Each new video that Anita Sarkeesian posts is a sign that the bullies are losing
Anita Sarkeesian, still standing
On Monday, Anita Sarkeesian posted the latest installment of her Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games series on YouTube, a half-hour examination of the ways in which video game makers use sexualized violence against women as a cheap way to spice up their narratives and appeal to straight male gamers.
Her tone was measured, her analysis clear and logical and supported by dozens of clips from a wide assortment of games.
Late Tuesday night, this happened:
That’s right: Sarkeesian was forced to leave her home due to violent threats against her and her family … because she made a YouTube video analyzing violence against women in video games.
She then posted some of the threats she had gotten from a Twitter account set up specifically to harass and threaten her and her family. [TRIGGER WARNING for graphic rape and death threats.]
For a larger version of the screenshot, see here.
Sarkeesian has also been tweeting some of the other threats she gets on a daily basis from anonymous gamers who are incensed that a woman has anything critical to say about their precious video games.
“Go ahead, screen capture this and tweet it you piece of shit” ummm… ok. I’m not afraid of strawman "rebuttals". http://t.co/8B74uYJOOU—
Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) August 27, 2014
You’ll notice that several of these threatening comments mention videos by Thunderf00t, a “skeptic” videoblogger best known, at least in the corner of the internet I write about, for a series of videos in which he viciously attacks some of the women who’ve drawn the most internet hate from angry misogynists – from skeptics like Rebecca Watson and Melody Hensley to video game maker Zoe Quinn and video game critic Sarkeesian.
Thunderf00t’s attacks have won him kudos from assorted Men’s Rights activists, from the regulars on the Men’s Rights subreddit to A Voice for Men “operations manager” Dean Esmay, who has praised his videos and urged other MRAs to subscribe to them.
In other words, the harassment of feminist women on the internet is directly linked to antifeminist propagandists like Thunderf00t – and his MRA fans and enablers.
The constant, vicious, personal attacks on Sarkeesian you see not only in video game circles but from Men’s Rights Activists – on Reddit, on A Voice for Men, on YouTube, and so on – have helped to create a hostile environment in which critiques of sexism in games result in real-world death and rape threats against women. This has an undeniably chilling effect on the free speech of women. That in fact is the intent of the harassers.
Margaret Atwood once famously observed that
Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.
I think we need an internet corollary to Atwood’s observation:
Men posting on the internet are afraid that women will block them. Women are afraid that men will treat them like Anita Sarkeesian.
Thing is, Sarkeesian keeps moving forward, diligently researching and putting forth the videos she promised she would. All the huffing and puffing of her critics and attackers hasn’t shut her up. Each new video she puts out is a testament to her courage and her perseverance. Each new video is a blow against those who would shut women up. Each new video helps to inspire others who’ve gotten similar threats to continue speaking up and speaking out.
Supporting Sarkeesian helps to support every woman who wants to be able to speak out online without fear of violent threats. There’s no better proof of this than how angry the biggest misogynistic bullies get whenever feminists and other people of good conscience rally around her. The bullies are still angry about the money she raised via kickstarter, money that has enabled her to bring a new professionalism to her videos.
Hell, AVFM Bully-in-chief Paul Elam is still so angry about this that he’s already accusing her of “damseling for dollars,” collecting “gash-cash” because of these latest Twitter threats. Indeed, in a post that’s a lot more revealing than he intends it to be, he complains bitterly that she’s getting bigger donations than he is:
I am jealous. I have had half the major media in a couple of countries disingenuously and maliciously demonize me. Even after forcing some retractions I bet I got more threats than Sarkeesian.
My reward? Jack shit.
Maybe it was because I didn’t swoon hard enough or treat the threats like they were tickets to Disneyworld.
Oh, don’t be modest, Paul. You take in tens of thousands every year by pretending to be some sort of human rights generalissimo. You raked in $35,000 this summer by trumpeting “threats” that you were saying privately were phony.
While Elam “damsels” and fumes, Sarkeesian simply goes about doing the job she set out to do. Each video she puts out is yet another “fuck you” to her haters, and they know it.
U mad bros?
