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“Hatred and anger are power,” and other thoughts on women and gaming from Spearheaders

Evil incarnate

Over on The Spearhead, W.F. Price celebrates the harassment directed at Anita Sarkeesian’s Tropes Against Women video project as a sign of a powerful new backlash against the evils of feminism, a backlash he’s proud to be a part of. Dudes being obnoxious to a woman on the internet: Men’s Rights at its finest.

Oh, sure, Price acknowledges, some of the attacks on her were “juvenile” – and thus not as effective as they might otherwise have been — and the controversy did enable Sarkeesian to raise more than $130,000 for her project, but Price even sees this as a victory of sorts:

As for Sarkeesian’s success, we should be happy about it, because I can’t think of a more worthless way to spend over a hundred thousand dollars than in finger-wagging over video games. For one thing, it’s sure to piss even more guys off, and the game industry is very competitive, so her documentary (now expanded to 12 parts!) will likely have zero effect on production and consumption of this form of entertainment. The feminists are simply pissing all the money away, and that’s fine, because this time they’re paying for it themselves.

No question about it: those grapes were definitely sour.

Naturally, the Spearhead regulars were overjoyed by these new signs of, er, progress. Here are some highlights from the discussion that followed; lest I be accused once again of cherry-picking outliers, each and every one of the comments I quote below got literally dozens of net upvotes. This is what these guys really think.

Mojo offers a sort of backlash manifesto:

Feminists will never understand that it is -they- who are the oppressors. They cling to their delusion that they are the ‘underdog’ against the system, even as they control the system.

Revolution requires an enemy class to attack … this is seen as justified when the enemy class controls the system. But feminism is perpetual revolution. So what happens when they gain control over the system? They continue to attack the enemy class, i.e. men, thinking they are striking the next blow against the patriarchy, when what they are doing is more like a pogrom.

Yep, he went there.

Now -they- are the system, they are able and more than willing to intimidate, humiliate, expropriate. It will get indefinitely worse if they have their way. Liberal feminism leads -necessarily- to radical feminism.

Still, we don’t need feminists to ‘understand’ that they are the persecutors (I imagine some of them know this full well and are just misandrist sadists, little Eichmanns). It doesn’t matter what they think or know or understand. What matters is what -we- think, know and understand, and how we are going to act on it.

So … like the swivel-eyed feminist lunatics progressing from attempted assassinations to laying the foundations for institutional and legal abuse … I ask you – what are we going to DO with this knowledge and awareness beyond changing online discourse? …

Thinking like a leftist, though: why not attach ourselves to the GOP in order to subvert its gender politics and radicalize it in the MRA direction? That kind of approach has worked wonders for leftists and their infiltrations into public institutions …

Huh. Reactionary anti-feminists attaching themselves to the Republican Party? No one’s ever thought of that before.

Keyster offers some equally, er, innovative thinking:

Feminism has failed because women as a group adopted the notion of “equality” with men, while stubbornly clinging to their sexual/reproductive power over men. Had feminism truly helped women “realize their greatness”, there’d be far more great women. Instead there’s just more feminists. It’s run it’s course over 3 generations and it’s out of time to prove itself righteous.

The original “male chauvanist pigs” of the early 70′s, were right all along. Women are biologically and chemically ill-equipped to be men. If the Creator had meant women to be more like men, he wouldn’t have given them the ability to bring forth life from their bodies.

Ryu not only embraces the backlash, but seems perfectly fine with the notion that the Men’s Rights movement is a hate movement:

Good. Hatred and anger are power. Whenever you hear someone say “stop the hate”, it is a call to throw down your greatest weapons.

Young Guy purports to speak for all young guys (manginas presumably excepted):

If feminists think men, especially young men, are angry, they don’t know the half of it. As a 26 year-old male, I have seen this society bend over backwards to accommodate women all the time.

The school curriculums are geared toward female success. Schools have countless women’s programs. Female teachers can be as hateful as they want towards male students without facing consequences. People cheer when girls succeed in school, but jeer when boys succeed in school. Even though females have every advantage in the education system, they somehow still have the audacity to complain. They take fluff majors but don’t realize anyone with less than half a brain could pass classes in the humanities and social sciences.

What makes so many MRAs such proud yahoos?.

