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
They aren’t vile misogynists steele?
Of course they are. Just like my teacher was a vile misandrist.
oh double lol
would you also say that when you use a word, it means exactly what you choose it to mean — neither more nor less?
Steele: Why is not using the term “misandry” so God-damn important to you? I’ve never in my life seen people so deadset against something so simple and so trivial.
If it’s so trivial, why do you care so much?
Maybe it’s because you want it to be seen as a problem (in the popular mind) as misogyny?
Maybe it’s not actually so trivial.
I don’t accept this- etymology isn’t the be-all end-all of the meaning of a word.
That’s the crux of it. When all is said and done usage is what defines a word. Dictionaries trail usage. You want the usage to change; you want misandry to be a word with weight.
We think, with a lot of explication as to why, this is bunk.
In response you’ve stamped your foot, lied about your position, misrepresented others positions, told us what our experiences really meant and otherwise been a whiny little shit.
And from this you expect us to suddenly change our minds and give you what you want. You are shocked to find out we don’t.
wait wait wait
a minute ago you were all in a tizzy because language needed to be more loose and general, now your complaining that it’s not specific enough?
you really need to pick one thing to be hopping mad about and stick with it
Did you not read all the things that the commenters here wrote about how it implies a false equivalence with misogyny?
People have explained to you over and over again why they don’t like the term “misandry” — and yet you have to ask why we’re so dead set against the word?
Have you been paying any attention?
Well, I don’t know whether or not there are more individuals with an irrational hatred of men than there are individuals with an irrational hatred of people in hats. They both seem pretty darned rare to me, to the point where I don’t really think you need a specific word to refer to either of them. Maybe in some other hypothetical society or culture, those things might be serious problems that are widespread enough to warrant their own word. But that’s not the world that we’re living in right now.
No, etymology is not the be-all and end-all. But that doesn’t mean that it can be completely discounted either. Given that the etymology of the word “misandry” is pretty obvious, and something I suspect most people could figure out on their own just by looking at the word, I would certainly think it would be important in this case.
1,100+ comments, with someone who said —
Back on fucking topic for a moment, Steele, could you at least manage to admit that the maker and supporters of the “game” in the OP are “vile scumbags”? I mean, you’re calling all of us that simply for disagreeing with you…
Sharculese- You’re a disingenuous turd.
As I’ve said multiple times, I recognize that context matters. The critical theory approach is useful in a sociological context becomes sociology looks at macro structures, not individuals. So the understanding of “misandry” is modified accordingly.
All I’m saying is, the layman’s definition, as it stands, has to be one valid use. Unless you want to take it up with Merriam-Webster.
@Steele:
I’ve argued for my position as much as I possibly can. You’ve done this:
Put up something, anything, to justify your opinion. The only thing you’ve got is assertions, and you’ve explicitely admitted that you aren’t interested in backing them up because, get this, feminists are too dogmatically attached to their views. How is what you’re doing anything but dogmatic adherence to your beliefs?
When you start actually supporting your opinion, I’ll be interested in talking to you again. As it is, it’s like talking to a brick wall that flings poo at you every couple minutes.
But I was so proud when we successfully blocked implementation of PUMA-PIE. I mean, it isn’t in Merriam-Webster is it?
argenti you are confusing him with someone who thought things all the way through before he decided to bluster around about how people arent letting him make words mean whatever he wants them too
Sorry, I think that was in another thread. Things move so fast around here.
Steele: That’s less descriptive. Why is this person an asshole?, is the next question. She hates men”, is the answer.
Nah, the answer would be something like, “she shat all over my dreams,” or, “she said men who don’t have maseratis are all losers”.
Not, “she hates men”. Because that would lead to, “what makes you say that”, at which point you are right where you are with, “she’s an asshole.” Since you had to make an intermediate step of defining “misandry” to most people (who aren’t MRAs), you’re word is less efficient.
So..you’ve been throwing a three day insult/tantrum/pity party for yourself on ONE instance but all I get is “of course they are”.
We’ll just overlook the many people, over multiple decades on an daily basis shall we? Nothing to look at here.
Except there is…I’m continuing to pursue my passions, I never stopped. And I’ve not wasted my life and talents whingeing to strangers about how terribly damaged. My life is as a result. I don’t use it as an excuse to hurl insults at people who don’t see life the way I do. I don’t demand the world throws itself at my feet and begs forgiveness. I don’t follow a movement that calls for the extermination,degradation,enslavement or torture of half the human race.
LOL!!! You wouldn’t happen to have a video of that, would you?
People have explained to you over and over again why they don’t like the term “misandry” — and yet you have to ask why we’re so dead set against the word?
Okay. That’s your opinion. I accept it; you don’t have to use the word if you don’t want. As I’ve said, it is my position that “misandry” in no way applies an equivalence; you can disagree, and engage in inefficient language and roundabout tedium instead of using the word. You can also come across as monumental assholes when confronted with men who were abused or raped or demeaned or bullied by misandrist women and it becomes your primary concern to establish that it’s “really not misandry”.
In any case, it’s an actual word with an actual meaning, that is actually defined. I will continue to use “misandry”.
re: PUMA-PIE — that was over here
for someone who wants to appear to care so much about language it is also really quaint that you have this toolbox of nasty sounding words that you sort of lash out with incoherently whenever you feel like things arent going your way
i dont see how ive been disingenuous tho. i feel like ive been pretty upfront about the fact that youre deploying whatever frame you think is convenient in the present moment without paying attention to how the artifice hangs together (it doesnt)
or is disingenuous just one of those words like ‘projection’ you seem to think means ‘person who disagrees with me’?
Since you had to make an intermediate step of defining “misandry” to most people
This is the problem, and why there is an MRM. It’s not argument against using the term (?) it’s an argument to double our efforts.
Would you make the same argument about “misogynist”? Frankly, a good chunk of people probably do not know that word either.
@Pam:
I don’t, and I never thought I’d say this, but I really want this video to exist.
Now that I think of it, I’m sure Zero Punctuation has a suitably apropos clip in some episode or another… Can’t be arsed to look at this point, though.
“argenti you are confusing him with someone who thought things all the way through before he decided to bluster around about how people arent letting him make words mean whatever he wants them too”
Yeah on that note, my opinion of him is he’s an asshole…not because he has no grasp of logic or anything, just because he’s really fucking tedious.
David, should you manage to catch any of this thread as it whizzes by, can we get an IP check for Varpole socks, and maybe a “stop being tedious” mod-hat?
aaaaaaaand since tone trolling didnt work out how he hoped, now were back to passive-aggressive sniveling. who wants to take bets on which way he goes next.
Well, I don’t know whether or not there are more individuals with an irrational hatred of men than there are individuals with an irrational hatred of people in hats.
I accept your experience; mine has been vastly different. It is possible that, as a woman, you do not recognize existences of misandry and/or are not exposed directly.
what’s your excuse for all the dudes in this thread who dont buy into your little pity party?
So…..
Since I give it five minutes to the next meltdown and its getting tedious…anyone want to hear about my next embroidery project?