Yesterday I wrote about a vile online game in which players were invited to “beat up Anita Sarkeesian,” the feminist cultural critic who’s faced endless harassment because she had the temerity to ask for donations to fund a video project looking at sexist tropes in video games.
The game, which (happily) has been removed from Newgrounds.com, where it was originally posted, was put together by a young Canadian gamer named Bendilin Spurr. On the game’s page, he offered this explanation as to why he created the game:
Anita Sarkeesian has not only scammed thousands of people out of over $160,000, but also uses the excuse that she is a woman to get away with whatever she damn well pleases. Any form of constructive criticism, even from fellow women, is either ignored or labelled to be sexist against her.
She claims to want gender equality in video games, but in reality, she just wants to use the fact that she was born with a vagina to get free money and sympathy from everyone who crosses her path.
That doesn’t really explain much, as asking people for voluntary donations to a video project is a far cry from “scamming,” especially since she’d asked for far less, and that the misogynist backlash to her project began long before she’d collected anywhere near this amount.
It also doesn’t quite explain why Bendilin felt that a Sarkessian-punching game was the best format to make this, er, critique.
Last night, after learning from the comments here that young Bendilin had a profile on Steam and a Twitter account, I decided to peruse both to see if I could find more clues that might explain his foul game.
On his Steam profile, he’s set forth his basic philosophy of life, video games, and how much women suck:
I think it’s just adorable how absolutely no girls are any good at video games, just like how no woman has ever written a good novel. They are nothing but talk and no action, probably because girls are such emotional creatures and base everything they do on their current feelings and then try to rationalize their actions later. How pathetic.
You know what’s priceless? When a gamer girl posts a pic of herself looking as slutty as possible and then throws a fake fit when people talk to her like she’s a whore. What did you think was going to happen, you dumb broad? Lose thirty pounds.
Sadly, these aren’t terribly rare or original opinions for a young male gamer.
Over on Twitter, Bendilin has offered a number of conflicting explanations for why he felt so much hostility for Sarkeesian and her video project that he felt justified in creating a video game devoted to punching her in the face.
There’s the fiscal argument:
There’s the laziness argument:
There’s the rather strange argument that Sarkeesian is not taking the proper time to research the subject, although she has not yet started the project. (Also, one of the reasons she was asking for money was so that she could take the time to research the subject properly.)
The “nuh-uh you’re wrong” argument:
The “she won’t listen to me argument.” Part one: The Lego Incident
And Part 2, in which our hero explains that making a video game about punching someone in the face is a great way to open a dialogue with them:
Naturally, Bendilin, like most misogynists, fervently denies that he’s a misogynist:
Yep, that’s right. The guy whose Steam profile claims that “absolutely no girls are any good at video games” and that “no woman has ever written a good novel,” and who decided to express his criticism for a video project that hasn’t even started by making a video game in which players punch the woman behind it in the face, is angry that anyone might conclude that he hates women.
Well, Bendilin, if you wanted to defend video games and the gaming community at large from charges of sexism, you’ve done a bang-up job of it.
UPDATE: Bendilin is also an artist! Here, Virgil Texas takes a look at Bendilin’s erotically charged Sonic the Hedgehog art.
That last paragraph and the update contained
How can we when you still haven’t learned how to talk properly?
Concern troll with poor reading comprehension cannot tell the difference between rage and mockery. Thinks that people who are laughing at him are very very angry. Why would any teacher discourage this person from pursuing a career in which reading comprehension is important? Must be the misandry.
It’s in the same place as his MOUNTAINS OF SEEEECRET EVIDENCE for the death threats that MRA bloggers get.
Oooh, shoot, forgot. Wikipedia is a notorious feminist hate site, so anything on it can be dismissed…
“Not that I expect most people will have a problem with it, because in the end most people, I believe, would realize that you’re a scumbag who is unduly and bizarrely concerned with performing mental gymnastics to avoid using a single word.”
This from the man who had to be bombarded for two pages with links about George Sodini and Marc Lepine before he would actually admit they existed, and then it was just to say, “they were isolated incidents”. But we’re supposed to listen to all of your anecdotes as if they’re happening! Right! Now! Kindly go fuck yourself, you disingenuous shitheel. You’ve been doing nothing but arguing in bad faith since you got here and on top of that you try and shame us for something that NEVER HAPPENED. Or did you all ready forget your slanderous accusations that we belittled and made fun of a rape victim? You’re on a blog where someone who made light of CONVICTED MURDERERS being raped got their ass chewed into a rag for it. As usual, more bullshit from you without a shred of proof.
