A Voice for Men’s Honey Badgers ask: Why hasn’t Anita Sarkeesian been harassed MORE?
A Voice for Men’s so-called “Honey Badgers” — its little super-team of female MRAs, led by blabby Canadian videoblogger Karen “GirlWritesWhat” Straughan — have a new theory about Anita Sarkeesian. And it’s a doozy.
Sarkeesian, you may recall, is a feminist cultural critic who’s faced pretty much nonstop harassment from misogynistic internet assholes since she launched a project to dissect sexist tropes in video games. AVFM has contributed, in its own special way, to this wave of harassment, with articles describing Sarkeesian as, among other things, a “moneygrubbing liar” and a “queen bee … girl interloper” in the world of video games; AVFM’s Dean Esmay also held her partially responsible, along with an assortment of other internet feminists, for the suicide of one Canadian Men’s Rights Activist.
The principals at AVFM have blamed her for — either inadvertently or deliberately – bringing this harassment on herself by going to 4chan and posting about her project. (As I noted in a previous post, there’s no actual evidence she ever did this.)
The Honey Badgers, for their part, are certain that getting harassed by 4chaners was part of her devious plan all along.
In a teaser for their internet “radio” show tonight, the “Honey Badger” known as TyphonBlue writes:
Like all professional damsels in distress, Anita Sarkeesian had to choose a good dragon. Just the right looming shadow to fall over her delicate and fragile sensibilities; just the right cackling stage-villain to inspire her cries of helpless horror.
She chose 4-chan. An internet forum known for it’s underbelly of foul-tempered and hair-triggered trolls.
Then, after accusing Sarkeesian of inviting countless rape and death threats upon herself (and only a portion of it from 4channers, I should add), the Badgers take their weird conspiracy theory one step further:
But we at Honey Badger Radio have noticed something… odd. The wave of so-called hate that Anita received from her carefully chosen dragon, wasn’t really all that bad.
Yeah. A year and a half (so far) of pretty much unending harassment and baseless criticism, complete with violent threats directed not only at her but at other women who have defended her — that’s nothing.
Compared to 4-chan’s usual scorched earth strategy–raizing [sic] everything to the ground and pissing on the ashes, Anita got a little singed, like she sat too close to a campfire.
So we have to ask… Did 4-chan white knight Anita? I mean, come on. Was that the best 4 chan could do?
Yes, that’s right. The Honey Badgers are accusing those who sent rape and death threats to Anita Sarkeesian … of “white knighting” her.
I can’t even.
Posted on November 14, 2013, in a voice for men, a woman is always to blame, antifeminism, empathy deficit, FemRAs, harassment, misogyny, MRA, no games for girls, none dare call it conspiracy, oppressed men, rape culture, taking pleasure in women's pain, threats, TyphonBlue, victrim blaming, video games, white knights and tagged a voice for men, anita sarkeesian, anti-feminism, antifeminism, female antifeminists, men's rights, misogyny, MRA. Bookmark the permalink. 718 Comments.
GWW needs a new mic. Ow.
What is this? I don’t even
Guh. Guh guh guh… wersrfoklarlsd.
Seriously, what the fucking fuck is WRONG with these people?
This make brain hurt
I can’t figure out their motivation for writing something like this. Is it that they want to prove how much they are “one of the guys”? Is it a test to see how much bullshit their audience will believe? Or are they just completely out of things to write about?
This can only be described as “willfully dense.”
I wonder why these women do this. One of the HB – I don’t know their names – looks like a semi-geeky girl who thinks she’s being hugely counter-cultural and hip by doing this. She’s inciting hatred for fun. Maybe she’s naive about just what it is she’s thrown herself in with here.
Over on Reddit, typhonblue is claiming this is an example of humor.
It appears they understand humor in the same way Paul Elam understands satire.
typhonblue claims that it was a joke, comment gets upvoted
other person says that it doesn’t look like a joke, comment gets downvoted
another MRA explains that the joke is Anita (?) and that the post was serious (?)… comment gets upvoted
Trying to follow a Men’s Rights Thread is like playing a game of free association
So the short form of this is “The asshats at 4chan didn’t kill her and then defile her corpse so it can’t have been all that bad. How dare she complain when she’s still alive and all!!!” Or am I missing something here?
I’ve stopped wondering when they’ll hit bottom, and started hoping they’ll hit magma.
