Comments on: [Guest Post] The 50/50 Movement: Why We Need To Get Practical For Equality In SFF

By: esmerael

esmerael — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 10:23:05 +0000

As feminists go, most friends consider me pretty hardcore, but I simply don’t understand the extremity of opposition to this.

Paul Cornell seems to be being attacked for doing something NICE. Quotas are never a perfect solution, but he is, of his own volition, doing what he ABLE to do to tackle gender imbalance. And we can’t dismiss it as “patronising” just because he is a man. We NEED more male feminists in the world.

Of course female SF creators shouldn’t have to be in this position, but burying our heads in the sand and waiting for the convention organisers to all spontaneously come to this conclusion themselves is not going to change things. And even if it did, guess what? A lot of the convention organisers are men too.

By: K. A. Laity

K. A. Laity — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 09:07:47 +0000

I applaud anyone who makes a public commitment. I hadn’t heard any women speak against it, but I’ve not really been looking. I for one am sick to death of being stuck on “Women in X” panels as if the only expertise I had was my gender. Cornell’s gesture is a recognition that this isn’t just an issue for women. The lack of those voices affects everyone.

By: jfs

jfs — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:11:58 +0000

By making it this public, Paul is actually (hopefully) going to change behaviour by con organisers beforehand.

After all, if I were running a panel at a con now, and I really, really want Paul on that panel, it’s on me to be able to answer his ‘is there a 50/50 split?’ question with a ‘yes’.

I would hope that he never has to actually invoke this.

By: Jenni

Jenni — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:24:46 +0000

“‘We don’t need no man sorting this out for us.’ See above. We do. It sucks. That’s the frikkin’ point.”

I’d say we don’t (NEED it), but when a guy wants to do something creative and constructive like this and actually help, why not let him?