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Oct. 21st, 2010
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If Wiscon had rescinded Elizabeth Moon's GoH invitation immediately after her offensive post and her (IMO) even more offensive deletion of comments, I would have respected them.
If Wiscon had stuck to their guns and said "No, she is one of our chosen GoHs and we are not going to rescind the invitation," I would have respected them.
Instead, they waffled, and said "yes and no," and posted "shoulds" and virtual chocolate, until the resignation of one of their board prompted an "Oh, I guess some of our core consituency feel really strongly about this. I guess we'll cave, then."
When Elizabeth Moon's name was first announced as a GoH, I thought she was an interesting choice of guest. I wondered if Wiscon was trying to get back to a more traditional "feminism as in writing strong female characters" sort of attitude. If so, the attempt failed spectacularly. If you invite a political conservative (which Moon has never made a secret of being), you're likely to see things that don't meet your touchstone for political correctness. Doubtless future guests of honor will hew more closely to the party line.
I'm not really Wiscon's core constituency. I consider myself a feminist, and I've certainly benefited from feminism, but I know little of first-, second-, or third-wave distinctions. I avoid politics whenever I can. I know I have remnants of racism and privilege embedded in my attitudes, and I do what I can to combat them, but I gave up on reading the Racefail material after the first week or two.
I honestly don't know whether I'm going to go to Wiscon at this point. But it's quite clear that whether I go or not, I'm not the one they're putting the convention on for.
If Wiscon had stuck to their guns and said "No, she is one of our chosen GoHs and we are not going to rescind the invitation," I would have respected them.
Instead, they waffled, and said "yes and no," and posted "shoulds" and virtual chocolate, until the resignation of one of their board prompted an "Oh, I guess some of our core consituency feel really strongly about this. I guess we'll cave, then."
When Elizabeth Moon's name was first announced as a GoH, I thought she was an interesting choice of guest. I wondered if Wiscon was trying to get back to a more traditional "feminism as in writing strong female characters" sort of attitude. If so, the attempt failed spectacularly. If you invite a political conservative (which Moon has never made a secret of being), you're likely to see things that don't meet your touchstone for political correctness. Doubtless future guests of honor will hew more closely to the party line.
I'm not really Wiscon's core constituency. I consider myself a feminist, and I've certainly benefited from feminism, but I know little of first-, second-, or third-wave distinctions. I avoid politics whenever I can. I know I have remnants of racism and privilege embedded in my attitudes, and I do what I can to combat them, but I gave up on reading the Racefail material after the first week or two.
I honestly don't know whether I'm going to go to Wiscon at this point. But it's quite clear that whether I go or not, I'm not the one they're putting the convention on for.