A Little About WisCon

Actually, the thing I wanted to mention most about WisCon is that I reconnected with some people and met some others - authors in particular - that I'm thrilled about. I'll mention that in another post.

I was a little thrown off that course, though, because I clicked over to see if the Angry Black Woman had posted about it. I knew she would. I knew she was there, and I had the pleasure of hanging out with her on a couple of occasions. She's been a great advocate for Acacia - even as she's always pushing me to become more properly a feminist writer. Thing is, what I found at her blog was a post called "What Rachel Moss Did". It's about another blogger that attending the con and chose to post - very negatively - about the event, the panels, and about many of the people that went to it. Yikes. You can check out ABW's post here, which references the original in depth. Claire Light has also written about it at her blog, SeeLight.

I don't even know where to start with addressing that and the response it's going to get in the days to come. My inclination regarding the scene at WisCon is to not say too much, not judge too harshly, and certainly not to belittle. It is a crowd unlike that at any other con. Many of the people that choose to go to WisCon do so because they're connecting with a network of people that share a complex variety of perspectives - and we're not talking mainstream perspectives. There were, in fact, many panels and many discourses going on that I really couldn't add to. I heard lots of things said that I didn't particularly agree with. And I heard lots of things that I just couldn't get purchase on. And I heard lots of things that added new insights to other people's perspectives. Although some of the discussions were hostile to a lot of things that I am - a heterosexual male that does have a lot of privileges - I never felt that I wasn't welcome. Just the contrary, many of the groups so passionate about the difficulties facing them do want allies. They just want many of those allies to be willing to shut up and listen a bit, because privilege does not equal wisdom.

I dig that, and instead of responding with public approval or disapproval, humor or malice or even complete praise I'm going to let some of it sink in. No doubt I'm better off for having gone to WisCon. I may not have sold a ton of books, but I'm a little less ignorant about a lot of things. That's what I'm taking away from it.