Here’s the video that caused all the stir. It’s well worth watching. CONTENT WARNING: Graphic violence against women.
Posted on August 28, 2014, in a voice for men, a woman is always to blame, advocacy of violence, antifeminism, are these guys 12 years old?, Dean Esmay, entitled babies, evil women, harassment, mantrum, men who should not ever be with imaginary women ever, men who should not ever be with women ever, misogyny, MRA, no games for girls, no girls allowed, not-quite-plausible deniability, paul elam, rape culture, sarkeesian!, threats, video games and tagged a voice for men, anita sarkeesian, anti-feminism, antifeminism, men's rights, misogyny, MRA, reddit, threats, twitter. Bookmark the permalink. 649 Comments.
Zoe Quinn’s harassment just stepped up too, after far-right reactionary douchebag actor Adam Baldwin (whom you probably remember as Jayne from firefly) signal boosted her harassment videos.
I accidentally left tumblr anon on after I announced RuinJam, and in the space of a few hours I got a “circlejerk over c*nts and wh*res” comment, a bizarre all-caps antisemitic screed, and a promise to make a rape simulator for my mascot character.
It’s been a bad week for my industry.
I’ve been following this on Twitter, and I realise this is like fighting fire with fire after recent events, but: WHERE IS THE FBI? THESE ASSHOLES NEED TO BE IN JAIL..
I doubt the FBI can do much of anything. And there are legions of “freeze peach” champions who will say assaults like these are part and parcel of the wonderful American way of life, which is why I’m thinking more and more of moving to someplace like Uruguay.
It’s obvious that her critics don’t even bother to watch the videos, because in each installment, Sarkeesian has been really measured and fair. She makes it pretty clear with her disclaimer in each intro that it’s important to critique some aspects of a piece of media, but that doesn’t mean it has no value or that one can’t enjoy it.
Oh my god that poor woman. She is so brave to soldier on like this. I finally watched some of her videos yesterday and they were very well made, organized perfectly, hundreds of examples, intelligent and very measured, calm, no vitriol whatsoever. What kills me is she’s pointing out things that are obvious to anyone who has ever come into contact with a video game. She is neither threatening nor controversial even. I just don’t understand the levels of anger and hatred. So revealing how invested they are in the status quo.
@ inurashii I didn’t know that Jayne was actually terrible :(
All my love and support to Annita!!
I love how she’s standing up to bullies, and they drown in their own desperation when their all mighty weapon of harassment not only doesn’t stop her, but makes her appear even more heroic.
They also know that one single woman showing harassment is not the end of the discussion, can lead to all women believing they have a right to be on the internet un-harassed (or piss off harassers by not letting them stop her).
They are terrified, but also very used to reading their own terror as rage. That’s what makes them dangerous… and maybe what will bring them down in the end.
Harassment is their one trick, if it fails, they will repeat it in angrier ways, and make their behavior even more obvious to everyone.
What’s really sad and frustrating is that still someone need it to be even more obvious in order to acknowledge the problem.
And can I just say that I’m thoroughly enjoying the rave reviews and legitimate praise and funding while Pauly boy stews and huffs. And loses. Losing! Love it!
*her rave reviews (I should’ve phrased that differently)
Andrea: Yeah, I figured as much. I bet a Congressional hearing that won’t actually change much is all we’re going to get out of this. It took an unarmed teenager dying and days of protest in Ferguson to get anyone in DC to even pay lip service to the systemic racism there; I really hope no one has to die in gaming to get women’s rights reaffirmed.
Anita is doing a great service to women in tech, but I really do fear for her safety. I even fear for mine, just for retweeting things in support of her.
@auralfixations I knew about his past BS with ultraconservative tweets, but I hadn’t seen him go after feminists in particular before I heard about the Zoe stuff last night (it helps that I stopped following him years ago, I suppose).
The most ridiculous part about this is that there are parts of her videos I’ve disagreed with, but 1. most of her points are solid and 2. there’s absolutely no reason to threaten someone for having an opinion, especially when it has to do with discrimination against their own gender. And it just shows that the comments that come out against feminism prove that we need feminism since those comments can’t stop themselves from threatening harm on women.
