Monday, February 22, 2016

After Dreamation, the Metro is a weird, misogynistic place.

After Dreamation, the Metro is a weird, misogynistic place.

Walking down the escalator, several people played follow the white-male at the exact same pace. This included me.

Standing on the first train included watching a white man hog a pole, while 4 women held onto another one. I was the only other person on the dude's pole he was hogging, and very consciously made him uncomfortable by making it impossible for him to lean his whole body against it.

Getting off that train, also a lesson: a white dude closed his moleskine, put it in his briefcase, then walked do the door while others -- including myself! -- parted in front of him. I start laughing.

Second train -- everybody gets a seat! -- I look around. The people sitting in seats of their own are all men, while every woman is sharing a seat. Meanwhile, I am, of course, sitting alone in a chair.

Actual recap later.

13 comments:

  1. Is this your first Double Exposure event? Because after doing this for a year, I can tell you, I get a weird fragile This Place Isn't Safe feeling in the Real World for a couple days after

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  2. Double Exposure event? Could someone explain that that? Thank you.

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  3. Dreamation, DexCon, Metatopia. The dormant Maelstrom.

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  4. Jesse Rupp​ Is Maelstrom not coming back?

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  5. As far as I know, it's off the schedule this year, with intent to revisit it at a later date. Not dead, but dormant.

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  6. I totally agree with William Nichols​ here... I am at work and keep thinking: why do we have gendered bathrooms again?

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  7. Shane Liebling The dreamation bathrooms next to the board rooms (lower level) were not degendered.

    Which prompted a really weird moment during Warbirds: We Were Wasp. We were all playing women, I was the only dude. We take a break, and head to the restrooms. Then, we are separated because of signage.

    It forced that thought, but much earlier.

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  8. Yes. And that annoyed the fuck out of me.

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  9. Even though it's totally irrational, I don't think there's a problem offering people who can't handle sharing it another option.

    I really do love how welcoming the Double Exposure cons are about all this sort of stuff, and this issue particularly.

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  10. Wow. All of these comments make me really look forward to the next con, and simultaneously think that several of my experiences were bizarre aberrations.

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  11. Miles Peiser Would you like to talk about those? I remember some from our discussions. I think you have a really important perspective!

    In the next few days, I want to put together something on some issues I had with dreamation. If you'd like, I can anonymize and bundle yours in with other, or leave out, or mention you by name.

    Let me know which you'd prefer; the default is anonymized and bundled.

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