owlmoose | Harassment and abuse in fandom

I've started a couple of posts on the discussions and revelations of abuse and harassment that consumed my Twitter feed for most of last week (and composed even more of them in my head), but now that things are slowing down it feels less crucial to say anything, if it ever even was necessary for me to wade in. I guess more and more now I'm thinking about fandom history, and how it gets slowly lost over time. For just one example, I have many friends, now, who either weren't yet in fandom during Racefail or were in different corners of it, and so they don't remember watching it unfold in real time and didn't live through the active fallout from it. This thread by clairewillett, in particular, served as a wake-up call to me. And it's a pattern not just with large-scale events like Racefail, but these waves of abuse accusations that come out every so often, and how often it seems like we see a name multiple times with no consequences. How do does a community impose lasting consequences when that community's memory is in a constant state of flux? And how do we provide space for people to get better and change, while prioritizing the safety and comfort of the people who they hurt? (Because if that's the choice we have to make, I'm definitely picking the latter.)

I want to say right now that I'm not interested in litigating the veracity of any of the charges, past or current. I don't know most of these folks and, in most cases, I don't have a vested interest in whether any specific creator's career is preserved. That's not what I care about, here. What I want is a climate where survivors feel supported in coming forward, and a culture where we understand why someone might choose not to do so. And I want a world where abuse and harassment have consequences. And I want a world where marginalized people feel welcome in fandom communities. Sometimes I feel like we're taking steps to create that world, and sometimes I despair of it being a world we'll ever see. But I have to believe that we're getting there, that every painful bandage we rip off will allow the wound beneath to heal a little more.

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This. All this.

Oh, wow, Racefail. That was huge.

I have only followed the current issues in pro SFF a little, and also am watching from very afar the debate over how to make the OTW and the archive more inclusive.

But so much of these discussions happen on Twitter now that I miss most of it. I am actually back to relying on phonecalls for some of my fandom news!!!!!

I should probably find a summary somewhere because I saw bits and pieces flying by on Twitter, but I just do not have the brain to deal with it right now. There's so much going on in the world I can't even decide what to be upset about.

Thanks!

Twitter is a mixed blessing at best -- it has all the same problems with carrying on complex conversations as Tumblr does, with the additional issue of the character limit. Once a thread gets past three or four tweets, I really want to beg the the author just to write a long-form blog post already. But that ship has long sailed. I only just barely keep up, mostly because I don't follow very many people and count on friends to share the highlights (in my case, mostly via Slack).

There's so much going on in the world I can't even decide what to be upset about.

It's so, so true.

If I see a good summary I will definitely share it! Not quite up for writing one myself :) If you have specific questions, though, I'll do my best to answer them to the best of my knowledge.

I can't keep up with it, tbh. How can you keep up? That's what I don't get, there are all these whispers and accusations and omg. I know where to go to keep up with the con "do not invite" lists, and some of the whisper networks for that, but I'm out of touch on which LARP whisper network to be in (there are so many), and then there are the transformative whisper networks, and publishing - and fandom intersects all these spaces, you have to pay attention to all of them.

I don't know any good answers, and I don't know any non-defamatory answers (non-slanderous, non-litigious, whatever), people do keep trying and I hold onto that sometimes, if nothing else.

From the perspective of someone who came to fandom as an adult in the early 2010s, it feels like it's less that a community's memory is in a constant state of flux and more that dozens of sometimes-overlapping communities assume that everyone else is operating on the same wavelength. There doesn't seem to be a fandom equivalent of (bad, but common) grade-school history class, or of Emily Post or one of those "how not to hideously offend your foreign business partners" books, and there certainly isn't a fandom judiciary. And it's hard to use constructive shaming in a community where everyone uses a fake name and almost everything you say can be quoted or taken out of context at any point in the future.

I want the world you describe. I don't know whether we can get there outside of a subcommunity-by-subcommunity basis, except perhaps in cases involving people using their legal name. My best guess is that we're going to see more fandom activities taking place in closed communities with explicit codes of conduct and the ability to ban members.

I don't have any answers, but thanks for writing this. It's important.

I definitely don't keep up on my own. When I don't happen across information about these things on my timeline, I'm fortunate to have friends who keep me updated, mostly via a social Slack. And still, sometimes I'll see an oblique reference to things like, a week later, and have no idea what people are talking about until I ask.

I'm not going to complain that Fandom Wank didn't have its problems, but sometimes I really miss Fandom Wank.

dozens of sometimes-overlapping communities assume that everyone else is operating on the same wavelength

Yeah, that's also a thing, *for sure*. One of the most salient tweets I saw on this whole situation was from

catvalente, who pointed out that SFF writers are "workers without a workplace", and a lot of what's happening now is an attempt to use Twitter as the HR department (full tweet here). It's a little different for fans who aren't pros, but the analogy still holds to some extent.

My best guess is that we're going to see more fandom activities taking place in closed communities with explicit codes of conduct and the ability to ban members.

I totally can see that, and even understand why it's been happening, but it makes me a little sad, too.

You're welcome, and thank you!

Yes, I am definitely seeing this happening as well. This may not be as bad as I often fear, if the closed communities actually self-govern in a way that prioritizes harm reduction. It would be building a fandom that doesn't cling to outmoded models that privilege bad actors with power.

An endlessly tangled problem for sure, and the fact that certain persons are apparently having reputation rehab just makes me climb the wall Exorcist-style. I want to protect people who've been hurt, I want to punish people who've been assholes, and I also want there to be room for recovery from people who've *genuinely* learned, but that last one gets real complicated real fast, but I also don't feel right saying "you can never exist again ever" because that's. whew. Huge reasons why I can't tumblr, thanks Dragon Age.

I'm currently in "debate whether certain books I own but haven't read go straight to donation pile" mode. Some of them are signed. and since the money was spent years ago, what now? do I read them and then donate and just not buy in the future? Do I discard the entire everything? sell some of the things? I don't know, and the ethics of media are hard.

My concern would be that even if we successfully have healthy, functional, closed fandom communities, that it'd be even harder to get involved in fandom as a new fan and that we'd wall off a "generation" of communities and have to reinvent the wheel in 10-15 years.

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