If you have to explain the joke, then it’s not really funny.
headjustimplodedintotenbilliongazzilionlittlebits.jpg
You humorless feminazis have no sense of humor!!!
Speaking of humor (smooth segue, eh?), someone on r/againstmensrights made a great drawing in response to the rhetorical question about whether or not r/amr has “gone too far.” Here is documentation of the only time r/amr has ever gone too far.
Feminists are SO MUCH funnier than MRAs & feMRAs.
So what part of it is supposed to a joke? I mean, Elam and the HBs have said before in all seriousness that they think Sarkeesian deliberately incited the attacks on herself by going to 4chan.
So just the “white knight” part is the joke? How exactly is that supposed to be, er, funny? Ha ha, she got rape and death threats but wasn’t actually raped and killed, so therefore they were white knighting her! He ha!
That’s supposed to be funny?
These aren’t just horrible people, they’re stupid too. They seem to love showing off their awfulness and stupidity. What a hideous combination.
It seems like everything they do now is for attention.
On behalf of all Canadian women, I apologize for this assholette. Any desert island in the middle of the Pacific is welcome to her, and all her MRA cronies, too.
Won’t someone think of those poor desert islands?
“The Sarkeesian Effect”. Does every off-hand observation they poop out have to be turned into pretentious faux-terminology?
ZOMG, that’s right! Those poor islands. First they’ll be despoiled by raving scat-munchers, and then, as global warming takes its toll, they’ll disappear into the Pacific, leaving nothing but an oily film and some floating fecal matter on the surface. Yikes! Perhaps a cave full of buried radioactive waste would be better?
Bina, that’s just wrong, those islands didn’t do anything.
Just banish the MRAs to dark rooms with only cold technology, maybe a computer, but make sure they can’t do anything fun on the computer. Make them read hate sites or the horrible parts of reddit or something. Actually this sounds too harsh, it might make them angry all the time or lack self awareness.
According to WeirdAnimalReport.com’s report on Honey Badgers:
http://weirdanimalreport.com/article/honey-badger-natures-badass
So is this why they chose the name?
serrana:
[blockquote]I can’t figure out their motivation for writing something like this. Is it that they want to prove how much they are “one of the guys”?[/blockquote]
Their rhetoric really reminds of those girls who adopt the “one of the guys” identity when they are teenagers, and as a result start saying things like “Oh, I just don’t get on well with other girls, they’re all so bitchy and catty” and “Yeah, I just find it easier to be friends with guys because I’m so super chill, not like normal girls.” I know, because I was one of those girls. I also used to try to outdo the guys when it came to being crude/offensive/tough/whatever, because I always felt like I had something to prove, that I had to earn my place there. It was all born of insecurity and I grew out of it, but it still makes me cringe to think about it now.
It seems like exactly the same thing with their take on Sarkeesian. It’s like “Oh MRAs hate her and think the harassment campaign against her was justified? Yeah, yeah, well we LOATHE her. We DESPISE her. We hate her sooooooo much we think she should have been harassed even MORE. Yeah, we don’t think it went far enough! That’s extreme we are!”
Yup. Nothing to prove at all there.
The honey badgers (hello, tired meme) CAN’T think that Sarkeesian’s treatment was bad, because if they did, they’d have to start wondering what’s in store for them when Paul and the gang get tired of them.
Magnesium: it’s probably because of this, which went viral a couple years ago:
Extreme ugh-ness at “this helps out tell who doesn’t have a sense of humor” comment from typhonblue. You are extra horrible, typhonblue.
Tangentially related (women don’t long in gaming, women don’t belong in sports. . .) I just read about this in the San Francisco Chronicle . . . maybe it’s old news to some since it happened last week but . . . extreme ugh-ness again.
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/editorials/article/KNBR-should-fire-host-for-antiwomen-rant-4978356.php
Brooked said:
Yes. I think they think it makes them sound smart, and gives some kind of scholarly cred to what is essentially, as you said, pretentious poop.
Wait. A year and a half after the Kickstarter campaign, people are still flipping out over a woman making YouTube videos about sexism in video games? And now they’ve invented conspiracy theories about how she cunningly made them flip out with her devious femaleness, because obviously she wanted to spend her life getting death threats for saying Princess Peach should have her own sidescroller? And they’re upset that the flipping out hasn’t escalated to physical violence?
Um. Have they actually watched the videos?
Maybe the meme + the “honey”, like they’re super tough(not like those girly girls!) but they’re still women so they have the pet name. It’s a lame attention seeking name tbh.
