Harassment at Comic Con should not be shocking

We simply cannot believe it. There is a dark underside to the famous San Diego Comic-Con which took place this past weekend. It seems that sexual harassment has been a problem there, and we just don't know why. After all, all there are are hundreds of young women dressed in sexually charged outfits traipsing around like their comic book heroines. Or can we say heroines, as the word itself denotes a type of sexuality which is not right in the modern PC world? The question empathizes the schizophrenia of our world with regard to matters of gender, doesn't it?

To be sure, there no doubt are also young men in suitably (for the occasion) sexually charged costumes as well, so the point plays both ways, doesn't it? Maybe, but let's be honest: when pictures are posted online even on such mainstream sites such as AOL, what do you see? That's right, the ladies. And when all else is said and done, who is usually more victimized by such things? The ladies.

How can you not expect issues of harassment when you encourage such dress? We know that the fantasy world is fantasy. We know too that most everyone has their own ideas of the fantastic. But we also know that some ideas ought to be kept private, for decorum's sake if nothing else.

Yet more than decorum is at risk, as evidenced by the very fact of Comic Con and what it enables people to do. It surely goes farther that comic book conventions, a term which sounds decidedly quaint against the backdrop of sexual harassment. Quite simply, we cannot as a society argue that anyone, male or female, should be allowed to dress any way they want for the sake of milling around in public places and in the next breath contend that an impropriety has been breached when those folks are harassed. They have, we will say it and we mean it, at least to a degree brought it upon themselves. The society which allows platforms for this is in the dock as well.

Sexual harassment is wrong. It is a true moral evil. But when we permit public displays of things with overheated sexuality we ought not be shocked when some people cross the line. And their sins are not exclusively theirs.