(Originally posted on my tumblr: http://alicehoney22.tumblr.com/post/73693815921/ual-harassment-at-a-con-whats-new)
(I thought I should post it here too, because I can.)

I feel like I don’t really need to say that I support women’s rights. I’m all for the powerful, gender equality posts here on tumblr, and even more so for the con-related ones. I’ve seen almost too many (which is sad that it happens this much) anime/comic con related ual harassment posts, and I was thinking to myself, “Huh, I wonder when the fateful day will come when I can tell a story like this. Eh, I’m too chubby though, bahaha,” and ignoring the fact that I jokingly called myself chubby, I realized that I actually have received a comment before. It was only once, and it was a few years ago, and thinking back on it really disturbs me. So why not share it to tumblr!?

I went to my first anime convention with a friend of mine, and we were both in cosplay. We’d heard so much about these infamous cons, and the accompanying extravagant costumes, that it was almost undeniable the amount of excitement that we had. She went as Konata from Lucky Star, and I was Kirakishou from Rozen Maiden (Just to quickly describe her, she’s dressed in white with a rose eyepatch). At around lunch time, we decided to take a break from the small time con, and go to a cafe, and everything was normal until then. As we were walking back, a forty something year old man leaned out of the window of his car and said,

"Hey rose girl, you’re looking y!"

Now let me tell you something that I’ve withheld until this point. At the time… I was ten.

Ten years old.

A forty something year old man catcalled a ten year old.

My mother, who was with us of course, got considerably angry. At the time, I didn’t understand what was so wrong, I thought it was just a compliment, so I yelled back, “Thank you!” My mother kind of pushed me behind her back protectively and yelled, “She’s ten, thank you very much, in creep!” I still didn’t get it, neither did my friend, and my mother and her’s refused to tell us what was so bad about it.

Fast forward to today. Thinking back on it, I can only say that I’m now an even bigger supporter for anti-ual harassment (or whatever you wanna call it, for I lack better words) at conventions. Let me just say that on that day, I was wearing a big puffy skirt with leggings cause it was cold as all hell, and my mother even had me wear a warm undershirt, so the exposed shoulders of the costume weren’t even present. There was nothing y about it at all. Yet still, that guy felt the need to shout from across the street, without a second thought no doubt, that I was y. That a ten year old was y. Sure, he didn’t know I was ten, but does that make any significant difference? No. This needs to stop, and it needs to stop now.