Reporting Sexual Harassment in the Writing World

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slhuang

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I hope this is okay to post about, as the essay I'm linking to does name names. But I read the whole thing and I think this is very, very important:

How to Report Sexual Harassment
, by Elise Matthesen (via Jim Hines)
http://jimhines.livejournal.com/685600.html

This is in the context of the SFF community, but I think it probably applies across the board. Matthesen describes every step of the incident in question, and goes deeply into the important differences between a formal and informal report. (She doesn't pressure people to do one or the other, as she understands why people may not want to report formally, but I for one had never known the different outcomes that might result here, and it's very valuable knowledge to have.) There's also a lot of good information and links to how to proceed should something like this happen to you as a writer trying to interact with the publishing world.

As a new writer, however, what stood out to me the most was this (bold in the original, not mine):

I had been nervous about doing it, even though the Safety person and the friend sitting with us were people I have known for years. Sitting there, I tried to imagine how nervous I would have been if I were twenty-some years old and at my first convention. What if I were just starting out and had been hoping to show a manuscript to that editor? Would I have thought this kind of behavior was business as usual? What if I were afraid that person would blacklist me if I didn’t make nice and go along with it? If I had been less experienced, less surrounded by people I could call on for strength and encouragement, would I have been able to report it at all?

Well, I actually know the answer to that one: I wouldn’t have. I know this because I did not report it when it happened to me in my twenties. I didn’t report it when it happened to me in my forties either.

[...]

Although their behavior was professional and respectful, I was stunned when I found out that mine was the first formal report filed there as well. From various discussions in person and online, I knew for certain that I was not the only one to have reported inappropriate behavior by this person to his employer. It turned out that the previous reports had been made confidentially and not through HR and Legal. Therefore my report was the first one, because it was the first one that had ever been formally recorded.

[...]

If you choose to report, I hope this writing is useful to you. If you’re new to the genre, please be assured that sexual harassment is NOT acceptable business-as-usual. I have had numerous editors tell me that reporting harassment will NOT get you blacklisted, that they WANT the bad apples reported and dealt with, and that this is very important to them, because this kind of thing is bad for everyone and is not okay. The thing is, though, that I’m fifty-two years old, familiar with the field and the world of conventions, moderately well known to many professionals in the field, and relatively well-liked. I’ve got a lot of social credit. And yet even I was nervous and a little in shock when faced with deciding whether or not to report what happened. Even I was thinking, “Oh, God, do I have to? What if this gets really ugly?”

But every time I got that scared feeling in my guts and the sensation of having a target between my shoulder blades, I thought, “How much worse would this be if I were inexperienced, if I were new to the field, if I were a lot younger?” A thousand times worse. So I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders and said, “Hell, yes, use my name.” And while it’s scary to write this now, and while various people are worried that parts of the Internet may fall on my head, I’m going to share the knowledge — because I’m a geek, and that’s what we do.
 

JoBird

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I've been reading comments about this all day. I think it's important that people know how to report sexual harassment, absolutely.

I'm wondering if Frenkel is intending to comment on it anytime soon.
 

Alessandra Kelley

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How convenient for the James Frenkels of the world that HR departments don't explain that the question "Do you wish to make a formal report?" is actually about whether any other human being will ever hear of the abuse.

Appantly no "formal" report = coverup and silence

I am livid.
 

Filigree

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I have never met the person cited in the report. Given all the *other* stuff I've heard pertaining to him, I can't say that I am surprised. Saddened that our genre still has to deal with this nonsense.

I hope the publisher makes a statement soon.
 

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I have never met the person cited in the report. Given all the *other* stuff I've heard pertaining to him, I can't say that I am surprised. Saddened that our genre still has to deal with this nonsense.

I hope the publisher makes a statement soon.

The publisher is a tiny corner of a large multinational corporation and probably will not be allowed to make a statement with real content.

Also: This is an official warning; there will be no discussion or speculation regarding the specifics of the event in question or Ms. Mattheson's or Mr. Frankel's personal lives. I've seen it else web, and it will not be tolerated here.

The context of the initial post is important: How to report harassment.

It's also worth noting that one does not have to be the target of harassment in order to officially report it. A witness or multiple witnesses' report is quite viable in the eyes of the law.
 

Karen Junker

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Coincidentally, we posted a Code of Conduct for our workshop today. We'd been working on it for weeks.

