Alexandra Sokoloff's Blog - Posts Tagged "metoo"
Sexual harassment at book festivals and conferences
by Alexandra Sokoloff
Conference season is almost upon us, with Harrogate, Thrillerfest and Romance Writers of America National Conference next month, Bute Noir in August, Bloody Scotland and Bouchercon in September (please add other conferences!). You may be aware that there is a fierce debate going on in author circles and on festival boards over the need to have sexual harassment policies in place.
The book world is a warm and intimate community, and it’s easy to feel safe at conferences because the vast majority of authors, readers, publishers, bloggers, etc. are genuinely wonderful people.
But there are a few predators who do routinely attend these conferences and who use their standing in the book world to harass and prey on vulnerable members of our community.
Many festivals have no anti-harassment policy in place whatsoever, and no place for conference attendees to report predatory behavior.
The boards are queasy about legal issues, obviously, but authors and readers are arguing that festival organizers also have a duty to provide as safe a space as possible to conference goers.
Several conferences have put anti-harassment policies in place: here are links if you’re interested in reading:
Left Coast Crime
Bouchercon 2018
Horror Writers Association/Stokercon
Nine Worlds
Authors and other book people who have been around for a while have another dilemma. We KNOW who some of these habitual predators are, and we can talk to each other and warn our friends, but unless a conference has an anti-harassment policy (including meaningful repercussions) and clear guidelines about who to report to, we have no way of reporting past predatory behavior and repeat offenders to anyone of authority who can or will do anything about it. The more we talk about it amongst ourselves, the more alarming it is that we are just about to launch into these festivities and there is still no way to warn first time attendees about the dangers that we know exist.
I’d like to ask for feedback and suggestions. Were you aware that there are known harassers and predators on the festival circuit? Were you aware that there is no policy in place against sexual harassment at many of the conferences and festivals, and no way of reporting these behaviors that result in consequences?
Authors, publishers and festival organizers know specifically about authors and publishers who are harassing people, touching aggressively/inappropriately, pressuring other attendees for sex, lying about marital status to rack up conquests, spreading STIs, aggressively hitting on younger attendees obviously too drunk to make consensual decisions (these are just a few of the behaviors that are well known).
Here is a partial list of specific situations I and female author friends have experienced at various crime conferences.
Each one of these was a different man – either an author or a publisher. Some of the behaviors have been reported about more than one man.
I’ve included nothing that I haven’t personally experienced, witnessed, or been told by the woman/women involved, and I haven’t included some of the more serious accusations I know of. And I’m going to phrase this as a question to men, because I think part of the problem here is that even the most woke of our male friends and colleagues have no idea what goes on, and are putting themselves through emotional contortions thinking, “Wait, have I done it?” My answer to the good guys is NO, you haven’t done it – just check yourself against this list.
At a conference, have you ever….
- Stayed late in the conference bar chatting up the youngest and drunkest woman in the place, to the point that other authors have had to intervene and escort her home safely?
- Taken photos of a woman’s body parts without her knowing?
- Stood outside the hotel window of a woman who just turned you down at the conference bar?
- Stroked the leg of a woman you’ve just been introduced to, saying you like her tights?
- Had a conversation with a woman without once lifting your eyes from her chest?
- Followed a woman you were attracted to around a conference telling everyone “She’s so sexy” and trying to talk to her even when she is in the middle of a conversation with others, on the phone, or obviously otherwise engaged?
- Shoved a woman up against a wall, held her there and kissed her without her consent?
- As a publisher, told a female author who just won the Edgar that "women belong barefoot and pregnant"?
- Comforted a friend going through a nasty divorce when she’s broken down sobbing at the bar - by walking her up to her room, then closing and chain-locking the door and trying to kiss her?
- Draped yourself over a woman, just to be friendly?
- Touched the arm of a woman you don’t know two dozen times during a group conversation about sexual harassment and rape?
- Pursued and started relationships with three different women you met at a con without telling any of the others about the others – or informing any of them that you have a wife, a steady girlfriend on the side, and a serious STD?
