Woman Harassed at New York Comic Con Awesomely Fights Back, Internet Applauds

Unfortunately, this year’s New York Comic Con wasn’t just about superhero shenanigans, furries finding furry love, and gaywads and dorkwads signing historic wad accords. No, as is often the case wherever there are large groups of humans, there was a handful of obnoxious ding dongs who felt the need to act in an inappropriate manner because nobody has ever loved them. Sad :(.

Case in point, one such group of scumbag nerd burgers approached 23-year-old Mandy Caruso, who was attending the event dressed as Marvel’s Black Cat, and asked if they could interview her. She, being a human being and probably excited to maybe be on television (THE AMERICAN DREAM), happily obliged.

The exchange went down like this:

Him: Damn, alright! Well let me ask you an important question then…what is your cup size?
Me: (big talk show smile) That is actually none of your fucking business.
Him: Oh! I think that means to say she’s a C.
Me: I actually have no breasts at all, what you see is just all of the fat from my midsection pulled up to my chest and carefully held in place with this corset. It’s really uncomfortable, I don’t know why I do it.
Him: (to the male crowd) Aw, come on what do you guys think? C cup? -a few males start to shout out cup sizes as I stand there looking at this guy like this has to be a fucking joke, then look at the crowd and see that no amount of witty banter or fiestiness will stop making this whole thing fucking dumb. It was clearly a ploy to single out cosplaying women to get them to talk sexual innuendos and flirt with this asshole and let him talk down to them simply because they were in costume and were attractive. Whether I’m in a skintight catsuit or not, I’m a fucking professional in everything I do and I don’t need to play nice for this idiot.
Me: This is not an interview, this is degrading. I’m done. (I walk away)

Dang.

Bright side? Caruso posted the exchange to her Tumblr and has gotten over 20,000 reblogs from people around the world praising her courage, wit, and strength. Because, dammit, that’s pretty bad-ass. Girlfriend handled herself damn well, hitting them with pretty much every comeback you wish you would’ve said in the moment.

Of course, this brings up the issue of harassment at conventions in general, which, according the Daily Dot, is a problem.

Sexual harassment at fan conventions has been an increasingly hot topic in recent years, as many cons alternately begin to implement harassment policies, or come under fire for not having harassment policies. Groups like the Con Anti-Harassment Project have sprung up to help people research harassment policies before attending cons.

Sadly, the New York Comic Con doesn’t appear to have a harassment policy in place that we can find, but perhaps that will change because of Black Cat: Tumblr Rising.

As for how Caruso is dealing with everything, post-Tumblring of love and support? Pretty damn well:

Caruso told the Daily Dot she would rather not reveal the name of the group that interviewed her because “they would get a lot of publicity/ youtube views/ site hits,” and said the response to her post on Tumblr has been “fucking gorgeous.”

“I’m so proud of the community for stepping up and spreading the word and sharing their own stories, and if I have sparked a conversation about gender equality and awareness I am truly honored and thankful. We can be heroes!” she said.

Sometimes the internet can be a good place, capable of inciting a blog riot. Here’s hoping that this outpouring of support will be translated to a call to action for the New York Comic Con organizers because the nerds have spoken and this shit will not stand. Get it, Tumblr. Get it, Black Cat. I think this calls for a little JJ.

Black Cat cosplayer sexually harassed at comic con becomes Tumblr hero [Daily Dot]
original Tumblr post [beautilation]