QUOTE:
Well if women aren't welcome in the bishounen auction, and you want the con focus to be about MEN, why do we have that Cafe Furvehrenwhateverit'scalled? The players/actors in that are not men, yet fans will have to PAY for that as well. What if the Cafe does really well and makes the con lots of money? Will you have to tell them to change the cast to all men? Would you close it down?
This is what the Café Verführen is modeled after; if not precisely, then in spirit:
http://www.b-lilyrose.com/
All of the "butler" staff, to the best of my knowledge, are female. It is a fantasy setting in which women are served by "beautiful boys" who are, in fact, other women.
QUOTE:
It's really quite segregating. It says that even though yaoi is typically written BY women FOR women, and staff JUST ABOVE stated this is meant not to be REAL gay but a FANTASY, it seems it's not really the FANS' fantasy, but only STAFF'S fantasy.
Whoa. As Eeeee said, the group running the butler cafe is an outside group who asked to do it, just as some attendees ask to hold a panel or a track of programming.
And so far, the Bishounen Auction, as it is, has been our most popular, most attended event. I'd say, based on those facts, that the fantasy is pretty much the same across the board, Staff AND Fans.
QUOTE:
Why not take a poll to see what most of the attendees think? Why not ask what THOSE PEOPLE WHO PAY TO KEEP THIS CON GOING think instead of deciding for them?
If you would like to help run a block of programming that conforms more to your own tastes and idea of what you think the convention should have, then by all means -- volunteer to do so.
We do the best we can do, try to satisfy as many folks as we can, but as we've learned over the past 6 years -- there's simply no way to satisfy everyone. We work extraordinarily hard all year long to create the best possible environment and activities for Yaoi-Con's attendees, and are not paid for it. In fact, some of us shell out our own money to get things done. It's mostly thankless; most of us you wouldn't know from Adam (except that we tend to be the ones that walk at a Very Fast Pace through the convention areas looking wild-eyed, overworked and under-caffeinated).
Yaoi-Con is a fan-run, fan-powered event -- while we have to make decisions about what we feel best serves the con, we're not the Yaoi Gestapo. We value the input and work of all the attendees. After all, when we get a few minutes, we're attendees, too. ^^
Tracy
Intrepid Staffer
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