this is not a test case

I think election week has had a detrimental effect on my temper. Yesterday I made myself delete a post on my level of exhaustion with the slasher == misogynist crap that magically pops up every so often with random uncited "But someone somewhere once said something about girlparts that could be construed as she thought they were icky!" and wow, five pages later, I put that away before something snapped.

However, this is the internet and while I totally thought I was topped out? It turns out I wasn't.

cereta posts here about the events that occurred during and after Wiscon this year. For a pretty thorough explanation, Angry Black Woman posts here about what happened. Short version:

A woman named Rachel Moss put a post on Something Awful mocking attendees not because of their politics or their feminism or their willingness to come to Wisconsin, but because they were too fat, too white, too male, or too black for her taste.

Not just a post. Pictures (faces blocked, badges not so much) of attendees.

Fannish community standards were created as a protective measure to fen from harassment that, as this has pretty much proven, still exists. We created it because we're fen, because our first reaction to being hit is to hit back as hard as we possibly can, because that shit hurts and no one wants to be around for a second punch. If we get rid of them first, they can't get us again.

(Or we vanish. For good.)

It was created to protect us, as much from each other as others. It gives everyone a quick, easy answer to the question. To protect our community. To make as safe as possible the spaces we created for ourselves.

It was not, and never has been, a way to protect the harassers. This isn't a fine line situation. This isn't even a grey spot of sliding scale. This was not the internet alone. This was real life, in the flesh, in a physical location, documented stalking of attendees and their children for the purposes of abusing them. Community standards are not a way to fuck each other over in RL and expect and require people to never talk about it.

This had nothing to do with fandom. RL harassment is not a protected fannish activity. Community standards do not apply.

...the posts I linked to say this a lot better. Go there.

ETA: Or go here, where coffeeandink gives an excellent, thorough, and well-measured response to the Unfunny Business post that I'm still--boggling over.

Comments

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

I'm with Chop -- PJ is pretty well known for her taking a contrary position just to needle people she wants to target and stripping a story of the context that'll hurt whatever cause she has at the moment.

I wouldn't call that grudge-posting, as a lot of people are in Unfunnybusiness, but it's certainly targeted posting, and not at all a simple run-down of a brewing wank. And it's... really, really pathetically typical of her.

[chopchica.livejournal.com]

Plus, she has zero sense of humor. I never got what she was doing in the FW world to begin with.

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've wondered about that, as well. I suspect she just likes to mock, without the irony that a lot of FW people normally have. She's... meaner? I dunno. I don't know her, but her posts have never filled me with a lot of respect, you know? Most of the FW mods and prominent people I do respect.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

They tend to be fannish and know what they are mocking. That's why I tend to enjoy f-w--I may not always agree, but it's basically family mocking family most of the time.

She--doesn't feel quite like that.

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

I may not always agree, but it's basically family mocking family most of the time.


:D

[seperis.livejournal.com]

It is! It's like you may HATE cousin Mae so much, but yes, you will have to be at the family reunions with her and eat potato salad at the same table. And she's a huge douche, but you still share great grandma gertrude and that, my friend, is for life.

Fandom's like DNA, really.

[cofax7]

... is there a history there with Mely? Because I don't get the targeting coffeeandink specifically. Mely's vocal and well-spoken, but not actually wanky.

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

I don't know of any, but I certainly was wondering if there was after that dig in the post. I'm only a cursory reader of FW, so any intricate details will have to be supplied by someone up on the gossip there. I can only comment on trends I've noticed :)

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Good question. Honestly, I'm trying to figure out why she reported on this one like this at all.

[zing_och.livejournal.com]

I actually asked her why her name was in the report at all.

Because she posted about wanting to draw community standards, and says nothing to condemn the breaking of what had been a community standard.

Yeah. I don't get it either.

[chopchica.livejournal.com]

I've never seen anything coffeeandink has said linked anywhere in JF before (or cereta, for matter - two women who tend to be extremely articulate and are good at making sure discussions are honest and information-filled and stay on track. They're not really wanky JF fodder). I have no idea why PJ thought this was the right person to highlight and skewer, but I think it's backfired on her hugely, because coffeeandink comes off as reasonable and smart, and PJ comes off looking like the biased grudgewanker she is.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

::waves at everybody:: Thanks for the comments, people. Some of the comments on UB were getting me down.

I don't have any history with PB that I can recall. I did indeed use RM's full name in one post and did direct people to badgerbag and the Angry Black Woman, who linked her name to her LJ identity, so now that I've had time to think about it, I can see why that would attract ire if you disagree with the action.

Mostly, I'm upset that people are discounting the very real harm done to WisCon and its attendees (hi, it's still dangerous to be trans, you know? And in some places just gay, even), and conflating the actions of WisCon members, who have used RM's name and some of whom I think contacted her supervisor, with the actions of SA/SASS members, who posted RM's address and phone number. Even if you think the Wiscon members' own actions were wrong, it's not fair to blame them for things they didn't actually do.

[cofax7]

Well, you know me: I was attempting not to be wanky and exposing my complete bias in this situation. *g*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I'm honestly shocked people were willing to discount what happened to those who attended WisCon. And I still boggle at the community standards angle and comparing it to internet flamewars. I'm so, so sorry anyone had to go through this. And i'm sorry UFB's post was basically salt on the wound.

The SASS were a hell of a lot more vicious than fandom's been, I've got to say, which made the Unfunny Business post even more ridiculous.

[littlemousling]

Some of the comments on UB were getting me down.

I think it's just taking people a little while to catch on that the whole post there is, shall we say, skewed. I wouldn't worry; it's pretty obvious you're on the side of the angels.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

:) Thanks. I was more worried by the animus attaching to Wiscon, but I'm feeling much more positive about it this morning.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

This might help.

http://www.journalfen.net/community/wankitywank/30067.html?#cutid1