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.
@Argenti
I am sorry about our grandfather. All I can say at this point is… I wish you all the strength in the world…
…it’s a Greek wish, it doesn’t translate well.
On the subject of the article…
[Trigger Warning: Racial Slur]
The logic behind saying that 4chan is “White Knighting” Sarkeesian is that they have done much worse things to other individuals in the past. In other news, Stormfront forum members are “nigger-lovers” for only doxing and harrassing people instead of gathering up mobs and organizing lynchings.
[Trigger Warning End]
Yeah, the logic is moronic but then again the subject of Sarkeesian is nothing more than a pretext for AVfM Radio to make another show about gaming. Why? Because the previous show on the subject had over 100’000 listeners (at least that’s what James Huff said) which was huge for AVfM standards.
From a purely strategic point of view it makes sense. The gaming community is inherently narcissistic and they don’t like anyone that tells them that something is very wrong with the games they play and get validation from. So, anyone who suggests that Sarkeesian is wrong, and that feminism is poisoning the gaming industry will definitely have a big audience.
We’ve had that boring D&D troll before, haven’t we? Wasn’t any more interesting then either.
Nope. Anita Sarkessian received, and continues to receive, death and rape threats from many quarters, not just kids on YouTube. Rape and death threats=harassment.
Nope. Women are not treated as “extra-special victims” worthy of “special coverage” by the media.
Nope. Anita Sarkeesian and other feminists who criticize sexist media portrayals of women use facts and examples taken from the actual media being criticized, not feelings.
You have no evidence to back up any of your claims.
Yeah, katz, I think this was the first turd zie dropped here.
Let’s just ban this one. He’s a scattershot troll; he has nothing to actually say on any subject.
Fixed that for you.
Let’s talk about something else here for a second – have you seen Disney cartoons or played videogames, Death&Destruction?
I saw Pochahontas, Alladin is a movie I really rather like (NEVER HAD A FRIEND LIKE ME, DA DA DA DUUM), the Alladin cartoon-series is fun and I quite like the sequels (So are you in, or out, gotta know without a doubt!).
Now, none of that means that Disney cartoons are not, occassionally, incredibly offensive. I also like videogames. I have spent most of my life playing the, in various forms, and my old prefered world of warcraft character had a total played time of 213 days.
That is, the accumulated time spent logged in on that character was 213 days. It was, incidentally, when I learned that that I quit. All that said? Sometimes, videogames can be incredibly offensive.
Bayonette is a fun game, sure, but let’s be honest here – it’s also a walking S&M lite commercial, with the nun-garbled witch maincharacter who gets audible pleasure from being hit by the enemy.
So it is exactly like those feminists who think Disney cartoons, videogames and some books are sexist because they feel they are, because they are, and it is offensive and sexist. What was the point of that? q:
People! Weird sometimes.
D&D: weak troll. 2/10. Go away.
Woolite is good for lots of things, but (irony of ironies), it’s not very good for wool.
Pecunium: yeah, I pretty much use it for delicates that are not cashmere.
THIS is the problem, trollface.
You’re really not the brightest light in the string, are you, kid?
she doesn’t interest me.
Which is why you troll the internet to complain about something which happened 18 months ago?
Dude… you really need to work on letting go.
i don’t remember how i found his video. it was a while ago and i favourited it
Because Anita Sarkeesian doesn’t interest you.
i don’t care about video games or her videos about video games. but i don’t like the fact the she lied.
She didn’t, but you don’t care. Mind you, if you had watched the video games (or done the least investigating) you’d know she didn’t lie.
no alice its more than that. yall calling me names and making fun of me
So you condemn the folks who attacked Sarkeesian? Oh wait, you don’t. You think she that to herself, to “get famous”.
But you are all about the, “fairness”.
Asshole. Dishonest asshole; because, “I do not support [Sarkeesian] being bullied, is meaningless when you call her a liar who did it to “get famous”. You are justifying the hate ladled onto her.
Wrong as shit is wrong as shit about UK rates of Suicide:
Some 6,045 people killed themselves in 2011, an increase of 437 since 2010.
The highest suicide rate was among men aged between 30 and 44. About 23 men per 100,000 took their own lives.
On average, across both sexes, 11.8 people per 100,000 population killed themselves in 2011, up from 11.1 people the previous year.
The ONS data revealed there were 4,552 suicides by men in 2011, more than three times the number by women and the highest rate since 2002.
The suicide rate among middle-aged men aged 45 to 59 was also high, increasing from 21.7 deaths in 2006 to 22.2 deaths per 100,000 people in 2011.
So it’s 3:1, not 4:1 for men vs. women who actually manage to kill themselves.
The Oxford Survey on Self Harm assesses that The sex ratio (female to male) for persons in
2010 was 1.4:1, somewhat lower than in recent years.
So men are engaging in self harm at similar rates to women.
Suicide intent scores (a measure of the extent to which patients wished to die) were in the high or very high range in 28.1 % of assessed episodes. Suicide intent scores (averaged for 2009-2011) increased with age . Over 40% of episodes were of high or very high intent in those aged 55 years and over
No breakout of male to female, so we can assume this is relatively consistent between genders.
Men, when overdosing on paracetamol/acetamenophin tended to take fewer tablets (according to Scooby this appears to mean the men were just, “clamoring for attention).
If you compare the relative rates of suicide for men and women
At present the ratio of men/women committing suicide is 3.44:1. It’s a slight decrease from 1984 when it was 3.13:1. This is a significant change from 1968, when the ratio was 1.74:1.
