On Monday, Anita Sarkeesian posted the latest installment of her Tropes Vs. Women in Video Games series on YouTube, a half-hour examination of the ways in which video game makers use sexualized violence against women as a cheap way to spice up their narratives and appeal to straight male gamers.
Her tone was measured, her analysis clear and logical and supported by dozens of clips from a wide assortment of games.
Late Tuesday night, this happened:
Some very scary threats have just been made against me and my family. Contacting authorities now.
— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) August 27, 2014
I’m safe. Authorities have been notified. Staying with friends tonight. I’m not giving up. But this harassment of women in tech must stop!
— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) August 27, 2014
That’s right: Sarkeesian was forced to leave her home due to violent threats against her and her family … because she made a YouTube video analyzing violence against women in video games.
She then posted some of the threats she had gotten from a Twitter account set up specifically to harass and threaten her and her family. [TRIGGER WARNING for graphic rape and death threats.]
I usually don’t share the really scary stuff. But it’s important for folks to know how bad it gets [TRIGGER WARNING] pic.twitter.com/u6b3i0fysI
— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) August 27, 2014
For a larger version of the screenshot, see here.
Sarkeesian has also been tweeting some of the other threats she gets on a daily basis from anonymous gamers who are incensed that a woman has anything critical to say about their precious video games.
It’s especially amusing that this misogyny laced email is unironically signed “See you soon m'lady. *tips fedora*” pic.twitter.com/rLk3CvoxXV
— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) July 15, 2014
https://twitter.com/femfreq/status/504437681527353344/photo/1
I get so many emails like this I could publish a coffee table book full of them. pic.twitter.com/qMoYOtV9tT
— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) July 15, 2014
Unfortunately, this is an all too typical twitter response to my observations about video games. #E32014 pic.twitter.com/aWmwtQZLnm
— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) June 9, 2014
You’ll notice that several of these threatening comments mention videos by Thunderf00t, a “skeptic” videoblogger best known, at least in the corner of the internet I write about, for a series of videos in which he viciously attacks some of the women who’ve drawn the most internet hate from angry misogynists – from skeptics like Rebecca Watson and Melody Hensley to video game maker Zoe Quinn and video game critic Sarkeesian.
Thunderf00t’s attacks have won him kudos from assorted Men’s Rights activists, from the regulars on the Men’s Rights subreddit to A Voice for Men “operations manager” Dean Esmay, who has praised his videos and urged other MRAs to subscribe to them.
In other words, the harassment of feminist women on the internet is directly linked to antifeminist propagandists like Thunderf00t – and his MRA fans and enablers.
The constant, vicious, personal attacks on Sarkeesian you see not only in video game circles but from Men’s Rights Activists – on Reddit, on A Voice for Men, on YouTube, and so on – have helped to create a hostile environment in which critiques of sexism in games result in real-world death and rape threats against women. This has an undeniably chilling effect on the free speech of women. That in fact is the intent of the harassers.
Margaret Atwood once famously observed that
Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.
I think we need an internet corollary to Atwood’s observation:
Men posting on the internet are afraid that women will block them. Women are afraid that men will treat them like Anita Sarkeesian.
Thing is, Sarkeesian keeps moving forward, diligently researching and putting forth the videos she promised she would. All the huffing and puffing of her critics and attackers hasn’t shut her up. Each new video she puts out is a testament to her courage and her perseverance. Each new video is a blow against those who would shut women up. Each new video helps to inspire others who’ve gotten similar threats to continue speaking up and speaking out.
Supporting Sarkeesian helps to support every woman who wants to be able to speak out online without fear of violent threats. There’s no better proof of this than how angry the biggest misogynistic bullies get whenever feminists and other people of good conscience rally around her. The bullies are still angry about the money she raised via kickstarter, money that has enabled her to bring a new professionalism to her videos.
Hell, AVFM Bully-in-chief Paul Elam is still so angry about this that he’s already accusing her of “damseling for dollars,” collecting “gash-cash” because of these latest Twitter threats. Indeed, in a post that’s a lot more revealing than he intends it to be, he complains bitterly that she’s getting bigger donations than he is:
I am jealous. I have had half the major media in a couple of countries disingenuously and maliciously demonize me. Even after forcing some retractions I bet I got more threats than Sarkeesian.
