‘It’s not okay and it’s not funny’: ‘The Boys’ actress Valorie Curry speaks out after encounter with entitled fans

Fan entitlement and sexual harassment has long been a problem at fan conventions, and now actress Valorie Curry is speaking out about the scale of the problem.

Curry had a very bad experience at Belfast Comic-Con over the weekend as two disrespectful attendees made an “inappropriate request” at her booth, and she wants people to know it’s never acceptable to make sexual comments to con guests. (Or, of course, to anyone who hasn’t given consent—this is basic decency 101, people.) She took to Instagram Stories and shared the important message, saying:

“I know people saw a character that I played do some really extreme things on The Boys and I don’t care if you’re in costume, I don’t care if you’re in character—it’s not okay and it’s not funny to demand those things from me in person at my booth. It’s not okay.”

She went on, “Frankly, to the person who did that repeatedly today, I made it pretty clear that it wasn’t okay and that only seemed to make this person and their friend angry. I didn’t think this needed to be explained but I was deeply uncomfortable—it was quite clear I was uncomfortable.”

Curry’s character in The Boys is indeed involved in some extreme sexual situations—if you’ve seen The Boys, you’ll know that it pushes all sorts of boundaries to their limit—but that has nothing to do with her real life. Curry is acting, she is not really Firecracker (for a start, Firecracker is a right-wing homophobe while Curry is a proud lesbian) and it’s unsettling that a small minority of people don’t seem to understand that. Furthermore, sexual harassment isn’t okay regardless of what a person does for a living.

Curry stated in her video that she simply wouldn’t go to conventions anymore if people were going to make her uncomfortable, and that’s perfectly within her rights to do so. While the majority of Comic-Con attendees had been “fantastic,” she said, the disturbing encounter made her “feel bad.”

Monopoly Events, who organized the con, released a statement to BBC News about the incident. They stated:

“Please treat all of the guests and each other with respect, and be aware that it isn’t acceptable to make inappropriate comments regardless of being in cosplay and ‘portraying’ a character yourself.

Making a guest, or other person, feel uncomfortable for you and your friends amusement is unacceptable.”

Let’s hope people take that on board. And let’s also hope that the people who harassed Curry are never allowed near a con again.