In 2011, the relative rates in the population was 3.25:1 so the “80 percent of all suicides are men” claim is is bullshit.
Male suicides are misandry!!!
“…when overdosing on paracetamol/acetamenophin…”
Don’t. No really, just don’t. Organ failure is not how you want to go.
pecunium — two things.
1) I have a serious wary about that self-harm link as it conflates self-injury without suicidal intent with suicide attempts. And I’m fairly sure I’ve done enough brain dumps on you for you to see the issue there.
2) My psych got my results back from fun fun testing time and suddenly they believe that I tried to OD and may actually not just be seeking attention. After they wrote the judge of course. That was a fun little half hour!
If what goes on in the average AVFM post is supposed to be funny, then Stormfront must be the pinnacle of comedy.
About legit vs. non-legit games: non-legit games are the ones women like. Duh. Case in point: arcade games used to be the hardcorest of the hardcore, and putting the three letters on the top of the high score chart was the high point of gaming achievement. Then along came Ms. Pac-Man, and it soon became evident that women loved them. Today, arcade-style games, like Angry Birds and Bejeweled, are “casual crap”.
For an illustrative demonstration, just search for Brentalfloss’ Tetris video, which consists in several minutes of him going “Tetris is dumb because girls play it har de har har”.
About wrongasshit: he is a man, and he has opinions. Evidently, his opinions are important and everyone should pay heed to them. Especially women.
Now I’m imagining an alternate history where first-person games are considered wimpy stuff for girls because it’s basically just role-playing where you pretend to be someone else and go around interacting with other people and stuff.
argenti: 1) I have a serious wary about that self-harm link as it conflates self-injury without suicidal intent with suicide attempts. And I’m fairly sure I’ve done enough brain dumps on you for you to see the issue there.
As I read it (in a hurry, before we went to see Thor), it was a survey of self harm, not suicide attempts, AND did a survey of suicidal ideation in the self-harm population they studied.
[TW: snarking about suicide and self-injury]
To be fair, I only got as far as the definitions but I stopped because …
“Self-harm is defined as intentional self-injury or self-poisoning, irrespective of type of
motivation or degree of suicidal intent…Self-injury is defined as any injury that has been deliberately self-inflicted (e.g. self-cutting, jumping from a height). ”
And, as you know, I have a sore spot about cutting being seen as suicidal.
Also, hilariously…
“Self-poisoning is defined as the intentional self-administration of more than the prescribed or recommended dose of any drug (e.g. analgesics, antidepressants)”
So then, looks like that extra advil is totally the same as the entire bottle of benzos! Hey, both were more than what the bottle said! And my pharm student can’t officially tell me an extra advil is still well under prescribable doses!
Seriously though, “jumping from a height” = “self-cutting”? I am less than amused. I somehow doubt jumping from a height requires the first aid of a tissue and iodine.
Oh and don’t think I’m blaming you or anything, I’ve found not so old textbooks that call self-injury “parasuicide” — there’s a reason this is a sore spot for me!
argenti: I think you mis-read that. It was saying cutting isn’t in the category of suicidal intent.
“Self-harm is defined as intentional self-injury or self-poisoning, irrespective of type of motivation or degree of suicidal intent
Which is why they put in overdose. It’s designed to catch all the people who are trying to hurt themselves, without lumping/limiting it to people attempting suicide.
As to jumping from a height… I know people to have thrown themselves from trees/low walls and the roofs of single story homes. If it weren’t for a turned ankle, it wouldn’t have been noticed.
Wait, *looks left* that roof is a height? But it’s 10′ down!
I’ll get to your actual point later, I need to run. (Not out that window, there’s a cactus bed in it!)
It’s interesting to me that these guys are so frothing mad about the Tropes youtube videos, even after all this time. As a person who has played video games avidly since Atari, I guess I should reasonably qualify as a gamer, right? I don’t really care either way, but for the sake of argument…there it is. I watched the videos and while I didn’t agree with some of what she had to say, it did not piss me off at all, not even a little. The thing is…I play video games for my own enjoyment, not because I want the approval of anyone else for my choice of games.
In a way, this group of people reacting so violently, really proves that she is at least partially right about the history of video games. They are so unused to a woman with an opinion that it terrifies and enrages them. They can’t handle the fact that video game makers are actually agreeing with people like her and listening to more than just the “traditional” base. They are in short, very sad and pathetic people who are going to miss out in the long run. Video games are a big fucking deal (woot!! finally!) and they are evolving faster and faster. These guys can either stop having their little hissy fit and join in on all the fun, or I guess they can just be left in the dust.
Pecunium — yeah, this is definitely lumping together all self-inflected land-yourself-in-A&E injuries/etc.
Which is extra funny as I never have landed myself in the ER, whereas my idiot brother broke his ankle jumping of, get this, a handicap ramp. But that’d count as an incidence since he did it to himself. Mind, it was pure fucking stupidity and I could do that without injuring a thing (you’re breakable, don’t try it!)
Honestly, I get why they do it, not like people don’t lie about intent. But it bugs me all the same for any self-injury to get lumped with actual attempts.
Ah…I see. Part of what they were doing was seeing if the suicide risk assessment test was any good. It sucks. And I mean sucks — false negative rate? 98% (that is not that 98% of those not IDed as suicidal committed suicide, but that 98% of those not in need of admission! per the test, were per human logic)
I think it is things which were done with the intent of harm. I know people who jumped from roofs for similar reasons to your cutting. So long as they (like you) didn’t report it to anyone, it wouldn’t show up in this sort of survey.
And that is, of course the problem with doing a survey of who ends up being treated for self-injury.