I’m asking you all as members of this community – how would YOU want to be informed about these dangers? Do you have suggestions about how we can make our community and these occasions safer for everyone?
Thanks so much for your comments!
- Alex
And on the subject of sexual abuse:
All five books in my Thriller Award-nominated Huntress series are also on sale for $1.99 US - a perfect chance to catch up before Book 6 comes out this fall.
A haunted FBI agent is on the hunt for a female serial killer. This time, the predators lose.
If you buy the Kindle versions, you can also add RC Bray’s fantastic, award-winning narration for just $3.99, a great Audible bargain.
Huntress Moon
Blood Moon
Cold Moon
Bitter Moon
Hunger Moon
Conference season is almost upon us, with Harrogate, Thrillerfest and Romance Writers of America National Conference next month, Bute Noir in August, Bloody Scotland and Bouchercon in September (please add other conferences!). You may be aware that there is a fierce debate going on in author circles and on festival boards over the need to have sexual harassment policies in place.
The book world is a warm and intimate community, and it’s easy to feel safe at conferences because the vast majority of authors, readers, publishers, bloggers, etc. are genuinely wonderful people.
But there are a few predators who do routinely attend these conferences and who use their standing in the book world to harass and prey on vulnerable members of our community. Many festivals have no anti-harassment policy in place whatsoever, and no place for conference attendees to report predatory behavior.
The boards are queasy about legal issues, obviously, but authors and readers are arguing that festival organizers also have a duty to provide as safe a space as possible to conference goers.
Several conferences have put anti-harassment policies in place: here are links if you’re interested in reading:
Left Coast Crime
Bouchercon 2018
Horror Writers Association/Stokercon
Nine Worlds
Authors and other book people who have been around for a while have another dilemma. We KNOW who some of these habitual predators are, and we can talk to each other and warn our friends, but unless a conference has an anti-harassment policy (including meaningful repercussions) and clear guidelines about who to report to, we have no way of reporting past predatory behavior and repeat offenders to anyone of authority who can or will do anything about it. The more we talk about it amongst ourselves, the more alarming it is that we are just about to launch into these festivities and there is still no way to warn first time attendees about the dangers that we know exist.
I’d like to ask for feedback and suggestions. Were you aware that there are known harassers and predators on the festival circuit? Were you aware that there is no policy in place against sexual harassment at many of the conferences and festivals, and no way of reporting these behaviors that result in consequences?
Authors, publishers and festival organizers know specifically about authors and publishers who are harassing people, touching aggressively/inappropriately, pressuring other attendees for sex, lying about marital status to rack up conquests, spreading STIs, aggressively hitting on younger attendees obviously too drunk to make consensual decisions (these are just a few of the behaviors that are well known).
Here is a partial list of specific situations I and female author friends have experienced at various crime conferences.
Each one of these was a different man – either an author or a publisher. Some of the behaviors have been reported about more than one man.
I’ve included nothing that I haven’t personally experienced, witnessed, or been told by the woman/women involved, and I haven’t included some of the more serious accusations I know of. And I’m going to phrase this as a question to men, because I think part of the problem here is that even the most woke of our male friends and colleagues have no idea what goes on, and are putting themselves through emotional contortions thinking, “Wait, have I done it?” My answer to the good guys is NO, you haven’t done it – just check yourself against this list.
At a conference, have you ever….
- Stayed late in the conference bar chatting up the youngest and drunkest woman in the place, to the point that other authors have had to intervene and escort her home safely?
- Taken photos of a woman’s body parts without her knowing?
- Stood outside the hotel window of a woman who just turned you down at the conference bar?
- Stroked the leg of a woman you’ve just been introduced to, saying you like her tights?
- Had a conversation with a woman without once lifting your eyes from her chest?
- Followed a woman you were attracted to around a conference telling everyone “She’s so sexy” and trying to talk to her even when she is in the middle of a conversation with others, on the phone, or obviously otherwise engaged?
- Shoved a woman up against a wall, held her there and kissed her without her consent?
- As a publisher, told a female author who just won the Edgar that "women belong barefoot and pregnant"?