I’m not a big fan of Anita Sarkeesian, but that’s more because I disagree with some of her examples, what she’s doing is in itself is definitely a worthwhile project. These sort of attacks though, I mean sweet Buddha, what the everloving hell. How is responding to serial killer type threats “damseling”? I’m a fairly sizable guy who’s studied martial arts and the first thing I’d do after reading those tweets is call the bloody cops and hide under a damn blanket. Gender doesn’t protect from crazy.
And the part about Adam Baldwin is also making me sad. I really want to like him, since I usually really like the characters he plays.
5-10 years from now, after Sarkeesian et al have made a noticeable impact, apologists for these assholes will say that they were simply “keeping her honest”.
Or maybe people like Anita Sarkeesian’s work more than they like yours, Paul Elam?
I so admire her and her bravery, honestly. But it’s terrible that she has to endure these attacks and worry about her safety.
I am in utter awe of this woman’s bravery. When the MRAs went after my husband, one commenter on his blog wrote “I hope your wife dies of c**t cancer, because she is a c**t.” That was enough to make me want to call the cops! I hope she’s coping well. That level of harassment can be very traumatic. I was looking for gray hairs in this latest video she did!
@ Katie Schenkel and pendraegon
I always assume that the characters I like on shows are actually cool, and I am usually disappointed… I totally though Lucy Lawless would be a bad-ass feminist but every interview or performance I’ve seen of her other than Xena has made me realize she’s just a regular lady desperate for attention. Even worse is Kevin Sorbo’s weird racist screed the other night when I assumed he was like, a defender of the innocent and all that. (apparently I only watched TV on Saturday mornings..)
Re: Adam Baldwin, all I can say is that I am now ashamed to have been a fan of Firefly. Joss Whedon has been speaking out against the harassment of Anita Sarkeesian, but he hasn’t said word one about Zoe Quinn. I saw on her Twitter this morning that she got driven from her home too, and has been having trouble finding a place to sleep.
Every Anita Sarkeesian Rant I’ve ever seen always begins with the dudebro bitching that Sarkeesian disabled comments to her videos.
But I think forcing these dudebros to record their own “rebuttals” is actually way more revealing than if she left the comments open for trolling. This way you have to watch these dumbasses craft their entire point de novo; and it makes it that much more apparent how they miss the point of Sarkeesian’s videos.
Thanks for covering this, David! The comment thread on this story at Raw Story is 1,000 comments long. And they mostly agree that 1: She deserves it and 2: She’s making it all up. SMH.
Also, while there are a lot of derogatory words for women that make me cringe, “gash” is up there as the most disgusting and dehumanizing of the bunch, IMO. It illustrates just how ugly misogyny really is.
The AVfM article is a corker:
“Her arguments are poorly articulated, boring, constructed like slop, highly biased and completely, excruciatingly stupid.”
Don’t let your projection hit your bruised ego on the way out, ‘Dr’ Elam.
But she’s gonna go to PAX anyway. At this point IDGAF if she’s been manipulative for prominence or influence — the price has been absurdly, inordinately high. At this point, even people who would otherwise steer clear of her are standing behind her without reservation.
Effectively, even if everything these human trash cans are saying was true? They’re actively working against their goals. They don’t seem to understand how terrible this all looks to everyone.
is “gash” the new, sanitized term for cunt now? Reminds me of the OITNB episode where the guards call Piper a “demanding poochie” because they can’t say “bitch” any longer.
God damn, my respect of Anita only continues to grow. The fact that she puts up with this and continues to do good work is just incredible, for it seems most would have quite years ago. And her supporters are the best too. Felicia Day, Tim Schaefer, Neil Gaimen, Joss Whedon, William Gibson, and CliffyB have all expressed their support of her. Makes me feel like things might actually get better. :)
These videos have been real eye-openers for me. I was particularly horrified to discover there’s an actual achievement in a game for tying up a woman, placing her on railroad tracks, and watching a train kill her. I don’t mind violence in games, but that’s gendered violence in a way that simply shooting or running people over isn’t. It says a lot about the developers and their perceived audience… and what it says ain’t good.
Or maybe it’s because your product is hateful horseshit and the whole world knows it, Paulie.
