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.
I went through a looooooonnnnnnngggggg period where I only played V:tM and its cousins, but I’m getting into old-school(ish) D&D(ish) these days. I always wanted to try a thematic hybrid of the two in a campaign pitched as “Greyhawk By Night.” None of my friends ever liked the idea, though. And I’m right now DMing a 3.5 edition campaign in which all the PCs are nonhuman animals.
Omigod, that Justin Lookado guy is a conservative Christian PUA. Talk about twisted minds thinking alike!
Yep, that’s what I want, a man who doesn’t care that I don’t appear to be interested in him and keeps pestering me anyway. The people who wrote these rules are very wise.
Alice–ah, now I see!
wordsp1nner, if you ever date someone who’s on probation, they probably will have a curfew, so there ya go! 😀
In terms of datability, for experimental reasons that for the purpose of this comment I will call “desperation”, I put up a singles ad on craigslist in my small Ohio town about a year ago; it went something like this: Single, unemployed godless heathen, with 2 pet rats living in my room doing whatever they want. My 2 pet cats pretty much own me, I play video games when I’m not watching my TV shows and Youtube compilations, and I write science fiction and other stuff. And I’m 32.
And wouldn’t ya know, not a single reply in a town full of college bros and other people I’d like to avoid! That’s okay, I’m married to my work. :3
I’m not datable as a woman, but I’m “da man” if I take the boys quiz.
Man, not only are these people disgracing the actual animal, but also the assault weapon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AAC_Honey_Badger_PDW).
CassandraSays – Well what guy wants to be emasculated by a girl who can take care of herself? If she’s not dependent on you for everything, she doesn’t like you!
*rolls eyes*
anita lied about being a gamer
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj4cB0q4Hlg&w=420&h=315]
Awesome, MRAism ad YouTubem.
Did you not read any of the preceding comments? Of course not.
Sarkeesian was looking for anything to make some money and get some attention.
Why are money and attention bad?
I mean, I don’t think it’s true. Based on her videos, it seems Sarkeesian has things she wants to say and doesn’t care if they make her popular, and if she were just out for money she could find a more lucrative route than doing feminist video-game commentary on YouTube. (My god, gamer dudes have comically inflated ideas of their hobby’s importance.)
But money and recognition in your field are reasonable things to want. Building a career is a good goal. If Sarkeesian wants to get her message out, of course she wants attention, although I doubt she wanted all those death threats. I see this assumption all the time that women should work for free and not expect recognition, that pushing for success is bad if you’re female, and I’m giving that a big old nope.
I love my work, but I also love to get paid and praised for it (because it’s awesome). Are you different?
I never got the backlash against Ms. Sarkeesian. She states things that are pretty blatant and are fairly non-contentious and people flip out. If anything, she should be criticized because she’s essentially Captain Obvious. She doesn’t really dig too deep in any of these issues,
I think it’s a bad sign that someone could get such a huge backlash for saying pretty standard things (if I had given her money, I’d be mad that she’s not really fulfilling her stated goals for her kickstarter, but I sincerely doubt the people complaining gave her any money.
Ten bucks someone doesn’t read this and gives me the standard “Ur a neckbeard MRA LUSER LOLS!” response that I tend to get when I say that.
About the 4Chan thing: 4chan unintentionally pushed her to the public eye; I doubt she would be famous without the needless threats. That was not intentional, they are not a private army. And chances are the honeybadgers just painted a bulls-eye on themselves for challenging them.
Re: Anita not being a “real gamer”
If I recall correctly (and I might be wrong) that talk she gave where she said she doesn’t like playing video games because of violence (that MRAs and the other idiots use as proof of wrongness) is 3 years old.
Here in reality, people are allowed to change their minds. People are allowed to take on hobbies or interests they previously thought they’d dislike. Back in highschool, I remember telling one of my then friends that I thought Harry Potter was dumb. Fast forward to around my second year of college where I finally decided to read the book and BAM- obsessed. I read all the books, saw all the movies, bought toys, drew fanart, etc. So if I had made a video talking about Harry Potter, and some person somehow got a video recording of me telling my friend in highschool about my dislike for Harry Potter and be all “AHA!!! LOOK AT THIS!!” does that mean I can no longer speak about Harry Potter?
