Trembling with Righteous Indignation

[bcholmes]

This year, in the registration packet, there was a flyer for an event called "Daughters of Diana Gathering". The event flyer says:

Whether you are new to the Goddess path, participate with a coven, are solitary, a student or a priestess... all women-born-women are invited to come celebrate the Goddess...

"Women-born-women" is one of those phrases that's simply code for "women, but not trans women."

Well, in typical WisCon fashion, someone quickly scheduled a "Trans exclusion is not okay" panel in the ad-hoc programming room, in the middle of the day today. Also, someone talked to the con com to ask why the flyer was included in the registration packet.

So, um. Each day, at WisCon, there's an announcements newsletter, and the con com has posted a message saying:

The Coordinator Troika and the Programming Co-Chairs of WisCon 31 would like to clarify that:

• we have not endorsed, nor vetted before packet-stuffing, items submitted to us for inclusion in your programming packet.
• WisCon does not endorse any event or organization whose policies are discriminatory
• We apologize on behalf of the entire Con-Com to anyone who has felt offended or excluded by anything at WisCon, including, but not limited to items in reg packets.
• We affirm our intention to have in-depth conversation at the conclusion of WisCon 31 regarding a refinement of practice for vetting materials.

So, you know what's wrong with WisCon? All of this happened before I even became aware of the flyer. I was denied my moment of righteous indignation, where I could demand an explanation about How This Could Have Happened!!!!

Really. WisCon is the coolest place on the planet. Thank you, organizers.

Comments

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I am really biting my, um, fingers, because it's really not okay to tell a woman that she's really cute when she's indignant.

[cigfran-lwyd.livejournal.com]

i would like to highlight this entry. would you prefer i link to it or copy with attribution?

[cigfran-lwyd.livejournal.com]

sorry... i should have made clear that i mean to highlight it on my domainblog, not my LJ account.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

I don't have strong preference, but if I had to pick I'd say "link", but feel free to go with what works for you.

[erik]

See, and I missed the strum und drang because I never go through my packet further than to make sure my pocket program and desert ticket are in there. So I saw the ad-hoc panel thing, but didn't know it was so immediately timely. And I hardly ever have time to read the Taste, so I missed that bit too....so this is really the first I've heard of it this.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

It just hit me, incidentally, that this is why I felt like I'd seen you around: I've seen your user icon on comments. :)

[mathbabe.livejournal.com]

I originally read it as "women born OF women", and wondered just what alternatives they were trying to exclude.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

"One who is "fram his mither's womb untimely ripped", of course.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Azi, Julie Christie's character in A For Andromeda, all of Lord Vormuir's daughters....

Oh, and the goddess Athena. That should work out well.

[stonebender.livejournal.com]

I hate it when a good righteous rant is circumvented by prompt action. :-)

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Next year in Madison.

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

We'll be looking forward to it. Register early, so as not to bump up against the ceiling!

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's WisCon for you. grins smugly

[firecat]

I packet-stuffed, but missed the w-b-w reference in that flyer. I think it's because my local women's spirituality retreat does not have that policy, for which I am grateful.

Sorry for the spoiling of your indignation experience!

[sabotabby]

Go WisCon!

[nojojojo.livejournal.com]

Huh. I saw the comment in the Wiscon newsletter, but didn't know what it was about. I also saw the flyer, but just glanced over it vaguely, and was more irritated by the implied Euro-ness of its pagan-ness. I'm not pagan, I should note -- agnostic but supportive -- but the pagans I've met worship the Egyptian pantheon, east African loa and ancestor spirits, and/or a whole slew of deities and entities other than Diana or any single goddess. Then again, the pagans I hang around tend to be women of color.

Plus the flyer talked about chakras and all sorts of other stuff that just smacked all over of cultural appropriation. So it doesn't surprise me to hear the flyer was exclusionary on other levels too; the whole thing kind of radiated liberal white clueless insensitivity.

[jiawen]

The person who talked to the concomm, and who scheduled the ad-hoc panel, was nadyalec. I talked to him about both those actions. He is one cool frood.