- Comforted a friend going through a nasty divorce when she’s broken down sobbing at the bar - by walking her up to her room, then closing and chain-locking the door and trying to kiss her?
- Draped yourself over a woman, just to be friendly?
- Touched the arm of a woman you don’t know two dozen times during a group conversation about sexual harassment and rape?
- Pursued and started relationships with three different women you met at a con without telling any of the others about the others – or informing any of them that you have a wife, a steady girlfriend on the side, and a serious STD?
I’m asking you all as members of this community – how would YOU want to be informed about these dangers? Do you have suggestions about how we can make our community and these occasions safer for everyone?
Thanks so much for your comments!
- Alex
And on the subject of sexual abuse:
All five books in my Thriller Award-nominated Huntress series are also on sale for $1.99 US - a perfect chance to catch up before Book 6 comes out this fall.
A haunted FBI agent is on the hunt for a female serial killer. This time, the predators lose.
If you buy the Kindle versions, you can also add RC Bray’s fantastic, award-winning narration for just $3.99, a great Audible bargain.
Huntress Moon
Blood Moon
Cold Moon
Bitter Moon
Hunger Moon
Sexual assault, fraternity culture, and judges - in HUNGER MOON (part 2)
Readers are writing in to me this week to comment on the eerie similarities between the plot of my last Huntress novel, Hunger Moon, the misogynistic culture of all-male prep schools and fraternities, and the sexual assault accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanagh.
Hunger Moon focused on the rape culture in fraternities that teaches privileged white boys that they can sexually assault girls and young women with impunity, and speculated that the accused sexual predator in the White House might well try to appoint a frat boy sexual predator to the Supreme Court.
I based the book on several real fraternities, including the one Brett Kavanagh belonged to at Yale. The frat has a long history of being suspended from multiple campuses for sexual assault and proposals of sexual violence, racism, dangerous hazing rituals, and alcohol abuse. The Yale chapter was notorious for its initiation chant, "No means Yes, Yes means anal."
If you've been wondering how such a phenomenally unfit candidate is being forced onto the Supreme Court, consider this:
Of the nation’s 50 largest corporations, 43 are headed by fraternity men.
85% of the Fortune 500 executives belong to a fraternity.
40 of 47 U.S. Supreme Court Justices since 1910 were fraternity men.
76% of all Congressmen and Senators belong to a fraternity.
Every U.S. President and Vice President born since the first social fraternity was founded in 1825, except two in each office, have been members of a fraternity.
63% of the U.S. President’s Cabinet members since 1900 have been Greek.
(This is a list posted on dozens of university websites, attributed to the North American Interfraternity Conference.)
Are you beginning to see the problem?
In the Huntress books, women rise up to take action against sexual predators. The first step in eliminating misogyny is confronting the roots and extent of this scourge.
Here's another scene from the book that I based on the frat Kavanagh belonged to.
And in case you're wondering if I exaggerate misogynistic dialogue for effect - every bit of dialogue in the scene is based on real conversations between frat brothers.
Please don’t forget to register to vote.
- - Alex
The Basement was deep under the house, a huge three-story clinging to the cliff edge in a row of oceanfront houses along Del Playa. Outside the wall of windows and a sliding glass door, the long, well-used wooden deck overlooked the Pacific Ocean, and the sound of the surf was a constant rhythmic rumble.
The room inside was lit only by strings of Christmas lights and occupied by the shadowy figures of nine or ten young men in the prime of their lives. They were uniformly handsome: chiseled chins, silky tanned skin over taut six-pack abs, strong thighs. Any one of them could make decent money modeling for an ad depicting the Southern California experience.
At the moment, though, in the shadows, faces lit by the flashing lights of the digital sound system and the screens of their smartphones, they were so wasted that they looked more like thugs. They were seated around the table, sprawled on the sofas, sloppy drunk, with various bottles and red plastic beverage cups littering the end tables, the floor. And on the low table in front of them, a mirror smudged from lines of snorted substances.
