Tag Archives: sexual assault

Men’s Rights Group Invades Calgary Comics and Entertainment Expo (Updated)

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calgary-expoIf this is any indication, this year’s con season is going to be long, painful, and full of assholes headaches. The Men’s Rights Group Honey Badger Brigade is currently causing issues and harassing panelists at the Calgary Comics and Entertainment Expo which began Thursday and runs through Sunday. The convention has pretty well laid out policy and procedures when it comes to harassment, bullying, and abuse. You can read the entire policy on their site.

The Honey Badger Brigade, which affiliates itself with GamerGate, raised money to set up a booth and is currently going to panels that highlight women and diversity to cause issues…. because it’s all about ethics in journalism as is the mantra of the GG community.

From the fundraising page set up by the Honey Badger Brigade:

In April of this year, the Honey Badgers plan to put on a booth at the Calgary Comics and Entertainment Expo! We plan to infiltrate nerd culture cunningly disguised as their own. Each of us has been carefully crafting a persona of nerdiness through decades of dedication to comics, science fiction, fantasy, comedy games and other geekery, waiting for this moment, our moment to slip among the unaware. Once there we will start distributing the totalitarian message that nerd and gamer culture is… perfectly wonderful just as it is and should be left alone to go it’s own way.

That’s it folks.

As men’s issues advocates and defenders of creator’s rights to create unmolested, that’s what we have to say to the nerds and geeks and gamers. You are fantastic as you are, carry on.

Yep, in today’s political climate that’s considered an extremist position. Just letting creative communities create; consumers consume what they want; and gamers get down to the business of vidya without being judged.

So if you share our vision of a world in which nerds and geeks and gamers roam free and unfettered, help us spread that message by throwing a few shekels our way to attend the con.

Nerds, geeks, and gamers can roam free… unless you’re a woman with an opinion, differing experiences and interests, or different viewpoint from the Badgers. Pot meet kettle.

The situation raised its ugly head when I saw the below Tweet:

The Honey Badger Brigade booth is sporting a GamerGate logo, using imagery championed by the organization, and is attending panels that feature feminists and women just to disrupt them. I think any last vestige to the argument this is about “ethics” is out the window, not that I believed it for one second anyways.

The “hate group” has spurred an outcry from attendees and others towards the Calgary Expo team who stated in numerous Tweets “they take safety seriously and are investigating the situation.” Of course pro-GamerGate individuals immediately accused the Expo of a double standard and sent a barrage of Tweets their way condemning the convention that wanted to make its con-goers feel safe and has a pretty clear policy linked above.

It looks like it didn’t work, as it has been Tweeted that the booth and individuals have been kicked out of the convention.

I’ll address the misunderstanding of “censorship” some other time.

The group at the convention attended the “Women Into Comics” panel last night. Panelist Brittney Le Blanc recounting what happened:

We were about fifteen minutes into the panel when a woman in the second row stood up and identified herself as a Men’s Rights Activist. She and her male companion both came to raise issues they felt would not be covered by our panel. Raising points about the way men are portrayed in comics struck a note with all the panelists, as we agreed that we want to see a diversity across body types, characters, races, etc in mainstream comics. Not everyone wants to see a hero who looks like he’s built like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. They also accused us of presenting all women as victims, which was an outright lie and derailing tactic.

Their questions did take up quite a bit of time at the panel and served to derail the topic onto another tangent, which was frustrating for the panel and for those in the audience. It’s what they came to do, and in part, they succeeded. I would say that it brought up some great discussions though, allowing us to talk about the lack of representation for people of colour in comics and to give well deserved props to artists like Sophie Campbell, who has done an amazing job in showcasing a broad range of bodies with her art in Jem and the Holograms.

It’s disappointing that they weren’t there to have a conversation or to listen to what we, and members of the audience, were saying. They wanted to stand up and have their say, but not to listen or try to understand the points of view other people in the room had. This was further proven by the video discussion they posted later last night, in which they mentioned our panel and that we were “donning the ball gowns of our victimhood”, which I’m not even entirely sure how to take. I will admit to not watching the whole video, and I think anyone who attempts to watch it would understand why.

I truly believe in freedom of speech, but coming to a panel with the entire purpose of derailing it and shooting down the voices on the panel isn’t constructive. It appears that was their plan for the expo, to come and to loudly take over the spaces of other people – although it was not violent or threatening, it’s disrespectful, disappointing and offers a prime example of why these panels need to exist in the first place.

Remember, it’s about ethics in journalism…. repeat that enough….

This is the latest dust-up in the “culture war” that has raged in the geek sphere between exclusive individuals who cling to a retconned misunderstood past, and those who recognize geek fandom is a diverse community, expanding in inclusion, and should reflect the heterogeneous reality.