Oh, and just look at the workplace. Sexual harassment laws give women freedom to dress slutty and still have the nerve to complain when men sneak a peek. If you are a man who has a female co-worker, you have to walk on eggshells everyday or else you can get fired because the twat in the other room got her panties in a bunch over something minor you said. You can be a man who has busted his ass everyday to succeed in your chosen profession, only to see it mean nothing because some woman who was nothing more than an affirmative action hire. If this isn’t bad enough, you get these useless women who are subpar, yet they still never shut up about breaking through the mythical glass-ceiling that they didn’t break and didn’t exist in the first place.

Working men, forever cursed by subpar women.

Also, I have really had enough of women dragging this country down with their dead-weight. Female soldiers, police officers, and firefighters are liabilities. No, all you ladies in these jobs, you aren’t heroes. I am going to go insane if I hear one more female soldier, police officer, or firefighter cry about not getting the respect she thinks she deserves. She doesn’t get respect because she doesn’t deserve respect. The military, law enforcement, and firefighters would be A LOT better off if women stopped lowering the bar to astronomical proportions.

“Lowering the bar to astronomical proportions?” Young Guy here has clearly not yet mastered the fine art of metaphor.

He blabs on a bit longer before wrapping up with:

The backlash is not only real, but it is well-deserved. Apologies won’t erase the damage which has been done. Acting like what happened because of feminism either didn’t happen or was minor is a slap in the face. Saying women have suffered from feminism just as much as men is like spitting in the faces of all the men who have suffered ten lifetimes of pain because of feminism.

Not one, not two, not five, but ten lifetimes of pain? MRAs really are the world’s greatest drama kings.

Andrew S., meanwhile, seems a little confused as to what feminists would like to see happening in the video game industry:

It will be interesting to see if feminists can ruin the gaming industry like they ruin pretty much everything else. There is a lot of money being made off “gamers,” and even guys like me who play the occasional game but aren’t hardcore contribute a lot of money to the industry.

I doubt there are a lot of young guys and men out there who are going to want to play games that involve a bunch of screaming feminists, and where the object of the game is to destroy the “evil patriarchy.” The truth is guys who play games want their female characters to be either hot, large breasted, ass kicking types, or sexy non-feminist types that you save. If the gaming industry changes this dynamic to much due to Feminist/liberal pressure they will destroy a cash cow. And feminism will have yet another “victory.”

 

Unrestricted and uncriticized access to giant tittied video game ladies: a sacred men’s right!

Kevin evidently speaks for many when he says he wants video games to remain a boys club:

Video games are pretty much the only place that feminism can’t invade unless the principle consumers of them want it. You don’t have to play with girls, or listen to girls, or do other pansy shit. You probably can’t leave a football team and join a different one that has no women, you sure as hell can do that online. Don’t like all the teamwork talk? Play by yourself.

Feminists don’t like video games because; they can’t make them, they can’t force you to buy them or play them even if they did, they couldn’t ruin the experience for you unless you wanted them to.

You can do anything feminists don’t want you to do, and best of all you’re rewarded for it.

Anonymous Age 70 doesn’t even play video games, but he was pleased to learn that you can shoot ladies in them:

Speaking of video games, I am reminded of my son 8 or 10 years ago. I visited him, and he had some kind of shoot-em-up video game. He was partnered with a dearie, and the instant the game started, he always put a bullet in the middle of her forehead. Then, he’d laugh as if it were the funniest thing ever.

I told him he was a sick man, but I was also laughing as if it were the funniest thing ever.

Seriously, he told me he performed better with her dead than needing to be protected.

A great analogy for marriage 2.0, yes?

Women, can’t live them, can’t shoot them in the head. Except in video games!

Criticizing video games is misandry!

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ACLAF
ACLAF
12 years ago

“You… you seem to want some sort of get out of jail free card for something that happened on another blog.

Grow up. Get over yourself. You aren’t that special.”

False. I mention what happened back then for two reasons.

First, to point out how ridiculous it is that David posted a rant from 2007 or 2008 as being somehow relevant, or important.

Second, to illustrate that everything you think you know, or understand about me is wrong.

WordSpinner
WordSpinner
12 years ago

If ACLAF isn’t an acronym, I vote for Always Converse Like A Ferengi.

Argenti Aertheri
Argenti Aertheri
12 years ago

“But someone lied to me, and I feel pretty betrayed by it.”

And we have yet another MRA who either thinks feminists control the media, or cannot figure out that the media is more or less nothing but lies.

pillowinhell
pillowinhell
12 years ago

Also, feminism isn’t the same as pop culture. Feminisn says that women like a variety of things in bed. And that if that happens to be a quick fuck, great! Welcome to owning your sexuality ladies! Quick fucks or rose petals and two hours of cunnigulus, as long as that’s what both people agree to its all good.

