committee”
- st_emma: “credit where it’s due”
- Swan Tower: “since I linked to the bad part”
- teenybuffalo: “Readercon: public statement”
- Veronica Schanoes: “Readercon’s Statement”
Aug. 6th
- Fiery Notes: “Well.”
- File 770: “Readercon Committee’s Latest Statement”
- Jezebel: “Here’s How You Deal With Sexual Harassment at a Sci-fi Convention”
- jinian: “tough landings”
- Justine Larbalestier: “Why Women Are Silent”
- Keith R.A. DeCandido/kradical: “Readercon does the right thing”
- Locus Online: “Readercon Board Resigns”
- Mely/coffee & ink: “Readercon Update” (LJ)
- The Mumpsimus: “Readercon Update: Making Amends”
- opalblack: (no subject)
- P.R. Kaye’s Presence: “Readercon Response” (DW)
- shadesong: (no subject)
- sovay: “Let the science begin”
- stina_leicht: “Feminist Monday–Better Than Caffeine”
- supergee: “Good news” (LJ)
- Veronica Schanoes: “Readercon, Apologies, and Positive Reinforcement”
Aug. 7th
- callistra/Sarah: “Random Ramble”
- David Louis Edelman: “The Readercon Mess” and “Another Account of the Readercon Mess” (warning: harassment-apology, like, whoa)
- Mondyboy: “Readercon does good”
- Thinking Too Much: (no subject)
And much later:
- September 08, 2012 – Laurie Mann “Creeps in Society”
- September 10th, 2012 – James Nicoll: “This is going to run longer than racefail, isn’t it”
- September 12th, 2012 – Yendi: “A follow-up on a post from the weekend”
See also:
- Ada Initiative: “DEFCON: Why conference harassment matters” (not related to Readercon, but timely)
- Geek Feminism: Rene and Readercon
- Girl-Wonder.org: Con Anti-Harassment Project
- The Open Source Women Back Each Other Up Project
Thank you for collecting these links. I wish none of them existed.
I’m going to go have a very large drink now.
I would like to post a twitter link to a general explanation of the Readercon issue. Is there any chance of you pointing me in the direction of something which sums up what has happened?
Genevieve’s first post explains what happened.
Mely/coffeeandink‘s summary is concise. As is sparkymonster’s.
If you want to include a name for me with my blog link (and thank you for linking!! anything to boost the signal!) I am Mels
Thank you for the links!! V. helpful.
Thank you very much for including my articles! If it’s not too much trouble, could you please have them both as just “Rose Lemberg”? If not, no worries.
Thanks for collecting these. Just a suggestion, but I think the Schanoes petition might deserve a spot in “the key links.”
Thank you for doing this. I am “Plasteel Spider Factory” and you’re welcome to add my name if you wish.
Another excellent post, calling on women not to cede ground to harassers: http://camille-is-here.livejournal.com/275127.html
Thanks!
[…] The Readercon Mess Much of the SF/F community has posted about the Readercon mess, where Rene Walling harassed and stalked Genevieve Valentine throughout the convention. BC Holmes has a roundup of links and discussion here. […]
http://con-girl.livejournal.com/1149353.html
Since you are collecting posts, and I am a completist, I thought I would provide you with my own small piece on the subject.
Thanks. Added.
[…] by the convention. If you need to catch up on things there is an excellent links round-up available here. As someone who runs conventions, incidents like this are of interest to me because I want to know […]
[…] full roundup of online reaction is available here. Two recurring themes provide useful takeaways for other […]
[…] this doesn’t just happen at cons. It happens 100% of everywhere. Which, I think, is part of the point. […]
My friend Loki has a post here which has not propagated yet to his LJ.
Genevieve and Jim Hines both have new posts up. And then there’s…well, there’s this: http://themarvelousmerv.blogspot.com/2012/07/my-thoughts-on-readercon-12-harassment.html
Thanks again for all this work, it’s extremely useful.
Thanks for the pointers.
I decided I needed to write something. It’s here:
http://julieandrews.livejournal.com/125219.html
Thanks for letting me know.
