BABScon Drama

[Diva Pony 345]

 

 

 

When people talk about "body pillows" in, err, "our" kind of fandom, they are typically referring to what the Japanese call "dakimakura" or dutch wives (I know a Dutch Wife is something completely different too), basically a full length body pillow with a picture of one's favorite character or waifu drawn in a sexualized pose that the owner could then cuddle with in their bed.  It's one of those things that has become stereotypically associated with the creepier side of anime and animation fandoms.  I am glad that I have never seen any daki's at this or any other horse con I've been to.

 

I find it interesting that SAC Anime came out with this thing considering that all the con advertisement tables were in the main foyer right next to the registration desk with tons of foot traffic throughout the weekend.  If something like this actually happened, I think I would have heard about it simply because rumors travel fast at cons, but I heard nothing about it until I got back home.

 

Unfortunately I have to agree.  I think that someone hated Bronies and should not have been at the con and took a situation and completely blew it out of proportion.

 

By the way, I really like your footnote.

 

Written later this afternoon:

 

I've been doing a bit more thinking about the entire situation of the 11 year old and the rep at Sac Anime.  Not only is the poster of the details clearly a Brony hater but let's think for a minute about one of the things she said about the girl.  She said that the girl said that the stalker tried to pull her into his hotel room.  Now think about that for a moment.  A child or adult, if something like that really happened would be screaming for the closest police, security or in this case her mom.  Yet she only chooses to hide under a table for a while?  Then she goes back into the hotel where he could do it again?

 

Also think about the layout of the hotel.  There were no hotel rooms on any floor with Con activity.  The only way she would be on his floor in order to be pulled into his room would be if they were staying on the same floor.  If they were staying on the same floor, did she ask anyone to escort her back to her room?  Apparently not.

 

And why is it that the rep at the SacAnime table didn't tell the guy who ran the table about it?  You would think she would at least tell him what had happened.  Why didn't the head of the Sacanime con know?  He was not told. 

 

The more I think about this the more I tend to agree with @Simon that maybe she was just hiding from her parents and made up the story and had to point to someone to make the story valid, or she just didn't like someone who was being friendly and she was hiding from him.  But the Brony hater took the story and ran with it big time and her irresponsibility has done a lot of damage to a lot of people.

Edited April 28, 2014 by Diva Pony

[Simon 4,557]

Regarding the SacAnime story, I called it-it turns out it happened, but was highly exaggerated.  The mother of the girl just contacted Babscon with the reality of the situation and apologized for the original poster turning it into anti-brony propaganda.  I think how relaxed the mother is in her message should tell us all how minor of an incident this really was.  Anyway here's the message from her:

 

http://babsconsf.tumblr.com/post/84459297385/a-communique-from-her-mother

 

Long story short, it sounds like the girl was hanging out with Sac Anime, some socially awkward guy made a socially awkward statement that made her feel uncomfortable, and she went to the Sac Anime booth because she felt comfortable with them and wanted to hide it from her mother.  I still think the Sac Anime booth acted inappropriately because the goal of adults at a convention isn't to keep little girls secrets about creepy guys... they should have contacted the mother immediately and contacted convention security.  And while it certainly is creepy for a guy to ask a little girl to help him pack in his room, I hardly think it's a sign that all bronies are evil pedophiles like what the original Sac Anime poster wanted people to believe.

Edited May 2, 2014 by Simon

[Teabee 59]

it was indeed the wrong answer.  Why the actual heck would they not notify con security or the girl's parents and then try to pin it on other congoers?  I thought that anime fans as a whole were better than that.

 

I'm sure I'm not the only one that has noted the irony that fans of a medium that used to have an unsavory reputation for consisting exclusively of Rule 34 (a fandom that I still consider myself a part of, for better or for worse) is now trying to trade on the alleged reputation of bronies for Rule 34.

Edited May 3, 2014 by Teabee

[nami438 90]

Why automatically assume that this man had anything but malicious intentions? It's this kind of thinking that leads to ignoring and dismissing 100% inappropriate behavior on the part of our fellow ponies, often in order to put the victims in the hot seat instead.

