SAVANT:: Action

ACTION:
BREASTS, BUTT FLOSS, AND FAMILY
BY KATHERINE KELLER

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About two weeks before the San Diego convention, I got an email from con programming director Gary Sassaman asking for a write-up on the Sequential Tart panel that he had graciously created for us. I sent in a short write up that mentioned "Bizarre Breasts" amongst other things. A few minutes later Gary responded that he wasn't allowed to use the word "breasts" in the write up because San Diego is a "family friendly" convention, TPTB wouldn't allow it.

Excuse me?

Now, I want to make this perfectly clear, Sassaman wasn't being some sort of stick in the mud. He exhibited true grace under pressure in what is a demanding and often thankless position. He had guidelines and rules to follow; the San Diego convention is a family friendly convention, and the programming schedule reflected that mandate.

A reflection not much seen on the convention floor, however. Sassaman couldn't write Bizarre Breasts, but nothing prevented it from being discussed in the Sequential Tart panel on Sunday. The same family friendly policies did nothing to prevent Harris comics from bringing in a Vampirella model, dressed in a thong, stiletto heels, a few strips of ribbon, and not much else. Diamond Distribution had a Playboy playmate doing signings at its booth during the retailer's show. (The woman was tastefully dressed and unreasonably polite to the ogling masses, but what she had to with comics or family friendly is beyond me.) Eruptor.com had a booth filled with "booth bunnies" dressed in tight tops and short shorts who, while they may be nice and intelligent women, were primarily there to be drooled over and charge money for pictures. And, let us not forget Amazon Hentai, a booth devoted to selling DVDs and tapes of hentai anime, a genre devoted almost exclusively to depicting the rape of women by tentacled monsters and machines.

It seems that on the convention floor, family friendly extends to anything that might arouse the libido of a straight man, while the program book must meet the stringent requirements of some dried up bluestockinged granny.

In the meantime, how can one take seriously a definition of family friendly which prevents printing the word breasts, but places no restrictions on publishers lining up racks and racks of them for men to gawk at. While I would hate to have a strictly enforced dress code that would restrict fan costumes, are "booth bunnies" clad in little more than two postage stamps and a strip of ass floss really friendly to the whole family? And while restrictions that would bar an artist from selling any original art work that featured nudity would be ludicrous, shouldn't a business such as Amazon Hentai have to act with the same restraint and good taste displayed by the Eros Comics booth? (No booth bunnies, no openly displayed pornographic materials, no getting in without first having an ID check.) It is time for what constitutes "family friendly" to come under some serious examination. It is time for a definition of family friendly that includes both sexes; a definition updated to better reflect current social mores. A definition that exists both in word and deed.