But hey! Enjoy all the thousand$ in “gash cash” (what a lovely, sexist term!) that you raked in by “damselling” that evil feminists were out to get you when you threw your epic fail of an “international men’s rights conference”. That had to be moved from a downtown hotel to a sad-sack legion hall in the sticks. Surely all that was not a cover for the fact that your shindig was even more poorly attended than initially expected, and even the smaller venue was too big…hahahahahaha.
Why do some people think that games should be a big ol’ boys’ club? Do they not realize that *more* gamers results in more and better games because more money is spent on them; as more money is spent on them, more people go into game design? If games start to shrink (and I think I read that this is already happening) because hardcore gamers are driving people away from *their* games, there will be fewer of their sorts of games…and more sorts of games like “Farmville” which are likely the antithesis of the sort of game these gamers prefer.
There are many guy gamers who like women, have significant women in their lives, and would like to play these games together. But if women aren’t welcome or don’t feel welcome, they’re going to play other types of games.
Well, golly, douche-canoes get upset when people donate to her cause? Does she have a donate page anywhere someone can link me to? I must admit, I’m a musician too busy to have watched her videos yet (on my TO DO list), but I’ll give her moneys just for support and to piss off the toadies ….
@idledillettante, it’s definitely been around for awhile, because I remember hearing it back in junior high and being wholly grossed out…that would’ve been early ’90’s.
@PocketNerd, I totally agree! I knew games like GtA were sexist, but I don’t tend to play the other games she’s talked about, like Hitman. For one thing, at this point if I *have* to play as a guy, I skip the game, and I have no shame in doing that. I get to spend my money how I want. I do play Dragon Age, and fully agree that the city elf origin story is extremely disturbing. I will stick with Skyrim, Mass Effect, and other sandbox style RPGs that allow me the freedom of playing how I want.
Women are playing more games. Women now make up the majority of gamers. And it’s not all just playing farmville, either:
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/08/25/study-adult-women-gamers-outnumber-teenage-boys
@Fred_the_Dog
That’s pretty much what’s going to happen. The cost to produce games continues to skyrocket, and the retail prices have remained the same for over a decade. DLC’s help, but “hardcore” gamers tend to throw hissy fits when they have to pay for DLC’s (as if video games are a necessity, rather than a luxury good that you are absolutely not owed if you cannot pay for them). The way games are marketed to these people, making them feel like they are part of a special club just by buying and using the same product, means the demographic is already smaller than it could be. The fans are now trying their best to ensure that the customer base continues to shrink. Something’s going to give. Either the customer base needs to grow, or AAA games are going to start costing $150 a piece. Or, more likely, every developer is going to focus on making free-to-play app games that “hardcore” games love so much.
Yup. Although, given that a gash is an open wound, I would argue that it’s not sanitized, it’s even uglier, because it carries with it the connotation of male-inflicted, rapey violence.
So were just going to ignore the fact that she stole video footage, lied about liking games, ripped off all her backers, and is a year behind schedule on her videos, makes up most of the points she tries to make (Hitman absolution did not want you to kill the hookers Anita don’t make things up.), and just white knight everything she says and let her ruin Mirror’s Edge 2.
I don’t think this is “unintentionally revealing”. I think Paul is counting on the competitive impulse of MRAs, a la the “tropes vs men” kickstarter, to generate more donations. “C’mon, lads! Let’s show ‘em we hate women more than they hate men!”
It’s not really new.
“I totally though Lucy Lawless would be a bad-ass feminist but every interview or performance I’ve seen of her other than Xena has made me realize she’s just a regular lady desperate for attention.”
I don’t get that at all from her. When I look at her, I see an actress who uses her fame for activist causes. And GOOD causes like the environment.
I bet these are the same guys that whine that women don’t like “nice guys” like themselves…
@ Tabby You’re probably right, I don’t follow her and haven’t seen her in a while. I may be romanticizing my memories of when I first realized she wasn’t really Xena…and that was, in truth, quite a while ago. So…maybe not a good example lol. but it did really destroy me for a little while
“Half the major media?” Come on, Paul: outside of your Circle of Hate and those of us who mock you, nobody knows who you are. Still ticked off that Roosh has more hits, huh?
