Surveys On Sexism in Convention Culture

Grand Warlock Alythess cosplay by Ashbrie. Lady Sacrolash cosplay by Sarula (image courtesy of Ashbrie http://www.facebook.com/ashbrie.cosplay)

So, thanks for listening to my feminist ramblings here at Altair and Vega, but now I need your help. I scored a panel on Sexism in Anime and Anime Fandom (with a focus on convention culture) for this year’s Otakon. The bits on anime itself I am working through over at my personal blog (they’re not coherent enough for posting here, since you all deserve better than the slurry that drains out of my mind while I think).

BUT! The for the second half of the panel we’re planning to focus on fan interactions with a specific bent towards conventions. While I’ve been to a few, as has my co-host Lauren Orsini (actually, she submitted the panel request so technically I’m HER co-host), we really want to get a larger picture of convention experience from fans so we can start to get a bird’s eye view of what it’s like to attend a convention. To that effect, we’ve made two surveys that we’d like people to fill out.

Research Survey For Otakon Sexism Panel 2012 – This one is for any of you who’ve attended a convention. We’re trying to get a sense of how people feel at events and how they connect to the community.

Sexism in Cosplay Survey for Otakon 2012 – This one has been out a few days. It’s for you cosplayers out there. If you’ve cosplayed or do so regularly, we’d love for you to take the time to fill it out.

What am I hoping to find? Not entirely sure. Conventions are a welcoming and almost religious space for many people, so our intention is not to harm or ruin that. What we want is to get a sense of how con goers feel about conventions with a minor focus paid to gender. We think that the anecdotal and demographic results from the surveys will help seed our discussion with facts instead of Lauren and I talking for a bit about what we think in isolation.

Does this have any extra relevance to Altair and Vega? OF COURSE. Examining this kind of data and talking about what we found will fit right in on A&V, so look for it once I’ve gotten the panel sorted and presented. Also, I’m hoping to meet up with a number of you at the convention proper–if you’re interested, of course.