Above them, one wall of the room was completely papered in photos: a collage of naked female body parts. Shots of breasts and thighs branded with Greek letters drawn in marker on the skin. Beaver shots, anal shots. Some full-length, candid photos of naked and half-naked girls, passed out, one or two in their own vomit. In some pictures boys were having sex with the girls—in these, the boys’ faces were never shown.
One of the young men addressed the wall. “Gettin’ tired of looking at the same ol’ tits and ass. Need some fresh wallpaper.”
Another one chimed in. “Hell yeah. Pledges're getting derelict. Gotta make ’em up their game.”
The first young man spoke again. “This time next week I want to see all new booty up there.”
There was a groundswell of approval. “Fuckin’ A right. New pussy.”
A chant started. “New pussy. New pussy. New pussy.”
“We need a challenge.”
“A fucken challenge, yeah.”
Their leader stood, unsteadily. “It’s coming to me . . .” He took a dramatic pause. “Valentine’s Day.”
A chorus of groans, boos. “Fuck that!”
“Hold on. Think it through. That shit is bait for the hos. We throw a big blowout, hearts and flowers and thongs . . .”
Now hearty laughs.
“The bitches will love it, and we get our pick of the gash. A Valentine’s party for them—and a Hunting Party for us.”
The room took up the cry. “Hunting Party! Hunting Party!”
“All pledges need to bring in twenty-five points. Five for titty shots.”
“Extra points for best heart-shaped ass!” a brother contributed from his face-plant on the floor.
“Extra points for asses with K-Tau letters written on ’em. Brand the bitches.”
“Ten for full frontal. Twenty for penetration. And—”
“Twenty-five for anal!” a big guy finished.
“Hey!” someone else protested. “Why should pledges get all the action?”
“Anyone can participate,” the alpha said magnanimously. “Cum one, cum all.” He raised his glass in a toast.
The boys all pounded their shots, then the room exploded in drunken chatter.
“We be fucking tomorrow. Totally fucking.”
“Get some bad bitches over here.”
“Cooper be flicken mo’ bean than an epileptic Mexican chef in a kitchen fulla strobe lights.”
“I’m goin’ hunting now. Got to crank out a few so I can last longer later.”
The leader turned and looked over the table, the smudged mirror. “Oh hell. Looka that. Someone’s hoovered up all the refreshments. Cutler, Vogel, you’re up. Bring back fortifications.”
The two frat brothers staggered out of the house into the fog. At the end of the block, Del Playa ran into a trailhead, morphed into twisting sand paths through a labyrinth of beach scrub on the bluffs.
Cutler and Vogel veered onto the trail, slogging in the sand. They panted with exertion, squinting through double vision, stumbling in the dark. The dorm complexes of Manzanita Village and San Rafael were distant, blurry lights in the fog. The Kappa Alpha Tau house’s main dealer lived in San Rafe and would be meeting them in the usual spot on the bluffs.
An occasional gleam of moonlight flashed on the rumbling dark expanse of the Pacific below. Otherwise, darkness. Silence.
Vogel kept turning, glancing into the dense woodland gloom beside the path.
“Dude, what is your problem?” Cutler complained.
“Someone in there,” Vogel slurred. “Inna scrub. Following us.”
“Yer trippin’, dude . . .”
“Huh-uh. Listen—”
Both boys jumped as the carillon bells suddenly tolled from Storke Tower in the center of campus. Cutler burst into manic laughter.
“Yeah, I’m hearing it now. Totally.”
He stumbled on ahead, leaving Vogel muttering behind him. “There was. There was someone—”
He staggered on in the dark—and nearly ran into Cutler, who had stopped in his tracks and was staring out over the thick scrub truculently. “Somebody out there? Who the fuck is following us? C’mon outta there, asshole.”
The shadows moved. Cutler tensed, his fists balling at his sides. The ocean thundered below them.
A figure loomed up, dark, hooded.
“Holy shiiiit!” Vogel yelped.
The figure advanced through the fog, pushing back its cowl to reveal a gleaming white face, hollow eye sockets. A skull.