Tinyorc, I did the same. *cringes from embarassment*
FWIW, the show teaser was written (and I assume read) by TyphonBlue, not GWW, and I don’t think she’s Canadian. But I do support Bina’s desert island initiative.
I am sort of hoping that the entire manosphere might be persuaded to move here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouvet_Island
Freeze peach guarantees the right to keep media jobs even if you piss off half your audience!
(For a place as progressive as the Bay Area some of our local radio dudes are an embarrassment. Why do the idiots who do the morning show on The Bone get paid for being 3rd rate imitations of Howard Stern?)
The stupid, it burns.
Bina – I am so stealing “scat-munchers”.
Oh yeah, I was the same. It’s easy to fall into that because society really rewards that attitude.
The Reddit thread is amusing. Several posters try to explain how 4Chan works while others point out that if this was meant as a joke, it’s a failed one.
Boom!
This is a little off topic, but I’m enjoying Fuck_Postmodernism’s “SRS is taking over the internet” conspiracy theories.
Of course they did, honey.
If you’d like to learn more, F_P discusses the SRS scourge at length in threads like, ‘We List Subredddits Controlled by SRS and, If There Are Any, List SRS-Free Alternatives”, “Has SRS ever invaded the himisphere [sic]“, and “Is it me, or is /r/adviceanimals gradually becoming SRS-influenced?”.
lol, only apologize if you’re also an Albertan. It’s like Americans apologizing for Texas; pretty, but not really necessary. As for the pacific island, I’d like it better if she had move even further north, to the tar sands, and see how she felt about having to drink and wash in bottled water for the rest of her life.
I am absolutely 100% convinced there is no way any of the AVfM folks have even watched Sarkesian’s videos. I mean, her critique is some of the driest, straightforward, unemotional commentary I’ve ever seen about video games.
Like, compare her videos to Yahtzee Crowshaw’s Zero Punctuation…in which he’ll tear apart much loved video games in the most angry, graphic language possible. Hell, speaking of angry…how about Angry Joe’s YouTube channel where he (surprise, surprise) angrily reviews different games.
But god forbid a woman voices an opinion about games. AH!
Operatives
Operatives!
Get those tinfoil hats fitted now, before
the gummintSRS reads your mind!The MRAs really are turning into the Westboro baptist church. Say random shit -> get attention –> Profit?
Ugh. They suck.
Sarkeesian was looking for anything to make some money and get some attention. Being a victim is a pretty direct way of doing that in a culture that has no looming life-threatening problems. You make up a “danger”. You say you are being threatened by people who are known trolls, you troll bait.
But seriously, before you guys go for the sarcastic remakes, read this: http://anongamer.tumblr.com/
She wasn’t even a gamer, she just figured out a way with a fellow to make some money (donations, speaker invites, etc) and be important: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r89ZT9hn8jo
I think other women should speak up after being attacked by them, or anyone. Then again, I’m sure we all have just been asking for it in some way, shape, or form.
I love how the term “white knight” is turning into a phrase used whenever anyone doesn’t brutally beat the shit out of a woman when they think she “deserves” it.
MRAs have every right to be scared!!! Anita wants to take away great games like “Rapey Rapey Assboobs Adventure,” and we can’t have that!!!1!!
=^.^=
Thank goodness Zoot is here to warn us about one of those dangerous fake geek girls.
SRS infiltrating everything? With what, purple dildos?
On the topic of women hating on women: how do you all handle misogyny coming from women? I’m never sure of what to do with it. I generally go for bluntly calling it out, but I’m not sure how constructive that is, especially when I’m speaking with a younger woman (and I’m a teacher so that’s frequent). I worry that if it comes out as an attack on her as a person, she’ll hold onto those toxic beliefs even more so.
Zoot, have you ever seen any of her Sexist Tropes in Video Games videos, or are you just here to shit in the water?
Wait, sorry, rhetorical question.
“Being a victim is a pretty direct way of doing that in a culture that has no looming life-threatening problems.”
Yup, nobody in the US has their life under threat from societal or cultural problems, nosiree. Nobody’s ever been murdered for being gay or trans* or the wrong colour or a woman or any combination of those. Nobody dies of preventable diseases because health care is unaffordable or simply unreachable or because those in power make damn sure the “unworthy” can’t get it. Nobody’s ever died or been left with their life devastated because of the gun culture. No woman’s ever been raped or murdered because men objected to her daring to speak, to write, to exist in any way that doesn’t meet their approval. Move along folks, nothing to see in this culture.