My first recollection of seeing “gash” as a female genitalia slang term was back in the ’90s, although I don’t recall it being equal to the c-word at the time, or being terrible common.
Now I have to go look her up again
I’ve always loved Lucy Lawless whenever I see interviews of her. She’s had a really interesting life (she was a miner at one point), she always seems really down to earth, funny, and smart.
Now, Adam Baldwin I’ve known about for awhile. Back in the day, several Firefly actors would show up on the official bulletin boards and post. Nathan Fillion was always gracious, accessible, and awesome, while Baldwin would launch far-right political rants and generally be an ass.
I’ve been thinking lately that I should start calling them “antiegalitarians” (or something similar), rather than “antifeminists.” After all, the latter is a term they self-apply; much like “pro-life,” it has no basis in reality. It’s propaganda. Feminists are by definition egalitarians, so to be antifeminist is to be antiegalitarian. I feel like in conversations with them, calling them what they want to be called is far too flattering, not to mention incorrect.
Also, I thought that was by far the best video Anita’s done. If it doesn’t drive home the importance of feminist media critique, I can’t think of anything that will.
Oh no- now I feel like I’ve missed out on a whole life of loving Lucy Lawless- I must have been really traumatized. I’m looking at her Wikipedia- I remember hearing about the arrest of the activists on the oil drilling ship, but I never heard she was one of them. I think I should take back all the things I said about her. Kevin Sorbo on the other hand, is another matter.
I’s still trying to figure out how Adam Baldwin ended up working with Joss Whedon.
Elam:
“I have had half the major media in a couple of countries disingenuously and maliciously demonize me.”
He really, really, really, really, *really* wishes he’d had that much attention.
But he hasn’t. He really hasn’t. His sad-case ramshackle cohort of bloggers were laughed at and ridiculed, but his victim mentality and egotism means that he just *has* to regard himself as important.
he’s a joke.
@emilygoddess, no kidding! I mean, I have my own political leanings (generally far left hippie who is too dependent on technology to actually be a hippie), but I’m able to keep my commentary to myself at work. I work with several conservatives who are friends, and we can do that because we don’t try rubbing the other’s nose in any sort of “gotcha” crap and just interact like human beings. But after reading Baldwin’s posts on that bulletin board (this was back during the runup to the Iraq occupation), I can’t imagine he’s able to do that.
Argh, that WORD!!
The term gained massive popularity as a slang term in the UK when The Inbetweeners was released in 2008. For anyone who hasn’t heard of It, it’s a hit channel 4 comedy series starring four teenage lads and one of the four central characters, Jay, uses “gash” to describe any girl that he wants to, or blindly insists he already has, slept with. That, or “clunge” *retches loudly. I was a fresher when the first series came out, and it’s all you ever heard around campus. It got very old very quickly. Another Inbetweeners movie has recently been released in UK cinemas so yeah, we still see “gash” used a lot as a disparaging slang term to describe vaginas, or to more broadly describe girls and women in general.
I had no idea the use of that horrible word was more widespread, and it’s very, very weird to see Paul Elam using it in reference to Anita S when I’m used to hearing it shouted by school boys hanging around outside McDonalds after closing time.
I don’t know, Paul Elam seems a lot less mature than school boys hanging around McDonalds, so I can’t say I’m too surprised. Paul also strikes me as someone who hangs around Urban Dictionary trying to find new misogynist slurs he can use.
I’m pretty sure Elam has some kind of unofficial misogynist thesaurus at the ready. Full of ugly synonyms for the c-word, which in itself is ugly just by how it sounds. And a disproportionate number of them make the female genitalia out to be a man-inflicted wound, rather than born-this-way, got-nothin’-to-do-with-him organs.
Thank you very much, David, for reporting on this and stating so clearly what the ultimate goal here is – the silencing of women. You are the only journalist I can think of who could draw these threads together, showing how AVFM is supporting the terrorism against this lady. I too am in awe at her courage and have benefited from her example.
