Back from Wiscon

[oyceter]

I was at Wiscon! I think I go to fewer and fewer panels every year but hang out with more people. This time, I even convinced people to go to parties to find other people! CB laughed so hard when I told him that: "Whoa, you are being social and getting other people to do it too!"

The panels I was on mostly went okay, although I felt the Xenogenesis one had so much to discuss that we just skipped around from topic to topic instead of going in depth into anything, which was sad. The Cultural Appropriation from the Outside one was thankfully good and interesting according to various audience members, and while there were some ?!?! moments from the audience, we had a good mod and the discussion didn't get derailed. And sadly, I had the most trouble on Anime/Manga 101, which is... really not the panel I was expecting difficulty with. The male panelist basically just kept talking... and talking... and talking. And while he was giving out good recs, it was really obvious that he didn't have much context in terms of anime/manga genres and history. Also, while the mod was trying to end the panel, he kept talking about a scene in an anime, over the mod's "we're out of time" warning AND over all the noises of the audience packing up their things and preparing to head out. Seriously, WTF.

I am super happy I got to hang out a lot with troisroyaumes (I kept forgetting she does not live in my area anymore, WOE), colorblue, and qian, and I managed to grab various people for meals, but I still didn't get to talk to nearly everyone I wanted to! I also find it incredibly amusing that naamenblog lives in the same area I do, but the last time I saw him was probably at Wiscon 35.

The con is also much more media fan friendly than it was when I started going back in 2006, and there are so many more DW people now. I think there were several panels discussing fanfic that didn't have to do Fanfic 101 or defend it! Obviously there is further to go, especially for non-Western fandom programming. I think there were 2-3 anime/manga panels this year, and the audiences are bigger than in the past, but I want so many more!

I don't know the POC count or how it compares to previous years, but it was really nice to have an entire room full of us for the Friday night POC dinner, and even cooler that there are many people I don't know. And!!! N.K. Jemisin and Hiromi Goto are the guests of honor for next year!!! I am so excited!!! Bwahaha, I hope we hit record numbers of POC for next year. That said, the POC percentage is still embarrassingly small (probably not even 1% of the people at the con).

There also seem to be more trans* panels than the last time I went (2011), and possibly more trans* attendees? I know people have been working on carving out space here for a while, and I hope that momentum is building.

I also didn't manage to make it to any of the class panels, though I've heard good things about some (Race and Class in Urban Planning) and bad things about others (Class in SF/F).

It is still so frustrating, though. It is so easy to go to panels and have intersectional issues overlooked or never addressed, and nowadays, I am tired so instead of doing something, I just go talk to people I like or go to a different panel. Mostly right now I am complaining in the post-con surveys.

Aaaand... this is getting long, so I will save other comments for later.

Poll #13562

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 26

View Respondents

What panel should I write up first?

View Answers

Xenogenesis
6 (23.1%)

Cultural Appropriation from the Outside
11 (42.3%)

LBG Anime and Manga
11 (42.3%)

Transfeminism
3 (11.5%)

Trans* Bodies in SF/F
6 (23.1%)

Women in Science
8 (30.8%)

The Glitch Memorial Panel
2 (7.7%)

And: Hello everyone I met! Post-Wiscon exchanging of pseuds and whatnot highly welcome!

Also: Anyone want to brainstorm panel ideas in the comments? And do people have AMV recs? Anything is good, no matter how old; I've been out of the loop for a really long time.