The frat brothers stumbled backward, screaming, and the skeleton figure barreled toward them, implacable in the fog.
----
Fog drifts through the silent, towering redwoods of north campus in the cold, gray dawn.
A lone girl huddles into her coat as she scuttles on a meandering path through the grove, en route to a pre-class conference. Her breath is puffs of white in the fog. Squirrels scatter in front of her, frantic red zips of motion.
The path opens up in front of a looming curved stone wall, like the outside of an ancient Roman coliseum. Rough gray brick with black iron gates.
The girl halts in front of the gates, staring upward. She jolts backward . . . and begins to scream.
Two male figures hang from the arches of the stadium, by ropes around their necks.
----
All five books in The Huntress series currently on sale, $1.99.
--Shop the series--
Hunger Moon focused on the rape culture in fraternities that teaches privileged white boys that they can sexually assault girls and young women with impunity, and speculated that the accused sexual predator in the White House might well try to appoint a frat boy sexual predator to the Supreme Court.
I based the book on several real fraternities, including the one Brett Kavanagh belonged to at Yale. The frat has a long history of being suspended from multiple campuses for sexual assault and proposals of sexual violence, racism, dangerous hazing rituals, and alcohol abuse. The Yale chapter was notorious for its initiation chant, "No means Yes, Yes means anal."
If you've been wondering how such a phenomenally unfit candidate is being forced onto the Supreme Court, consider this:
Of the nation’s 50 largest corporations, 43 are headed by fraternity men.
85% of the Fortune 500 executives belong to a fraternity.
40 of 47 U.S. Supreme Court Justices since 1910 were fraternity men.
76% of all Congressmen and Senators belong to a fraternity.
Every U.S. President and Vice President born since the first social fraternity was founded in 1825, except two in each office, have been members of a fraternity.
63% of the U.S. President’s Cabinet members since 1900 have been Greek.
(This is a list posted on dozens of university websites, attributed to the North American Interfraternity Conference.)
Are you beginning to see the problem?
In the Huntress books, women rise up to take action against sexual predators. The first step in eliminating misogyny is confronting the roots and extent of this scourge.
Here's another scene from the book that I based on the frat Kavanagh belonged to.
And in case you're wondering if I exaggerate misogynistic dialogue for effect - every bit of dialogue in the scene is based on real conversations between frat brothers.
Please don’t forget to register to vote.
- - Alex
The Basement was deep under the house, a huge three-story clinging to the cliff edge in a row of oceanfront houses along Del Playa. Outside the wall of windows and a sliding glass door, the long, well-used wooden deck overlooked the Pacific Ocean, and the sound of the surf was a constant rhythmic rumble.
The room inside was lit only by strings of Christmas lights and occupied by the shadowy figures of nine or ten young men in the prime of their lives. They were uniformly handsome: chiseled chins, silky tanned skin over taut six-pack abs, strong thighs. Any one of them could make decent money modeling for an ad depicting the Southern California experience.
At the moment, though, in the shadows, faces lit by the flashing lights of the digital sound system and the screens of their smartphones, they were so wasted that they looked more like thugs. They were seated around the table, sprawled on the sofas, sloppy drunk, with various bottles and red plastic beverage cups littering the end tables, the floor. And on the low table in front of them, a mirror smudged from lines of snorted substances.
Above them, one wall of the room was completely papered in photos: a collage of naked female body parts. Shots of breasts and thighs branded with Greek letters drawn in marker on the skin. Beaver shots, anal shots. Some full-length, candid photos of naked and half-naked girls, passed out, one or two in their own vomit. In some pictures boys were having sex with the girls—in these, the boys’ faces were never shown.
One of the young men addressed the wall. “Gettin’ tired of looking at the same ol’ tits and ass. Need some fresh wallpaper.”
Another one chimed in. “Hell yeah. Pledges're getting derelict. Gotta make ’em up their game.”
The first young man spoke again. “This time next week I want to see all new booty up there.”
There was a groundswell of approval. “Fuckin’ A right. New pussy.”
A chant started. “New pussy. New pussy. New pussy.”
