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.
In a less ideal way there’s the ass-kicking Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2. She’s not the player character, and she does get damselled for a significant chunk of one of the eps (but she does go down fighting!), but she’s never portrayed as weak or unable to handle herself, and she’s also instrumental to the plot as an independent person and not just a sidekick. And thank all the deities, she’s *not* played as a love interest either.
Ugh. Definitely cry babies. People were talking about the problematic parts of my favorite show Game of Thrones the other day. Somehow I managed not to post a rape threat.
One of my inner people said:
“Yes you can, just jump on his hood and stomp in his windshield.”
…Please to note: His advice may not be good advice. In fact the adults in here, including myself, think it’s bad advice.
But there it is. There’s always options, even if not necessarily good ones.
…BTW, I am one *very* assertive bicyclist.
@pawjones
Aw, I’m so sorry about your little one.
@pawjones, welcome! I am sorry for your loss.
I don’t think anyone has yet, so I have the pleasure and distinct honor to offer you your very own welcome package!
Emilygoddess:
I don’t know if that’s a claim Sarkeesian has made, but there’s a whole page about it on TVTropes called “Stuffed In The Fridge”. Basically it’s the storytelling equivalent of “cheap heat” in wrestling, and the victim is almost always female. (There are a few exceptions — I thought Eli David’s death on NCIS was a fridge-stuffing, for example — but yeah, mostly women. Look up “Aleena the Cleric” if you don’t know early 80s D&D.)
I don’t always agree with how Anita frames all of her observations, nor to I always agree with her observations, but its apparent that she is correct on there being a pattern to these sorta of things. I just find it fascinating so many people are so offended that she even brings this stuff up! its not like she says all games are bad for doing this or anything.
I suppose I should note, I don’t mind cheap shocks. However, the fact that these cheap shocks exclusively sexualize women, and generally there is no diversity to how its used, causes these cheap shocks to get tiring really fast. “Oh boy, heres another sexualized and pretty women going to get killed to try and make me upset. woo.”
Hell, despite not being a neo-nazi, nationalist, or murderer, I still manage to enjoy Burzum and the underground black metal scene. It isn’t that hard to admit that things you liked are flawed. :
Some people think that the Twitter account which issued the death threat is a sockpuppet account created and controlled by Sarkeesian, in order to generate publicity.
If I started crying every time someone pointed out the issues in the metal scene we’d end up with a worldwide tissue shortage.
@strivingally: The new version of Lara Croft in that Tomb Raider reboot seemed really good as well. Very powerful, drove the narrative forward herself like the usual male protagonists, yet wasn’t explicitly sexualized. And the game hinted she was a lesbian too, but not in a stupid, exploitative way, to top it off. I really liked that game. 🙂
@cassandrakitty: It has gotten so bad over the years, most metal forums just go “yeah, so?” whenever someone brings up the horrible shit that can go on (especially underground). Yet, that fandom, as flawed as it is, managed to push the nazis and white-supremacists deep into the underground, away from the mainstream. I just don’t understand why gamers refuse to do the same for MRAs. :
The thing is, if you actually care about a thing why wouldn’t you want it to get better? Criticism helps. Writing criticism off as “well you’re an outsider and also a big mean poopyhead” does not help.
I’m a woman who likes punk, classic rock, and metal. If I cried over all the problematic shit, it would be a full-time job.
Lighten up, Edward.
Criticism done properly is the mother of critical thinking. Pop culture is worthy of this kind of criticism. I love pop culture, and no, you don’t have to turn your brain off to enjoy it.
1) Sarkeesian would be facing criminal false reporting charges if she attacked herself with a sock, then called the cops. You may think she’s dumb enough, but I doubt it.
2) There’s enough people who’ve ALREADY issued death threats against her before. Why would she need to manufacture it?
Its really telling how that weakass “evidence” proves the threats are fake but the those two guys who want a bizzare amount ofmoney to make a documentary about how horrible she is are taken seriously by “egalitarians” when one is a racist conspiracy theorist and the other a dork enlightenment weirdo
Oops, I should have said that I don’t agree with the link I provided; I was just providing an example of what some of the anti-Sarkeesian people are saying.
Alex M, papa robin was struggling a bit with this feeding thing, wasn’t he? Give them something smaller, dude! 😀
pawjones, I am so sorry for your loss. Hugs if they’re welcome.
marinaliteyears, I read that as cheap socks. XD
Matthew Cline,
I’m sure any minute now JudgyBitch will come running in here to express her concern that Anita Sarkeesian has gotten herself in terrible trouble.
Me too! I was so confused.
@ Matt, thanks for clarifying.
I don’t get why they want to believe it’s a fake threat.
Just from the level of ~manspleening~ seen on this blog alone, the hostility’s there.
Oh good, it wasn’t just me!
Mind you, I am fine with cheap socks, as long as they’re not sockpuppets.
Yeah, A.S. covered that in one of her “Damsel in Distress” videos, and its awful sub-trope, The Damsel In The Refrigerator. That’s the trope where The Damsel’s dead, but you STILL have to save her somehow, e.g. making sure her soul can rest by [game objective here, usually killing a bunch of dudes]. So both the “woman as victim of murder for emotional impact” and “woman as helpless and in need of rescuing” boxes get ticked at once. Blergh.).
Bialistic, I may have to try that. It means wearing steel toed boots everywhere, but I have them so I actually could. May do it to the catcallers, too.