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| Editorial |
| ENOUGH. by The Doc |
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| "Just because we smile when you get up here and grab our asses it doesn't mean we have to like it." Michael Shanks, SFX London |
| If a complete stranger would approach me, hug me and grab for my butt, I'd either deck him one or kick his crown jewels up in the empty space that is his head. It's called "sexual harassment". It's an attack. It's complete lack of respect. It's nothing anybody should have to be confronted with. Do we agree on this? Good. Now, imagine, just for an example, the person attacked was Amanda Tapping, and the place would be a convention. I think we can assume that the offender's head would be served on a plate, he'd be banned from the convention and a cry of outrage would go through the audience. And very rightly so. Do we agree on this? Good. Well, if we all agree, then maybe somebody out there can explain to me why, exactly, such behaviour should be acceptable if the attacked person is not a woman, but a man - in the specific case I'm talking about here Michael Shanks and also Michael Rosenbaum, as happened at the SFX event in London this year. I want to know what makes a woman believe that she has the right to grab the bum of a complete stranger. I want to know how anybody can get the idea this was ok, just because the male in question is an actor. And I would also like to know why those in the audience who cheered did so. Oh, I know, there was a lot of commotion on message boards and lists afterwards, people got all upset and everybody was disgusted - but as a matter of fact, a huge chunk of the audience did cheer when Michael Shanks was harassed on stage. In public. By a complete stranger. Cheered. I want to know how you'd feel if a stranger would grab for your breasts on the street and the by-standers would cheer. How would you feel, being humiliated in public? Ah, you would deck him one, too, wouldn't you. Michael Shanks or any other male in the eye of the public can't. He can't even deny a hug without the risk of later being called "arrogant". Because some people seem to think that the very moment somebody appears in public, he becomes public property. He's got to grin and bear it. I tell you one thing: I'm sick of it. I'm disgusted. I'm tired of people who don't know their boundaries, and I seriously wonder how a mind is wired that comes up with the idea of giving an actor a dildo to sign at a convention. If this is expression of admiration, then, by god, I don't want to know how contempt would be expressed. Of all the unpleasant things I've encountered in this fandom - and I've encountered quite a few of them - this was one of the ugliest. And I don't know what revolts me more: the fact of the deed itself or the hypocrisy afterwards, with those who cheered at the convention later on leaving verbous messages about how disgusted they were, and how they pitied "poor Michael". "Poor Michael" and his fellow colleagues don't need your pity - they need your respect. No, more so: they deserve it. Not because they are actors, because they are famous or because they are handsome: because they are human beings with feelings. When I got in this fandom, Michael Shanks was a private person who kept to himself, and not much was known about him. Today, Michael Shanks can't appear at a convention without an entourage of suits who make sure he's left alone. Oh yes. We've come a long way. |