Same-sex sexual harrassment at cons

[Angathol]

I'm sure the general excuse for this is "I'm a girl so it's okay." Making perverted comments or actions towards another female doesn't make it any better than if a guy were doing it, considering these are complete strangers.

[OhNoesItsMiho]

Kimyou: Now I remember you! I saw pictures of your cosplay and I was all, "Oh ya! I remember her!" I was Brock on Friday so you probably saw me on Saturday. I think you saw me running around after I came back from the noise room. I was smelly, hot, and I wanted a bath. I didn't have a room key so I had to find my group to get the key. Eh, I bet my Milk-chan costume smells horrible. It's still in my suitcase XD


Gennivieve: Exactly. That's why I'm kind of afraid to cosplay as a very popular character whether that character is male or female. I'm still debating if I want to crossplay as Kazuki or not for Ohayocon. I guess I could understand if that person went to their first con and was overwhelmed by everything. I know I was for Colossalcon. Of course I don't go hugging others without permission anymore.

[Aramea]

At Oni-Con this past sunday, I was all kinds of happy about my first con going so well. I even danced with people in the elevators, and got all kinds of hugs.

However, like an hour before we left, a girl who was in the elevator came up behind me and started grinding against me, doing that "unce, unce, unce" sound, and then ran away. Now, I'm fine with my friends doing that to me because we're pretty retarded and half of us are bi anyway, but when some random chick does that it's just not right.

Other than that, it was pretty freaking awesome. biggrin

[Cloud0Strife01]

I know the pain of that kind of thing happening to you; people can control themselves when they see a certain character. I cosplayed as Cloud once and someone came up behind me and put their hands underneath my shirt... redface Then a friend of mine who was cosplaying as Squall from Dissidia and a random Aerith Cosplayer came to my rescue because I couldn't break away. The person had a firm hold on me.

after being molested like that, I made good friends with the Aerith girl and her and Squall took good care of me for the rest of the con.

as for the person, IT was banned from the con

[Kimyou]

Angathol

I'm sure the general excuse for this is "I'm a girl so it's okay." Making perverted comments or actions towards another female doesn't make it any better than if a guy were doing it, considering these are complete strangers.

Exactly. I'm sure that was the mentality of the girl who groped me. One of the friends I was with said that she heard one of the girl's friends say, "Uhhhh..." as if she was disapproving of her friend's actions, and the girl merrily piped, "What? It was Lust!"

People aren't the characters that they cosplay. The only thing they'll ever be is someone dressed up like someone else. You can talk about raping Roy Mustang or Sailor Moon all you want and no one will care (well, they might think you're weird, but whatever), but sexually harassing someone dressed up as those characters at a convention is a completely different matter.

Aramea - Eww! Were you in costume, or just wearing regular clothes? If it was the latter, that would be even creepier. As if having someone's crotch rubbed all over you isn't bad enough. confused

Cloud0Strife01 - Oh my goodness. I'm really glad that person was kicked out of the con for what they did to you. It's great that you made friends with the people who saved you, although it would have been a lot better if you didn't have to get molested to do that. :/ Argh.

[An UnLoved Hikaru]

i wouldn't worry about it
every one is like that at a con~
like my friend said she played this game (that is now banned from cons) and its like spin the bottle but except kissing you glomp and this girl glopmed her and like tolled her she was really cute and wanted to kiss her it was really funny but yeah ^^;
but yeah sexual harassment is not kewl~ D:<
like at jacon '09 (RIP) at the rave there was this guy going around feeling up girls and he felt up my friend kat and when they started looking for him he left the con already
i dont think i have had sexual harassment at a con o3o since to me every one is like a ped0 <33

[Shay_Damon]

I think the real problem is the fact that some people ARE okay with it...so maybe we're partially to blame XD

For example, if a girl sees an awesome Sailor Moon and goes up and gropes her, and that chick totally doesn't mind, they might think it's okay to do that to everyone, you know what I mean?

Unfortunatly, I had a situation like that happen to me. I was running through a hallway at Anime North (bad idea in the first place >.> ) and I ran into this girl and fell on her. She made some silly joke about how if I wanted to do that I'd have to wait untill later, and we both laughed and I appologized. But because some girl saw it and thought I did it on purpose, she came up to me, grabbed my a** and asked me back to her hotel room. I was like...woah, no thank you.

I also Yuri when asked sometimes, so some girls see you do something like and think, "Oh, she totally won't mind if I grab her chest without warning." Con behaviour just kind of promotes those actions, and it's not right, but at the same time, I really don't think much can be done overall.

