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.
Asshats,
AS get’s to make the kind of videos she wants to make, not the one’s you want her to make. This is not a thread about the videos you want her to make. It is about the threats she and her family are receiving. There are hundreds of places you could go to criticize her work with like minded people. Why don’t you go there to do that. This is not a space for your preferences or grievances to be aired. That the bad lady hurt your feels by pointing out some lazy, shitty misogynist tropes in video games is a conversation to have elsewhere. We are not paid therapists. You don’t get to come to us with your troubles and expect attention. Shed you tears elsewhere.
Can I just say how much I “love” when people (most often men) try to pull that line?
They are just having a nice chat, or looking for spirited but respectful (to them and their opinions) discussion, or wanting to have “friendly” exchange and talk about opinions, and just act as if it’s all just a interesting theory.
Like it’s just a topic of interest that you can have “just my opinion” on without it hurting or offending anybody. Because (to them) it’s not important. And they don’t much care if it’s important to anybody else.
This may be a “friendly discussion” to you, Ed, because violence against women doesn’t affect you personally.
This discussion and AS’s criticisms mean something to me, because violence against women directly affects me and I’d really like to be able to play videogames, without having to quit, because the scenes of women bwing beaten and raped reminds me way too much of real, actual violence that’s happened to me.
Yes, and everything OFFline is just protons, neutrons, electrons, etc. So none of IT matters, either.
What a glorious way to rationalize real-world suffering. Why didn’t I think of it sooner?
[/sarcasm, in case needed]
Way to promote that “no, gamers are not violent misogynistic assholes with the self-control of toddlers!” cause, dude.
Holy crap, Edward is boring. I take it he’s always this boring? We really didn’t need another blog virus, can we return him to the troll store for a refund?
I would only say this to Edward, ’cause the other commenters didn’t notice it:
There’s nothing “obscure” about these games Anita’s reviewing. These are the big blockbuster games, the kind that cost as much to produce as a feature film and whose revenue easily rivals that of Hollywood or the TV industry. So to say that these are isolated incidents of creepy ass misogyny in obscure games is totally disingenuous; also, you’re wrong.
-Caroline.
Yes, he’s boring.
The initial post was about death/rape threats against Anita. All he could come up with was, “Hey, there’s no joy in her posts, I kinda don’t like that, OK? Just trying to have a friendly discussion, OK?”
Gosh, why can’t she be more joyful about misogyny? You’d think all the rape and death threats would have cheered her up but that does not appear to be the case. Women are so hard to understand.
Let me get this straight: Edward Gemmer’s argument, after *checks* six pages of comments, effectively boils down to tone policing garbage because Anita Sarkeesian isn’t entertaining him enough while discussing harmful ideas propagating through videogames?
Ed, you do realise every single feminist ever is utterly, utterly sick and tired of hearing “You know, people would respond better if you were just nicer in saying what you’re saying”, don’t you? It’s one of the first standard derails for any discussion of feminist issues, precisely because it perpetuates the “humourless feminist” trope. And it’s effectively what you’re saying – that it’s not enough to give a woman’s perspective on harmful or denigrating ideas, but women also have to do it with a smile and giving all their detractors the benefit of the doubt, always.
And I stand by my earlier theory that if A.S. had been more smiley and “fun” and whatever you’re trying to demand, she’d have been derided as a bimbo and ignorant about her subject matter for not striking a sufficiently analytical tone. Because tone arguments are about putting style over substance, and message styling is one of the chief ways women are dismissed no matter what tone they adopt.
“I’m not some big gamer, so part of it is that I just don’t care about some obscure scene in some obscure game I’ve never heard of.”
– Edward Gemmer, implying “Red Dead Redemption” is an obscure game. And he’s not some big gamer!
“Further, I have played some videogames…”
– Edward Gemmer, backpedaling in the next sentence.
“I have two daughters and I like videogames quite a bit”
– Edward Gemmer, playing a game and also having two daughters.
See, girls? A guy with two daughters can’t be a misogynist. After all, he specifically chose to have daughters, and his wife went to all the trouble of having his daughters for him! He totally respects women and gets laid.
