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Since the fannish blog circuit is still abuzz with the end product of the Readercon debacle concerning Rene Walling, I'll throw in my $.0.02 on the subject, albeit for fairly public reasons (such as an argument I got into on Facebook concerning the mess and how it might or might not relate to another convention I recently attended) in order to clear a few things up:
Firstly, although what Walling did to Genevieve Valentine (and Kate Kligman in an earlier, unreported incident) doesn't rise to the level of attempted sexual assault (in the strict legal sense of the definition), it still qualifies as exceedingly creepy behavior for an supposedly responsible adult male to engage in at an SF convention - or any other public setting, for that matter. AFAIK, Mssr. Walling is a full blown adult who has helped run SF conventions and Worldcon bids before. He also doesn't seem to be suffering from any major behavioral deficits that would make his understanding of What Not To Do To Unfamiliar Women a daunting task for him to figure out at his age. The fact that some (if not most) of us in fandom have done some incredibly dumb things in the past at cons isn't the point; the fact that those stupid things happened for most of us at an earlier age or level of social experience that you'd expect them to is.
Judging by the way this subject has been publically aired by both Genevieve Valentine (both here and here) and Kate Kligman (see the Comments section) as well as interested parties including the likes of John Scalzi, Shea Wong, Nicholas Kaufmann, xiphias and others (this is a shitstorm that can be only dug through by googling "rene walling readercon" and having at it with the net.equivalent of a shovel, it seems), this subject isn't going away anytime soon. Problem is, Walling isn't the only individual who's done this in the past: the real target of Readercon's initial zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment is one Aaron Agassi, who - unlike Walling - apparently serves no real purpose in fandom except to be a pain in the ass towards all members of the opposite sex. As shown in the xiphias link above, he managed to scare the shit out of Readercon attendee Veronica Schanoes in 2008. who responded by coming foward and making a complaint to the Readercon concom with the urging of (wait for it) Genevieve Valentine, no less. The stench of irony coming from that sentence may be overwhelming, but it proves a point. Readercon goofed - especially in terms of giving Walling a lighter sentence because he's an almighty SMOF and not a walking, talking social disorder who happens to go to cons to ply his Speed Seduction for Imbeciles trade. Thing is, this makes things worse on Walling. Because he should know better, for crying out loud. At least Agassi seems unhinged enough not to understand the difference. What's Walling's excuse?
(NOTE: this hasn't been completely confirmed [unlike the Readercon situation, where multiple interviews were taken from the principals of the incident and several witnesses], but there seems to be a good deal of chatter going on that Walling may have been up to his tricks at a new venue. Since my even mentioning this possibility on Facebook was the cause of a mini-ruckus between me and at least one high-level staffer at this con I'm not going to mention it by name, but clicking on this link from Shea Wong's blog will make any guessing games involving this con a moot issue. As always, I look forward to your emails of complaint...)
(NOTE THE SECOND: BC Holmes has, it seems, done us all a big favor and put up a link page which will probably make you all thoroughly sick of the subject once you've read through, say, half of them.)
(NOTE THE THIRD: Lest any of you think I don't have a dog in this fight, I do - albeit indirectly. A female friend of mine got groped by a furry at Duckon and decided that a punch in the face was probably an appropriate reaction to that sort of thing, so that's what she did. Needless to say, she hasn't been back since.)
Firstly, although what Walling did to Genevieve Valentine (and Kate Kligman in an earlier, unreported incident) doesn't rise to the level of attempted sexual assault (in the strict legal sense of the definition), it still qualifies as exceedingly creepy behavior for an supposedly responsible adult male to engage in at an SF convention - or any other public setting, for that matter. AFAIK, Mssr. Walling is a full blown adult who has helped run SF conventions and Worldcon bids before. He also doesn't seem to be suffering from any major behavioral deficits that would make his understanding of What Not To Do To Unfamiliar Women a daunting task for him to figure out at his age. The fact that some (if not most) of us in fandom have done some incredibly dumb things in the past at cons isn't the point; the fact that those stupid things happened for most of us at an earlier age or level of social experience that you'd expect them to is.
Judging by the way this subject has been publically aired by both Genevieve Valentine (both here and here) and Kate Kligman (see the Comments section) as well as interested parties including the likes of John Scalzi, Shea Wong, Nicholas Kaufmann, xiphias and others (this is a shitstorm that can be only dug through by googling "rene walling readercon" and having at it with the net.equivalent of a shovel, it seems), this subject isn't going away anytime soon. Problem is, Walling isn't the only individual who's done this in the past: the real target of Readercon's initial zero tolerance policy towards sexual harassment is one Aaron Agassi, who - unlike Walling - apparently serves no real purpose in fandom except to be a pain in the ass towards all members of the opposite sex. As shown in the xiphias link above, he managed to scare the shit out of Readercon attendee Veronica Schanoes in 2008. who responded by coming foward and making a complaint to the Readercon concom with the urging of (wait for it) Genevieve Valentine, no less. The stench of irony coming from that sentence may be overwhelming, but it proves a point. Readercon goofed - especially in terms of giving Walling a lighter sentence because he's an almighty SMOF and not a walking, talking social disorder who happens to go to cons to ply his Speed Seduction for Imbeciles trade. Thing is, this makes things worse on Walling. Because he should know better, for crying out loud. At least Agassi seems unhinged enough not to understand the difference. What's Walling's excuse?
(NOTE: this hasn't been completely confirmed [unlike the Readercon situation, where multiple interviews were taken from the principals of the incident and several witnesses], but there seems to be a good deal of chatter going on that Walling may have been up to his tricks at a new venue. Since my even mentioning this possibility on Facebook was the cause of a mini-ruckus between me and at least one high-level staffer at this con I'm not going to mention it by name, but clicking on this link from Shea Wong's blog will make any guessing games involving this con a moot issue. As always, I look forward to your emails of complaint...)
(NOTE THE SECOND: BC Holmes has, it seems, done us all a big favor and put up a link page which will probably make you all thoroughly sick of the subject once you've read through, say, half of them.)
(NOTE THE THIRD: Lest any of you think I don't have a dog in this fight, I do - albeit indirectly. A female friend of mine got groped by a furry at Duckon and decided that a punch in the face was probably an appropriate reaction to that sort of thing, so that's what she did. Needless to say, she hasn't been back since.)
