no subject

[lotesse]

I don't really go to Neil Gaiman as a fandom, never have. It sounds I-told-you-so-ish to say that his smarmy demeanor and cutest-guy-at-the-geek-thing vibe put me off. Well, even if we spot some, we never spot 'em all. This one doesn't hurt me personally, but that's just the luck of the draw. The next one very well might.

But there's not been enough noise, imo, in SFF spaces about the sexual assault allegations that are coming out against him. Unfortunate that it's been leveraged in the anti-trans wars, but Gaiman did some really fucked-up stuff, damn. manipulative crap that fucks you up deep. taking advantage of fawn responses, creating crazy-making circumstances.

Gnarly-ass rapist.

I believe his victims and don't respect his bullshit responses.

Comments

[anghraine]

I agree strongly, and I am extremely disappointed in a lot of SF/F creatives and media spaces right now. Tor is only talking about it in German (???), File 770 apparently deleting everything about it, Ursula Vernon, etc. The fact that so many people can't meet the bar of decency set by John Scalzi is just ... wtf.

I also appreciate the acknowledgment that while you found Gaiman off-putting, it's not an occasion for celebration and sometimes that's how things fall. I've never been into him fannishly either, but of course knew who he was, and it's like ... I don't need to be personally invested in this specific case to be horrified for his victims and for his fans (at least one of whom was both).

His response are pretty grotesque, too—both what he acknowledges and how he denies the rest.

[lotesse]

There's so much more at stake here than my personal feelings -- this is a sign of a needed community-wide reckoning with sexual and interpersonal ethics. This kind of thing can't be what we do to people in and around sff, or allow our "stars" to do.

But, also, I have been the girl or woman desperately begging the unkind and pain-causing manipulative man not to end the relationship, and romanticizing the pain and intensity of it all to cope and exert some sense of control. And I really do feel so intensely for the victims here.