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.
You are being incredibly dishonest, Edward Gemmer.
You are being incredibly dishonest, Edward Gemmer.
About?
@Anarchist
You’re comparing the imperialistic policies of USA with a woman criticising video games.
No. I am comparing trying to understand motivations of terrorists with trying to understand motivations of people who make online threats.
Do you see them issuing rape and death threats to male critics who criticise some other issue?
I dunno. Thunderf00t has several times he gets death threats, and I don’t see any reason to think he is lying. People in public spaces often get all sorts of nasty stuff said to them. This is true regardless of gender. Do women receive harsher stuff than men? Possibly. I don’t have any numbers to say one way or another.
Well, by all means, Eddie, why don’t you explain to us what, exactly, AS has said or done to warrant rape and death threats. Go on. I’ll wait. Please tell us what could possibly justify rape and death threats.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Oh, please. If you’re going to troll at least do it less obviously.
.5/10
Oh, for fuck’s sake, 10 minutes of research would tell you exactly that.
Can “shut up Ed” be the new “shut up Woody?”
Sounds right to me.
I find it richly ironic that “But her videos are boring and not entertaining at all!” troll is boring and not entertaining at all.
When Ed first got here, Lea immediately informed us that she knew him from FTB and that he was a disingenuous, mansplaining goalpost-choreographer. He briefly compalined about being recognized, but has since gone on to prove her entirely right. I’m sure we’re all shocked to learn that Lea was not, in fact, a meany meanpants misrepresenting an innocent man…
Notice how, in spite of his being boring and not entertaining at all, we aren’t sending him rape and death threats.
If anything he should be complaining that her initial comment didn’t do him justice in that it failed to fully express the eye-glazing tedium that awaited us.
There is no joy in his posts. Shouldn’t he have to explain why he isn’t entertaining the shit out of everyone with his counter troll bullshit? Also, he’s dishonest when he posts shit like this:
” People in public spaces often get all sorts of nasty stuff said to them. This is true regardless of gender. Do women receive harsher stuff than men? Possibly. I don’t have any numbers to say one way or another.”
Um, duuuh?
Trigger warning for sexual violence below:
Some stalker posted to Anita that he would “drink your blood from your cunt when I rip it open.”
Yeah, defend that, asshole. Also, explain how the threat isn’t gendered.
Damn, I’d love to set some Freudian analysts to work on that guy.
Here’s one for Ed, who seems fond of false equivalency:
Has anybody threatened to cut off Thunderfart’s cock and stuff it down his throat (or up his rectum), and then drink blood from the wound until he’s dead? And has he been driven out of his home by that? And has he dared to reveal the exact messages he’s received, with evidence that they know where he is?
If so, you might have a bit of a point there.
If not, you don’t, and you really need to stop droning.
It’s like being stuck in the car with a fly that you can’t squish because you’re too busy driving.
Ed’s a troll and attempting to gaslight us.
All those rape and death threats aimed at Anita are out in the open, and yet he’s all, “I don’t see all the fuss. Why are you overreacting to this situation? What’s all the fuss? Maybe there’s something wrong with you if you are offended with the hate speech aimed at her. I personally don’t see what’s the big deal. Do women go through this more than men? I wouldn’t have any idea.
Also, I’m not sure if I’m a gamer and I defintely have female relatives, so you can’t call me a troll (I’m hoping).”
Ed, you’re a troll. You can’t gaslight us. P.S., you’re an asshole.
Well, gee, Ed…if any of your womenfolk ever get any death threats that send them fleeing their homes, you be sure and get back to us on it so we can tell you how much YOU are overreacting. And how we can’t see what so terrible about that at all.
Also, keep in mind that he referred to the gory threats Anita recieved as “mild criticism” upthread. It’s there for everyone to read.
He must be used to a seriously un-savvy crowd if he thought anyone was going to buy the “I’m just making conversation” crap.
Every troll who comes here thinks they’re the first one and that we’ll be dazzled by their opinions. They never seem to realize it’s bullshit we heard several time before.
I don’t like how easy it is for people to shrug off threats like these as just “trolls” or “haters” (I really really hate the word “hater”). This whole idea that people on the internet aren’t real. It’s like little children playing peek-a-boo. Well they’re not in my line of sight, they must not exist. Real people are saying these things. Real people are trying to scare her. Just becuase you don’t see them, doesn’t mean they don’t exist. This also goes to the people who make threats or don’t care about those being threatened. The people being threatened are also real. They have feelings. These messages aren’t being sent out to internet_BOT_3848393-R.
I think the internet is wonderful and huge step in communication, but it seems so easy for people to justify horrible things because they can’t see the victim.
On a side note, it’s similar with people just shrugging off youtube comments as a cestpool, or treating it as an environmental hazard, as if the commenters aren’t people who chose to say what they say. And people also use that to justify their own comments because it’s Youtube.
OK, end of rant. There’s just so much dehumanizing going on.
I was going to respond to Ed, but watching a bruise ripen into a black and purple raspberry is infinitely more interesting.
Ed, you’re an asshole. Fuck the fuck off.
@Edward Gemmer:
Liar. You responded to
with
See? You’re objecting to the reasoning here, which was not about the “motivations of terrorists” or “motivations of people who make online threats”. You make the point of comparing criticism towards political rhetoric (which is about rejecting valid criticism directed at the imperialistic politics of a particular government by means of appeal to fear, false dichotomy, and other logical fallacies) with criticism towards victim-blaming (which is about rejecting the narrative that individual victims of harassment and threats of violence must have somehow brought the abuse on themselves).
Do you think we can’t read? Methinks you moved the goalposts when you saw me agreeing with one particular point in your comparison. I still do think terrorists and online bullies have a lot in common, but I’m not very interested to engage in that discussion with a known liar. You’re gaslighting, Edward Gemmer, like every other faux-intellectual troll whose bullshit has been called out and who is desperately trying to hide their ass.
As for your incredibly ignorant, asinine claim that male critics receive anywhere near the amount of abuse female critics do, others have already said it way better than I have. There is a giant gender difference. Open your fucking eyes and stop pretending a ravine is just a ditch.
All your backpedaling in this thread so far is doing is convincing me that you don’t actually have a leg to stand on regarding gender issues but you pretend you do anyway, and that makes your claims about wanting to have “a friendly conversation” very dishonest. Lea was totally right about you from the beginning. Don’t think a change of online space can hide the fact that your views remain full of shit.