Please, Alice! They should be purple sparkly dildos at the very least.
Zoot: I think your tinfoil hat is on too tight, honey.
So, Anita Sarkeesian must be some great mastermind here. She somehow managed to get random users on 4chan to attack her, but not too roughly (because, y’know, rape and death threats aren’t that bad), so she looks good. Then she took the money she received and did the thing she said she was going to do with it. Damn. This is some X-Files level of behind-the-scenes string pulling going on here. You’d thin, with all that evil manipulative clout, that instead of making videos about sexist game tropes, she’d be ruling the world or something.
But wait, maybe she already is! O_O
That’s what jumped out at me, too. It’s bad enough when these guys call their blog posts “articles,” but this just takes it to another level.
“On the topic of women hating on women: how do you all handle misogyny coming from women? I’m never sure of what to do with it. I generally go for bluntly calling it out, but I’m not sure how constructive that is, especially when I’m speaking with a younger woman (and I’m a teacher so that’s frequent). I worry that if it comes out as an attack on her as a person, she’ll hold onto those toxic beliefs even more so.”
I mean, sometimes I struggle with my own internalized misogyny. It’s all a learning process. Most frequently what happens is I bring up something about feminism and I’ll get asked, “You’re not a feminist, ARE YOU!?” and then I try and spark up a conversation about what feminism means and what it is, and why they DON’T identify that way. But I try to just ask questions and talk about my own personal preferences and dispute the inaccurate bullshit I hear with facts. But I’m generally really passive and try to not make waves so ymmv.
kittehs – Oh, you’re right. Sparkly purple dildos. *nod*
D’you think we could send them to this island, maybe?
I’m really wondering why Zoot cares so much. Sarkeesian seems to send MRAs and other misogynists into a frothing, apopleptic rage. I find her inoffensive, personally.
Is it the hoop earrings?
@Gizwardo
Yeah, I agree that the first thing is always to identify my own internalized misogyny (used to have to pretty messed up ideas on me vs. other girls.)
But you know, I’m not even just talking about other women not identifying as feminists. There’s a fair few good reasons to not identify as one – none of which are are reasons the MRAs ever seem to bring up. It’s stuff like being quick to judge other women’s sexuality or judging other women’s lifestyles in a really toxic manner.
Asking questions seems like a really good idea though. I guess “why” is a powerful word!
Alice, I have seen the video.
I just honestly think the problem doesn’t go one way (damsel in distress can overshadowed by the THOUSANDS of men that you are mowing down with your machine guns in a game)
I think that society is changing and that we are re-negotiating gender roles as we all have more options. There are still problems, but they certainly don’t lead to death in the first world that often (diseases, wars, childbirth).
That being said, I think that people who pretend to have problems and stir up drama to get attention are manipulative and demean the whole thing. Much of AvFM is carefully crafted articles to offend the emotions of certain people to get attention to men’s issues (real one’s, like suicide, custody, disposibility in wars, etc) and I think that demeans the whole conversation.
But anyways, from what I’ve seen of this site, it’s a circlejerk ala SRS, and if I don’t feed the other side of the hate – well, I’m breaking the circlejerk.
jefrir – I like your thinking!
As a fervent gamer, I think you’d just have to be a complete idiot not to know that women are objectified and turned into stereotypes in gaming. Even to this day. Just look at all the Skyrim modders obsessed with mods that make women’s bodies in Skyrim obnoxiously voluptuous/”sexy” and their outfits skimpy. Almost every female character of significance in video games are unrealistic or fit the cultural mold of so-called beauty.
All Anita Sarkesian did was draw out the defenders of sexism from the woodwork, the same way a completely benign statement from Rebecca Watson did in the atheist/skeptic/freethought communities. To acknowledge the sexism terrifies the crap out of the Dicks.
BTW If male allies of feminism are white knights, shouldn’t female allies of MRAs get a name, too? I’m thinking maybe…white knights!!
Hey Zoot, I’m curious…do you look up info on every gaming critic you watch/read to make sure they meet your qualifications for what a “real gamer” is? I’m willing to bet you don’t.
Anita is clearly knowledgeable enough in feminist critique and video games to be able to speak on the subject intelligently. Whether or not she’ll pre-order the next CoD or stand in line for hours to play a few-minute-long demo for the next Assassin’s Creed (etc.) is quite irrelevant.
