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
“(I mean, I know how–you start with “violence against women is awesome and violence against men is serious business, because I hate women and also I’m kinda dumb”
Sounds like some serious projection there. I’ve known guys like you, usually with internalized violence and anger issues that they project onto others. Then again, when you’re so thick that you see no difference between murdering people who “appear threatening” and a whimsical game about beating up an annoying person, I don’t think there’s any point in arguing at all because frankly, you’re just a moron.
Wait, I have anger issues because I think (although I’d rather not do either) attacking someone for being threatening is more acceptable than attacking someone for being “annoying”?
Very strange kind of anger I’ve got, here.
Johnny, there you go projecting. Leave and stay gone if there’s no point in arguing. Please, go.
Oh my god, with the whining already. The horror! A woman dared to state publicly that she felt her time and opinions had value. Double horror! Other people agreed with her. Of their own free will! And gave her money. Of their own free will!
Dudes who are so pissed? Is someone threatening to tie you down and make you watch these videos, Clockwork Orange style? If you feel your own time and opinions have value and you want ‘free money’ or whatever you think is happening here, feel free to make your own Kickstarter. LITERALLY NOBODY is trying to stop you.
Ah, so one game is whimsical and the other is not. So Johnny, what makes a game about beating up an actual, named person who has been extensively threatened and abused online “whimsical”? Can you tell us how you define “whimsy?”
What’s “whimsical” about a game that simulates a violent assault upon the face of a single identifiable individual? I daresay Mr Spurr put it together in an hour or two on a personal whim, but it’s a pretty repulsive whim that says rather more about him than it does about his target.
Kirby – I think hieropants is talking about the people who “sponsor” protestors by donating a certain amount to Planned Parenthood for every protestor outside. Thus making the protestors unwillingly donate to the cause they hate.
This isn’t just a train wreck. This a train wreck where the train jumps over a shark, crashes into the ground, then digs it’s own grave and continues to keep digging deeper.
A “whimsical game about beating up an annoying person,” eh? By any chance would you describe a dude socking a woman in the gut as a “tummy punch?” *blech*
Honestly, I don’t see how the “kill the cat-callers” game is different from any game where you kill people. You kill a lot of men in Modern Warfare games, too. If you want to debate the morality of that it actually gets a little complicated–do you? Otherwise, I don’t see how one “kill anonymous generic bad guy” game is different from another.
Anita Sarkeesian is not an anonymous generic bad guy.
Your last point is well taken, and it is the only reason Johnny’s comparison fails. Nevertheless, the street harassment game is not the same as, to use your example, Modern Warfare. The MW grunts are all male for two reasons- it’s a war simulator, and the vast majority of soldiers actually are male in real life, and male is the default template in a male-dominated gaming industry. The street harassment game is explicitly targeting men as men. Big difference.
I expect various extremist feminists to storm in here and offer explanations as to why misandry is just different from misogyny, and not as bad for blah blah reason, and hating (that is, fantasizing about killing) men is justified which will kinda prove my point.
please tell me youre like thirteen
Tell us more about Cliff’s “internalized violence and anger issues that [he] project[s] onto others” — I would love to hear your analysis.
@Cliff:
Oh, ok. Sorry for the outburst, hieropants, I didn’t know “sponsering protestors” was an actual good thing. -_-
“Anyway, male-on-female violence is not the equivalent of female-on-male violence. The former happens a lot more in real life and is a lot more ingrained in our culture. When’s the last time you thought twice about walking through a deserted park at night, because there might be dangerous women there?”
…And as I was expecting, we now come to the justification of why it’s actually okay to have a game where you kill male harassers. I think we’re done here.
My first response to “no woman has ever written a good novel” was “the hell genres are you reading?” Then I realized it doesn’t matter, because there is no genre in which super-fantastic books and super-shittastic books have not been written by both men and women (as well as people who don’t strictly identify as either, most likely).
Perhaps Mr. Spurr should go read some more novels instead of making video games.
Johnny:
Why do you assume the “misogynistic dickheads” were the ones being solicited? Is it because you can’t imagine the existence of anyone else in the gaming community?
Unimaginative:
Though considering how often and how quickly the latter turns into the former…
Johnny:
Ever since I heard of the toupee fallacy I’ve been waiting to spot it in the wild. And now I have!
Johnny:
I’m seriously a little worried about your intimates.
The legendary Preggo Punchout is probably equally whimsical, at least to use Johnny’s whimsical definition of the term.
When was the last time we had an extremist feminist invasion? I can’t recall a single one, and I’ve been a regular reader for much of the past year.
“A “whimsical game about beating up an annoying person,” eh? By any chance would you describe a dude socking a woman in the gut as a “tummy punch?” *blech*”
Why, is that what you used to call it?
Steel, go to a radfem site if you want extremists. I will say that misandry is not a thing, and even you could probably figure out why if you thought about it long enough.
it’s funny how your points being ‘proved’ always seems to involve you arbitrarily declaring yourself the winner and accusing anyone who disagrees with you of being an ‘extremist’
it’s almost as if youre a rhetorical one-trick pony
Johnny_M80 is probably unaware of the legendary Preggo Punchout, but the title should probably convey enough.
I don’t think it ever actually went into production.
Steele – “Misandry” is, in fact, different from misogyny.
Are you afraid of women? I don’t mean afraid we’re taking over the country, or afraid we’ll spermjack your false accusation for alimony Title IX, but, like, personally afraid?
If you sit down at a bus stop at night, and the other person there is a woman, do you hope and pray she leaves you alone? If you stay over at a date’s house, and she’s a woman, do you always have to remember to tell a friend where you are and make sure you can get home on your own if you need to? If a woman says “nice buns” to you on the street, do you have to worry she might start following you and trying to corner you?
Where it hits an underground gas main and blows up an area the size of Rhode Island.
TRIGGER WARNING FOR WHIMSY:
http://www.gameranx.com/img/12-Jul/beat-up-anita-sarkeesian.png
No shit, the guy who sees no misogyny in the backlash against Sarkeesian thinks this is “whimsical.”
I’m waiting for the part where I only pretend to be a feminist to get laid.
If she’s visibly drunk and ranting about how we must all pay obeisance to the Lord, then yes. (To cite an actual example).
Otherwise, probably not.