-- One of the films showed nonconsensual sex uncritically, without discussion, in an eroticized way
-- The event showed that film uncritically, without discussion
That is exactly what rape culture is: treating nonconsensual sex as normal, erotic, and desirable, and ignoring the real impact it has on people. Showing this film in this public setting had the effect of normalizing this kind of behavior, sending the message that it's acceptable. It possibly also caused sexual assault survivors in the audience to feel invisible, unsafe (because apparently people at the event don't care about them), and triggered or traumatized.
I'm not saying any person at Bike Smut is a personal supporter of rape culture. But this circumstance had the outcome of supporting rape culture regardless of the organizers' intent, and I hope they can see that now and avoid it next time.
I commented in public about this public event because Sudo Room tries to be a "safe space" and that means speaking up when this kind of thing happens. Hacker spaces in particular are often hostile places for women and trans* people and Sudo Room is trying to change that. I wanted to get the word out to the community that someone at Sudo Room found the film unacceptable -- so that they would feel ok coming here in the future and trusting us as a space in which sexual assault is unacceptable.
Finally, a good response to being called out is "oops, thanks, we'll do better." A poor response to being called out would be, to loosely paraphrase points from the previous email:
-- Don't tell anyone what happened
-- That's only your opinion
-- Don't try to keep this from happening again by proposing policies
-- You're unkind
-- You're damaging our reputation
-- You're hurting the community
-- Don't speak about this again
-- You should have raised the issue with us in private instead of trying to discuss this event with the community that it affected
I sure don't feel comfortable with this. It's not easy being criticized, but consider the kind of responses that would gain people's trust and demonstrate accountability?
But there are a lot of good things about Bike Smut and other DIY porn festivals. They're fun, but fun with a mission: to dispel shame, celebrate diversity, and provide positive examples of how we want things to be. So I hold them to a high standard, and especially so when shown in a community space like Sudo Room which has its own standards to uphold.
So I hope that Bike Smut succeeds and grows, and also uses a bit more care and empathy in its film curation.
-Rabbit