Those tweets were beyond disturbing. Anita is an amazing and brave person for still doing what she does. And I’m glad she does, it’s depressing when abuse like this silences a woman. I can totally understand the decision to stop (given some of the threats we open ourselves up to) but it’s still tragic when the violence works. It just validates these buttwaffles. So glad she’s still trucking on.
Scroll up for troll comment I just let through. Apparently Anita has the power to ruin games by commenting on them. No wonder gamers are so threatened by her!
Women, and/or feminists are not the only ones subjected to hate, threats, and bullying on-line. It’s a huge issue for everyone. Men actually experience a great deal of abuse and violence online too, especially on twitter. Conservative women or anyone perceived as not complying with the dominant politics of the day, receive continuous threats, often from those calling themselves feminists.
Someone recently suggested that rather than ice bucket challenges, we needed an “act like a human on-line” challenge.
I don’t always agree with Anita’s opinions, but her videos are well researched and presented in a noninflammatory way. This last video really struck me, particularly the part about how many people would consider the games less realistic without violence against women, even in games with blatant fantasy elements. That is a clear indication that something is wrong.
It’s disappointing that Anita has had to close the comments on her videos because of these threats. Her videos could start some excellent and productive conversations about violence against women, but some people refuse to let that happen. Nitram is right. These guys are very invested in the status quo and I don’t think they’re necessarily mad about what she is saying. They are mad that she is challenging their world view. Rather than accepting that she has a different opinion and discussing ideas openly, these guys immediately go on the defensive. It’s just really sad because if people were willing to have open discussions without threatening or name-calling, we might actually see some more appreciable progress being made toward equality.
I stand with Anita. How many of us will it take before these guys realize we aren’t going away?
@Misha, okay, I’m gonna go ahead and skip that show.
@emilygoddess
Wow, that’s almost a word for word regurgitation of same talking points I’m hearing from trolls on every article about this topic! It’s like none of them have watched the videos and are just repeating the shit they’ve heard from Thunderf00t.
Less “sanitized”, more “weaponized”. Same idea, but with the added kick of simultaneously conflating women’s genitals with open wounds.
And Anita Sarkeesian is a fucking hero.
It never fails either. “Harrassment is awful.” sez article. “Why can’t I even criticize?” sez dudebros.
a) Harassment is not criticism.
b) Absolutely no-one is saying you aren’t allowed to criticize.
c) Your criticism is also fair game for criticism,
d) because your criticisms are usually terrible.
Yeah, I can tell when a thunderf00t fanboy is stanning because they latch onto whichever one ‘inaccuracy’ he’s whining about in his latest video. “But Hitmannnnnnnnn”
Sometimes it’s even more bizarre:
Thus Spake ZaraChie Satonaka:
I think I’ve managed to avoid a lot of the most egregiously abusive games for similar reasons: While I do enjoy bleak or morally ambiguous settings, I’m bored with games that use GRIMDARK or sexual content as a lazy way to make a game seem “adult” or “hardcore”. (The cheap heat you can get from senseless, contextless cruelty is even lazier.) So, yeah, the whole Dead Island 2 Special Edition bewbs-with-blood-on-them thing? That’s not “adult,” that’s puerile. It tells me the target audience is 14-year-old dorks who think sexualized violence is “grown-up”.
Oh, and just in case, I wasn’t referring to pendraegon here. Just came over from the report on Raw Story. The major up-voted comments are all supportive, but the assholes are whining up a storm.
Wait. That’s a mixed metaphor…
The assholes are farting up a dirge.
There we go.
Paulie is such a disgusting creep. He’s just mad he hasn’t found a way to siphon more money out of the pockets of his creepy legions.
@ insanitybytes22
That may be true, it sucks. Are you implying that this blog post is somehow minimizing that? Blogging activism isn’t a zero sum affair.
Thus Spake ZaraExuin.exe:
How do you propose Anita Sarkeesian could “ruin” Mirror’s Edge 2? Is she sneaking into the developer’s office at night and secretly planting game-breaking bugs in the code?
Looking at Paul Elam’s response, doesn’t it seem like he throws in the crude and vicious slur “gash” to make sure his irrelevant and worthless posting gets some attention? Any attention? Most recently he called women “cum-dumpsters” for having sex at all. It’s the strategy of a poser with nothing to say.
