Oh Dear Lords, The Stupidity

Science fiction fans, anime fans, and comic book fans have a tendency to be tagged as socially awkward, not-quite-right-in-the-head, and generally so inept that they can't get a girl to so much notice they exist, let alone initiate physical contact. Being a fan of comics, high quality science fiction, and anime, I try my best to at least not be as stereotypical as I can sometimes be. Sure, I nerd out a lot when I get to talking about anime I like, but I don't spend every waking minute of my day talking about it. I mostly keep quiet and ponder other things. However, for the most part, regardless of the stupidity that a vast majority of other fans do, I try not to mind.

Then, there's this: The Open Source Boob Project.

"At Penguicon, we had buttons to give away. There were two small buttons, one for each camp: A green button that said, "YES, you may" and a red button that said "NO, you may not." And anyone who had those buttons on, whether you knew them or not, was someone you could approach and ask:

"Excuse me, but may I touch your breasts?"

You know what? I'm just as much of a perverted bastard as the next guy, but this is just crossing the line.

Let me make something perfectly clear: I am not female. While some might portray me as a nice guy, the fact is, like all guys, I can be perverted, twisted, and even slightly misogynistic. Maybe even chauvinistic. However, I like to think there are limits to such impulses and behaviors. There is a point when it stops being an exagerrated action-reaction chain related to natural instincts and it just becomes stupidity. Excessive, "buying into the Church of Scientology's inane crap that any human being with half a brain would be able to see is low-grade crockery" level of stupidity. This idea, I think, is among the multitude of examples of such stupidity.

A minor issue here is just how badly this is going to reflect on the people that go to the conventions. They've already established a bad enough reputation, but engaging in this level of stupidity, this bottom-of-the-barrel desperation for any form of sexual contact is just beyond anything I've ever even considered before. And believe me, I've considered a lot of disturbing things.

Being male, I don't think I'm qualified to speak on how a female view of this would be like, but I think this post, from the Occasional Superheroine blog, would be enough of a statement. This one, from Blurred Productions, does a good job of doing that too. I'll leave things at that regarding the female view of this absurdity.

I normally don't give a damn about things that don't touch upon my life or that I don't touch upon. I avoid conventions when possible, and this sort of behavior is unlikely to emerge at local conventions. Or anywhere outside the collective mass of inexplicable stupidity that is the US con scene, for that matter. Still, one can't help but be flabbergasted at how any sane individual could possibly come up with this and still expect to maintain an image of respectability.

And people wonder why I don't want to go to the conventions and the like and expose myself to this level of...is there even a word for this?