Why telling a staff member won't fix the problem of harassment

Many times when the issue of harassment comes up, an exasperated convention staffer exclaims "GUYS, if someone gives you trouble just TELL A STAFF MEMBER!" That say it as though we wouldn't have this problem if we just told staffers about it when it happened, it would be a non-issue. Just tell the staff . . . problem solved?

Nope.

In a perfect world, if someone was harassed, they would report the incident. They'd feel comfortable and confident calmly telling someone what happened, and the staff would hunt the jerkwad down and subject them to effective disciplinary action, probably taking away their badge. This would teach the harasser a valuable lesson and they'd never do it again, and even take the time to educate their peers so others don't do it either.

But that doesn't happen.

I'll get to that later though. The fact is, even if reporting an incident had a happy ending, by the time someone needs to report harassment, it's too late. Something bad has already happened, the damage has been done. Even if justice is served, it won't undo anything, nor will it prevent others from doing it. Those concerned about the problem want to see a geek culure where harassment is very rare, and we know it's not a scattered series of unrelated events, but that harassment is a trend, and a result of problematic attitudes toward women at conventions.

Part of the problem is that douchebags think anything goes at conventions, and thus it's okay to be their true douchebag selves. To be sure, a lot of harassers are cock waffles. But let's look at the other reason why this keeps happening. In geek media - anime, comic books, video games, science fiction, etc. - women are objectified. That's not news. They're usually drawn to be attractive to the male protagonist and presumably male audience. They're often sexual and romantic partners for the male protagonist. They're there for the protagonists, and rather than subjects who act, they are objects who are acted upon. When one consumes a lot of this media, media made - again - for male audiences, they often internalize two messages: 1) that this stuff isn't for girls, and 2) girls in nerdy spaces exist for the men in those spaces, specifically as potential sexual or romantic partners. I mean, it's not like those girls could possibly be "real" fans, right?*

When it comes to cosplay, these messages usually translate to problematic discussions. If these characters are drawn to turn men on, one may then assume that women dressing as these characters for the same reason: to be sexy. We often use the term "self-objectification," which implies that they're turning themselves into objects, thus it's okay to treat them like objects. Or that they wouldn't dress like that if they didn't want sexual attention.*

This is why we have the CONsent project, or the "Cosplay =/= Consent" campaign, to try to drill home the idea that just because someone's wearing a costume doesn't mean you can treat them like an object. It's a great idea, but I'm not sure it does anything. I have yet to hear from someone who's been "turned around" by seeing the campaign. In fact, I've even met a so-called supporter of the CONsent project who saw nothing wrong with harassment. He felt that it came with the territory and wasn't such a bad thing, and that we should only focus on physical assaults at conventions.

In any case, because the issue is so widespread and caused by attitudes that run deep in our subculture, reporting the issue and punishing the harassers is a band-aid solution to the problem.

And we're not confident it'll do anything.

I'll preface this by saying I've never reported harassment at a convention. I'm lucky that I've never had to. But if I was in the situation, I wouldn't want to. Staffers have so much to deal with, and on top of that now they gotta go hunt down this guy? It's a big convention with so many people, what are the chances of finding him? Do they have the time and energy for it? Is it worth it? What would they do if they caught him? They have zero evidence that anything actually happened, it's my word against his, can you really confiscate a $50 badge without evidence? No, that's not logical. Whether he denies it, defends his actions ("I just did X, come on are you really gonna ban me for that?") or show enough remorse that the average staffer would probably let him off with a warning. Either way, I don't see any real action taken unless someone actually sees someone doing something really bad.

If he is kicked out, the only thing he'll learn is that the convention is run by a bunch of tyrants. He'll probably just go to other conventions and do the same thing.

Convention staff, if you feel that you can handle a report of harassment well and effectively handle the situation, hats off to you! If staffers can actually do something, that's great. But no matter how good you guys are at handling situations that occur, you need to understand that your actions alone are not going to remedy the problem. The only way to stop convention harassment is a radical change in cultural attitudes.

*I'm not saying that ALL geeks feel this way, or that all men feel this way, just that it's a common way of thinking and is usually a result of so much exposure to media that caters to the male gaze.