This is the same thing that ruffled feathers the other day when I pointed out Wetherby for doing it a little. Menz be all like “wut, I’m not a misogynist, cause I have a [female relative].”
And also, he can’t decide whether he’s a gamer or not. I mean he plays video games, and he likes them, but he doesn’t really want to commit.
It reminds me of how a lot of men act about feminism. Like it’s sorta gay.
She should do a little song and dance number in every video. “One dead sex worker over there…over here a rape victim who’s still naked just because…oh look, more bikini armor!” We can give her a top hat and a cane, like Fred Astaire, maybe then her critiques will be more palatable to the most boring man in the world.
(Seriously, dude, people who live in glass houses and all. You are remarkably dull.)
Yeah, he posted here A LOT. And I’m not sure why. He never made a concise point.
All I got was: “Anita almost made me feel weird about these games, but not actually, because I don’t get her perspective. Did I mention she wasn’t entertaining enough? Was I oblivious to her actual point? Yeah, but I can’t bring myself to say that. **Cough**
The champions of “men’s rights”. I wish the MRA would stop lying about how they care about men. Rick Perry said Texas will not comply with federal laws aimed at ending the rape of men in prison. Number of death threats sent to Perry: zero. Number of outraged MRA articles/reddit threads/: zero.
In comparison, woman makes a video criticizing the absolutely sexist depiction of women in video games. number of articles/threads/threats: too many to even begin to try counting.
@ Ed:
You don’t have to approve of her tone, or listen to her at all. She didn’t state that sexist violence in video games increases violence towards women.
…Her training isn’t in Psychology/Sociology/Social Psychology; meaning that sort of research and analysis would be *outside her area of specialization*
…You keep restating the same frigging argument, you’re off-topic, and I’m not responding to you on this thread or topic anymore.
http://awesomegifs.com/wp-content/uploads/dead-horse.gif
Of course it’s not going away, not when there’s dudes like you to be tedious mansplainers and mount halfassed, mealy-mouth defenses of this behavior.
In short, Edward, take your “friendly discussion,” and cram it.
@Nova,
Edward… you’re failing here. The point of this post was that, when certain dudebros got hurt feelings because someone posted a criticism of something they like, their response is to make rape and death threats so severe that the woman posting said criticism was forced out of her home.
Some do. This fact isn’t particularly novel or interesting. A “discussion” about the value of rape threats doesn’t go particularly wrong. I’m more interested in why people get so angry over mild criticism. Is there a way to circumvent it? I don’t know, but I’d be interested in exploring the issue.
And, even though you claim that you wouldn’t do something like that, you’re defending those who are, by rationalizing that they got their fee fees hurt and hurt fee fees make death and rape threats totally understandable.
It’s not and will never be okay to make rape and death threats. Ever. The fact that you’re defending this makes you a complete asshole, because there’s nothing that could ever make what Anita is going through justifiable. Ever.
I completely reject your reasoning here. Completely. It’s the exact same jingoistic b.s. that gets used to paint people as “enemies” instead of people. Dick Cheney was a particular fan of this tactic. Interested in what the United States has done that could have influenced terrorist acts? Well, shame on you! You are defending terrorists! That is complete b.s. One can try to work out what motivates these people without defending them.
@Shiraz,
Maybe it’s because you can’t imagine being a woman who loves video games but feels that the damsel in distress trope is overused, or sexualizing a woman’s body after she fell victim to a violent crime makes you feel a little gross. Maybe you’re used to that stuff and don’t notice it at all. I dunno. But maybe what you could try to appreciate is that it’s hard NOT to notice this kind of stuff if you’re a girl or woman.
I certainly sympathize with that and agree – I don’t notice this stuff as I surmise I would if I were a woman. Trust me, I get disappointed when my daughter (who is eight) plays some game and then I start paying a bit more attention. Like I said, I agree with the main thrust of her videos and arguments and I’m not claiming she is inherently wrong about something. But also, I’m not really enjoying her videos like I used to. She did get a lot of probably not deserved criticism about not delivering on what she promised. She may be pressing a bit to really deliver something amazing, and as a byproduct got away a bit from what made her so good in the first place.
