On Finding A Safe Place
Jun. 28th, 2013 07:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
f4f3I chose to share that last post (without cut-tags, even) because I happen to think it deals with something which is very important to me, personally. Yes, sexual harassment at cons is important to a white, middle aged man, who will never suffer from it.
Partly, it's the "no man is an island" thing - that sort of behaviour does affect me, because it changes (it should change, dammit) behaviour towards every man, not just abusers.
Mostly, though, it's because when I was 17, and geeky before the party, and totally sexually inexperienced, I found a safe place to go. That place was called Albacon, and Hitchercon, and Easter Con, and Scone and lots of other things. But I felt safe against physical violence, and I felt safe to express myself in a way that would have exposed me to physical violence elsewhere (mostly spouting Vogon poetry and dressing up as Soylent Green. The movie, not the product).
The thought that that safe place isn't available to all of us makes me sad, and angry, and whatever small thing I can do about it I will.
Partly, it's the "no man is an island" thing - that sort of behaviour does affect me, because it changes (it should change, dammit) behaviour towards every man, not just abusers.
Mostly, though, it's because when I was 17, and geeky before the party, and totally sexually inexperienced, I found a safe place to go. That place was called Albacon, and Hitchercon, and Easter Con, and Scone and lots of other things. But I felt safe against physical violence, and I felt safe to express myself in a way that would have exposed me to physical violence elsewhere (mostly spouting Vogon poetry and dressing up as Soylent Green. The movie, not the product).
The thought that that safe place isn't available to all of us makes me sad, and angry, and whatever small thing I can do about it I will.
