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commodorifiedMuch that is of value having been already said and done elsewhere, this will be downright telegraphic.
1) I am actually not displeased by the speed at which Readercon resolved this. Given that a) NO decision they could have made would have left any person at risk for harassment at Readercon for roughly another 10 months, and b) they REALLY needed to get this one absolutely right, I wasn't in any particular hurry. I understand and respect why many people were, I just wasn't one of them.
1a) OTOH, there are a number of OTHER con-coms, boards, and fannish organisations who need to be getting their shit together re: Rene Walling right now, and I hope they are. Make whatever decision you think best, and then be ready to defend it, but make a decision. His behaviour was not caused by the air in the ReaderCon hotel; if he's coming to your con, if he's on your con-com, if he's a guest at your con, you need to assume that your attendees are at some risk, and consider that.
2) "He's Canadian". "He's Francophone".
Oh FOR THE LOVE OF PETE. The ways of my people are not necessarily the ways of yours, my friends, but THAT weird, they are not. Those are my friends and neighbours you are insulting, there. Please stop it. Canada is a real place with actual laws against this stuff, Quebec is a fully-paid-up member of The Modern World and Montreal is not a cultural backwater full of survivals of a simpler time. It is, if anything, probably one of the most progressive cities in North America.
2b) He is, as nearly all Quebecois are, completely fluent in English. It wasn't that, either.
3) Yeah, I know Rene. It's fairly hard to fan in this neck of the woods and not know Rene.
Rene Walling is ... I won't say "A Nice Guy." He's a tolerably decent and mostly pleasant dude, capable of doing kind and generous things for people of all genders. (See Also: Leah Bobet: When the person doing the harassment is a person you like.)
I am not bringing this up to defend his actions. I am bringing this up because a lot of basically right-on folks, mostly, I'm afraid, guys who understandably wish to wipe the stank of his behaviour off of their own sleeves, have in recent weeks been recasting him as Everything But A Child Of God, and this is a very bad idea.
We got into this mess precisely because the Board of Readercon could not, when it came down to it, believe in a tolerably decent and mostly pleasant dude who was also a sexual predator.
That is what he is. That there is the problem we have to deal with, and insisting that all sexual predators are monsters clear through, in ways visible for 50 metres, is the royal road to lather, rinse, repeat.
4) I do not, actually, disagree with the people who are concerned, going forward, for Rene. I am one of them, even, in a mild sort of way. I recall him as much better than this.
I am in favour of him getting whatever support and assistance he requires so long as it is not at the expense of the safety of his targets or of other women.
That said, if you are deeply concerned about Rene and want to help him? He is ridiculously easy to locate. Just go do that, and stop writing long, plaintive, derailing comments and posts trying to persuade other people to do it for you.
4b) If you give a damn for Rene as a person, and mean to offer him support, PLEASE: accept that the facts of what he did, and that what he did was wrong, are not in question, including, to all appearances, by him. Don't try to persuade him that he didn't REALLY do anything wrong. That's not support. That's counselling him to damage more people, and to wreck his life.
5) I think it's unreasonably hard on Genevieve Valentine and Kate Kligman that for the next however long whenever their names are googled, this will be the majority of the first page.
So please: Tell me why I want to read Genevive's stuff. Sing to me of her awesomeness. (I'll be looking her up myself; this is for posterity, as it were.)
Kate Kligman I don't know of at all, aside from this. Please help me fix this, as well. As of now, I know that she is courageous, but little else.
1) I am actually not displeased by the speed at which Readercon resolved this. Given that a) NO decision they could have made would have left any person at risk for harassment at Readercon for roughly another 10 months, and b) they REALLY needed to get this one absolutely right, I wasn't in any particular hurry. I understand and respect why many people were, I just wasn't one of them.
1a) OTOH, there are a number of OTHER con-coms, boards, and fannish organisations who need to be getting their shit together re: Rene Walling right now, and I hope they are. Make whatever decision you think best, and then be ready to defend it, but make a decision. His behaviour was not caused by the air in the ReaderCon hotel; if he's coming to your con, if he's on your con-com, if he's a guest at your con, you need to assume that your attendees are at some risk, and consider that.
2) "He's Canadian". "He's Francophone".
Oh FOR THE LOVE OF PETE. The ways of my people are not necessarily the ways of yours, my friends, but THAT weird, they are not. Those are my friends and neighbours you are insulting, there. Please stop it. Canada is a real place with actual laws against this stuff, Quebec is a fully-paid-up member of The Modern World and Montreal is not a cultural backwater full of survivals of a simpler time. It is, if anything, probably one of the most progressive cities in North America.
2b) He is, as nearly all Quebecois are, completely fluent in English. It wasn't that, either.
3) Yeah, I know Rene. It's fairly hard to fan in this neck of the woods and not know Rene.
Rene Walling is ... I won't say "A Nice Guy." He's a tolerably decent and mostly pleasant dude, capable of doing kind and generous things for people of all genders. (See Also: Leah Bobet: When the person doing the harassment is a person you like.)
I am not bringing this up to defend his actions. I am bringing this up because a lot of basically right-on folks, mostly, I'm afraid, guys who understandably wish to wipe the stank of his behaviour off of their own sleeves, have in recent weeks been recasting him as Everything But A Child Of God, and this is a very bad idea.
We got into this mess precisely because the Board of Readercon could not, when it came down to it, believe in a tolerably decent and mostly pleasant dude who was also a sexual predator.
That is what he is. That there is the problem we have to deal with, and insisting that all sexual predators are monsters clear through, in ways visible for 50 metres, is the royal road to lather, rinse, repeat.
4) I do not, actually, disagree with the people who are concerned, going forward, for Rene. I am one of them, even, in a mild sort of way. I recall him as much better than this.
I am in favour of him getting whatever support and assistance he requires so long as it is not at the expense of the safety of his targets or of other women.
That said, if you are deeply concerned about Rene and want to help him? He is ridiculously easy to locate. Just go do that, and stop writing long, plaintive, derailing comments and posts trying to persuade other people to do it for you.
4b) If you give a damn for Rene as a person, and mean to offer him support, PLEASE: accept that the facts of what he did, and that what he did was wrong, are not in question, including, to all appearances, by him. Don't try to persuade him that he didn't REALLY do anything wrong. That's not support. That's counselling him to damage more people, and to wreck his life.
5) I think it's unreasonably hard on Genevieve Valentine and Kate Kligman that for the next however long whenever their names are googled, this will be the majority of the first page.
So please: Tell me why I want to read Genevive's stuff. Sing to me of her awesomeness. (I'll be looking her up myself; this is for posterity, as it were.)
Kate Kligman I don't know of at all, aside from this. Please help me fix this, as well. As of now, I know that she is courageous, but little else.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-12 10:15 pm (UTC)As soon as I finish mowing through my current library hoard, I'll be searching out more GV.