It happened at London Expo a couple years back. I was part of a big Team Fortress Two group dressed as a fem Scout.

It happened when I was walking down the expo center hallway with a new friend I had made. While walking, I suddenly feel a very sharp, searing pain in my backside. Instinctively, I turn around and there’s a group of people in cosplay with a Yaoi paddle, waving it at us and giggling. I didn’t think much of it at first and being a relatively chill person I thought nothing more of it than just a group of people fooling around with a Yaoi bat. I’d heard about them and their whole concept, so saw it as harmless fun. Though I was a bit weirded out that they’d smacked me on the butt. My friend and I laughed it off.

I didn’t do anything about it, or even react. I feel now I should have had.  The rest of the day, I found myself with a mild discomforting pain whenever I sat down. Later when I got back to the hotel room, I took a shower, and found a large bruise where I’d been hit.

Looking back now on the incident, I realized how innapropriate they were actually being. To go up to random strangers and hit them with a large chunk of wood without warning does sound a bit like assault. Even though I only got a bruise, it could have been worse. You wouldn’t do it in the streets, why do it at a con?

Basic moral of the story, do not use Yaoi paddles or any kind of heavy prop on a person without their permission first. Not only is it weird, but you could also actually hurt them. And just because you are at a con, it doesnt mean that you are free of all responsibility of acting civil.