Our experience in recent years led us to seek out a policy we could use -- and we modified it to allow for the fact that there will be discussion of some topics in the course of talking about writing that might be seen as triggery. I really appreciate the folks who have shared their information about how to handle these kinds of reports.
 

Andrhia

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This has all been extremely disheartening to me. I'd previously made arrangements to go to WorldCon this year, and all of these reports about creepers make it sound like the con world is... well... riddled with creepers, so I'm finding myself inventorying the few people I'll know who would have my back.

And practicing how to say "What the hell are you doing, get away from me," in my outside voice.

I mean, how common is the creepiness, exactly? Do I need to make sure I'm never alone in a hotel hallway? I have trouble believing it's as bad as all that, but the comments sure make it sound like that.
 

JournoWriter

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A female friend in college made a complaint of harassment about a person in a position of authority. It was her word against his, and nothing was done. He retired a few years later. The world still thinks he's a great guy. Extremely disheartening. This account doesn't surprise me in the least.

The descriptions of the behavior of certain ***holes at cons has really opened my eyes. Not that my daughter's remotely old enough, but I'm thinking I'd only let her attend one if she cosplays in an outfit with metal kneepads to drive straight into some jerk's nether regions.
 

Roxxsmom

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It was a good article, and I'm glad she was willing to go through the process.

I also have to say, even knowing as much as I do about sexual harassment, being harassed by an editor, agent or writer who is much further along in his career would be scary as hell. In the writing and publishing world, connections and professional regard are important, and agents and editors are gatekeepers and a well-regarded writer could make things hard for an unpublished newbie if they say something nasty about you to their own agent or editor.

It's easy to say, "Oh well, you don't want to be published by someone like that anyway," but in fact, with there only being a few major publishing houses left, and the good agents buried in submissions and only being able to pick up a few new clients each year at most, well, it seems like it would be easy to discriminate against a so called "troublemaker" without making it terribly obvious.

This means that the writers who are more secure in their careers (insofar as any writer ever is) are disproportionately going to be the ones who have to make formal reports. And chances are, incidents involving them are just the tip of the iceberg.
 

Rhoda Nightingale

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As ugly as the situation is that inspired it, this article/post/thing is terrific. I applaud Ms. Mattheson for going into so much detail about the process of reporting. I feel it's one aspect of the whole harassment deal that doesn't get talked about as much--I mean, okay, people are encouraged to report incidents, but I haven't seen anything like this, that walks you through the process, what to expect, what to write down, what to say, etc. An excellent "road map," as she put it.
 

slhuang

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I mean, how common is the creepiness, exactly? Do I need to make sure I'm never alone in a hotel hallway? I have trouble believing it's as bad as all that, but the comments sure make it sound like that.

I've never done the convention circuit, but from what I hear it's kind of like how things are here working in Hollywood -- women don't get harassed during every interaction, not by a long shot, but all women have a story or three (or eight, or ten) about it happening during some interaction.

I don't think all men everywhere are walking around with their hands stuck out in front of them like zombies going "MOOOOORE BOOOOOOBIES," but anecdotally, I think the woman who hasn't experienced some type of harassment at some point at a convention is either young, new, or lucky. There's probably a very good chance you'll have a wonderful time at Worldcon and never face a single creeper (and I hope this is the case!). But I also think if I talked to a dozen women who have hit the convention circuit regularly for a decade, I wouldn't be able to find one who hasn't met a creeper at some time, during some year, at some convention. (These impressions are from talking to people in fandom. Not scientific.)

Kinda like how most people we interact with aren't assholes, but we've all met a few. That doesn't mean all people are assholes, but it means most people are unlikely to go through life without meeting one eventually. :(
 

slhuang

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Been reading the ol' Twitter . . .

According to Twitter, people (read: women) have been warned away from the person in question for over ten years. There are women tweeting that people pulled them aside in 2002, 2003 and told them to stay away. There are people tweeting that apparently everyone knew about this, including (possibly) the higher-ups at his publisher.

