Those of you who've been reading my LJ for a while may remember my post about the Narutard Hunter incident at Otakon 15. If you don't, feel free to read the afore-linked entry; I'll wait. :)
After the con, I was still a little P.O.-ed about the incident, so I vented about it on one of the LJ comms I belong to. I got some sympathetic responses, got it out of my system, and then went on my merry way.
Today, I happened to be browsing the comm when I noticed that my post was still visible. I was bored, so I re-read it.
Much to my surprise, I found a comment there from the Narutard Hunter himself:
"Understand that it was not my intention to harm anyone in the process of my hunting, in fact, I even attended the Naruto Prom and became one of the guest judges in an act of a peace treaty. And as for hitting you, I did not HIT you, I STUCK you with a brand new non used plunger, merely giving you a light suction. If that meant great harm to you then I apologize, as for security, they never found me, in fact, they didnt even care I passed by many of them and they understood that my entire costume was a joke. If my lil endevours seemed to have ruined your time at the convention, then I am sorry, but also you need to expect crazy things like these at a con, and note, I dont HIT people, I STICK em."
I "need to expect crazy things like these at a con," do I? I don't think so, and neither did the con staff members I talked to. In fact, the staff member I spoke to told me that she was going to make sure nothing like that ever happened again. I will also note that I've been attending cons for years, and I've never had anything like that happen to me. Of course, the people at *those* cons knew how to act like adults.
I think another commenter on the thread answered him very well, though:
"Just because a convention is separated from the normal sphere of interaction, and thus has different social rules, doesn't mean people expect to be bothered or harassed because of their costumes. Would you tell a woman attending a convention that she should 'expect crazy things' like getting unwanted gropes or propositions?
We may all be geeks, but there's still a certain amount of decorum and respect we are expected to adhere to. ;)"
- I'm feeling:
shocked
Comments
If it helps, I had a woman charge me in the back at Gencon and while I was flailing and barely able to keep standing up, she just gave me a "talk to the hand" gesture and kept walking away.