why i stopped going to anime conventions

i havent been on in MONTHS so i was like - why not come back strong with some good old shit storytime!!! leggo~~ alright so ive been to multiple anime cons in the midwest- ACEN, anime midwest (twice), and CAD the con experience as i have discovered is most fun with friends- ive always gone to the cons with friends but we eventually get separated bc i wanna go to some kpop thing and they wanna do some photoshoot and im like bYE so yes part of this is my fault. when youre alone at a con different things ensue which wow you wouldnt have guessed it --they arent fun things. my first con (anime midwest 2015) was p damn good. i was scared and only 14 yrs old so i stuck with my friends the whole time. it was the same for cad (altho slightly lamer since it was super small). my first "bad" experience occurred when i went to acen for the first time. for ppl who dont know these cons, 15,000 ppl go to anime midwest, 30,000 go to acen. when i was 15 going on 16 was sorta when i had my "o she kinda hot suddenly" thing going on aka my glow up. according to many people i looked (with all my makeup on my wigs and tights and skirts and stuff) "at least 20" so who tf knows. when i was alone at acen walking about men would sort of approach me and just being to talk? the way they were looking at me and the tone in their voice was not normal to me, so my "stranger danger" instincts kicked in and i just escaped every human pretty much. by far tho my worst experience came from my last con, anime midwest 2016. i got so many strange ass looks and i was catcalled multiple times (yes, im certain it was ME) and one man even lowkey stalked me for two of the three days and then approached me and said smth v sexual and i was like BOI U DEF 25 IM 15 GBYE. the feeling as a fifteen year old girl being objectified like this (for the first time as well) was so disgusting and degrading. no offense but majority of men going to these cons spend most of their time with girls through a screen- rather they be anime girls or porn or whatever. they dont understand that you arent supposed to treat REAL WOMEN like how they do in their fantasies. its actually quite sad ): i hope one day i will feel safe enough to return to these cons ////:::

There are a lot of really sleazy guys around the anime con scene. They're not the majority, but there are enough of them they they can really ruin people's con experiences and a lot of cons have started to recognize the problem and take it very seriously. Especially with girls under 18. These dudes really don't care who they leer at. And especially in the cosplay scene, where a lot of female cosplayers have aspirations of jumping off some kind of career in modeling through cosplay, leaving them vulnerable to being victimized by malicious photographers. Or every now and again you'll hear about a photographer getting caught taking lewd photos of minors. A lot of the people in the community try to keep an eye out for sketchy photographers, but it still happens. That said, I don't think the guys out here creeping out women at cons are the same guys watching a lot of harem anime and playing hentai games. The convention scene's become trendy, and as a result, it's attracted a lot of different kinds of people who don't necessarily fit the 'anime otaku' stereotype like that. From my experience, most guys out here deep in ecchi anime and eroge are more afraid of approaching random women than the women are of them.

I stopped going to cons because of more important priorities. I would like to go again but with people I can trust. sorry you went though that experience. Next time you go, go with people you trust.

I stopped going because 80% of the women cosplaying are obeese, and the other 20% might as well just be strippers. Also the dealers room and panels keep getting worse each year.

@naeri agreed there are a lot of guys like that. >.> although i'll actually be going to anime cons more so i can get objectified and then scare guys by letting them realize i have a man's voice. anyway. im sure many of the girls i've taken pictures of are maybe older than they look. ive never done the whole "damn you hot" thing mostly because im socially awkward, so i go up to girls and just stutter a lot and then awkwardly ask to take a picture. then again im like that for literally everyone i meet. and i never make friends at cons. i would say you should go with people though. especially if you are young.

Acen is/was terrible to begin with. Horrible organization is what killed that place for me. :/ Also, very silly idea to split up at a young age. You done well for yourself, but someone else might not have. Better safe than sorry at these things... ive seen way too much shit, especially at the raves.

That happened to me all the time when I was in high school and started going to cons, being 14 and basically getting hit on by people who were at least 10+ years on me. And I wasn't even in cosplay. Freaked me out but then I ended working at a friend of a friend's dealer's booth every time he was at a local con and while you still get sleazeballs, at least there was less opportunity for them to like really be persistent since I'm technically working. And then I volunteered and became staff so I'm always behind the scenes and if anyone on staff has creeper tendencies, they keep it hidden since they have to see me all the time