Honestly, as a longtime con-goer, the "Cosplay Is Not Consent" movement was actually needed.
Most people that you meet at conventions are friendly, normal people. However, there is a certain subset that I would call "socially retarded." Some of these people have sense of personal hygiene; others have no sense of appropriate behavior with strangers. Add in the anonymity that empowers people with ill intent, and things can go south. I have several friends of both sexes who experienced sexual harassment or even (minor) assault at conventions.
How people behave depends a lot on the specific type of con. In my experience, horror cons tend to be the best in this regard; anime cons tend to be the worst. This behavior is also not confined to males. Some of the worst offenders were teenage girls. "Glomping" (tackle-hugging) strangers because they were dressed as a certain character was almost female-exclusive.
Overall, the atmosphere of cons, after CINC became semi-mainstream, improved in my experience.
Sometimes, albeit more rarely, it could get more serious though, with groping people's breasts/genitalia, or whacking people on the asses with those stupid "Yaoi Paddles" that were popular a while back.
I agree, that it wasn't like people were getting raped on the convention floor, but there needed to be some kind of initiative to tell people that they still have to act like civilized human being at conventions.
Honestly, as a longtime con-goer, the "Cosplay Is Not Consent" movement was actually needed.
Most people that you meet at conventions are friendly, normal people. However, there is a certain subset that I would call "socially retarded." Some of these people have sense of personal hygiene; others have no sense of appropriate behavior with strangers. Add in the anonymity that empowers people with ill intent, and things can go south. I have several friends of both sexes who experienced sexual harassment or even (minor) assault at conventions.
How people behave depends a lot on the specific type of con. In my experience, horror cons tend to be the best in this regard; anime cons tend to be the worst. This behavior is also not confined to males. Some of the worst offenders were teenage girls. "Glomping" (tackle-hugging) strangers because they were dressed as a certain character was almost female-exclusive.
Overall, the atmosphere of cons, after CINC became semi-mainstream, improved in my experience.
Sometimes, albeit more rarely, it could get more serious though, with groping people's breasts/genitalia, or whacking people on the asses with those stupid "Yaoi Paddles" that were popular a while back.
I agree, that it wasn't like people were getting raped on the convention floor, but there needed to be some kind of initiative to tell people that they still have to act like civilized human being at conventions.