[…] to say, that set the cat amongst the pigeons, as you can see from the link summation at BC Holmes’ blog, who also linked to my post which was the first I noticed about this, as suddenly my hitcounter […]
Rene Walling is no longer on the panel listings for Farthing Party this weekend.
Draft program (24 July): http://farthingparty.livejournal.com/54342.html#cutid1
Final program (today): http://farthingparty.livejournal.com/55608.html#cutid1
MERV and Thomas Jarean are the same person. Not sure why he’s writing under another name.
Just wanted to add my name to those who are thanking you. I’ve been referring to your page practically more than any other over the past few days. Thanks so much.
I wish there were more bloggers in the world who would take the time and effort to do this sort of (largely thankless) link-gathering. Very well done.
Personally, I think the only proper result is to take off and nuke the entire site from orbit – metaphorically speaking, of course.
Unfortunately, these links are also relevant to Readercon.
http://vvalkyri.livejournal.com/1345649.html
http://vvalkyri.livejournal.com/1345040.html
I disagree with your characterization of my piece on conferences as a harassment apology.
If it’s an out-of-the-blue piece about conferences, or related to politics rather than fandom, it’s not “harassment apology related to Readercon” as much as “clueless behavior manual that assumes everyone starts on equal footing and has roughly-equivalent reasons for attending.”
You did say, “Everyone who wants it is entitled to share your time and attention.” And you repeat it. I’m not sure where you get this idea–why you think all attendees of *any* conference are obligated to give attention to *anyone who demands it*… but it comes across as nothing but a justification for harassment.
By “conference”, naturally, I primarily meant the scientific and scholarly conferences I and my readers most frequently attend and administer. Readercon is an outlier, but I have attended several and have praised its depth and rigor.
One sometimes encounters people at conferences who won’t take time to talk with students and younger scholars. That’s ungenerous, and it’s bad for the conference and for the field.
One sometimes encounters people at conferences who won’t discuss their work in sufficient detail to allow colleagues to reproduce and build on it, or to criticize it. That violates a core tenet of scholarship.
One sometimes encounters people — often students — who are very reluctant to speak to people they don’t see regularly. That’s a waste; if unchecked, it can divide a conference or discipline into cliques.
A conference is not merely a sequence of staged presentations or a sporting event. This isn’t always apparent at first. Some graduate advisors take pains to teach their students about conferences, but others don’t. (Similarly, it’s quite possibly to become a proficient and successful writers without learning anything about giving a good public reading.)
An academic or scientific conference is a very different kind of setting from a fandom conference. You did not indicate that you meant professional rather than amateur conferences, nor that you believe there’s any difference whatsoever in types of conferences.
Also, you didn’t say, “people with much experience in the topic of the conference have a moral obligation to share that experience with others;” you said “everyone is entitled to your attention.”
“Everyone” includes the media, rowdy partygoers, hecklers who only want soundbites they’ll use out of context to discredit your work, and creepy stalkers.
If you did not mean, “you are obligated to be polite and tolerant to the guy who is leering down your chest and making gestures towards his penis,” you should have rephrased your suggested guidelines with him in mind.
Because most women who attend conferences–of any sort–have met that guy, more than once, and our conference attendance is strongly influenced by how much tolerance he gets from the staff and other attendees. Your guidelines seem to say that he’d be a welcome and respected guest, as long as he hands out business cards and says he’s sorry if anyone gets upset.
Yes, I was writing about scientific and scholarly conferences, broadly speaking. These are professional, but of course almost all are also amateur — organized and run by volunteers. I’ve met fascinating people at conferences, busy people who were generous in giving time and advice without much hope of immediate benefit.
Readercon is something of an anomaly, but I would follow Michael Dirda in arguing that its depth and rigor compare favorably with many academic meetings.
I have seldom found rowdy partygoers a terrible problem, as they tend to be found in rowdy parties. Hecklers are uncommon in my experience but critics are not; if you cannot or will not discuss your work with its critics, why are you participating in this conference?