We have reached out to the Calgary Expo for a statement. We’ll update this post as necessary.

Update: The Calgary Expo has posted the below to their Facebook page:

calgary expo statement

Patty Spivot’s Over/Under Reaction to the Future Flash

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Patty Spivot received a new life with DC Comics‘ New 52. Part of the gimmickry with the New 52 was to add a bit of “will they or won’t they?” to their titles by separating old romantic couples in the DC universe and replacing them with others. This is one of the easiest tricks of the gimmick, as there is a certain amount of tension as previous couples are kept close but still necessarily separate. Thus Lois Lane was replaced with Wonder Woman and Iris West was replaced with Patty Spivot. Previously she had been an assistant in Barry Allen’s crime lab and had played a relatively small role in his history, with fewer than 100 appearances in comics compared to nearly 600 for Iris, but of all of a sudden she was one of the two main leading female characters in this title.

theflashThe last story arc before the Convergence company wide crossover dealt with the replacement of the present day Flash with a future version of the character. The present day Flash was thrown into an alternate dimension influenced by the Speed Force, and the Future Flash was brought to the present day. This other Flash was much more brutal, eager to fix the errors of his past with a utilitarian outlook, reasoning that killing or maiming one in the present was better than if hundreds or thousands died in the future. Patty and Iris eventually become aware of his actions and confront him over it. When the present day Flash returns from the alternate dimension he is able to put most of the harm back to normal before settling back into regular life.

Except that his regular life is thrown off when Patty reveals that she cannot be with him anymore because he reminds her of the murderer. This is an over reaction based on the character that had been established, one that had been deeply in love with Barry, and it seems as though it was thrown in so that there was an easy avenue to wrap up loose ends before the hiatus. While this is an over reaction, there is an under reaction which is not really explored at all in any of the issue, and probably because it was mostly overlooked.

theflashAs was previously mentioned, the Future Flash, though still Barry, acted and behaved very differently, and was in effect a completely different person. Although intimacy is not explored in the mainstream comics as much, as two adults in an adult relationship it is reasonable to think that they would have had sexual relations with each other at some point, especially as they share the same bed. Although there is obviously no precedent in real world law for time travel, this would easily fall under the overall umbrella of sexual assault or sexual violence. If a person posed as another in order to have sex with anyone, then that would be considered rape. That it is two different versions of the same person is not really relevant, and in reality Patty would be aware of this violation more so than Barry might be, especially upon his return.

Thus the over reaction to Barry as having the face of a murderer makes little sense, but having the same face as a person that raped her would be much harder to live with.

Stewart Pulls (Out) a Weiner

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It all began when Judge Dread artist Ulises Farinas took JL8 creator Yale Stewart to task for Stewart’s habit of creating pictures around tragedies to raise money. Working in politics, the fact Stewart does this has never phased me, as I see it every day with organizations’ opportunistic nature. As long as the money raised made it to the charities, I tended to not really care. The latest of those had to do with the tragedy in Ferguson.

jl8-ferguson-625x351But quickly, the dust-up escalated (as things tend to do online):

The discussion of Stewart’s fundraising habits quickly shifted to his habit of showing off his own member to women. Stewart has been accused of pulling an Anthony Weiner, sending texts of his privates to women, with some saying these were unsolicited. From there, things escalated more, with Stewart saying his mother was receiving rude/threatening calls, and Farinas also claiming threats.

Stewart then said he was taking time off from his work.

2014-08-19_2312  2014-08-19_2313_001Stewart also deleted his Twitter account in the process.

Numerous individuals that I know claimed Stewart’s habits was an open secret, known in the industry and that there were photos showing both of Stewart’s heads, proving it was him. As expected, numerous online individuals rallied around Stewart, shaming those making claims and generally throwing vitriol their way (cause why believe the victim!?). Then 4Chan came to the rescue, turning up a photo of Stewart in the buff.

With photo evidence, Stewart has made a formal apology, (sort of) admitting to the exhibitionist acts:

Good morning.

As some of you may be aware, there have been some rumors circulating about my personal conduct with women in the comics industry. The accusation is that I’ve sent unsolicited intimate photos of myself to fans, colleagues, or possibly both.

Sexual harassment is incredibly serious business, and I believe anyone who has followed me for any period of time knows that I often speak against it. No one should be subject to such behavior. It’s invasive, disrespectful, and occasionally dangerous.

Have I sent intimate photos of myself to women before? Yes. I’ll absolutely admit to that. As a 26 year-old bachelor with a relatively healthy sex life in the internet age, these things happen. However, every photo sent was in direct response to either a photo received or a specific request.

Or so I thought.

