Author Archives: David Futrelle
I get death threats … for writing about the death threats sent to Anita Sarkeesian
A scene from my inbox
So how much do some angry gamebros hate Anita Sarkeesian? Enough to send me death threats … for writing about the death threats sent to Anita Sarkeesian.
Shortly after my post on the threats against Sarkeesian went up on Thursday, I got these messages sent to me as anonymous “asks” on Tumblr. These were all in succession, in this order; I’m pasting each one individually instead of the whole bunch at once so you can read them in the order in which I got them. [TRIGGER WARNING: Violent threats; I'm putting them past the jump.]
Links: Fanboys, Trolls, White Knights and Disney Princesses
Links!
I don’t do enough link posts. Or any, really. (I mean, I think I’ve done a few, but that was years ago.) Anyway, I’ve decided to remedy that. So here are some interesting and/or appalling recent stories I’ve run across. Add more in comments!
Fanboys, White Knights, and the Hairball of Online Misogyny, by Tauriq Moosa at The Daily Beast.
You Can’t Fight Rape With Nail Polish, by Kate Harding at Dame.
Answering questions asked of feminists by a misogynist, by Amanda Marcotte at The Raw Story.
College dudes worried that movement to take rape seriously is ruining their sex lives, by Katie McDonough at Salon.
The Chilling Effect of Misogynistic Trolls, by Victoria Turk at Motherboard.
Disney World Princess Does Reddit AMA; Receives Creepy Messages, Of Course, by Kelly Faircloth at Jezebel.
Also, while I’m plugging things, I want to mention the GiveForward campaign to raise money to help pay the medical expenses of Christy Mack, the porn actress now recovering from a savage beating (allegedly) at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, the MMA fighter/ex-porn actor/convicted felon War Machine. (Note: Link contains picture of the injured Mack.)
Dramatic Reading Friday: A brave Reddit warrior takes on the “Sarkeesian feminists.”
Marlene Dietrich is not impressed
Over in the Men’s Right’s subreddit, one new Social Injustice Warrior is weary, worn down by fighting the Bad Fight against the “Sarkeesian feminists” on Twitter. And what better way to convey one’s weariness than with a melodramatic monologue?
So he posted this:
Attention Heartiste: Don Draper is not an actual person
The REAL thousand-cock stare
One of the odder folk beliefs of the pickup artist subculture is that women become worn down and used up and even a bit addled if they have sex with too many men. Men, by contrast, are said to be able to handle an equal number of female lovers with grace and aplomb.
In a recent post, our old friend Heartiste offers what he sees as decisive photographic evidence illustrating the different effects of promiscuity on men and women. One bit of this evidence: a picture of a young woman used to advertise some sort of singles event. Reflections from the photographer’s lights obscure her pupils, an offputting effect that gives her a slightly deranged look.
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:
D’oh! A deer, a female deer
I don’t even … what?
I don’t usually bother to read the comments on Chateau Heartiste; making it through Heartiste’s own florid yet turgid prose is exhausting enough. But after skimming a recent post of his on the increasing historical fatness of British women, I happened to glance down at the comments, only to see a discussion of the comparative anatomy of female humans and deer that was so odd and creepy I felt obligated to bring it to you all.
Brace yourself, because the following might just ruin your breakfast:
Ewwwwww.
I’m pretty sure that guy’s hunting license should be taken away from him. And if there were sex licenses for human beings, well, all three of these guys should lose those as well.
Vox Day: Reporting a rape you were too incapacitated to fully remember is like calling the cops when you can’t remember where you parked your car [UPDATED: Vox attacks anti-racists as child abuse enablers]
Searching for your car: Not much like rape.
In the world of fantasy writer and all-around hateful shithead Vox Day, women who are raped when they’re too drunk to consent should just suck it up, because reporting their rapes would be akin to someone calling police when they can’t remember where they’ve parked their car.
In a blog post today, Vox approvingly quotes a retiring British judge under fire for telling a newspaper that “the rape conviction statistics will not improve until women stop getting so drunk.” (This is the same judge who recently gave a teacher convicted of possessing a massive library of child porn a suspended sentence, saying that she couldn’t “criticise you for being a teacher who’s attracted to children.”)
Vox offers his take:
Viral Video Comedy Corner: Fedora Defender vs. Viral Kitten
The video above — in which a highly agitated young fellow with poor camera technique defends his sartorial choice — got posted in the comments here yesterday, and frankly it was too good not to share.
Oh, SPOILER ALERT: The fedoraed gentleman is not for real. He’s a YouTube comedian of sorts who specializes in surreal, awkward and often disturbing videos in the vein of television’s Tim and Eric.
I especially liked this VIRAL KITTEN video he posted the other day, and not just because it contains a kitten.
This Blender Box Blog Race is pretty exciting as well.
Men’s Rights Activists: Video gaming should be a “safe space” for male nerds.
Safe space! No girls allowed!
Though Men’s Rights activists devote an enormous amount of their time denouncing feminism – or at least the imaginary version of feminism that exists only in their own heads – they’re happy to appropriate feminist concepts when it suits them. One that many MRAs seem especially eager to claim for themselves is the idea of the “safe space.”
Of course, their version of the “safe space” bears only a slight resemblance to the feminist original. Feminists seek to create spaces for discussion in which say, rape survivors can discuss their experiences without being triggered by insensitive arguers and trolls and mansplainers in general.
When MRAs talk about “safe spaces,” by contrast, their goal is often to exclude women not just from discussion spaces but from full participation in society, essentially declaring giant arenas of work and play, from STEM fields to video games, to be places where feminists, and women in general, should fear to tread.
And so it’s hardly surprising that more than a few MRAs are arguing that the Zoe Quinn “scandal” proves that women and gaming don’t mix – or, at least, that they shouldn’t.
Heartiste: If society doesn’t mistreat women, they’ll all get fat and disagreeable
Damn those uppity women.
It’s rare that they come out and say it this explicitly, but here’s Heartiste, arguing that unless society treats women badly they won’t give him a boner. In a brief post about “Dread Game” — his term for manipulatively gaslighting women to prey on their insecurities — he offers up this bit of shitbag philosophy:
Dread game on a societal scale keeps women in line, always working hard to please men lest they be cast to the icy wastelands with the rest of the anti-feminine rejects. The opposite of Dread Game — Coddle Game — relaxes selective pressures on women to stay feminine and thin and agreeable. And so what you see now in the decadent, coddling West is what we get: Ballbusting fat feminist cunts and careerist androgynes.
So brave, Heartiste, so brave.