“We need a challenge.”
“A fucken challenge, yeah.”
Their leader stood, unsteadily. “It’s coming to me . . .” He took a dramatic pause. “Valentine’s Day.”
A chorus of groans, boos. “Fuck that!”
“Hold on. Think it through. That shit is bait for the hos. We throw a big blowout, hearts and flowers and thongs . . .”
Now hearty laughs.
“The bitches will love it, and we get our pick of the gash. A Valentine’s party for them—and a Hunting Party for us.”
The room took up the cry. “Hunting Party! Hunting Party!”
“All pledges need to bring in twenty-five points. Five for titty shots.”
“Extra points for best heart-shaped ass!” a brother contributed from his face-plant on the floor.
“Extra points for asses with K-Tau letters written on ’em. Brand the bitches.”
“Ten for full frontal. Twenty for penetration. And—”
“Twenty-five for anal!” a big guy finished.
“Hey!” someone else protested. “Why should pledges get all the action?”
“Anyone can participate,” the alpha said magnanimously. “Cum one, cum all.” He raised his glass in a toast.
The boys all pounded their shots, then the room exploded in drunken chatter.
“We be fucking tomorrow. Totally fucking.”
“Get some bad bitches over here.”
“Cooper be flicken mo’ bean than an epileptic Mexican chef in a kitchen fulla strobe lights.”
“I’m goin’ hunting now. Got to crank out a few so I can last longer later.”
The leader turned and looked over the table, the smudged mirror. “Oh hell. Looka that. Someone’s hoovered up all the refreshments. Cutler, Vogel, you’re up. Bring back fortifications.”
The two frat brothers staggered out of the house into the fog. At the end of the block, Del Playa ran into a trailhead, morphed into twisting sand paths through a labyrinth of beach scrub on the bluffs.
Cutler and Vogel veered onto the trail, slogging in the sand. They panted with exertion, squinting through double vision, stumbling in the dark. The dorm complexes of Manzanita Village and San Rafael were distant, blurry lights in the fog. The Kappa Alpha Tau house’s main dealer lived in San Rafe and would be meeting them in the usual spot on the bluffs.
An occasional gleam of moonlight flashed on the rumbling dark expanse of the Pacific below. Otherwise, darkness. Silence.
Vogel kept turning, glancing into the dense woodland gloom beside the path.
“Dude, what is your problem?” Cutler complained.
“Someone in there,” Vogel slurred. “Inna scrub. Following us.”
“Yer trippin’, dude . . .”
“Huh-uh. Listen—”
Both boys jumped as the carillon bells suddenly tolled from Storke Tower in the center of campus. Cutler burst into manic laughter.
“Yeah, I’m hearing it now. Totally.”
He stumbled on ahead, leaving Vogel muttering behind him. “There was. There was someone—”
He staggered on in the dark—and nearly ran into Cutler, who had stopped in his tracks and was staring out over the thick scrub truculently. “Somebody out there? Who the fuck is following us? C’mon outta there, asshole.”
The shadows moved. Cutler tensed, his fists balling at his sides. The ocean thundered below them.
A figure loomed up, dark, hooded.
“Holy shiiiit!” Vogel yelped.
The figure advanced through the fog, pushing back its cowl to reveal a gleaming white face, hollow eye sockets. A skull.
The frat brothers stumbled backward, screaming, and the skeleton figure barreled toward them, implacable in the fog.
----
Fog drifts through the silent, towering redwoods of north campus in the cold, gray dawn.
A lone girl huddles into her coat as she scuttles on a meandering path through the grove, en route to a pre-class conference. Her breath is puffs of white in the fog. Squirrels scatter in front of her, frantic red zips of motion.
The path opens up in front of a looming curved stone wall, like the outside of an ancient Roman coliseum. Rough gray brick with black iron gates.
The girl halts in front of the gates, staring upward. She jolts backward . . . and begins to scream.
Two male figures hang from the arches of the stadium, by ropes around their necks.
----
All five books in The Huntress series currently on sale, $1.99.
--Shop the series--