Two years ago, I was engaged in two separate relationships with women whom I was sexually active with. Given the nature of these relationships, my experiences in past relationships, and various dialogues with these women, I thought it had been established within each relationship that intimate or explicit photos were acceptable, possibly even desired.

I GROSSLY misread the situation.

It has been brought to my attention that both of these women were uncomfortable with my behavior, and needless to say, I’m absolutely disgusted with myself. How I could so horribly misinterpret the situation confounds me, but that confusion pales in comparison to the shame of knowing that I did the very thing to these two women that I openly chastise people for on a regular basis. Also, beyond that, that these women felt this way for TWO YEARS without me knowing and attempting to make amends, which is wholly unacceptable in its own right.

I have reached out to both of these women and have made private apologies, but I felt it was my responsibility to make a public one as well. As stated earlier, I believe sexual harassment to be an incredibly serious issue, and while the harassment in question was a terrible and ignorant mistake, it does not change the fact that that’s what this was, and I accept full responsibility.

I strive to treat everyone with respect, as I feel those who know me personally or follow my comics work would attest, and as such I hope that helps frame how sorry I truly am that all of this happened. The best I can do is own up to it, acknowledge that I made an incredible error in judgement, and finally, make sure that I learn from this mistake and never repeat it moving forward.

In addition, if there’s anyone else out there who feels like I’ve made them uncomfortable, on any level, please let me know. Clearly I’ve misread situations before, and I don’t want to go years again thinking nothing’s wrong only to learn I’ve hurt someone.

Finally, I’ll be making a donation of $1000 to RAINN, as they’re an organization at the forefront of both preventing and aiding victims of sexual harassment and assault. Hopefully my small donation will in some way help them in educating even just one person, preventing another situation such as this.

My deepest, sincerest apologies to all.

-Yale

While we don’t have hard evidence contradicting Yale’s statement, we have been told by a few that pics were received even though they were not dating Stewart, and in fact some were in a relationship with other individuals.

While sending pics like this is quite ok in a consenting relationship, doing so unsolicited is wrong, and harassment. Harassment is wrong, period, whether it was Yale sending pics to women, people calling Stewart’s mother, or things directed at Farinas. For each of these incidents that occur, it seems like the industry, and its fanbase, never learn long term lessons.

Hopefully Stewart has learned his lesson, and his positive actions going forward are honest and sincere (and for gods sake man, quit it with the dick pics!). It’s not impossible to move forward after one’s “sexual exploits” become news, just ask Bill Clinton, Anthony Weiner, or Eliot Spitzer (though Clinton is the one who’s made it to the other side the best).

But for now, Stewart might want to take some time off and think things through. When he returns, a pen name might be a good idea. We suggest Gustavo Stealth.

Gen Con Makes their Harassment Policy Clear

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gen-con-logoWhile planning my trip for this year’s Gen Con, after logging into my account, I had to agree to a new terms of service, which was also emailed to me after I agreed and clicked the submission.

There’ in very clear language, is the family friendly game convention’s terms as far as harassment. Last year, before the convention took place an email was sent specifically on the topic. It’s great to see a convention be so upfront about this and want to create a fun, and safe environment for everyone.

Check out their terms below, and we’ll see what, if anything might be on site when we get their in about 50 days,

ETHICS, CONDUCT AND NOHARASSMENT

I understand that GEN CON is dedicated to providing a safe, enjoyable, and harassment-free Convention experience for all participants and workers, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, religion, or affiliation, and I hereby acknowledge that disruptive behavior, inappropriate and unlawful conduct, and harassment in any form will not be tolerated. I agree to conduct myself, and any minors under my supervision, in a safe, responsible, non-disruptive, and lawful manner while attending the Convention, and understand that violation of Convention policies as determined by GEN CON in its sole discretion, may result in my expulsion from the Convention without refund.If you need to report an issue you may do so by visiting the Show Office in room 112 or Customer Service in the Wabash East concourse.

Online Harassment Isn’t Just Wrong, It’s a Crime

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StopMuch has been written, and much of that better than I could do, about the unfortunate and wrong online harassment in geek communities, especially geared towards women. Those women did nothing more than participate in our already marginalized community. They expressed their opinions, thoughts, and in general just communicated, for this they’ve been attacked by anonymous bullies. The fact they have thoughts and opinions seems too much for some online, who have threatened them with death, and threatened them with rape. Some have gone even further, attempting to access email accounts, bank accounts, and more.

First, it is unacceptable in any situation to threaten death or rape. There is no situation where this would be fine. And it especially is not ok to respond this way for someone having an opinion you don’t agree with. Going that route shows you have no original thought, lack maturity or the ability to communicate like an adult, and is a piss poor attempt at intimidation. But, the point of this article is, it is also a crime.