My reward? Jack shit.
Maybe it was because I didn’t swoon hard enough or treat the threats like they were tickets to Disneyworld.
Oh, don’t be modest, Paul. You take in tens of thousands every year by pretending to be some sort of human rights generalissimo. You raked in $35,000 this summer by trumpeting “threats” that you were saying privately were phony.
While Elam “damsels” and fumes, Sarkeesian simply goes about doing the job she set out to do. Each video she puts out is yet another “fuck you” to her haters, and they know it.
U mad bros?
Here’s the video that caused all the stir. It’s well worth watching. CONTENT WARNING: Graphic violence against women.
Zoe Quinn’s harassment just stepped up too, after far-right reactionary douchebag actor Adam Baldwin (whom you probably remember as Jayne from firefly) signal boosted her harassment videos.
I accidentally left tumblr anon on after I announced RuinJam, and in the space of a few hours I got a “circlejerk over c*nts and wh*res” comment, a bizarre all-caps antisemitic screed, and a promise to make a rape simulator for my mascot character.
It’s been a bad week for my industry.
I’ve been following this on Twitter, and I realise this is like fighting fire with fire after recent events, but: WHERE IS THE FBI? THESE ASSHOLES NEED TO BE IN JAIL..
I doubt the FBI can do much of anything. And there are legions of “freeze peach” champions who will say assaults like these are part and parcel of the wonderful American way of life, which is why I’m thinking more and more of moving to someplace like Uruguay.
It’s obvious that her critics don’t even bother to watch the videos, because in each installment, Sarkeesian has been really measured and fair. She makes it pretty clear with her disclaimer in each intro that it’s important to critique some aspects of a piece of media, but that doesn’t mean it has no value or that one can’t enjoy it.
Oh my god that poor woman. She is so brave to soldier on like this. I finally watched some of her videos yesterday and they were very well made, organized perfectly, hundreds of examples, intelligent and very measured, calm, no vitriol whatsoever. What kills me is she’s pointing out things that are obvious to anyone who has ever come into contact with a video game. She is neither threatening nor controversial even. I just don’t understand the levels of anger and hatred. So revealing how invested they are in the status quo.
@ inurashii I didn’t know that Jayne was actually terrible 🙁
All my love and support to Annita!!
I love how she’s standing up to bullies, and they drown in their own desperation when their all mighty weapon of harassment not only doesn’t stop her, but makes her appear even more heroic.
They also know that one single woman showing harassment is not the end of the discussion, can lead to all women believing they have a right to be on the internet un-harassed (or piss off harassers by not letting them stop her).
They are terrified, but also very used to reading their own terror as rage. That’s what makes them dangerous… and maybe what will bring them down in the end.
Harassment is their one trick, if it fails, they will repeat it in angrier ways, and make their behavior even more obvious to everyone.
What’s really sad and frustrating is that still someone need it to be even more obvious in order to acknowledge the problem.
And can I just say that I’m thoroughly enjoying the rave reviews and legitimate praise and funding while Pauly boy stews and huffs. And loses. Losing! Love it!
*her rave reviews (I should’ve phrased that differently)
Andrea: Yeah, I figured as much. I bet a Congressional hearing that won’t actually change much is all we’re going to get out of this. It took an unarmed teenager dying and days of protest in Ferguson to get anyone in DC to even pay lip service to the systemic racism there; I really hope no one has to die in gaming to get women’s rights reaffirmed.
Anita is doing a great service to women in tech, but I really do fear for her safety. I even fear for mine, just for retweeting things in support of her.
@auralfixations I knew about his past BS with ultraconservative tweets, but I hadn’t seen him go after feminists in particular before I heard about the Zoe stuff last night (it helps that I stopped following him years ago, I suppose).
The most ridiculous part about this is that there are parts of her videos I’ve disagreed with, but 1. most of her points are solid and 2. there’s absolutely no reason to threaten someone for having an opinion, especially when it has to do with discrimination against their own gender. And it just shows that the comments that come out against feminism prove that we need feminism since those comments can’t stop themselves from threatening harm on women.
