garkhal: This has actually been the point of study for a few people, and it really is a thing, that the majority of fanfiction writers are women. At one point the estimation was that 90% of them were women, and I'm willing to bet that it's not that far off the mark now either. Fanfiction authors aren't 'snagging' anything. Fanfiction is a transformative thing; taking the product and saying 'what if this thing happened instead'. The way that Stoppard did with 'Shakespeare in Love', 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead', or the movie "Clueless" did with "Emma".
This event is not an event designed to critique anything. This event is designed, specifically, to laugh at the work in question. This is not a reading club. They're not discussing the use of symbolism in the work. They are, and is says it in the description itself: LAUGHING AT THE WORK IN QUESTION.
Yes. Amateur comedians and musicians to small events to get their start. When they do this, they sign up for the experience. They know, going in, what the deal is. When an author puts work up to be read, it is not intended for an audience in a convention. There are some authors who intend hilarity, and it seems as if those are the ones that the event organizer seems to be targetting. But for the most part, these stories are meant for the community in which the author posts their work.
When I brought this up, I didn't ask for someone to be 'banned for being bad'. I asked that it get taken down because it seemed to be mean spirited and awful. I don't see a value in an event meant specifically to step on people, and I was hoping that Gencon cared about people enough to do so.
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It's a choice, folks. You can choose what makes you happy and what doesn't. But ignoring power abuse with strawman arguments is naive. There is a difference between criticism and bullying/abuse. A real difference.
I think sketchy events deserve extra attention before accepting or rejecting them, but I like the idea of letting people decide if they want to go, not GenCon's employees. So yes, I would accept your SPA cosplay mocking event. But no, I would not attend it. To me, there's a difference between something clearly wrong and something that *could* go wrong.
My work doesn't have any thing to do with sex, or pick up artists, or conning women. My work comes from being a women over stressed in our current society (hence feeling like a b*tch from on the inside looking out, not my feeling that women are bitches) with few coping mechanisms other than drugs and alcohol to try to destress and relax enough to be a better mother, friend and wife. I discovered this work as a result of being a single mother with a full time job, with no support and managing a boarding house on the side to make ends meet. The stress was unbearable at times and I found that this technique worked so quickly and easily to reduce stress and increase connection. That said, I love teaching my work to couples (and single men who want to find the love of their life) because learning how to nurture a woman and help her reduce stress is the best way to keep you love alive and have a healthy sex life. When women are stressed they can't really think about being intimate with their partner. It takes far longer to get their head out of their task list of chores going on in the back of their brain.
I couldn't be more disappointed or heartbroken to see my events cancelled. My passion is for helping women and their partners find their way back to love more often, more easily and quicker.
By the way, the initial marketing was suggested by men to get men interested in learning more about how to connect. Connection is key to intimacy if you want it to be meaningful.
If that's true - you really need to change your tag line under your twitter page at https://twitter.com/theblissologist @theblissologist.com - as the "b*tch to bliss to bed: Requires no diamonds, chocolate or batteries." is seriously giving the wrong impression.
It makes you sound like you're trying the same stuff as despicable PUA culture promotes - which I gather is not how you'd like to be viewed.
Whether or not fan fic authors are legally or ethically good in their extension of material produced by others does not determine whether convening a public event to laugh at the creative output for those authors is ethically good or should be sanctioned as a GenCon event. (unless the grounds for the decision relate to copyright - which is not the discussion we're having).
I am new to Gencon. It was gencon fans who came to my classes and knew my work from experience that told me to teach at gencon because it would be such a great help to teach games some new tools for successful relationships. I don't know when the best time slot is for my event, I am not teaching pick-up techniques, I am actually helping couples foster connection in a deeper way by showing them how to get stress brain chemistry out of the way quickly. I am authentically trying to help people find love and keep it in this stressful world we live in.