Oh damn, there I go being angry, I guess that means Steele wins. *eyeroll*
Kirbywarp, damn, guy. Way to help me out! I see how “misandry” refers to some specific individuals:
opposed to their Egyptian cousins in particular
And refers to a more systematic hatred:
often extend their objections to include the race of males as a whole
Interesting. It seems, based on the wiki, that “misandry” could refer to a more specific hatred, as well as a general antipathy. Shocking!
I really don’t give a damn about the opinion of Allan G. Johnson, a feminist who retroactively justifies his crap with hack sociology at some SUNY school.
Aw, muffin, but I thought I went into knee-jerk LGBT rage-mode. 🙁 Did I mix rages? Will that have any long-lasting side effects, guys? Because I need to go in to work tomorrow.
I did actually see that you said it’s not institutional, congratulations for not being a totally helpless case! However, you’re like it’s still something meaningful enough that there would be merit to talking about it (much like the “misandry” you’re totally incapable of defining or backing up). And that’s fucking ludicrous, because it’s not institutional, because it’s only select, powerless individuals who might be “heterophobes”.
There is no point in discussing “misandry” unless you can actually argue that it has an institutional basis, because otherwise it makes no more difference in the real world than heterophobia does, or a hatred of pretty little sticky-stemmed pink flowers.
Allan G Johnson… man’s name, I guess. A sociologist? Hm, that’s the humanities. I wonder how he got past the female gatekeepers that ruthlessly exclude men?
But…I believe pretty flowers have an influence in the real world, Viscaria.
@Steele:
Wow. Huh. And yet, even if we grant that misandry could refer to both, proving the existence of the individual case still doesn’t show that the systematic case exists. Exactly what we’ve all been saying all along.
You should listen to Johnson though, especially about that whole confusing “men as individuals with men as a dominant and privileged category of people.” You in fact did this very thing earlier when you implied that denying institutional misandry also denied that bad things ever happen to (white) men individually.
I’d also like to draw observers’ attention to this
I do not deny your experience. I’d ask that you extend to me the same courtesy, when I tell you I was emotionally damaged by a verbally abusive, misandrist female authority figure in similar (albeit probably more extreme) circumstances.
And note Kirbywarp’s monumental arrogance when he states that the bullying and abuse his teacher dished out was “good for him” and thus it was a positive. He presumes to pass judgement on which forms of hatred are “good” based on his hyper-feminist worldview. There are boys who probably were actually damaged by your teacher’s bullshit, and you praise her? You sack of shit.
OH THE HUE MANATEES
By the way, totally called the “WOOP WOOP feminist lackey, dismissing” thing.
But steele, I did deliver on the etymology, and you haven’t objected to the idea that “misandry” is supposed to be the counter-term to “misogyny,” and since you have a habit of just moving on when you’re proven wrong, I’ll take that as assent that you accept this now. You’re welcome. 🙂
@Sir Bodsworth Rugglesby III:
“I wonder how he got past the female gatekeepers that ruthlessly exclude men?”
Come on, we know the answer to this one too. Obviously Allan G Johnson is a mangina who white-knighted his way through humanities.
Call me when your entire gender isn’t allowed to enroll in college.
Is it possible to white-knight your way through military history, I wonder? I mean, we have actual knights.
The rainbow manatee has made an appearance. All hail the rainbow manatee.
(God I love that manatee.)
There is no point in discussing “misandry” unless you can actually argue that it has an institutional basis, because otherwise it makes no more difference in the real world than heterophobia does
Well, I certainly disagree that misandry is as inconsequential as heterophobia, but there’s no point in arguing that, because you’re a feminist.
or a hatred of pretty little sticky-stemmed pink flowers.
Flowers cannot be violently raped and sodomized by their aunt, now can they?
Didn’t the knights all die in Vietnam? That was the mostly costly conflict ever, after all.
Steele, you’ve yet to provide any evidence for systematic misandry.
I’m still waiting.
@Steele:
Good thing I clarified that my teacher’s behavior was not, in fact, bullying or hatred in a comment I linked for you, and noted that it did me no harm (and some good by highlighting feminist issues at an early age and stimulating my curiosity) while probably helping the girls in the class as well.
It’s not like I’m saying I was beaten as a kid, and that was actually healthy for me. And it’s not like I’m then saying that your (as of yet still ambiguous) experience should have been good for you. So… I guess we’re cool then?
No, the reason that there’s no point in arguing it is that you are unwilling to provide us with any evidence for it.
@Steele:
*sigh* I look forward to the day when Steele is willing to actually debate the one thing about his whole spiel that has any relevence or consequence.
Anathema, Steele doesn’t attempt to prove anything. Notice he’s still harping on the “you made fun of a rape victim” thing even though it’s a complete fabrication. What he does is throw out accusations and slander so he can thump his chest about how he gave us what for later on when he’s talking to his fellow MRA bottom-feeders.