Edward,
What motivates them is misogyny and a firm conviction that their behavior online is never going to come back and bite them in the backsides later.
In otherwords, they have both the desire and the ability to be arses without the social stigma of being arses. In fact, they get rewarded by their fellow misogyinistic arses for being misogynistic arses.
It’s not that complicated.
You may claim not to be defending them, but by making excuses for their completely disproportionate and wretched behavior, you are defending them.
Lets put it this way. Pretend you’re having a conversation with someone, and you say that even though Johnny Cash is a wonderful musician, some of his lyrics are a little troublesome. In response, they whip out a baseball bat and wollop you upside the head.
Then, I show up and start saying how it’s perfectly understandable why they would wollop you upside the head, even though I’m not saying wolloping you upside the head is a good thing. Let’s talk about why they would want to hit you so that you can try and not get hit again by insulting Johnny cash.
What would you hear?
1. Sorry you got wolloped upside the head; assault is bad and shouldn’t have happened.
2. It’s totally understandable that people are violent, why are you complaining?
3. You totally deserved it, but it shouldn’t have happened. Modify your behavior so it doesn’t happen again.
Most people would get message no. 3.
@idledillettante
See, girls? A guy with two daughters can’t be a misogynist. After all, he specifically chose to have daughters, and his wife went to all the trouble of having his daughters for him! He totally respects women and gets laid.
I really want to address this. I don’t bring up my family as some sort of proof that I’m an all-good wonderful man who could never be a raging sexist misogynist. There are plenty of parents who are raging misogynists. The reason I bring it up is because I’m hoping you will realize these issues are important to me. It does matter to me what my girls encounter in videogames. There is no master plan here. I’m not trying to “expose” anyone and I don’t have any ulterior motives. I really want to understand these issues and the best way (for me) to understand them is to talk about them, here opposing points of view, and reform my opinions and knowledge.
Ed,
We aren’t paid teachers either and we are not here for your edification.
Why do they do this? Drone on and on when it’s obvious that everyone just wants them to go away.
@strivingally,
There is a logical flaw in your post. You start with my argument that she isn’t entertaining enough. This is true enough. Some people are more talented than others, and some product is more entertaining than others. However, you then say this is about her being nice. It isn’t about her being nice. Being nice isn’t more entertaining. Being nice can often be quite boring. I’m not criticizing her videos for being nice or not nice; but I am saying they have gotten a bit boring. Which is too bad, because she is talented and is capable of making very entertaining and informative videos, which IMO tend to be more effective. In any event, it’s just somewhat mild criticism – I personally wish she would get back to her earlier style, because that style is more interesting for me. I realize not every human being is me.
Cassandra, I’ll raise you a “Why do they always (well, usually) think they are the epitome of logic?”
Oh, fuck you already. You’re comparing the imperialistic policies of USA with a woman criticising video games. I’m completely on board with criticising a government for its terrible foreign politics. I’m not okay with victim blaming.
And remember who you’re talking to, here: misogynists are constantly painting women as “lesser” and “not fully human”, and outspoken feminist women as “enemies”. Dehumanizing is not a new issue in feminist circles, but unsurprisingly, you’re only interested in seeing the (male) bullies as people. That is not an interesting topic, protecting bullies is extremely common.
However, terrorists who attack innocent people to threaten them into submission are bullies just like men who try to silence women with rape and death threats, so at least that comparison is valid.
That is, if only you were doing that here.
What motivates entitled, whiny dudebros to attack a woman who dares to speak out about the problematic portrayal of women in the media is misogyny. Do you see them issuing rape and death threats to male critics who criticise some other issue? It’s not rocket science. You can see this attitude everywhere if you bother to look.
BTW, I really dislike your way of implying that bullying is a complicated issue and that the actions of the bullied person might have somehow “provoked” the bully into bullying. Also, I hate it that you are “just having a friendly conversation” in a thread discussing the very real harassment and threats a woman is getting. Playing the devil’s advocate regarding women’s safety and life is disgusting.