[Strawberry Skank]

WOAH s**t, that is a sweet-a** cosplay you've got there. Did you make it yourself? It looks awesome. @_____@ I hope mine turns out that good. D:

And I'm sorry you were nearly raped by that girl. >_< I've only been to one con, and thankfully I didn't have to worry about harassment at all while I was there. It was all goooood.

[Kimyou]

Aww, thank you! Yes, I did make it myself. I started working on it two months before the con started, and I spent so freaking long drafting and tweaking the pattern that I didn't even begin to sew the actual garment until a week before the con. I had to pull an all-nighter the night before the con to finish it. Never again! x_x

If you're doing a Lust cosplay as well, I'd be happy to give you some info on how I made my dress. There are a lot of mistakes I need to correct before I wear it again, and if anyone could learn from them it would be awesome.

[DiHerMe]

Well, thats pretty normal. Specially this days (obviously, that doesnt make it a good thing -_-u).
Just think about what they feel. They exitement ..viewing the 'loved' character of that anime and that kinda stuff. Figure out that mostly of they just dont do it with 'bad' intentions ..its just acting without thinking the wrong thing.

Calm urself and explain to them ...the best way u can.

To me? Nah ..dont happened. At least not that way LOL.

Words are just words, but actions are worth a lil big slap or something hehe.


Anyway, take care and watch your back =D

[Atari-555]

I just got back from a convention myself, and I was dressed as Fran from FFXII. Usually, attention from other women doesn't bother me-- in fact, I find it flattering, lol-- but yea. One woman wanted me to KISS her for a picture. It was really weird. O_o

[sgt chase]

Late on the posting forgive.

That is the thing with Anime, scifi and other entertainment related Conventions. People feel the need to take more risks and what not. I haven't had that issue for me (I cosplay as Aizen Sosuke and most ppl don't like him) but I have had friends be glomped randomly and have heard the comments like that to them.

One of the main things that you can do if they repeatedly go after you is talk to the Con staff (Security or HQ Staff) and give them the badgename of the person who is harrassing you. Most of the time if you give them a stern no they will listen unless they are super fangirlish.

Harrasment is Harrasment no matter who they are and if you are uncomfortable with it make it known to them.

[Mikado Yumi]

Whoa.....I have never heard cases like that before.
Those kind of actions are sexual harassment, which should have probably been reported.
Do know if this does happen again, (like the posts said) report it. I get fans will be fan, but there's a line that should never be crossed. Not only is it uncalled for to touch a person the wrong way, it's flat out stupid assuming it's acceptable to do that to others because they cosplay as your favorite character.

Do know what's more important is how you feel and what you should do when this happens again.
Be prepared and find con staff members to talk to in case you feel unsafe or uncomfortable.

I was in a similar situation myself. This wasn't at a convention, but at the Y.M.C.A where (back in high school) my P.E> teacher takes us to after school. I was working out until I saw this tall guy behind me. Didn't pay attention until I heard a camera snap on his phone. I walked away to turn around and see that his cellphone had a picture of my butt (I can tell because I wore pink workout pants...which I hated). I got scared, but calmly went over to my teacher and the staff member. After that, I started to panic and cry. My teacher walked up to see if it was there. I don't know if he saw it but figured it was deleted when I reported him. The Staff members helped me through the situation and the guy left the gym.

From that experience, I knew it was right to report a situation that concerns me. I was fully aware of my surroundings and do what I can to make sure it doesn't happen again.

(Sorry if I was off topic, but hope my story helps in some way. Not just for you, but others who had situations relating to yours and mine)

[Aramea]

Kimyou

Aramea - Eww! Were you in costume, or just wearing regular clothes? If it was the latter, that would be even creepier. As if having someone's crotch rubbed all over you isn't bad enough. confused
.

I was in costume, but I was an original character, so I really don't see why she would want to do something like that. I mean, it wouldn't be ok if i was dressed as somebody, but she didn't even have the lame excuse of, "OMG! It's that character I love!" It's not like the incident ruined my experience, but it did taint it a bit. I'm gonna be a hell of a lot more cautious of who I talk to or dance with now.

[gongkat]

Ah yes Kimyou, I remember seeing you in the Artist Alley on Saturday at Sugoicon. You and the duo cosplaying as Jareth from Labyrinth were getting a lot of attention. It's inexcusable what happened to you at the con, like others said harassment is harassment.

I have never had such an experience cosplaying, however my friend did back in '04 when she went as Lulu from FFX. She is rather well-endowed and while walking through the dealers room some older woman (at least in her late 30s) dressed up as the little pink bunny from Chobits. This cosplayer just randomly jumped onto my friend and fondled her boobs. It took myself, my boyfriend, and a clerk at a figurine booth to pry this woman off my friend. We didn't get her badge name, so nothing ever happened.