A Voice for Men’s so-called “Honey Badgers” — its little super-team of female MRAs, led by blabby Canadian videoblogger Karen “GirlWritesWhat” Straughan — have a new theory about Anita Sarkeesian. And it’s a doozy.
Sarkeesian, you may recall, is a feminist cultural critic who’s faced pretty much nonstop harassment from misogynistic internet assholes since she launched a project to dissect sexist tropes in video games. AVFM has contributed, in its own special way, to this wave of harassment, with articles describing Sarkeesian as, among other things, a “moneygrubbing liar” and a “queen bee … girl interloper” in the world of video games; AVFM’s Dean Esmay also held her partially responsible, along with an assortment of other internet feminists, for the suicide of one Canadian Men’s Rights Activist.
The principals at AVFM have blamed her for — either inadvertently or deliberately — bringing this harassment on herself by going to 4chan and posting about her project. (As I noted in a previous post, there’s no actual evidence she ever did this.)
The Honey Badgers, for their part, are certain that getting harassed by 4chaners was part of her devious plan all along.
In a teaser for their internet “radio” show tonight, the “Honey Badger” known as TyphonBlue writes:
Like all professional damsels in distress, Anita Sarkeesian had to choose a good dragon. Just the right looming shadow to fall over her delicate and fragile sensibilities; just the right cackling stage-villain to inspire her cries of helpless horror.
She chose 4-chan. An internet forum known for it’s underbelly of foul-tempered and hair-triggered trolls.
Then, after accusing Sarkeesian of inviting countless rape and death threats upon herself (and only a portion of it from 4channers, I should add), the Badgers take their weird conspiracy theory one step further:
But we at Honey Badger Radio have noticed something… odd. The wave of so-called hate that Anita received from her carefully chosen dragon, wasn’t really all that bad.
Yeah. A year and a half (so far) of pretty much unending harassment and baseless criticism, complete with violent threats directed not only at her but at other women who have defended her — that’s nothing.
Compared to 4-chan’s usual scorched earth strategy–raizing [sic] everything to the ground and pissing on the ashes, Anita got a little singed, like she sat too close to a campfire.
So we have to ask… Did 4-chan white knight Anita? I mean, come on. Was that the best 4 chan could do?
Yes, that’s right. The Honey Badgers are accusing those who sent rape and death threats to Anita Sarkeesian … of “white knighting” her.
I can’t even.
GWW needs a new mic. Ow.
What is this? I don’t even
Guh. Guh guh guh… wersrfoklarlsd.
Seriously, what the fucking fuck is WRONG with these people?
This make brain hurt
I can’t figure out their motivation for writing something like this. Is it that they want to prove how much they are “one of the guys”? Is it a test to see how much bullshit their audience will believe? Or are they just completely out of things to write about?
This can only be described as “willfully dense.”
I wonder why these women do this. One of the HB – I don’t know their names – looks like a semi-geeky girl who thinks she’s being hugely counter-cultural and hip by doing this. She’s inciting hatred for fun. Maybe she’s naive about just what it is she’s thrown herself in with here.
Over on Reddit, typhonblue is claiming this is an example of humor.
It appears they understand humor in the same way Paul Elam understands satire.
typhonblue claims that it was a joke, comment gets upvoted
other person says that it doesn’t look like a joke, comment gets downvoted
another MRA explains that the joke is Anita (?) and that the post was serious (?)… comment gets upvoted
Trying to follow a Men’s Rights Thread is like playing a game of free association
So the short form of this is “The asshats at 4chan didn’t kill her and then defile her corpse so it can’t have been all that bad. How dare she complain when she’s still alive and all!!!” Or am I missing something here?
I’ve stopped wondering when they’ll hit bottom, and started hoping they’ll hit magma.
If you have to explain the joke, then it’s not really funny.
headjustimplodedintotenbilliongazzilionlittlebits.jpg
You humorless feminazis have no sense of humor!!!
Speaking of humor (smooth segue, eh?), someone on r/againstmensrights made a great drawing in response to the rhetorical question about whether or not r/amr has “gone too far.” Here is documentation of the only time r/amr has ever gone too far.
Feminists are SO MUCH funnier than MRAs & feMRAs.
So what part of it is supposed to a joke? I mean, Elam and the HBs have said before in all seriousness that they think Sarkeesian deliberately incited the attacks on herself by going to 4chan.
So just the “white knight” part is the joke? How exactly is that supposed to be, er, funny? Ha ha, she got rape and death threats but wasn’t actually raped and killed, so therefore they were white knighting her! He ha!
That’s supposed to be funny?
These aren’t just horrible people, they’re stupid too. They seem to love showing off their awfulness and stupidity. What a hideous combination.
On behalf of all Canadian women, I apologize for this assholette. Any desert island in the middle of the Pacific is welcome to her, and all her MRA cronies, too.
Won’t someone think of those poor desert islands?
“The Sarkeesian Effect”. Does every off-hand observation they poop out have to be turned into pretentious faux-terminology?
ZOMG, that’s right! Those poor islands. First they’ll be despoiled by raving scat-munchers, and then, as global warming takes its toll, they’ll disappear into the Pacific, leaving nothing but an oily film and some floating fecal matter on the surface. Yikes! Perhaps a cave full of buried radioactive waste would be better?
According to WeirdAnimalReport.com’s report on Honey Badgers:
http://weirdanimalreport.com/article/honey-badger-natures-badass
So is this why they chose the name?
serrana:
[blockquote]I can’t figure out their motivation for writing something like this. Is it that they want to prove how much they are “one of the guys”?[/blockquote]
Their rhetoric really reminds of those girls who adopt the “one of the guys” identity when they are teenagers, and as a result start saying things like “Oh, I just don’t get on well with other girls, they’re all so bitchy and catty” and “Yeah, I just find it easier to be friends with guys because I’m so super chill, not like normal girls.” I know, because I was one of those girls. I also used to try to outdo the guys when it came to being crude/offensive/tough/whatever, because I always felt like I had something to prove, that I had to earn my place there. It was all born of insecurity and I grew out of it, but it still makes me cringe to think about it now.
It seems like exactly the same thing with their take on Sarkeesian. It’s like “Oh MRAs hate her and think the harassment campaign against her was justified? Yeah, yeah, well we LOATHE her. We DESPISE her. We hate her sooooooo much we think she should have been harassed even MORE. Yeah, we don’t think it went far enough! That’s extreme we are!”
Yup. Nothing to prove at all there.
The honey badgers (hello, tired meme) CAN’T think that Sarkeesian’s treatment was bad, because if they did, they’d have to start wondering what’s in store for them when Paul and the gang get tired of them.
Magnesium: it’s probably because of this, which went viral a couple years ago:
Extreme ugh-ness at “this helps out tell who doesn’t have a sense of humor” comment from typhonblue. You are extra horrible, typhonblue.
Tangentially related (women don’t long in gaming, women don’t belong in sports. . .) I just read about this in the San Francisco Chronicle . . . maybe it’s old news to some since it happened last week but . . . extreme ugh-ness again.
http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/editorials/article/KNBR-should-fire-host-for-antiwomen-rant-4978356.php