WisCon: Sunday

[bcholmes]

Sunday was another good day at WisCon. I started out the day having breakfast with alanbostick and then had my "Transsexualism as Trope" panel (about which I've already written a fair amount). If I wasn't on that panel, I think I would have liked to have seen a panel called "Let's You and Her Fight". It had some good panelists, and the topic was interesting. I don't think I've seen any report that covered it, sadly.

After lunch with firecat and her partner, I went to see Ian H., madcapricorn, rambleman, Ben R., and Gregory R on "Male Allies". I enjoyed the panel, and liked how it was run. It would have been better if Difficult Lady actually listened to the moderator when he said, "we aren't taking audience comments for a while." She was disruptive on far too many panels, and probably has no idea how many people are talking about her in eye-rolling ways. madcapricorn made some excellent points about where the minimum bar of male behaviour should be. He described stories of being out with his partner, hearing his partner being told, "oh, you're so lucky that your guy actually takes an interest in spending time doing stuff with you."

I like the way Aaron self-identifies as a tranny. (I'd like to have a conversation with him some day about his perspective on the recent trend among transfolk to view the word "tranny" as pejorative).

Also, Ben was such a powerful speaker. He was just so... present.

Then I went to see Annalee N., rambleman, and lyda222 on "Battlestar Galactica: The Debate." (And I finally bumped in to robgates, who I'd missed throughout the con at that point). It was a really good panel, having a serious conversation about the themes of BSG, rather than simply fannish squee. (To be honest, I was expecting fannish squee, so the serious conversation was a pleasant surprise). It was a good panel, and well-organized.

Then I went to "SF and Escape from the Body". I think this was the first (and possibly only) true disaster panel I saw. It never got on topic. It was simply a chaotic mess. Some of the panelists seemed to be trying to address the topic, but it kept getting derailed. I left the panel early, considered some other items in the programme book, but ultimately just hung out in the lobby until my dinner party coagulated.

After dinner, I took part in the WisCon dessert. Which, I must confess, I've never done before. I've often watched the Guest of Honour speeches, but this was the first time I took part in the dessert. The Guest of Honour speech ("dialogue"?) was quite funny (if a trifle long), and other events (such as the Tiptree Awards ceremony) raced to finish quickly.

I had mixed feelings about "What if You Don't Want to Have Children". While the panel started on an interesting foot, the (late) arrival of the moderator changed the tenor a lot. While the panelists eschewed the trend among some childfree communities to use phrases like "crotch-droppings" and "moos", I think that there were times when things seemed to verge on hostility toward people who want children. The moderator was snarky, and confrontational, and sometimes belittled audience members. It wasn't a good scene. There were gems of insight offered by panelists who weren't the moderator, but every time the moderator tried to control the conversation, it was annoying.

Comments

[jiawen]

I was next door to "What If You Don't Want to Have Children", at "Words like Icebergs". It sounded like everyone was having a good time. Maybe it was just loud, not actually fun.

[lcohen]

i was very interested in the male allies panel--i forget what trivium i did instead. what did ben say that hit you so strongly?