Writercon kerfuffle

[thedeadlyhook]

Um... you know, just out of curiosity. Was there some kind of "hey, post your Writercon report directly to the writercon LJ" update that I just missed? Because I only seem to remember one about posting your links to your con remembrances. Yet now there are TWO reports posted directly in the journal, because apparently, being a straight guy who attended the con and has feelings to air somehow rates as special. Excuse me, but... wtf? [ETA: the second post is actually very sweet, and a helpful antidote to the wankery original.]

I didn't touch the original post when I first saw it. The tone absolutely screamed attention-seeker - OMG, everyone look at meeeee - so I figured, best not to give him that attention. In hindsight, though, I'm glad a lot of other people did, since the posts I've seen since then, irfikos in particular, here and here, and so many others in the original thread, have been so to-the-point and thoughtful and well-considered that hell, yes, sometimes there IS a real reason to get into a kerfuffle, and keep it going.

Crying oppression when things don't go your way is a popular tactic nowdays - in politics, especially - but it's a crybaby's tactic, wahh, I didn't get what I want, it's not all about me. Why isn't it all about me? Why aren't you all looking at me, debating about me, taking my feelings into consideration? The unvoiced part of it is always the same too, why should I have to consider your feelings? What gives you the right to think any of this is about you? You're weird and I'm not.

Yes, that's worth kerfuffling about. Grrrrr.

Comments

[st_salieri.livejournal.com]

Yet now there are TWO reports posted directly in the journal, because apparently, being a straight guy who attended the con and has feelings to air somehow rates as special.

Hee hee. At least this second report is much more positive, so it doesn't bother me. Maybe he felt like he needed to show that not all straight guys in fandom are raving assholes. (Although a link to his personal lj would probably have sufficed.)

And yes, I agree on the oppression thing, and that this is something that's worth raising a stink about.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't mind people posting their reports in the WriterCon community. The community is for WriterCon discussion, after all, and anyway, not everyone will remember to go back and check that thread from a few days ago where people are posting links.

The second guy seems cool, and I got the impression he was just following the pattern set by the previous poster, moreso than thinking he's special because he's male. So I didn't have a problem with his post.

But the first guy ... GRRR. I'm glad that people are responding, because, yeah, the jerk was probably just screeching for attention, but at the same time, I'm glad that WriterCon is a community that stands up and defends itself, instead of just letting homophobia sit there in its community without comment. It would've made me uncomfortable to be in a community where that kind of bigotry doesn't get slapped down, you know? Regardless of whether the guy ever changes his mind, at least it generated some important discussion, and made it clear that this community won't quietly tolerate homophobia.

[danceswithwords.livejournal.com]

*sigh* It does seem that by posting that in the con community, the person in question was seeking to maximize the number of people who would read about his alleged impression. I wonder if he got the kind of attention he was looking for.

I'm hanging out in the fringes of Stargate fandom, which is overwhelmingly slashy (at least the parts I've somehow fallen in with), and slash isn't something that interests me much. There is a huge difference between having tastes that are in the minority and feeling oppressed, and a lot of that has to do with whether or not you're inclined to see it as a battle with a right and a wrong side. Because when it's not a battle and you're not a victim, you can actually have interesting conversations with people who see the show differently than you do and discover that you all love the show and the characters and that that's a lot huger than the differences. But that would require acknowledgment that there's more than one way to see something, and that yours isn't the ultimate truth, and that's apparently beyond this guy.