Talking to the media is, I think, a duty for conference participants to whom the media want to talk. (An exception is made, of course, for conferences that are closed to the press.) You are entitled to reasonable boundaries when speaking to reporters, but I think one should make a sincere effort on behalf of the conference and the field.
I don’t want to put words in elf’s mouth, but it looks to me like the central point from elf’s responses is one that you’re skipping over: that women in public spaces, including scientific and scholarly conferences, are regularly confronted with harassment. And if you’re writing about con etiquette in the aftermath of an incident of harassment at a con, and your etiquette guide says that “everyone is entitled to your attention.” without very much qualification of that statement, it ends up looking like an apology for harassment.
I think you’re arguing that you had a different set of circumstances in your head when you wrote that. Okay; I get that. I’d nonetheless counter that many women (and people in other marginalized communities) are going to be put off by the words that you’ve written, and it might be fruitful to revise your etiquette guide with that in mind.
Thank you.
I had a reply to him, but failed to put in the captcha number and it got deleted. 🙁
Doesn’t matter; he’s obviously not listening, and I suspect that any lurkers who wonder “what in his post is harassment apologetics?” have had that answered.
He sees no danger at all at conferences, and therefore insists that “polite behavior” is the most important social imperative. Those of use who find conferences to contain substantial risks, will continue to seek ways to mitigate those risks.
I’m listening, though I do have work to do, and a trip to take in the morning.
I’ve been sexually harassed at academic conferences, mark. Not at parties or social gatherings – just by another attendee I kept running into. You are simply wrong – I don’t owe a guy who does that any attention.
Actually, I don’t think I owe anyone anything beyond what I’ve agreed to do. But it is wise and generally beneficial for us as a community if I am approachable and willing to talk at a conference.
I agree very strongly with the characterization of that post as harassment apology. I’m also giggling a little bit at the extent to which the author is pompous and, apparently, clueless. You can make all the “allowances” you want, bro, my “culture” values women, values respect, values safety, and forbids me from staying silent when people are nasty to vulnerable people.
Shameless plug: http://incandescentquill.tumblr.com/post/28411149075/dont-go-to-readercon-and-tell-them-why is my little contribution to this discussion.
Thanks. I did have that one in my list (I had trouble double-checking that because WordPress automatically converts apostrophes, so doing a find on “Don’t” wasn’t locating it for me.)
Another link to add:
http://colonelrowe.livejournal.com/39551.html
Thanks again!
More links always welcome!
Another link for you, making the point that many women of color aren’t comfortable reporting harassment at cons and aren’t telling their stories in this extended discussion:
http://delux-vivens.dreamwidth.org/276502.html
Thanks for passing that along.
[…] fallout, BC Holmes has been compiling an almost unfathomably comprehensive listing of links here: http://blog.bcholmes.org/the-readercon-thing/), but that is the focal point around which everything […]
[…] Harassment, Etc (and more links) (0) More […]
Looks like the link you have with Thomas Jarean’s/Marvelous Merv’s flouncing just leads back here, maybe.
You’re right; thanks.
For whatever it’s worth, I’ve added my voice to the discourse: http://sunhawk.livejournal.com/558747.html
[…] harassment discussion: Masterlist & timeline of links Cheryl looks at the practical side of developing harassment policies for […]
Rose Fox is reporting that the entire Readercon board has resigned or announced their intention to resign at the next meeting: http://readercon.livejournal.com/22250.html
Eep! I turn my attention for a few hours, and this is what happens. Thanks for letting me know.
If you’re still collecting posts, I wrote these:
http://cme.dreamwidth.org/122332.html
http://cme.dreamwidth.org/122617.html
Thanks for managing this list.
Thanks for letting me know!
Boston newsblog discovers Readercon:
http://www.universalhub.com/2012/entire-board-local-science-fiction-convention-resi
Thanks for the pointer!
Are my journal entries really worthy of inclusion here?
Sure. They also have good comment threads!