Argenti Aertheri
Argenti Aertheri
12 years ago

“And I wouldn’t trade him in for Jack Harkness.”

Blasphemy!! (Perks of an open relationship, I could have Jack and the FWB!…and 10…and maybe that’s enough before I TMI XD )

“Second, to illustrate that everything you think you know, or understand about me is wrong.”

Dude, we’re basing wtf we know about you on what you’ve said in this thread.

ragefromthebasement
12 years ago

ACLAF:

So are you against feminism because of what Simone de Bouvier said?

I think it’s great that you have a SAHW, assuming that she likes being one. I myself am a SAHW. It is possible to be one and a feminist at the same time. We aren’t all the same. The point is that women and men should be free to pursue their own individual desires, not pigeonholed into constrictive gender norms. People try to turn the whole working mother issue into a wedge, and it’s really kind of a moot point, since most women can’t afford to stay home. It’s classist to assume that being a SAHW is an attainable goal for most women.

ACLAF
ACLAF
12 years ago

“Yes, he should be charged for unsafe storage because the gun and the ammo are supposed to be kept in locked,seperate areas. He broke the law.”

First it was stray bullets, and now it’s “Well he broke the law!” Except that he did not, and his ongoing trial is a politically motivated witch-hunt, thank feminist-inspired laws.

Google-fu the Firearms Act will you? Fuck it, I’ll do it FOR you: http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-98-209/page-3.html#h-4

“(c) it is not readily accessible to ammunition, unless the ammunition is stored, together with or separately from the firearm, in

(i) a container or receptacle that is kept securely locked and that is constructed so that it cannot readily be broken open or into, or

(ii) a vault, safe or room that has been specifically constructed or modified for the secure storage of restricted firearms and that is kept securely locked.”

Mr. Thompson’s fireams and ammunition were stored in a safe, which explicitly meets the regulations.

Noadi
12 years ago

Take sex. I internalized a message that what women really wanted was a nice long rose-petal scented bath, with chocolates and, candles, followed by two-hours of cunnilingus, and then maybe, if she’s in the mood, she’ll put out. I BELIEVED that, and I had to learn, much later in life, that sometimes, women just want a good hard roll in the hay. Thinking the former, and not the latter almost cost me my marriage once or twice. So who lied here?

No one lied. Plenty of women DO like that sort of sex. The problem is you took the message that sometimes some women like a grand romantic night of sex and internalized is as all women always want this sort of sex and nothing else. If someone told you that their favorite food was chocolate cake with strawberries would you only every make that for dinner? Of course not, because people have different moods and like variety. I’m into BDSM, I like heavy pain play and rough sex but that’s not what I want all the time. Sometimes I want something slow and gentle and romantic, sometimes I want a quickie, sometimes I want an orgasm and no intercourse at all. People are complicated and want different things sometimes, this isn’t a hard concept if you understand that women are people.

pillowinhell
pillowinhell
12 years ago

Jack Harkness is pretty and all, but I really don’t fancy all the time I’d be spending in the gym, just to have the strength to support his massive ego.

Argenti Aertheri
Argenti Aertheri
12 years ago

First, I said google-fu, yet that’s a quote from pillowinhell. Second, for the love of all things right in the world, yes you can google your own references! That’s not just proper manners, refusing to is a fallacy — today on Spot That Fallacy!!

(shifting the) Burden of proof (see – onus probandi) – I need not prove my claim, you must prove it is false
Onus probandi – from Latin “onus probandi incumbit ei qui dicit, non ei qui negat” the burden of proof is on the person who makes the claim, not on the person who denies (or questions the claim). It is a particular case of the “argumentum ad ignorantiam” fallacy, here the burden is shifted on the person defending against the assertion

So yes please cite your claims.

Third, would you like more cases of people killed or injured by people shooting into the air? Because I’ve got plenty more where the last 3 came from.

Argenti Aertheri
Argenti Aertheri
12 years ago

“Jack Harkness is pretty and all, but I really don’t fancy all the time I’d be spending in the gym, just to have the strength to support his massive ego.”

Ah fair enough, might be worth it for this tardis-tracking skills though (forget the sexytimes, I want that magic box!)

Cliff Pervocracy
12 years ago

“Second, to illustrate that everything you think you know, or understand about me is wrong.”