And in this latest article he whines that his hate speech isn’t working to make him money. He seems to have run out of ideas for how to wring money out of his followers. They’re probably still broke from contributing to save him from the “death threats” that never were. What a fraud.
@insanitybytes22 wrote:
“Women, and/or feminists are not the only ones subjected to hate, threats, and bullying on-line. It’s a huge issue for everyone. Men actually experience a great deal of abuse and violence online too, especially on twitter. Conservative women or anyone perceived as not complying with the dominant politics of the day, receive continuous threats, often from those calling themselves feminists.
Someone recently suggested that rather than ice bucket challenges, we needed an “act like a human on-line” challenge.”
I don’t think Anita Sarkeesian ever said that men in video games or real life were exempt from being victims of violence, IB. But she did say that the violence against female avatars in video games was more sexualized than that of their male counterparts. (Watch the video, it’s in there.)
Nor is anyone saying that women like, Sarah Palin and Janet Bloomfield don’t receive threats either; celebrities of all stripes receive threats (Weird Al gets tons of threats) and being aligned to the “right” side of patriarchy certainly doesn’t immunize you from being target. After all, a honey badger’s still a woman when we get down to brass tacks.
But is the the fault of feminists like Anita that this happens? I don’t think so.
As far as the Hitman part of the tweets go, bullshit.
TRIGGER WARNING
That whole section of the game takes place in what is essentially a rape dungeon for strippers from a particular club. The game goes to some detail to set this up, including the fact that women working there generally know what happens, but can’t do anything about it, and the implication is that they’re all killed shortly after. You find a corpse of one them in the rafters, and the game is designed in such a way that, if you want to get by without being spotted, you NEED to throw that corpse in front of the police to distract them.
@Chie Satonaka – it’s for the best.
@emily goddess, great trollxample.
Oy, Exuin.exe who does not believe in citing anything, care to do so? Or actually, don’t.
Did anyone watch the video of Anita receiving the Ambassador of the Year award at The Game Developers Choice Awards? It’s very cool, it’s the first time a woman has received the award, but even cooler is that she’s introduced by the writer and creative director of The Last of Us, an excellent game that won a bunch of awards, smashed a few sales records, received pretty much universal acclaim… and also defied a lot of tired women in videogames tropes. In his introduction, he says that Anita’s work was highly influential for him personally when writing for The Last of Us and greatly improved its story.
I think it’s so awesome that her efforts are having a real and visible impact on mainstream gaming, and that influential developers are actually taking notice and hearing what she has to say. I think that’s ultimately what makes her detractors so hopping mad. Anita is changing things! I mean, she pretty much single-handedly started an industry-wide conversation about the portrayal of women in videogames and has been honoured for that achievement. Meanwhile, thunderf00t et al remain confined to their furious circlejerk, impotently trying to “take her down” and “expose her” while the vast majority of the world ignores them.
There was another game where I was required to make a morally questionable choice in order to move the game forward….maybe LA Noire? I turned it off. Having secret achievements like killing prostitutes is already disgusting enough, I’m not playing a game that doesn’t even allow me to make the choice whether or not I do it. How is that even fun?
Yes. Have you written to Twitter about your concerns yet? There are a lot of common-sense things they could do to reduce the amount of harassment on their platform, but it seems like they’re not going to do it unless people put even more pressure on them.
I honestly don’t think that she’s going to end up being all that strong an agent of change in the industry. Remember that they took sexist trappings for economic reasons in the first place, so, with internet-gaming becoming a common market that’s much wider than the traditional one, there might just happen another tectonic shift in which companies find a “general” video gamer market that includes both genders and people both younger and older than teenagers a worthwile target group for their products again. Kinda like european boardgames.
I feel that such economic shifts caused by changing technology might just be more relevant here than advocacy. Of course, you still need it, because an economic shift is just that – nothing stops them from applying their current brand of video game storytelling methodes to the new market, if there is no resistance and no advocacy for something else.
I mean, they are still trying, what with all the free to play online games being advertized with scantily dressed elf women and such.