kingnocastle:My answer ended up being really long, because 20 is my sexual harassment adventure over
kingnocastle:My answer ended up being really long, because 20 is my sexual harassment adventure over the weekend.6. Something in school you really liked doing that everyone else bitched over.I am the one asshole for whom the US’s impersonal, drone-producing lecturing+notes system is actually effective. I like it when someone speaks engagingly while I write down what they say, and never have to work with anyone else or do any fucking art assignments. Also, I kind of enjoyed standardized testing. It was sort of a game. I thought of prep weeks as the period where I’d learn the ins and outs of the test writer’s methodology, typical tricks, etc. On test day, answers were less about showing what I knew and more about turning my actual thought process off in favor of the one I’d figured out the test had.12. Television programs you love but have gotten shit for liking.Alias, Grey’s Anatomy. I have nothing to say for myself.20. Free rant on whatever grinds your gears at the moment.THIS PROMPT WAS VERY WELL-TIMEDThis last weekend, I was in Portland for Orycon. I’d never been to a con like this. It’s got a lot older crowd, different dress code, and the focus is fantasy and scifi (~speculative fiction). I wasn’t really sure what to expect on the specific interpersonal level. I’ve always lived under the assumption that the crippling awkwardness of people at anime conventions would sort of resolve itself as they got older. Most everyone I know are a lot better at being people than they were at 14.What I wasn’t expecting was the worst manifestations of geek culture. It had all the sexism, awkwardness and deep need to assert themselves, but it was all compounded by these people being settled into their niches, and their behavior being generally accepted in their community.All that, on its own, I could shrug off. It’s not like I’m always covering myself in glory during social situations, so I don’t have all that much room to judge these people in. I wasn’t going to set out to alter the whole Orycon culture just because I wasn’t interested in befriending most of these people.It was only during the body painting panel that it really became my problem. I’d agreed to be painted last minute ‘cause my friend needed a third person, and the painting was seriously PG, just head-neck-arms-shins. I wasn’t banking on the douchefuck mayor of douchebagtown to come paddling in on his douchecanoe. The fucker made the most street harass-y comments humanly possible through the whole panel, and no one said a fucking thing. Body painting needs a certain level of nudity, right? That’s pretty much inherent. Generally everyone manages to be adults about it, because we’ve all seen other people’s bodies before, and this is one of those things that’s emphatically not for titillation, but that guy was managing to wank all the fuck over it. Every mention, even sort of vague, that referenced a woman’s boobs, ass or vagina got some sort of comment out of him. They were mostly in the vein of “Ooh, I wouldn’t mind touching that” or “If only I was 20 years younger.” I hadn’t thought the Show Me Your Genitals dude could actually be a real life thing. I’d sort of passed it off as hipster sexism that uses hyperbole to justify ignoring more subtle sexist behavior. Turns out I WAS FUCKING WRONG. IT WAS EXACTLY THAT BAD.This dude turned a totally no big deal painting into something that made me feel uncomfortable, angry, vulnerable and hurt, and apparently that was a total non-event? A couple of the people I talked to about it seemed sort of confused that I was so outwardly angry about it. Someone even called that guy sweet. DOUCHEBAG MAYOR IS NOT SWEET. HE IS THE DOUCHELORD, DESTROYER OF THE COMFORT OF WOMEN AND ANYONE PERCEIVED TO BE A WOMAN.When I was on my way out the next day, I was chilling with the other two people who’d been painted with me, ‘cause we’re friends and that’s what friends do, when DOUCHEFUCK COUNT OF DOUCHELAND, FLEET DIRECTOR OR THE DOUCHE PONTOON AS IT PADDLES DOWN THE RIVER OF ENTITLEMENT comes up to us. He immediately picks up where he’d left off at the panel, talking about how he’d love to touch our naked bodies, even during a decidedly unsexy event like scrubbing off body paint. Then he goes on to tell us about how we won’t have the pleasure of his company next Orycon, since the Army was sending him “to Africa.” At this point, I was tired, stressed, and my critical thought had pretty much had shut off, so I didn’t say “You are a sleazy fuck that made me really uncomfortable with your sleaze, cut it the fuck out.” I was more interested in desperately scanning for the other friend that I was leaving with. When other friend finally appeared, I scrambled the fuck out of there. It didn’t even occur to me to ask my friend to walk me out so she could have an out from THE COURT OF THE GRAND HIGH DOUCHE EMPEROR. Sorry Kelsey.MORAL OF THE STORY: SEXIST GEEK CULTURE RUINED WHAT IS USUALLY A VERY POSITIVE EXPERIENCESECONDARY MORAL OF THE STORY: DOUCHEFUCK NEEDS TO GET PUNCHED IN THE DICK AND THEN TAKE A COURSE ON SEXUAL HARASSMENTTERTIARY MORAL OF THE STORY: THAT FUCK IS REPRESENTING MY COUNTRY ABROAD FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCKReblogging because, people, this is not okay. I’ve heard plenty of people excuse their sexist behavior by claiming that they’re not really being sexist, just “appreciative,” and this is common in the geeky community. Even if we don’t want it to be. -- source link
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