Pretty Terrible

Pop Culture Criticism by Natalie Luhrs

Why We Can’t Have Nice Things

Jesus fucking Christ, Loncon3. This is why we can’t have nice things. (cache)

I don’t even know what else to say.  After all the discussions over the last year (and more) we’ve had about sexism, racism, and harassment in fandom, you–the Chairs, Steve Cooper and Alice Lawson–have decided that a man who was suspended from the BBC and who has, essentially, made a career out of punching down is the perfect person to host the Hugo Award ceremonies.

This basically says everything:

Seriously, what the actual fucking FUCK, Loncon3? Was everyone else you asked already booked for the evening? Was Jonathan Ross the literal best you could do?

You took people’s labor–Farah Mendlesohn’s in particular–and waited until they were so invested that they couldn’t completely walk away. You waited until after people bought memberships before the deadline for the Hugo nomination period. And this is what you do with all the goodwill you’ve accumulated over the last year by promising that this year’s Worldcon would be different?  You’ve pissed it away because the chance to have an actual celebrity host the Hugos was too good to pass up.

I don’t even. I just don’t.

Update. And Ross has withdrawn.

 

Good.

Update 2. Mendlesohn has taken her original post down.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  3. Not to excuse the Chairs for this mess, but their decision might have been swayed by Neil Gaiman who suggested Ross in the first place.

  4. The first link, “this is why we can’t have nice things,” is to an entry that has now been made private per the poster.

  5. I completely agree with you about the message it sends to fans and creators about LonCon 3’s commitment to the con being a safe space.

    I’m having a serious think about my offer to volunteer at LonCon3. This has made me unsure that the highest levels of the con understand what it takes to make a con that is unwelcoming to harassment.

  6. @Ian Mond: Neil Gaiman’s understanding of behaviour that makes many people’s skins crawl can be pretty shaky at times, and he’s married to someone who has exhibited plenty of it.

  7. *reads links about Ross since I have no idea who he is.*

    …. Why in the HELL would this guy have been invited at all to Loncon3 in the first place?!?

Trackbacks

  2. […]   eta: Wow, that was quick; he seems to have dropped out. I’d suggest it was a stunt except there’s no value in it. Perhaps he was sincere and didn’t realise what a couple of decades of this sort of thing might make people outside his core demographic think about his desirability as a presenter. Who can say? Poorly handed, still, really. I’m more astonished than angry; Radish Reviews is more angry than astonished. […]