I’m not a big fan of Anita Sarkeesian, but that’s more because I disagree with some of her examples, what she’s doing is in itself is definitely a worthwhile project. These sort of attacks though, I mean sweet Buddha, what the everloving hell. How is responding to serial killer type threats “damseling”? I’m a fairly sizable guy who’s studied martial arts and the first thing I’d do after reading those tweets is call the bloody cops and hide under a damn blanket. Gender doesn’t protect from crazy.
And the part about Adam Baldwin is also making me sad. I really want to like him, since I usually really like the characters he plays.
5-10 years from now, after Sarkeesian et al have made a noticeable impact, apologists for these assholes will say that they were simply “keeping her honest”.
Or maybe people like Anita Sarkeesian’s work more than they like yours, Paul Elam?
I so admire her and her bravery, honestly. But it’s terrible that she has to endure these attacks and worry about her safety.
I am in utter awe of this woman’s bravery. When the MRAs went after my husband, one commenter on his blog wrote “I hope your wife dies of c**t cancer, because she is a c**t.” That was enough to make me want to call the cops! I hope she’s coping well. That level of harassment can be very traumatic. I was looking for gray hairs in this latest video she did!
@ Katie Schenkel and pendraegon
I always assume that the characters I like on shows are actually cool, and I am usually disappointed… I totally though Lucy Lawless would be a bad-ass feminist but every interview or performance I’ve seen of her other than Xena has made me realize she’s just a regular lady desperate for attention. Even worse is Kevin Sorbo’s weird racist screed the other night when I assumed he was like, a defender of the innocent and all that. (apparently I only watched TV on Saturday mornings..)
Re: Adam Baldwin, all I can say is that I am now ashamed to have been a fan of Firefly. Joss Whedon has been speaking out against the harassment of Anita Sarkeesian, but he hasn’t said word one about Zoe Quinn. I saw on her Twitter this morning that she got driven from her home too, and has been having trouble finding a place to sleep.
Every Anita Sarkeesian Rant I’ve ever seen always begins with the dudebro bitching that Sarkeesian disabled comments to her videos.
But I think forcing these dudebros to record their own “rebuttals” is actually way more revealing than if she left the comments open for trolling. This way you have to watch these dumbasses craft their entire point de novo; and it makes it that much more apparent how they miss the point of Sarkeesian’s videos.
Thanks for covering this, David! The comment thread on this story at Raw Story is 1,000 comments long. And they mostly agree that 1: She deserves it and 2: She’s making it all up. SMH.
Also, while there are a lot of derogatory words for women that make me cringe, “gash” is up there as the most disgusting and dehumanizing of the bunch, IMO. It illustrates just how ugly misogyny really is.
The AVfM article is a corker:
“Her arguments are poorly articulated, boring, constructed like slop, highly biased and completely, excruciatingly stupid.”
Don’t let your projection hit your bruised ego on the way out, ‘Dr’ Elam.
But she’s gonna go to PAX anyway. At this point IDGAF if she’s been manipulative for prominence or influence — the price has been absurdly, inordinately high. At this point, even people who would otherwise steer clear of her are standing behind her without reservation.
Effectively, even if everything these human trash cans are saying was true? They’re actively working against their goals. They don’t seem to understand how terrible this all looks to everyone.
is “gash” the new, sanitized term for cunt now? Reminds me of the OITNB episode where the guards call Piper a “demanding poochie” because they can’t say “bitch” any longer.
God damn, my respect of Anita only continues to grow. The fact that she puts up with this and continues to do good work is just incredible, for it seems most would have quite years ago. And her supporters are the best too. Felicia Day, Tim Schaefer, Neil Gaimen, Joss Whedon, William Gibson, and CliffyB have all expressed their support of her. Makes me feel like things might actually get better. 🙂
These videos have been real eye-openers for me. I was particularly horrified to discover there’s an actual achievement in a game for tying up a woman, placing her on railroad tracks, and watching a train kill her. I don’t mind violence in games, but that’s gendered violence in a way that simply shooting or running people over isn’t. It says a lot about the developers and their perceived audience… and what it says ain’t good.