Descrimination

Ok, I don't want to sound over dramatic. Being that I'm a woman in my early twenties, I actually haven't been descriminated against or touched inappropriately to the same extent that a lot of women have. Sure, there's been the occasional drunk that gets a little too friendly and some rude comments from douchebags, but I thank my lucky stars every day that I've never actually been sexually or verbally abused by anyone simply because I'm a woman. I think this is why these latest events stick out for me, simply because I've never experienced anything like it before.

So now that I got that out of the way, I can continue with describing to you some of the more memorable moments of comic and gamer geeks, (all men,) being prejudice towards me, because I am a woman. This summer, back in early June, my boyfriend and I travelled to Toronto for the annual "Comic Con: Fan Appreciation" event. This was my fourth convention, so I knew what to expect, but this trip was a little different. For some reason, I was fully aware of the things people were saying to me. Here are some of the statements I received:

#1 Rob wants to get a sketch from J. Bone (this guy did some ink work for a couple "Spirit" hardcovers.) Bone says, "I've got a few sketches to do right now, are you ok to wait a couple hours?"
Rob - "Yeah, that's not a problem. Even if we get bored, we'll go out, see the city and come back. We'll be here all day."
Bone (looks at me with suspicion) - "ARE you guys going to be here all day?"
Now to give you a better understand of who he was talking to, here's a picture of me from that day.



As you can see, I'm sporting the Marvel t-shirt. I certainly don't look like a girl who doesn't want to be there (if you can believe it).

#2 Ok, so maybe you're thinking that last one isn't so bad. Well we keep walking and Rob bumps into a friend of his who's running a booth, promoting a few different comics. He points to one in particular and says, "Now this one's kind of interesting. It's written by a Canadian actor. He's kinda famous BLAH BLAH BLAH, do you know him?"
Rob - "Nope, never heard of him."
The guy turns to me - "Well, YOU probably know him."
Me - *inquisitive look*
The guy - "He's a soap opera star."
Me - (low mumble growl) "I DON'T watch soap operas"

#3 If that isn't enough, I'm walking down an aisle WITH MY BOYFRIEND, and I notice a guy gawking at my chest. I catch him. "Oh! sorry. I was just reading your shirt!... hehe, at least this time I have an excuse for staring!"

#4 I'm checking out a Zatanna statuette, Rob is somewhere else, (not guarding his woman,) and a random guy walks behind me. Now this one was interesting, because it wasn't what he said that freaked me out, but HOW he said it. "Mmmmm, that's beeeaaauuutiful." It made my skin crawl. JIBBLY jibbly jibbly ji-buh-ly!!

What confuses me with the treatment I received is where it was coming from. I mean, stereotypically, these devoted fan/geeks have serious social issues and as a result, wouldn't have very many friends. So you would think, with that in mind, they would want more friends, ESPECIALLY a girl friend. Instead, I'm talked down to, objectified and suspected of being a pissy "I don't want to be here" girlfriend. Funniest part was I walked out with a sh*t load of comics and a statuette, and what did my boyfriend buy? ... NOTHING.

Seriously, it was funny at first, but I'm starting to feel offended. Does it ever end, or am I just going to have to live with this? Ok, I think I already know the answer to that question. I mean, I can PROVE I read comics, but that only gets me as far as, "CRIKEY!!! Look at that! It's the majestic female comic/gamer geek READING a comic! This is a sight to behold. RARELY are they EVER seen in the wild! Lets try to get a closer look at 'er, but we're gonna have to be very quiet, these animals spook easily..."

Toronto FANEXPO 2010 is coming up. Hopefully I'll have a lot more stories.