Men and women are different and they relate differently. For example, the masculine energy is fed by results. EX: how much money did this make, how many points did they win by, how big was the fish, how expensive is the car, etc.
Feminine energy is not fed by results but by experience. How did it feel? EX: How was your day? Did you have fun? What it felt like to have lunch and laugh with a friend, how it felt to ace the exam, etc.
While we all have masculine and feminine energy women often run feminine energy more often and have less stress when they can share and express that energy. But we live in a masculine society and almost every job you can hold is based in all results and very little about the experience of it when it comes to review and reward.
There is so much more to the story about relating, success in relationships, and how to bridge the differences. I love helping people succeed more and struggle less at love.
This is why:
Of all the things you can do, achieve or become, none of them is as rich as when you have someone to share it with. I have found and kept an amazing relationship for the last 16 years and simply want to help others (who want it) find that happiness as well.
At this point it is a moot point. The class is cancelled because my twitter account says b*tch.
I read through your site, and I find it stereotypical, shallow, and insulting.
And, given that men refusing to respect women's physical boundaries at game conventions is an enduring and serious problem, hosting an event in this environment teaching that women can be controlled by touch isn't only insulting and in poor taste, it's dangerous.
I'm relieved that your event got canceled. I would not feel safe at a convention that allowed it.
And a company that uses a slur in their slogan has no place at a convention like Gen Con.
Many others have mentioned there are BDSM events, that seems worse to me than learning to touch your partner in ways that reduce stress.
We both run masculine and feminine energy, I talk about that in the class. I also teach from the book the 5 love languages to help people get to the heart of what they want and need in a relationship. All of my work is about connection and how brain chemistry has a part in that. I also always teach about consent.
It would be so much better if the people that are so hateful about my class actually came to see first and then complained if I really was smarmy. Honestly I think you'd be surprised at how much you would have learned and how much you might have liked it if you had had the chance to actually attend. I am so sorry to see how unnecessarily upset people are getting about a G rated, class in deeper connection.
Seems the disconnect is on if that touching is between partners or strangers. It is one thing for two consenting adults to practice BDSM and for someone to tie up a stranger because they think they might like it. A workshop about partners engaging in some form of stress relieving touch sounds fairly puritanical to me and while it might not be an event I would sign up for someone might find it relaxing and a great way to connect while on vacation at a con. A workshop on how to touch women so they like it sounds like a really horrible idea.
On another note referring to "taking a bitch to bed" is probably a real quick way to muddle the point of relaxing touch resulting in better communication. I am not a marketing professional in any sense of the term but I would say calling half of your clientele a term that is mostly used in a derogatory fashion does little to engage them into wanting to purchase your product.
Jeesh. GenCon is NOT going to tolerate ANY of the things some of you are foaming at the mouth about.
Some of you speak as if there will DEFINITIVELY be thousands of people taking part in lawless beatings, fires, sexual harassment and robbery solely because the humor of AN event is a little too dark for you or the content of AN event is a little too sexual for you.
This is a completely vanilla convention that is catering to almost 70 THOUSAND people. They are not going to allow anything that goes too far into any of your triggers. Do you not think they screen these event submissions? They put thought into these things before approving them. Yet some are gleefully attempting to shut down APPROVED events for no fair reason. If it was approved, what gives you the right to dictate my fun? The people that would go to an event that you don't like will be there whether the event is there or not... so... is it just a power thing?
It must be understood that most people will not like EVERYTHING the con has to offer and that is completely OK.
It HAS to be exhausting (or seemingly thrilling) having to always be in attack mode against every single thing you don't like or understand.
This event is for ALL of us. As in ALL inclusive even if our tastes/interests don't match up. We CAN all get along I promise! It's only going to be as hard as YOU make it, the rest of us are there to have fun.
Hi all,
These Blissology events have been pulled, and there's really no more point in discussing these events further, so we going to consider the thread closed at this time, thank you.
Marian McBrine Event Coordinator Gen Con LLC