There's a piece on sexual harassment in gaming culture doing the rounds right now. It's called "Tabletop Gaming Has A White Male Terrorism Problem", which is a regrettably clickbait-esque title, but it's a sad and eloquent account of one woman's experiences with sexual harassment and sexual assault in circles associated with tabletop gaming.
I don't want this blog to get dragged into the mire which is gender politics on the internet, but I will say this: if you're ever in a game, or a store, or a convention at which a woman (or a man, come to that) is complaining of sexual harassment or assault, please take it seriously. Get the organisers involved. Get the authorities involved. If you are the organiser, then do everything in your power to get to the bottom of it. It might often feel as though there's nothing you can do. It might often be true that there's nothing you can do. It might even ultimately turn out to be a false accusation. But the simple act of taking these things seriously, of treating them as though they matter rather than just being something to be shrugged off with a muttered comment about boys being boys, actually does a whole lot of good, both for the individuals concerned and for the surrounding culture as a whole.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled OSR D&D weirdness.
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