Do they not realize how fucking stupid they sound? for all we know she just changed her opinion on gaming. For all we know, she started as a gamer, then got fed up with certain games and tropes that she stopped for awhile. But the big kicker is none of this invalidates her arguments anyway. “Yeah well you’re not a real gamer neener neener” is not a counter argument. It’s nothing but a childish insult. Also by their logic (and I use that term very loosely) no one is ever allowed to research something or have an opinion on it if they don’t somehow prove they are TRULY into the topic or a huge fan.
“Bina – Not having your choice in fuck buddies is MISANDRY!”
Really? Wow…and now we know who really killed chivalry. And it wasn’t a feminist.
wrongasashit500 She never said she never played games, she said she wasn’t a “fan.” Which to her probably means fangirl or fanboy. This is an awful attempt at a gotcha moment.
According to the logic here, if you are not a lifelong [insert whatever], then you are not allowed to study that thing. Therefore, since historians are not lifelong ancient Samurai warriors, no historical analysis of Samurai warriors can be performed by a historian. Only an ancient Samurai can perform a historical analysis of ancient Samurai. Same goes for social analysis, which is exactly what Sarkeesian does.
So the only people allowed to study gamers are gamers themselves! That’s not insulated at all… Nice logic!
wrongasashit500 ,
Even if true, so what?
At least wrongasshit’s name is total truth in advertising.
Bina – Yeah, seriously. Why else do we have Nice Guys whining that hot models won’t fuck them, or the so-called alpha cock carousel?
wrongasashit500 – I’m not a scientist (yet). Does that mean that I can’t criticize quack medicine and anti-science denial?
I used to hate computers. Does that mean that I can’t comment on computers, ever, just because I used to dislike them so much?
Anita used to not really like playing video games. Does that mean that she can’t change her mind? And how does that disqualify anything she’s ever said?
I’m gonna go with “Undateable Assholes” for $1000, Alice.
PS: That hat they favor? Not a real fedora. It’s a trilby. And it’s pretty fecking useless, since unlike real fedoras, it doesn’t have a brim worth mentioning. It’s all show and no go, just like the wearer.
For instance, what’s so Amazing about a cookie-cutter Atheist who makes Youtube rant videos? idk
Bina – 😉
Michael – It’s all about the ego. Lots and lots of ego.
@Brooked
Them saying that is sad and just proves how much they accepted being the outsiders who have to “earn” hanging out with men. Just keep your mouth shut and go along with them, lest they kick you out and think badly of all women. Because it’s totally the responsibility to keep men from demonizing and generalizing all women.
The really fucked up thing is that I’ve caught myself doing similar things. For example if I date a guy and I’m not interested in him, I try to be as nice as I can about it, lest I make him turn into a Nice Guy™, PUA in training. But it’s not my responsibility to do that. Of course I don’t reject guys in a mean way because its, well, mean. But if a guy is gonna turn into a jerk it’s entirely his choice. I’m sick of how women always have to appease men. I’m sick of how we can’t just act normally lest we become on of THOSE girls. Men disagree with other men all the time. Men get offended at things other men do too. But they don’t generalize about all men because of it. So fuck this whole mentality about how special snowflakes had to “work hard” to prove they’re cool and now evil feminists like Anita are mucking it all up by making ALL female gamers look bad. I mean WTF? Most women these days aren’t even feminist anyway.
Anyway I’d like to think I’m getting better at it. I’ve debated a few of my guy friends who also dislike Antia’s arguments, but at the back of my head I keep wondering if now they’ll think I’m one of THOSE girls and think I hate men or whatever just because I take the stance of not liking damsels in distress because it reinforces (NOT CAUSES) sexist and outdated ideas about women. On the plus side the debates I’ve had with them were much more reasonable than the shitstorm that happens on every discussion about her on the internet. Probably because they themselves are not assholes.
Using wrong’s yardstick TAA shouldn’t be criticizing Christians.
well, wrongasashit500 has lived up to zir name. That video is basically half an hour of boring angry white dude spouting conspiracy theories; but boring angry did utter the phrase: “…the Oedipus of your downfall.” Because he couldn’t find Sarkeesians college research paper online, or something.
sparky: you sat through that? Respect.
It’s hilarious that so many gamer dudes are still so upset about this. She ran a fundraising campaign, then made a video, and the way you’re acting they’d think she’d bombed their houses and then sent them to Guantanamo. Overdramatic much?
sparky why did you have to mention that man was white? that is racist of you.