 

Apologies if I offended anypony, it's just that this reminds me of the Everfree NW fiasco on Tumblr a couple years back. Many ponies were right off the bat claiming that the stories were all lies to make the fandom look bad or to get attention, with no proof whatsoever that they were untrue or that the reporter had a history of lying or bad blood with MLP fans. Many of the stories turned out to be true, and the others definitely believable from what we've seen some fans do in the past. I'm all for assuming the best in a person until they prove themselves bad, but not when it means silencing and shaming the alleged victim.

[11th Doctor Whooves 794]

Why automatically assume that this man had anything but malicious intentions? It's this kind of thinking that leads to ignoring and dismissing 100% inappropriate behavior on the part of our fellow ponies, often in order to put the victims in the hot seat instead.

 

Apologies if I offended anypony, it's just that this reminds me of the Everfree NW fiasco on Tumblr a couple years back. Many ponies were right off the bat claiming that the stories were all lies to make the fandom look bad or to get attention, with no proof whatsoever that they were untrue or that the reporter had a history of lying or bad blood with MLP fans. Many of the stories turned out to be true, and the others definitely believable from what we've seen some fans do in the past. I'm all for assuming the best in a person until they prove themselves bad, but not when it means silencing and shaming the alleged victim.

 

None of us is saying that the little girl did anything wrong, we're saying that the SACAnime people handled the situation wrong.  It's pretty damned innappropriate to ask a little girl back to your room, whether you have malicious intent or not, and the person who did this should have been reported to security so he could be removed from the convention.  The girl went to people she trusted when this slimeball asked her back to his room, and rather than alert security or the childs family, they did nothing.  NOTHING!  What if this guy moved on to some other kid he found alone?  What if he wasn't some pervert but some serial killer?

 

The kid did nothing wrong, and no one has said that.  Again, just to make the point glaringly obvious, we blame the SACAnime people for not handling the situation properly.

[nami438 90]

None of us is saying that the little girl did anything wrong, we're saying that the SACAnime people handled the situation wrong.  It's pretty damned innappropriate to ask a little girl back to your room, whether you have malicious intent or not, and the person who did this should have been reported to security so he could be removed from the convention.  The girl went to people she trusted when this slimeball asked her back to his room, and rather than alert security or the childs family, they did nothing.  NOTHING!  What if this guy moved on to some other kid he found alone?  What if he wasn't some pervert but some serial killer?

 

The kid did nothing wrong, and no one has said that.  Again, just to make the point glaringly obvious, we blame the SACAnime people for not handling the situation properly.

Yes, what you just said, I understand and agree with. No one here ever said that the girl was in the wrong for anything, and I do agree that the SACAnime worker should have contacted BABSCon staff.

 

It was the ponies saying that the story can't be true that bothered me. I was referring to the "must be a lying hater" conclusion that some jumped to when the story first broke, which serves to put the story down as just a lie not to be paid attention to. This is where the victim silencing (not blaming) I referred to comes in.

 

I know that we as a whole face a lot of haters actively trying to shame us, trying to paint us all as bestiality lovers or with homophobic slurs or whatnot, and that seems to have made our community one in which we huddle together a little more closely and eye unsympathetic outsiders a bit more warily. We also are much more supporting of each other than other fandoms, for the most part. I want to call it a mild persecution complex, but not sure if that's an appropriate term. Anyway, I fear that that makes some ponies more wary of stories painting fellow fans in a negative light just because.

Edited May 7, 2014 by nami438

[11th Doctor Whooves 794]

Yes, what you just said, I understand and agree with. No one here ever said that the girl was in the wrong for anything, and I do agree that the SACAnime worker should have contacted BABSCon staff.

 

It was the ponies saying that the story can't be true that bothered me. I was referring to the "must be a lying hater" conclusion that some jumped to when the story first broke, which serves to put the story down as just a lie not to be paid attention to. This is where the victim silencing (not blaming) I referred to comes in.

 

Ah, I see.  Did you see the email the girls mother sent to the BABScon staff telling them that the SACAnime volunteer had clearly blown it out of proportion?  She really did make it into an Anti-Brony statement, which true, is partially why a lot of us thought it was fake.

