I’m already disenchanted with the convention scene as a whole, and then there’s this story that’s been rampantly circulating that’s really driving home the fact that I’m beginning to really hate the scene as a whole at times, due to the rampant, well, people problem that seems to be pervading them more often than naught these days.
The thing is, I’m not even going to provide any links to it, because frankly I don’t think it really needs any more attention than it’s already getting; frankly, the fact that I’m posting about it in the first place isn’t helping quell the attention it’s getting, but it’s on my mind a lot lately, and I wanted to write about it regardless.
Long story short is that there’s a girl who dressed up at MomoCon over the weekend, claims she was touched inappropriately as well as groped, and when she voiced her disapproval to the convention itself, there are accusations that the convention told her that basically she brought it unto herself for wearing such a revealing costume in the first place, and that they harassed her to cover up and change.
This was all brought to a one-sided light by a video of the alleged “victim” who aired out all of her frustrations, and as a result, the internet of the convention scene has all turned their crosshairs onto MomoCon and its staff, and as is the norm with internet rage, nobody is really bothering to gather all the facts, much less read them, before coming to their hive-mind conclusions that this girl is a sweet little innocent snowflake, and that MomoCon is clearly (clearly) run by a bunch of incompetent assholes.
The key here is that all anyone has really gotten at this point is only one side of the story, regardless of the fact that that’s all a lot of people seem to think is the only thing necessary to jump to conclusions and unjustly rage over things that have little to do with them in the first place, or at least be chivalrous white knights in the process.
So let’s try to establish some facts, and see if we can come to some slightly more logical conclusions here.
Fact: MomoCon had guidelines for the degree of skin allowed to be showed while in costume.
MomoCon is an all-ages event, and as such prohibits extremely revealing costumes and attire. A good rule of thumb is full-coverage bikini top + shorts for women and shorts and shirt for men. If men are cosplaying a shirtless character, we ask that they only remove their shirts for photos.
Fact: “Victim” was dressed as Caitlyn from League of Legends, in her “Officer Caitlyn” variant (skin). (see above image)
This is going to be fun without any photographic evidence of the victim (I never took her picture), but if there’s one thing most people that know me would know is that I am an absolute nazi stickler when it comes to details. It’s all part of my occupation, paying attention to details and little things.
But the thing is, that the “victim’s” interpretation of the Officer Caitlyn costume included a vastly smaller top to accentuate her large breasts, and a skirt that was more or less accurate in length, which is to say it was a very, very short skirt. But here’s where it gets a little prickly.
The artwork of Officer Caitlyn kind of clearly shows that she’s wearing shorts underneath her little skirt. Kind of like Umbros, or just really short shorts, like under women’s skorts. “Victim” claims to be wearing shorts underneath her own skirt, and even proceeds to flash the side of them in her grievance video, but the thing is that I actually saw with my own two eyes while she was out and about on the convention floor – she was wearing boyshorts. As in underwear, as in the type of underwear that deliberately is cut in order to accentuate the butt cheeks, because cheeky underwear is sexy, or so Victoria’s Secret tries to lead us to believe.
Not much of this can be confirmed, because I didn’t take any pictures of her, much less any creepy voyeuristic pictures from behind her, and in all the websites that are white knight championing for her are only showing the heavily photoshopped pictures of her front, taken by photographers with serious photography gear, but the fact of the matter is that “victim’s” Officer Caitlyn costume was one that showed a generous amount of butt cheeks, which I’m guessing would be considered in violation to the dress code that MomoCon had in place.
Fact: Boyshorts are not actually shorts, but are underwear.
And underwear is not in accordance to MomoCon costuming guidelines.
Here’s the thing about this whole situation that I think is pretty asinine; so many people out there believe everything “victim’s” video is saying, when ultimately everything she is saying has no proof to substantiate any of it. I don’t expect that anyone who reads this will believe my account without evidence that she was wearing underwear and not shorts, and that’s fine, because I have provided no evidence. It’s just amazing to me how many people are willing to pile on, and shit on MomoCon because a pretty girl with a giant rack and a nice body are telling anyone willing to listen that the convention is corrupt and has no security to protect costumers.
Opinion: I choose to not believe that “victim” was actually groped in the manner that using the word grope would entail. She might have had her boobs and ass hanging out all over the place while she was wearing Officer Caitlyn, but let’s be real here, actual groping is a legit felony, with legit, jailable consequences. Most people who go to conventions in the first place are socially awkward and reluctant to make contact with another human being, much less have the gall to engage in criminal touching of another person.
Because I have to believe that anyone who was actually grope-groped, would scream and make a ruckus, the perpetrator would go running, and there might actually just be a police chase and some legal action.
However, use of the word grope was done to strengthen her story that she was such a victim, and that MomoCon are the shitheads that ignored felonious activities, because she didn’t adhere to their dress code. Because let’s be real here, the dynamic of the “victim’s” story as a whole takes a dramatic reduction in volume if the allegations of groping wasn’t a part of it.
Opinion: this is all one gigantic . . . I would use the word “ploy,” but that would imply a modicum of premeditated thought, and this doesn’t give me that impression, but I guess, attempt, to draw attention to one’s self. And as much as it sucks to admit it, mission accomplished.
My objection and obvious tone that I disagree with the “victim” is the fact that she’s dragging an organization and specific individuals’ names through the mud in order to achieve this spotlight. Help yourself, but not at the expensive of others, is what I like to believe and she’s most certainly not taking into consideration the second part of that methodology.
The bottom line is that MomoCon had a dress code, “victim” did not necessarily adhere to it by wearing a gratuitously sexy costume, and got butt-hurt when she was called out on it, and took to the internet to publicly lynch those who had the audacity to reprimand her.
Her argument of “I was wearing it all day” doesn’t really cut it to me, because frankly, Target, Walgreens, and Home Depot have a rule about having to wear shoes, but given the sheer numbers of people who go in and out of them, it’s not always possible to watch and police them all at the door to make sure they’re adhering to the rule. And if and when they do get caught, they are going to be reprimanded, and they may be reprimanded repeatedly by those who aren’t aware that they’ve already been reprimanded, while they’re on their way out.
MomoCon had thousands of people coming in and out of the GWCC all weekend. They can’t see every single person come in at all minutes of the day. “Victim” easily entered, because her costume isn’t necessarily deemed inappropriate until you see her from behind, or while being behind her on an escalator, and her butt cheeks are all in your face. Mind you, I’m an ass-man and I probably wouldn’t mind, but from an organization’s standpoint, I get why that might just have been a problem.
Assault and harassment are certainly no laughing matter, but in the end here, there is no evidence, anywhere, to substantiate the “victim’s” claims. Unfortunately, that’s not stopping people from jumping on the “victim’s” jihad against MomoCon, regardless of the fact that only one side of this unfortunate story is even out there.
All I know is that the “victim” has claimed that she will never be back, and to that, I really do say, good. Conventions of all sorts would be better off with fewer attention-starved narcissists, no matter how pretty of faces or bodacious attributes they bring to the table. And their moms, lol.