I don’t know or understand anything about you except that you’re a boring typical troll with a silly acronym. I think you vastly overestimate how much attention we’re really paying to you. Just because we’re troll-baiting you does not mean that we know or care who the hell you are.

pecunium
12 years ago

ACLAF: False again. She managed to get to her phone WHILE being raped and beaten. If she’d been allowed to reach for a pistol instead of her phone, she’d be alive.

That’s still mindset. She didn’t go for a weapon, she went for the phone. There are lots of weapons in arms reach of me right now, none of which are firearms.

That, and being beaten tends to discombobulate people. Again, mindset. One has to be used to being attacked to make the right responses to being attacked.

And you accuse me of poor fact-checking? He ISN’T being charged with Careless use of a firearm. He’s being charged with UNSAFE STORAGE!

No, I don’t accuse you of poor fact checking. I accuse you of being wrong (and I think you a clueless buffoon, but that’s not important). I think he’s lucky that all he’s facing is unsafe storage.

pillowinhell
pillowinhell
12 years ago

What is it with men and height? Yu know women come in various sizes right? I’m five foot fuck all and I’d actually prefer it if Beloved were a little shorter. Huge height differences makes for awwkward sex, awkward dancing and a sore neck for me.

Also, I could complain that men seem to prefer that women be significantly tinier than them. Every guy I’ve tried to date that WAS closer to my height wasn’t interested in me, he wanted someone shorter. I don’t cry about that, I shrug my shoulders and move on. Christ.

Argenti Aertheri
Argenti Aertheri
12 years ago

Also, you’re straight up lying. He was charged with careless use of a firearm, which is described as:

86. Careless use of firearm, etc.

Careless use of firearm, etc.

86. (1) Every person commits an offence who, without lawful excuse, uses, carries, handles, ships, transports or stores a firearm, a prohibited weapon, a restricted weapon, a prohibited device or any ammunition or prohibited ammunition in a careless manner or without reasonable precautions for the safety of other persons.

Contravention of storage regulations, etc.

(2) Every person commits an offence who contravenes a regulation made under paragraph 117(h) of the Firearms Act respecting the storage, handling, transportation, shipping, display, advertising and mail-order sales of firearms and restricted weapons.

Punishment

(3) Every person who commits an offence under subsection (1) or (2)

(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment

(i) in the case of a first offence, for a term not exceeding two years, and

(ii) in the case of a second or subsequent offence, for a term not exceeding five years; or

(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
R.S., 1985, c. C-46, s. 86; 1991, c. 40, s. 3; 1995, c. 39, s. 139.

Please cite where it’s the storage, and not the usage, that’s the problem // what he’s being charged with.

pecunium
12 years ago

ACLAF: I don’t have any issues with women, I respect women, I understand and appreciate their choices, their rights under the law, the right to self-determination, reproductive rights etc.

Yes you do. You have a problem with them the minute they stop agreeing with you, esp. if they call themselves feminists.

Gun control in Canada is considered a women’s issue, but for my money, I would want my wife and daughters to be able to carry pistols for personal protection. I would hope they never have to use them of course, and the chances are small. But if it should ever happen, well, I want my loved ones to be alive.

You are a foolish dolt. Firearms are a tool. They are not a magic wand. I’ve lived with them. I’ve spent more time with one in my hand than most people have spent fucking.

I’ve spent more nights than I care to think about sleeping with them. I’ve spent more nights sleeping with one in arm’s reach than I’ve spent sleeping with a partner (and I’ve been sleeping with partners on a pretty regular basis since 1988). I’ve spent more night with one actually in my arms than most people have spent the night with most of their partners.

I’ve pointed them at people with the intent of killing them.

They are useful. They aren’t fucking magic. They take practice. Regular practice. They take training; both in application, and in intent.

Can you recognise a class one malfunction? Can you clear a stovepipe? Do you know the sonic difference between a hangfire and a dry chamber? Have you practiced clearing a hangfire when you can’t wait to fire a live round?

Have you practiced quick-firing drills? Do you know how to double-tap up to target? Are you practiced as shooting under stress to cope with the tendency to shoot high? If you have a failure to feed are you practiced in clearing, rechambering and reacquiring the target? How much time have you spent practicing the act of loading (not firing, just loading. Empty well/cylinder, to a round in battery)? Are you situationally aware of the potential threats in your AO (pop quiz, the last five constables you saw… were the right handed or left? Did they have batons? What level (1/2/3) of body army were they wearing?).

How quickly can you acquire, and engage a target?

Do you spend at least 2 hours a week going over this sort of thing?

How many rounds of ammunition do you fire in a month?

Do you do those things with each weapon you own, on a regular basis?