And because I self-promote wherever I can…here’s my little parody of the Honey Badger’s blurb: http://radicalcentristblog.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/still-with-anita-sarkeesian-avfms-honey-badgers-monthly-rant-against-her/
Also, my rant against the honey badgers when they went off on Anita a month ago, for some reason: http://radicalcentristblog.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/nothing-but-rant-scourge-of-the-girl-gamer/
Bullshit. AVfM does not one thing for real men’s issues. Paulyboy doesn’t spend his hundred grand a year on opening shelters for male victims of domestic violence, or funding breast cancer facilities and support for men, or anything at all.
Plus your little line about “disposability in wars” is a give-away. First, if you’re talking about the US, the draft is not a thing. All your soldiers are volunteers. Nor are all your soldiers men. Second, who’s sending soldiers to war anyway? Oh yes, it is, overwhelmingly, other men, now and historically. Third, just how great do you think it is being one of the civilians in a war zone? Who is it who hasn’t the training or the arms to defend themselves? Who is it who’s overwhelmingly the target of rape as a weapon of war? Why, it’s women, not men.
As for custody – those men who bother to apply for it have an even (or better than even, iirc) chance of getting it.
Suicide is a problem for people of any gender, not just men. Undoing the culture of toxic masculinity that says men don’t talk about their problems, or take care of their physical health, because doing so is “weak”, would do a lot to help. But it’s not MRAs doing that; they’re all about reinforcing toxic masculinity, because what they’re really about is men ruling women. That it’s mutually destructive doesn’t seem to bother them, if they have the wit to grasp it at all, which I doubt.
You know who does bring attention to these things? Feminists.
I’m not clear on why Anita pointing out one problem means that other problems don’t exist.
And can you explain how she “troll baited?” You do know that she never posted on 4chan, right? It was someone else. I’m not seeing how she did anything wrong such that LONG AFTER THE FACT you can find posts on her at least weekly on Reddit and new YouTube videos. She was interested in one thing, she raised funds to do it, she got more than she asked for, she is delivering. Why the frothing rage?
People they disagree with reading a website are “operatives,” posts on a blog are “articles,” and comments are “posts.” It’s like little kids playing a game that they think is real.
@Michael Farkness: How about black hats?
Is Zoot having one of those paranoid highs?
Damn tootin’ sparkly purple dildz! All glory and praise be to Brd!
SRS does indeed have operatives in the highest levels of government and the interbutz and not one ingrown hair in a shitlord’s neckbeard escapes the attention of the Fempire.
They thaw all the peaches and rustle all the jimmies.
Seriously though, it really is amusing to see how upset that one subreddit makes the brosephs.
The dudebros would be even more upset if they knew SRS is just a cover. Those operatives are really working for the Furrinati.
@Zoot: Oh for goodness…the BIG problem with damsel in distress isn’t that there’s a woman in distress…it’s that she’s in distress for the purpose of furthering along the protagonist’s story…the protagonist who is almost always a man. She is conceptualised as an extension of him…his mother or sister or wife or child….she does no have a character or identity in and of herself, EXCEPT through the eyes of the male character.
The bazillion faceless people the main character might mow down in order to save said damsel are similarly given character/identity ONLY through the eyes of the male protagonist…but the key difference here is that their gender is not part of that character. This is often where issues of race and religion come in, though…when modern shooters have the main character mowing down a whole lot of people of colour.
TL;DR – The problem is thus
Women: There to be saved
People of colour: There to be killed
Men (esp. white men): Can fit a VARIETY of roles in the game, including, most often, the protagonist
Nope, it only goes one way. Only women are oppressed via sexist norms. There is no overshadowing.
That they aren’t as bad as other problems is irrelevant.
Nope. AVfM’s articles don’t merely offend the emotions of certain people. They also perpetuate misogyny and various other prejudices that are institutionalized, such as the article in which Elam openly supports victim-blaming. If you think that making light of abuse, sexual violence, and institutionalized oppression to make a point that can easily be made without doing so is okay, there’s something wrong with you.
I’m rooting for you, O Righteous MRA Warrior! (Not.)
And “carefully crafted” my ass. They have shit writing, even without all of their bigoted “satire”.
Well, to be fair, it’s possible that their posts are carefully crafted and that what we see on AVFM genuinely does represent the best they can do.