leahbobet ([personal profile] leahbobet) wrote2006-08-28 05:36 pm

Harlan Ellison and his little personal space problem

(ETA: Followup post here.)


So, when I got in this afternoon I was shocked to discover that Harlan Ellison groped Connie Willis during the Hugo presentations on Saturday. On the same page in my friendslist, up comes Rachel Manija Brown's own account of her Harlan encounter this weekend.

And y'know, I'm tired of this inappropriate bullshit. Really, really tired. So this can only be resolved in one fashion:

Fatwa.

We will now address common objections to the Fatwa in our Fatwa on Asshats Questions section (FAQ):

But Leah, Connie Willis is reported to have said she can handle him and he's done worse? Why are we involved?

Because I sincerely doubt otherwise honest persons wake up one morning and say you know what? I would like to grope Connie Willis and then one other woman I don't know and then I will retire from my asshat ways and take up meditation in the mountains. Because there are already a few people I know who are referred to as "thinking they're Harlan Ellison" and you know what? If he gets away with it, they feel they can too. They think it's cute to be an asshat. I don't think it's cute to be an asshat.

Because things that are just plain wrong deserve to get called on the carpet.

[livejournal.com profile] commodorified adds: "Because the fact that Connie Willis chose not to make a loud public scene in the middle of a Hugo ceremony and had the presence of mind to pass it off quietly does not mean she wasn't gravely insulted, and she doesn't deserve to be repaid for that with indifference?"

But Leah, why must we go to war? Why not just a little skirmish?

Fandom prides itself on conventions being "safe space" for all comers: it doesn't matter if you're gay, straight, poly, black, Asian, Middle Eastern, white, Wiccan, Pagan, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, hard of hearing, vision-impaired, mobility-impaired, a goth or dressed as an anime character or any of these things.

But apparently it matters if you have tits.

That is bullshit.

But Leah, it is not worth declaring Fatwa on Harlan Ellison. He is old and will die soon.

Old men will be old men is just another variation on boys will be boys, and they damn well will be boys until you tell them it's not appropriate. If the behaviour makes you uncomfortable, annoyed, angry, outraged -- if you think about it being applied to you and you are any of the above, it is worthwhile to state that it is inappropriate, illegal, and should not be swept under the rug.

But Leah, Harlan Ellison is just one man!

Yup. And the guy who, when I was twenty, told me at a convention that I could have a beer when my top came off was just one man. And the individual who groped [livejournal.com profile] divalea at Comicon was just one, too. And the guy who was making creepy leers at [livejournal.com profile] katallen in Boston two years back was just one too.

Y'know, eventually this shit adds up to a lot. Eventually it adds up to a systemic issue.


ETA:Okay, apparently you can't close polls anymore, and I don't want to make this entry private, so...

So:

[Poll #808886]

Vote early, vote often.

...and forward yourself to the tricky bit of the program.


ETA: Link roundup thus far. Gwenda Bond -- Catherine Morrison (and her part two) -- Gavin Grant -- Graham Sleight -- Edward Champion -- Alan DeNiro -- Elizabeth Bear -- Jim C. Hines -- Steve Nagy -- Lea Hernandez -- Meredith L. Patterson -- Kate ([livejournal.com profile] juliansinger) -- Lis Riba part one part two part three --

[identity profile] ellid.livejournal.com 2006-08-31 11:59 am (UTC)(link)
There is a *lot* worse going on in SF, like the pervasive sexism of the space opera genre, the semi-deliberate exclusion of strong female characters from gaming, and the fact that DAW published the violently misogynistic Gor novels for twenty years without anyone so much as lifting a finger. Ellison apologized. The next move is Connie Willis's, not ours.

Besides, has it occurred to anyone that Ellison may be in the beginning stages of dementia, or had a mini stroke? He has a history of cardic problems, and inappropriate sexual behavior is one of the first signs that something is wrong in the temporal lobe.

[identity profile] leahbobet.livejournal.com 2006-08-31 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi, there. :)

I have to disagree that there is a lot worse going on in SF, mostly because the examples you cite are operating in the realm of the fiction. Things that are in fiction we can work on as part of the culture, but things that affect us directly right here, right now -- like being treated in a less than acceptable manner at events, physically -- I personally believe take higher priority. It's hard to conduct an argument about how characters should be represented when you get shut down with "nice piece of ass there, babe" every time.

It has occurred to me that Ellison might be ill. I'm not sure if it would change the fact that this community treats women a certain way that is immature, uncomfortable, and unnacceptable.

For more on that, and who the next move's is in what arena and why, and so forth, please do see the next post I linked above. There's a reason I'm linking it right, left, and centre. :)

Thanks for your time commenting, and for joining the discussion!

[identity profile] ellid.livejournal.com 2006-08-31 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)
A lot more damage has been done by the writings of Anne McCaffrey (rape as a form of love in Dragonquest), Marion Zimmer Bradley ("sticking it to the feminists" in Darkover Landfall), John Norman (the Gor series), and TV series like Star Trek (sexist costumes and plots), Star Wars (ditto), and the Harry Potter series (not ONE non-sexist female character) than by Harlan Ellison behaving atypically at an event the fanboys most likely never saw or attended. Women in SF are underrepresented, stereotypically presented, and marginalized as fantasy writers, not hard SF writers. *That* is more important than a public grope, at least as far as I see it from nearly thirty years of watching wave after wave of supposedly feminist writers and themes come along and make very little difference.

[identity profile] ksumnersmith.livejournal.com 2006-09-05 05:23 pm (UTC)(link)
I think it's important to note regarding the issues addressed in this thread that one is a problem of the portrayal of women and appropriate relationships (etc.) within fictional narratives; the other is a problem concerning the behaviour towards actual, living people in a community of which we are a part.

However, I also think it's important to state that I do not think that one concern mitigates the other. I agree that there has been a history of damaging portrayals of women and other female characters in speculative literature, if not in all of the specifics works you cite (due more to gaps in my personal reading history than the content of the works cited), and I agree that this is a serious and ongoing problem.

But I ask: why must we view these as separate issues? You contend that there are writers creating works of SF/F -- often popular works -- that are damaging to women. You also state that female authors are marginalized as fantasy authors, etc. There is currently an ongoing debate about the marginalization and inappropriate behaviour towards women in the SF/F community, including inappropriate touching in public community spaces. Doesn't it seem that these might all be symptoms of a deeper root cause?

I do not think it's helpful to curl ourselves into knots debating which issues are *more* damaging; rather, let's agree that there are problems with the gender relationships and behaviour within the SF/F community -- problems that are visible in works of fiction, in the perception of female authors and in real life -- and then work to DO SOMETHING.

And I think that [livejournal.com profile] cristalia has been instrumental in having many of us begin to take action by providing this forum for discussion. Thank you, Leah. :)

(Anonymous) 2006-09-05 05:29 pm (UTC)(link)
You are taking my words badly out of context, but I agree that there's work to be done about the image and portrayal of women in SF and fantasy. However, declaring a fatwa against ANYONE is not the way to do this, especially since Ellison apologized.