unsafeideas said:
Imper1um said:
Factual Fixes:
1:06
Jessica Nigri was standing in a HALLWAY where a lot of other guests were, and, of course, Jessica's "fans" were blocking the way as they were taking pictures of her, basically causing a fire hazard. She was told to go to the booth she was assigned or change her clothes to make less of a problem.
Also, PAX has a strict "No booth babe" policy, which she was in clear violation of.
Your outfit caused fire hazard must be the dumbest argument I ever heard in relation of telling people what to wear. I get that calling safety is supposed to be complete trump card, because people are afraid to argue against "safety". But seriously, this is a bit too much even for usual loose safety pulls.
Does that policy really extend to all popular cosplays? If everyone takes my pics of my sword in the doors, will I be told to make sword less cool too?
Also, "booth babe" is supposed to be someone who does not know anything about what the booth is about. Looking good does not make you booth babe, not knowing stuff while looking good does.
I can tell you, that the "Fire Hazard" is the biggest problem that you can run into running a convention. See, the Fire Marshal understands and knows about these events months in advance. For example, Dragon*Con. The Fire Marshal has the right to shut a show down because of people blocking entrances, and making it impossible for EMS to access all areas of the event. Seriously, the biggest fear people have at D*C is the Fire Marshal. If he says, "Clear them out or I'll stop the event," they are not playing around.
The same argument would be given for any other cosplayer, in fact, I bet its happened a dozen or so times with other cosplayers during the EXACT same event (even ones with "a cool sword" as you mentioned). However, Nigri, in her "I'll use this benign event which was made a decision to protect the event from being shut down to elevate my position," goes ahead and accuses PAX that they told her to change because "she was too sexy." She failed to mention the policy on No Booth Babes. She failed to mention that the fans were causing a blockage in a major intersection. She kept all of that out, because, hey, everyone got up in arms about Nigri having showy-them-boobs cosplays, so they told her to leave. No, that didn't happen. She told a half-truth, and used it to elevate her position, which I find is despicable. I don't care what she wears, I care that she elevates herself with these kinds of things.
See, this was complex event. Nigri was there to promote a product, and she was being paid by the product team to be there. Nigri decided to step out onto a major intersection, and people started taking pictures, because, hey, its a hot woman with almost no clothes on, that's weird, right? That's not too much of a problem, but people started hanging around, taking lots of pictures as Nigri continued to pose in different ways (you know what I'm talking about). It soon turned into a wall of people, which meant that anyone attempting to go through the intersection had to basically bump photographers, which are firmly planted in their "I'm taking a picture pose." I can tell you, as a photographer, if I'm in a pose like that, I'm like the fricken Earth Kingdom. Bumping me doesn't change where I am, but it does annoy me. Nigri's handlers just stood by and watched, and failed to disperse the crowd, or move Nigri to a better location. Nigri also failed to take charge and require handlers to move the crowd, or move herself, and, instead, enticed the crowd to stick around longer. I'm betting at one point, security tried to disperse, but, you know, people probably would do the party pooper aww, and now security is the evil, but everyone continued to take pictures, and Nigri continued to entice more to take pictures, and not move. It wasn't until security got fed up, that they invoked their right to disperse the crowd and gave Nigri a warning about the "No Booth Babes" policy, and told her to change or go back to her booth.
Did Nigri incite the event? She might have. She had the full opportunity to control the crowd, either by moving to a less-travelled location (which the event staff would have been fine with), or just asking people to move along or open up a path for people to travel through.
Did event staff act unruly? Probably not. They probably had to do the "alright, disperse you guys" thing at least a dozen times that day, with less-known cosplayers, but you didn't hear them complain, or raise an army against PAX.
Did Nigri overreact? Yes. That was obvious. Her tweets and social posts highlighted the fact that she left out information to gain followers, and raise an army. It was used to incite and is completely despicable.