Through all of the discussion that’s been going on, and with all of the various comments made, numerous crimes have been committed. Some of them, like attempting to access bank accounts, are pretty serious, and can bring jail time if prosecuted. I won’t even go into the time and money suck if it’s just investigated (lawyers like to get paid!).

For those making these comments and committing these acts, pause and ask yourself, is it worth going to jail, because you disagree with someone about an opinion over a comic book? Think about trying to explain that one to your cell mate.

Harassment as defined in the U.S. computer statutes is generally when someone:

…use a computer or computer network to communicate obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd, lascivious, or indecent language, or make any suggestion or proposal of an obscene nature, or threaten any illegal or immoral act.

Threatening death, and/or rape falls into the above. This is also usually different from cyber-bullying which has a definition unto itself. If you don’t believe online threats, even “jokes,” aren’t taken seriously, I give you this story of a teen who faces jail time for online “terror” threats. Here’s another example. And another. I could go on and on.

For the complete morons who think attempting to access bank accounts is intelligent or funny, this is a Cyber Crime. Not only do you have federal law to deal with, but many states have laws as well. Many countries too have adopted legislation and laws that make what I’m describing above a crime.

Penalties for violating cyber harassment laws vary widely by jurisdiction. In most cases, cyber harassment is charged as a misdemeanor. The more serious crime of cyber-stalking, however, may be a felony in some jurisdictions and punishable by a lengthy prison sentence.

I ask again to the “anonymous” harassers, is disagreeing about comics a big enough deal for you to go to jail for?

While freedom of speech in the United States is protected by the first amendment, the results due to that free speech are not, and in reality not all speech is protected either. You have a right to say what you want, but the fallout due to that, you get to deal with as well. Speech with the intent to “harm or intimidate” is not protected. The Supreme Court itself has said it is “statements where the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group” Rape threats, and death threats qualify.

Many have spoken out saying we all need to speak out about this intimidation whenever and wherever we see it. I agree with that completely. But enough is enough. Crimes have been committed on various websites, in forums, over email, on social networks. We all need to stand up, we all need to take this all seriously. We need to speak up when we see this. To the people who these threats are directed towards, these acts perpetrated against, I encourage you to turn in these criminals to their and your local police departments, their and your attorneys general, and the FBI. This is serious stuff, crimes are being committed. Documenting them not only helps you, but others who might also be experiencing the same thing from the same individuals.

This site stands for equality and inclusiveness, we log IP addresses for comments and messages to us, and will turn them in, no questions asked. I encourage other sites to stand up and join us in cooperating and not tolerating this behavior. This is our community and this site our corner of that community. It is our responsibility to make it open and welcoming to all.

 

Graphic Policy Radio: The One About Harassment in Geek Culture, Live This Monday Night

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GP Radio pic MondayIt’s Monday, and Graphic Policy Radio is back at its normal time. The show will air live this Monday night at 10pm ET. This week we’re going a little bit serious, and mixing it with some entertainment.

On this episode:

  • The nasty side of online geek culture again reared its ugly head as threats were made towards a respected female member of the community. You can read the original article posted here, as well as two follow up articles here and here.
  • We’re discussing our favorite costumes in comic books! That’s right, we go over what we feel are the best designs, both in look and actual use.
  • We discuss the latest hit BOOM! Studios/BOOM! Box series Lumberjanes!
  • Tomb Raider is up to issue three. We both thought the first issue was good, but how have the latest two issues been? Find out here!

So join us this Monday, and listen in, we want to hear from you! Call in with your thoughts at (619) 768-2952 or Tweet them to us, @graphicpolicy.

SDCC 2012 – This Walking Sexual Harassment Qualifies as Press?

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This year San Diego Comic-Con tightened their press access and made it much more difficult to obtain “press” passes. While some sites were issued blanket passes they filled later, other legitimate sites were denied (*cough* us *cough*) and had to find other ways to get access to the convention, like a “professional” badge. That’s why this is so interesting.

SimplePickUp  and Project Go is a website that for $5 a month allows individuals to see videos and learn secrets about picking women up. From their website:

Whether you’re a frustrated virgin or a seasoned veteran, there’s something to learn from watching how we pick up girls.

Well, they were at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.  Here’s the video….

While there’s definitely funny moments, I’m baffled how this qualifies as press? There’s no coverage of the convention, only acts that demean and degrade women.

In an industry struggling with how it depicts women and minorities, and finds gender disparity at many positions, I find it hard to swallow how this behavior would be allowed, let alone credentialed.

I checked the video a bit, and checking my professional pass this year and my press pass last year, it sure does look like a press pass, actually make that two since the camera man would need one too. I think those who do the credentialing have some explaining to do.

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