[…] frequently one of the first people to find out about the various epic!fails — amazon!fail, the readercon debacle, #romneyshambles — and I’m tied in pretty tight to the blogosphere’s discussions […]
Just want to add my voice to those thanking you!
I have to say, I am really impressed with the concom’s response/public statement: http://readercon.org/publicstatement.htm
Geniveve Valentine has updated her lj with a response to the apology and statement from the concom
http://glvalentine.livejournal.com/342282.htm
Thanks. I can’t believe I missed that!
I feel strangely arrogant and self-promoting doing this, but I also wouldn’t want anybody to think that I wasn’t as happy about the concom’s statement as I am, so…here’s my current, brief post about it (to be followed by something longer and more analytical when I have a moment today or tomorrow).
http://vschanoes.livejournal.com/88496.html
For the sake of completeness, I also had a bit about the quasi-threat of being blacklisted:
http://vschanoes.livejournal.com/88219.html
And, oh, what the hell, a couple other posts about sexual harassment and anger I’ve made recently:
http://vschanoes.livejournal.com/87980.html
http://vschanoes.livejournal.com/87700.html
Well, I don’t think it’s arrogant or anything. Besides: your work on the petition/letter is so tremendously important. Thanks for the links!
Thanks very much–I imagine that keeping on top of all the links was no easy task, but having a central clearing house to refer to so that I could keep on top of things was so helpful.
I have one more post, which I hope will be the last one of mine on this, about supporting Readercon’s new statement: http://vschanoes.livejournal.com/88742.html
Thank you; you’ve made a huge investment of your time and energy and I think it has made a real difference to the outcome.
[…] the past few days, I’ve put my foot in my mouth a few times on my Twitter feed commenting on the Readercon sexual harassment incident involving Rene Walling and Genevieve Valentine. I’m usually smart enough not to jump into these vitriolic science fiction community debates, […]
… wow, Mr. Edelman’s essay can certainly use a “Warning: harassment-apology” note, especially considering the subsequent discussion.
[…] Many discussions ensued. […]
Is there a section dedicated to fuckwit apologetics, because have I got a doozy for you!
http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/current-events/another-account-of-the-readercon-mess/
Best/worst quote: “I’m sensitive to the argument that this kind of scrutiny only discourages sexual harassment victims from coming forward. It’s a concern, to be sure. But I happen to believe that more knowledge, scrutiny and skepticism is never a bad thing, and that trying to shut down or shame the skeptics into silence only makes you look bad.”
Poor, poor skeptics. How we shame them into silence with our facts and feelings and experiences.
Readercon may have (finally) come to the right decision, but what is to stop Walling from preying on other women at other conventions? Has someone made a list of all the conventions he’s a part of, or that he even attends? It would be a good idea to do so, and contact the Boards and Concoms of all of these conventions to demand that they do something about him.
[…] the issue of sexual harassment at conventions and conferences is getting much attention due to recent happenings at ReaderCon (a literary science fiction/fantasy focused convention) which led to some other cons (both genre […]
[…] of decent men. The incidents of 2012 are piling up: Anita’s very public harassment, the Readercon harassment, Hepler’s harassment …the list is growing. But so does the list of positive responses […]
[…] worth bringing up the ReaderCon Incident as an example of the sort of this Marissa’s talking about. The Creeper in this […]
[…] Holmes har en länklista över reaktionerna på det. Kort sagt kan man konstatera att Readercons ovilja att driva igenom sin […]
[…] Originally posted at JeffVanderMeer.com. For information about the ReaderCon incident discussed below, see this collection of links. […]
[…] part because of an incident at ReaderCon last month with author Genevieve Valentine. (Here’s a very long list of all the posts/responses/reaction.) It’s a disturbing story, in large part because it’s by no means uncommon, and thus […]
[…] you’re not familiar with the Readercon debacle, this page makes it easy to follow. The very first post, by Genevieve Valentine, sums up her experience at the […]
[…] said, there is something monumentally more stupid that zero tolerance policies, and that’s having one, and then not following it. I can’t imagine what Tod will say when he sees this story except, […]