That's infuriating to me. In a way, a greater culture that allows harassment angers me more than the harasser himself -- because he's easy to write off as a bad apple!, but I truly do want to believe in the greater community. It's like the people in SFF right now who are calling for "civility" and thus make me angrier than the man who called a well-known writer subhuman because of her race. Or the kids who stood by in Steubenville at that party. These are the people who make me hate on humanity. :rant:

Someone posted this very apropos link on Twitter, with regard to people ignoring / working around serial harassers: http://pervocracy.blogspot.com/2012/06/missing-stair.html
 
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ULTRAGOTHA

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I mean, how common is the creepiness, exactly? Do I need to make sure I'm never alone in a hotel hallway? I have trouble believing it's as bad as all that, but the comments sure make it sound like that.

I've never done the convention circuit, but from what I hear it's kind of like how things are here working in Hollywood -- women don't get harassed during every interaction, not by a long shot, but all women have a story or three (or eight, or ten) about it happening during some interaction.

I have been going off and on to both regional and WorldCons for over 30 years. I've never been harassed. Ever. I walk the hallways, go to parties, swim in the pools, attend panels, gopher, wrangle autograph lines, hang out in the con suite, guard doors, etc.

I feel quite safe at SF cons.

However, there are other women who absolutely have been harassed and even worse at cons. Fandom contains creepers, harrassers and rapists. But not to the extent that I feel most women need to be constantly hyper vigilant. Normally vigilant, yes. Perhaps a bit extra careful, yes.

It's true that completely jaw-droppingly out of line crap happens, in public no less.

What you're reading about on the web is, I hope, the beginning (alas the beginning has been going on too long for my tastes) of the majority of fans standing up and saying it. will. stop. now.

Fandom overall has been, and is still, far too accommodating of harassers. That's changing. I am so glad it's changing because everyone should feel safe all the time everywhere but especially in fandom.

The harassers and their enablers are a minority in fandom. They have a disproportionate impact. I hope that very very soon they will have no impact at all. The courage shown by Elise Matthesen will help achieve that goal.
 

Liralen

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Having worked with an attorney who handled SH cases, I'm firmly convinced that the best sequence to follow when being harassed is to talk to an attorney, get good advice, and THEN make the complaint following your attorney's advice.

Too many of these things don't get prosecuted because the victims are intimidated. It's amazing what a good attorney does to alleviate that intimidation.
 

jjdebenedictis

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Hmm. My one close encounter with being published involved this guy.

However, I never met him or spoke to him; only my agent did. All the same, this gives me a bit of creepy feeling. What would I have done, y'know?
 

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Also: This is an official warning; there will be no discussion or speculation regarding the specifics of the event in question or Ms. Mattheson's or Mr. Frankel's personal lives. I've seen it else web, and it will not be tolerated here.
There certainly has been a firestorm about this in the SF/F world and on the web..
 

Susan Coffin

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The article is excellent, and a reminder that any type of complaint in a professional position needs to be in writing and sent through the appropriate channels. Confidentiality is not your friend when it comes to reporting workplace and/or professional harassment, even though the person reporting the incident is often ostracized by certain personality types. In the end, I'd rather be ostracized.
 

AW Admin

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Culturally women are encouraged to be quiet when we're harassed.

Don't be quiet. Raise you voice. A loud No will make heads turn.

Stop touching me will too.

No one has the right to touch you without your consent; consent isn't implied it must be freely stated.

So practice being loud. Practice saying no.
 

muravyets

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First, Elise Matheson is a brave person who is doing a profound service for many, many others. I thank her for writing that account of the process.

Also, serial harassers dine out on the cultural conditioning of women not to defend themselves, either by resisting or reacting to the offense or by taking formal action against them later. I think the best defense against such things is for us to try to value ourselves enough to get over the understandable intimidation of the whole situation. Just know, when we get out of that stunning moment, however soon or later the fog of shock clears, we can have our just and legal vengeance.

Final point: I don't know any of the people involved in this incident, but I do know harassers, both ones who've tried it on me and ones that I spotted coming or was warned about. I loathe and detest the little turds and I hope Ms. Matheson's willingness to make her complaint formal and on the record will crush the life out of any career or hope of a professional or social future this one ever had. I hope this first formal complaint will unleash a flood of formal complaints from other targets of his crap. Crush his career. Brutally. And make a rug out of its hide.
 

CrastersBabies

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This is just gut-wrenching to read. This person handled things so so so much better than I would have.
 

JournoWriter

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No one has the right to touch you without your consent; consent isn't implied it must be freely stated.

Excellent point, but harassment doesn't always involve physical contact. The same basic principle applies to all interaction.
 
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