The dust has settled and Im peering over the precipice of a new job which begins September 1st so I thought it would be a good time as any to get this pesky conreportblog thing out of my way.

See Ive never done this before. I attended NineWorlds and WorldCon and they were the first proper SFF cons I ever attended. It involved several longhaul flights layovers in airports steeped in 38C weather and living out of a green suitcase for two weeks.

In between rolling chains of hotel lobbies and rooms in other peoples houses I met folks. Folks I was meeting for the first time in person. Folks I was meeting for the first time period. And folks I was meeting after too long a time apart. At the end of my travels back in Singapore I made a list of people whom I met and whom I wanted to thank on Twitter. The list had over fifty names on it. I ended up just tweeting a picture of the list instead. It was that kind of experience.

I mostly made this post to address this Daily Dot article that went around earlier this week How The Growing Generation Gap Is Changing The Face Of Fandom The basic premise was that NineWorlds good and inclusive because its a young con run by young people And WorldCon awful on the diversity front because old white men.

Well. I attended both cons as a young queer Asian woman and I think thats a pretty unfair assessment of what the cons were actually like.

I think the article was trying to make a point about the difference between the classic SFF establishment and the diversity oriented for inclusivity trend that the fandom and business has been swinging towards in recent years. Unfortunately it chose to do so by making a ham fisted division between Older People and Younger People which is not just reductive but also kinda shitty. There have been queer and minority folks in SFF fandom for decades agitating for change and reducing classic fandom to full of old white men pretty much erases them.

Ill say this Most of the folk I met at the two conventions were older than I. We had such insightful conversations. It isnt about age its about mindset.

Thats not to say there werent differences in the way the two conventions felt to me. The panels I attended on representation and nonwestern SFF in NineWorlds were on the whole much less 101 and a lot more to my taste while the ones I attended or rather were on at WorldCon had a much higher percentage of folks in the audience who were clueless or said things which had been discussed and debunked online over and over. But I think thats to be expected with larger cons. Larger cons equal larger groups equal a larger number of casual fans who are not as well versed on SJ topics. For most part these audience members were usually shut down fairly quickly by moderators and panelists so it was all good if a bit annoying.

The thing that stood out to me most about the two cons if I had to say anything was that they were both felt very white to me. And this is coming from someone who probably hung out with more POC than the average congoer. SFF fandom in general is still very white. Most of the SFF spaces Ive been in even those which make it a point to be inclusive are majority white by sheer numerology.

In fact WorldCon felt like it was much more diverse to me possibly because NineWorlds was more of a local con and it looks like the British SFF scene is very white which doesnt surprise me. LonCon was a big ticket event which people would travel further for. It was noticeable to me but as I said I didnt feel unwelcome or alienated by the con atmosphere.

I have hope. At the Hugos we watched Sofia Samatar take home the Campbell. John Chu win Best Short Story and Ann Leckies Ancillary Justice be awarded the Best Novel prize. We also witnessed the SFF community collectively thumb their noses at old school bigotry by ranking Vox Days nomination lower than No Award. Im very glad to have been part of both conventions. These are my people and no we arent perfect. But I believe were taking steps in the right direction.