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RE: Pennsic Letter



Poster: Dominica Harlan <DHarlan@RodgersBuilders.com>

{snip of comments that modern stuff w/ attempts is different from bondage 
and fantasy clothes}

And what is often seen is just not appropriate, period.  I was chatting
with someone who commented that this year there was an increase in the
number of S&M outfits and she saw one  adult outfiftted with her
pre-teen child  in an SM outfit including  chains.  That is totally out
of line and should be dealt with accordingly.

Was the child being neglected, abused, starved, screamed at unnecessarily? 
Such abuses of human rights are about the limit of what perfect strangers 
have the right to call "out of line" concerning someone else's child 
rearing skills. Likewise, does it cause all those who have commented so far 
physical or mental anguish when those wearing "inappropriate" clothing are 
in view? I'd been in a year and was definitely still a very fresh-off-the 
farm 18 year old at my first Pennsic and saw many things both that year and 
the 2 Pennsics I've been at since that make me wince or hope a breeze 
doesn't come up when they're around kids. However, those are my morals and 
standards of dress in question and I would be enforcing them on others to 
comment to them or try to force them to "be more period".

The *point* of Pennsic when last I checked was to have a really good time 
with a really big group of people. Some concentrate more on the period 
thing, which I did once. Others concentrate on the social/fun/party 
basically in period thing, which I did once. And some remember that it's a 
fighting event and either fight or support fighters, which I tried to learn 
to do this year.  No matter what you think others *ought* to do to cope w/ 
the weather and laundry issues, making a court to force all 10,000 people 
to follow the dress codes set by a few seems very unfair and unenforceable. 
Are you really going to tell someone who paid $80 plus whatever they 
invested into camping supplies that they have to leave the game because you 
don't like how they look/act/etc.? Somehow that seems to go against the 
spirit of acceptance and fun upon which the Society is based. People 
treated thusly will leave, not change their minds and play by your rules, 
and some very cool folk may go. A greater effort to help one's peers 
establish periodicity is a much better way to handle what you see as 
problem garb than to bring someone you find offensive before a jury of 
strangers.

As far as trouble groups go.  It doesn't necessarily mean the Tuchux.
It means those who don't play by the established rules of our game.
I would include the group who camped next to NATO who operated the power 
tools in the middle of the night and who set up a table with umbrella and 
then sat watching the passers by while wearing hawaiian clothes.

Did you even register a complaint w/ these neighbors or work out a 
compromise? Most everyone I've ever met at Pennsic was pretty cooperative 
about ironing out such things. Personally, the occasional flash of 
anachronism (that's in our name, right?) at the War is always amusing for 
most folk I know.

I agree with Daffyd,  the behavior discussed sort doesn't warrant a
Court of Chivalry but it does need to be addressed in a more forceful
manner than it has been in recent years.
    Lyanna

Frankly, I think we're back to the whole dead horse of Fun vs. Period and 
I'm disappointed to see that the argument has been allowed to reach the 
stage where one side gets to hold court on the other. Crimes against 
persons and laws are one thing. Crimes of fashion or taste are too trivial 
to be treated with so much respect as to be subject to a "Court".

Yours in Service,
Kilmeny
Deputy Autocrat, Kingdom 12th Night
hoping to see a fully range of fun and period combined this Saturday

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