MapCamp II

[SCOTUSbaby]

Well, the scandal of MapCamp, such as it was, has come and gone, 9/2024.

https://www.map-union.org/blog/press-re ... o-map-camp

I would LIKE to be able to turn directly to planning a MapCamp II, run BY and FOR male BLers, because my ears are scarified by the cacklings of the kind of people who run the just-as-girls BL-conventions, online and in real life.

But of course what I'm confronted with, is that fact that we, as a community, have NO CONVENABLE CONTENT.

(convenable content = content we could build a male BL convention around, stuff we could convene around.)

There has to be a middle way between offering content that is so boring and beside-the-point that no one comes, and content that is so "hot" (sexual , forbidden, edgy, "on-the-nose" etc) that the law comes and takes us all away.

This means considerable compromise and sacrifice all around. We have to agree to "like" something, collectively, even tho that something will have to be a compromise.

Because without we come to terms with that reality, we'll be socially isolated.

Some people at BC like ONLY BOO! (Thai) and other Asian BL content.

Me, I like Greek & Roman stuff.

Other people will want to show off (doujinshi style) the riffs they have done on, I DUNNO, Harry Potter and Snape, or Will Robinson and Dr. Smith, or whatever.

We also are missing a few other key pieces of the puzzle.

We have no central planning committee, and we have no venue.

Also, we don't have a single person willing to appear at such a conference.

And these lacks might be perceived as substantial, and self-defeating.

On the other hand, we have before us the models of B4U-ACT, and the girl-oriented BL conferences. (Citrus-Con, BL garden, etc.)

If THEY can hold conferences, why can't WE do it?

It's just a matter of agreeing to hold a conference on LEGAL TOPICS.

We could have a panel analyzing which vigilante group is the sexiest and most effective.

We could have a panel on boys in tv shows in the 1950's and 1960's.

We could fan-boy over Thai stuff like ONLY BOO.

We could have people speak about their experiences in prison.

We could have mock-debates over raising or lowering the age of consent, with BL's ARGUING BOTH SIDES, to develop their forensic and self-presentation skills.

We could have panels on BL fashion. Who has the rattiest sweater? Who has the creepiest rain-coat? Who has the real boy-killer sun-glasses and Hawaiian shirt?

We could, if worst came to worst . . . .watch old re-runs of Malcolm in the Middle. (!)

At this point, the rhetoric is going to be more about the whimsical and sarcastic possibilities for MapCamp II.
The way it has to be simultaneously SOOOO TAME that it doesn't get shut down, AND ALSO SOOO WILD that all the BL's know it's a joke, a feint, and only the LEO's show up and point their guns at each other. That's an amusing space in which to operate.

By-and-by, once our real BL cons get up and going, we'll settle down to the real business of running and promoting our cons, and it won't be so fun and creative.

But at the moment . . .as the winds of persecution rise and fall around us . .. the IDEA of a BL con is a fun one to kick around.

And, the way I figure it, if I harp on these ideas long enough, the wheels will start to turn, and things will actually happen.

---Scotusbaby

[BLueRibbon]

I propose joining up with GLs and holding the meeting in Washington DC. Trump has already assembled all the wealthy GLs there, so that's half our work done.

[Lewis]

If a BL con is conducted I promise I will be the first one to arrive

[PATHFINDER]

Is MAP Camp II compatible with being an online conference (using an anonymous, E2EE platform, with recommendations for hiding your face and voice to protect your identity)? I think this would be a lot more accessible to others globally.

As for the conference topics, I was thinking it can be used as a jump start and networking event for serious projects, and educational talks. For example, "how to protect yourself online as a MAP", introductions from the different MAP organizations like Mu, MEDAL, MRF, etc, talking about what projects each organization is currently doing, future plans and visions for the MAP community etc.

What do you think? Is this compatible with MAP Camp II's concept, or a separate thing entirely?

[SCOTUSbaby]

Very juicy questions, pathfinder.

For myself, as a poet, I place a very high value on "sharing the same air."

In fact, I offer a (new, satirical) definition of gender which isn't rooted in fixed, old-fashioned bodily reality, but in behavior and preferences.

(This is offered as one of many, many previously undiscovered dimensions of gender!)

In this particular sense, then:
If you prefer online interaction, emoting online with other online emoters, you're female;
if you prefer to process your emotions by "sharing the same air," i.e., OFF-line, you're male.
(it goes without saying that this would be among men as men, i.e., men that have worked and showered together and seen each others male parts . . . no option for invasive persons with fake genitalia, fake mustaches, fake gender-personae, etc, to insert themselves!

In particular, the older traditions of heroic poetry, which I endeavor to maintain, are ESSEnTIALLY off-line traditions, and would be grotesquely compromised and ruined, by being "brought online."

Precisely because of girls sneaking in, and boys sneaking out.

Girls, that is, who are already over-dosing on male spirituality, and don't need any more of it, and boys who need male spirituality, but are terrified of it.

So, preliminary conversations by phone or zoom might be acceptable. But in the large picture, I'm not interested in events that don't allow for the full re-negotiation of the SHAmE/GLORY ratio in male identity, which is something that has to be done FACE TO FACE.

The idea of EACH little splintered-off MAP group sending a representative to share what they're up to, outline the uniqueness of their perspective, and hash out disagreements . . .that alone would be BRILLIAnT and worth a week-end!


I'm not particularly hung-up on WHAT the precise agenda/content/topics might be, as long as everyone clearly understands that it's a matter of washing our clean linen in public. That we take LEO interest and presence AS A GIVEn.

FAIR WARnInG: the trouble with having conversations like this with me, is that I'm a Eagle Scout, & led gay groups back in college, and in life generally, I'm a DOER.

Kind of excited to see this much positive response to my modest proposal!

---Sb