I’m good with weapons. I am good with them because I practice. I practice all of the things I mentioned, and a lot more besides.

And… if someone who did practise these things were coming for you, the only thing which could save you, is being aware of that, and calling the RCMP, or the OPP, and telling them.

Then, if you see them, put a gun into your hand, and wait for them to commit to trying to kill you.

Would the guy in Little Italy in Toronto last week have survived if he’d been armed?

No. Not at all.

Not even if he’d done all I do, as religiously as I do. Because guns aren’t fucking magic

ragefromthebasement
12 years ago

@pillowinhell

I agree with you about tall guys. I’m 5’4 and I prefer someone under 6 feet, if possible.

pecunium
12 years ago

ragefromthebasement: Rutger Hauer. Yum. He’s a nice guy too. Seemed to treat his girlfriend well, had a sense of humor, etc.

I’d’ve been glad to buy him a drink, but he had places to go, and I had to work.

ragefromthebasement
12 years ago

Damn, Pecunium is the shit. I’d shake your hand and buy you a beer if I could 🙂

pecunium
12 years ago

And now I go to have my beloved measure me for a new kilt (US Army Tartan) and then to sleep, before she heads away for the weekend.

I’ll deal with whatever else GUNS WILL SOLVE THE EMASCULATION OF THE CANADIAN MAN has to say before I head to work tomorrow.

Have fun with him in my absence.

Nanasha
Nanasha
12 years ago

Here’s the problem with the whole “girls don’t like video games” thing- plenty of women and young girls like video games. And no matter how much these jerks keep saying that the pink DS or the frilly dress-up game isn’t a “real game” it actually *IS*. *AND* there are more games that female gamers like besides just the ones marketed towards women.

And most feminists aren’t even trying to argue that “all games must be feminist” (this is just another straw man by the MRAs), but they are looking at things from a critical viewpoint and looking at them intelligently- who does this hurt- who does this objectify- and what does that say about how people consume this media? Should we change it? If so, how?

I’ve noticed that feminists tend to ask more questions and look more deeply into media because of the simple fact that entertainment is a direct thread to our subconscious in a lot of ways, and unfortunately, gender roles and stereotypes programmed into us from a very young age can do a lot of damage in there if you don’t call them out and take a look at them under a nice, harsh light.

Besides, I’d really love to know how all the evil feminists have taken over the world because I just got back from my maternity leave planning session with my work and apparently if I want to keep my medical insurance (which, ya know, you need if you have a baby and thyroid problems), I now have to follow this new rule which basically says I have to pay the full $1500 premium to my insurance FIRST, wait for the payment to post, print out the posted check, submit a reimbursement sheet to my workplace, and they’ll wait another 2-3 weeks to process and send me a check back for the reimbursement amount. Last time I took leave, I merely had to pay my monthly contribution to the premium, which was doable. But exactly where am I supposed to get the 3000 to 4000 dollars to “juggle” in this ridiculous chain of reimbursements and payments for INSURANCE ONLY and still also pay my rent, food and basic expenses?

If the feminists have won, what kind of fucking win was that?

If my husband had the job I do, our insurance would be safe. As it is, I’m concerned that I’ll have to go give birth and then go to work the next day while passing blood clots the size of my fist just so I won’t lose my insurance. /sorryfortherant

Argenti Aertheri
Argenti Aertheri
12 years ago

Ontario criminal records do not appear to be available online, which makes me annoyed as we’re left with news reports taking wildly different spins on the case.

“guns aren’t fucking magic”

Repeating that for emphasis.

pillowinhell
pillowinhell
12 years ago

You realize that this woman could have pulled a pen and killed the guy, her keys. If she had perfume she could have sprayed it in his eyes. Christ, she probably had plenty of pavement around, that’s stuffs pretty efficient at beating skulls in. She also had her own fingers to gouge out eyes, elbows to knock the wind outta him or possibly break his windpipe. She could have given him testicular torsion wih her bare hands. That would likely have seen him dead. She could have broken fingers (I’d go for the pinky, its easy to break a grip when you twist it around on someone) she could have smashed his nose …like Pecunium says it wasn’t the lack of possible weapons, it was the lack of training to maim and kill when you’re reacting to a situation in progress.

Shaenon
12 years ago

Do all women who aren’t feminists like musclemen, or tall skinny guys? Those are two different things.

Janet: I don’t like men with lots of muscles.
Audience: Just one big one!
(Brad glares but he’s secretly into it)

Maybe the short guys could date feminists.

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