 

Also, another reason we were so quick to call it a lie was the fact that whoever made the tumblr post the first time claimed there was erotic art and body pillows in artist alley and the vendors hall.  As someone who attended, and as others in the topic have stated, there were none.  I doubt any erotic art would have been allowed, since there were children attending.  Also, we thought no way could the story be true because of just how the staff reacted, by not telling anyone about it.  We assumed no one could be that stupid as to not alert security to a possible threat to con goers.  Clearly, we were wrong XD

[nami438 90]

Ah, I see.  Did you see the email the girls mother sent to the BABScon staff telling them that the SACAnime volunteer had clearly blown it out of proportion?  She really did make it into an Anti-Brony statement, which true, is partially why a lot of us thought it was fake.

 

Also, another reason we were so quick to call it a lie was the fact that whoever made the tumblr post the first time claimed there was erotic art and body pillows in artist alley and the vendors hall.  As someone who attended, and as others in the topic have stated, there were none.  I doubt any erotic art would have been allowed, since there were children attending.  Also, we thought no way could the story be true because of just how the staff reacted, by not telling anyone about it.  We assumed no one could be that stupid as to not alert security to a possible threat to con goers.  Clearly, we were wrong XD

Yes, I saw the email, and it does seem that the volunteer did exaggerate the story to make us all look bad. I remember her story using language strongly implying that we all are creepy stalkers, instead of this man being a creepy stalker who happened to be an MLP fan, which I had an extreme issue with. If only I could know why so many people think of this fandom in particular as bad...

 

Thank you for clearing up the other false details. I originally read those as yet another case of, "I didn't see it so it didn't happen". As in, I didn't see that guy get robbed, so there's no way it happened (even though I do not know every single thing that happened on that street at the time of the crime), faulty logic.

[11th Doctor Whooves 794]

Yes, I saw the email, and it does seem that the volunteer did exaggerate the story to make us all look bad. I remember her story using language strongly implying that we all are creepy stalkers, instead of this man being a creepy stalker who happened to be an MLP fan, which I had an extreme issue with. If only I could know why so many people think of this fandom in particular as bad...

 

Thank you for clearing up the other false details. I originally read those as yet another case of, "I didn't see it so it didn't happen". As in, I didn't see that guy get robbed, so there's no way it happened (even though I do not know every single thing that happened on that street at the time of the crime), faulty logic.

 

I really don't get it either.  Yes, every fandom is going to have its creeps and its weirdos, but to apply that stamp to everyone in a fandom?  When did liking something where you aren't the target audience become bad?  Girls can like power rangers and ninja turtles and not get any guff for it, but a guy likes ponies and suddenly he's a weirdo and a creep?  I find it especially sad coming from an Anime fan, since for a while anime fans were considered weirdos and pervs.

 

No problem, happy to help clear away lies

[Bolt the Super-Pony 62]

I suppose it is possible that the Hyatt has meeting rooms on other floors as well that could serve for panel discussions and the like.  If Babscon becomes as well attended as I think they will, they are going to have to find a bigger venue with multiple hotels surrounding- much like BronyCon.  But I guess for next year they can stay at the Hyatt.  I just can't imagine registration lines if the attendence doubles.  There is not enough space where registration was held this year to hold twice as many people.  I hope they at least have packets prepared for all pre-registered guests with a package of any sort.  That would save a lot of time.

 

We did also break the record for the highest attendance EVER at a first-year brony convention with 2300 attendees (which also shows you how big the fandom has grown, although I'm sure having the entire mane six, all of the writers/directors, and musical talent helped)! In contrast, only ~750 people(/ponies, etc.) were actually expected to attend.

Edited May 9, 2014 by Bolt the Super-Pony

[nami438 90]

We did also break the record for the highest attendance EVER at a first-year brony convention with 2300 attendees (which also shows you how big the fandom had grown, although I'm sure having the entire mane six, all of the writers/directors, and musical talent helped)! In contrast, only ~750 people(/ponies, etc.) were actually expected to attend.

That's amazing numbers for a 1st year con! Hope this con is here to stay.