[ST] [CP] Hygiene Ninja (fyi - reply from the HN)

[Jet]

For those who haven't seen it yet:  posted in LJ Arisia
by the HN:

Well, that's the end of that.

I never intended any offense, and I'm sorry that people have taken this as a
personal affront.

I started off this shtick with the explicit goal of making it a random
distribution of hygiene products. Until recently, I'd heard only humorous or
confused responses, and the general impression I got was that people were
amused.

At the most recent Con, I took a "request" and executed it poorly. This was
the only time I'd taken a request more specific than "Make sure you visit
the game room" and after it was done, I'd already decided it would be the
last. I wasn't happy with how it went or how I felt about it afterwards.

My first response to the recent threads on LJ was "How can I rework this so
I'm not making people feel attacked?" I never intended to offend anyone or
hurt their feelings. The whole point was to poke fun at a fandom stereotype
and get people to laugh.

I wanted people to chuckle, not wonder if someone else thought they smelled
bad, or feel like they were being singled out.

I contemplated restricting the Ninja to leaving materials on tables and
displays, perhaps putting up some signs around the con reminding folks of
the 5-2-1 rule. I figured if I stopped handing soap and such to specific
individuals people wouldn't feel attacked and everyone could enjoy the gag.

I also started thinking of how I could apologize for inadvertently making
others feel attacked. Being somewhat clueless socially, I hadn't realized
there were such negative reactions to the Hygiene Ninja.

Then I saw the comments were people were threatening physical violence. I
realized that some people had decided that physically attacking me was an
appropriate response to being handed a bar of soap.

I lost all interest in reworking the gag. This absurd notion has gotten out
of hand, and I have no interest in wondering if someone is going to kick me
from behind or punch me in the face because they think a random bottle of
shampoo constitutes a personal attack. While there are a lot of things for
which I'd be willing to put my personal safety at risk, running around a
Sci-fi convention dressed as a Ninja isn't one of them.

Until now, I'd never backed down from a bully in my life. This resulted in a
lot of fights growing up, but I'd always stood my ground and gone toe to toe
with whomever challenged me. I wonder if it's a sign of growing up that I'm
backing down now because someone decided to raise his fist and threaten to
bloody my lip.



> -----Original Message-----
> From: rob bazemore [mailto:bazemore at hotmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 7:42 AM
> To: corp at arisia.org; staff at arisia.org
> Subject: Re: [ST] [CP] Hygiene Ninja (Forwarded)
>
>
> Arisia is a nonprofit for educational purposes.
> Education of any form should be done in a positive fashion.
> I do not know anything about this incident but in the founding of Arisia
> some of our policies were written with specific past experiences
> at previous
> conventions to be inclusive not exclusive.
>
> The couple of letters that have been posted shows that maybe the
> education
> that needs to be done is teaching staff how to handle various
> situations and
> that volunteers need to inform staff of situations and to let
> staff handle
> them.
> Volunteers should NOT deal with any situations.
> Staff should deal wtih those situations that they feel comfortable and/or
> part of their responsablity. Any other situations should be reported to
> appropriate staff. (some incidents should be the exclusive domain of the
> conchair).
>
> With no detail on the exact incident I can only recommend that
> Arisia issue
> a private apology that the person percieved the incident in a negative
> light, thank the person for reporting it, and ask the person how
> they think
> future incidents can be avoided.
> I do not see a need for a sacrificial lamb (except maybe put all
> the blame
> on the conchair and make him do it all over again).
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> >From photos to predictions, The MSN Entertainment Guide to
> Golden Globes has
> it all. http://tv.msn.com/tv/globes2007/?icid=nctagline1
>
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