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.
They really need to start teaching new tricks in troll school. This one is staler than 5 time regifted fruitcake.
@Nathan, please don’t take this the wrong way, but try to find someone or something to hug. You can really get yourself lost in some horrible thoughts if you start to rationalise and understand too much of this shit.
I’m with titianblue, most abuse is pretty banal: it works, or at least our culture tells people it works, so selfish people look at it as a solution to their problems. I’m not sure how to solve it except by socialising people not to be selfish (but not to the point where they utterly destroy themselves for others, either…).
Not strong in google-fu, this troll.
Seconding this. Trying to find an explanation for people being horrible is sometimes just an exercise in making yourself feel sad and angry and powerless. Focus on changing minds and signal-boosting the people who are making positive changes, and don’t dwell too hard on why people end up with these toxic beliefs in the first place (hint: it’s usually related to their friends, family and popular media telling them certain behaviours are acceptable which are harmful to others).
tl;dr version – it’s not worth the angst, dude. 😉
Also I’m not sure that it matters why people are being horrible, unless understanding why gives us a way to fix the problem before it happens. We can’t see inside other people’s heads anyway, and don’t really have a right to demand that people change the way they think, but we do have a right to demand that they not behave in ways that cause harm to others, so it seems more effective to focus on that.
I found this video debunking Thunderf00t’s debunking of Anita Sarkeesian’s video, and it’s a breath of fresh air.
This just proves what the world is like today. Ever since who-knows-when, women have been treated like crap because they are just that: women. I say, YOU GO Anita! Women SHOULD be allowed to speak up for themselves without fear, women deserve their rights! Not because they’re women, but because they’re human. Keep up the awesome work! Never give up!
Christsake people, please. This is the internet. How long have you all been using the internet? About eighteen years for me, since I first logged into a chatroom. Hate, threats, condescension, marginalization, all that shit is not indicative of ANY goddamn thing except the fact that the internet is full of crazy assholes, and we all knew that, didn’t we? It’s not because she’s a woman or because she’s being critical of video games, it’s because she voiced an opinion and about 2 million people heard it. The video could have been about anything, but if it got 2 million views it made some people hate her. And that’s nothing less than what we all know and expect when we submit our ideas to the internet’s cruel mercies. This very week a guy told me he was gonna come to my house and skullfuck me in the ear because I didn’t think “Lucy” was a very interesting movie. I didn’t take it personally.
And if your position is just “people shouldn’t say cruel hateful things to one another,” then I and every other rational human on the planet will agree with you, but let’s not pretend that Anita being flamed is remarkable or even surprising, much less that it’s some kind of revelatory glimpse into a social TREND. The trend is still what it’s always been: “people on the internet are dicks to one another.” If you feel like that is something that needs to change, 1) it won’t, no matter what you do, and 2) quit it; find something more meaningful to care about. There are hungry homeless people that live in your town. Their suffering is not just emotional.
Dalton, why are you here complaining about people complaining about things when you could be out feeding your homeless neighbors?
Seriously, Dalton?
You got me, I invest my time poorly.
So I take it you completely agree with me on all counts?
You know damn well we don’t. You’re trying to hand wave away abusive behavior with the old “it’s the internet, it’s full of assholes anyway” trope, and it’s beyond tired.
Get new material or fuck off.
It occurs to me that may have come off as a bit trolly and I can see you’re very sensitive to that here. I’m not trying to get a rise, I’m trying to get a rebuttal.
How is the “bullying” that Anita has received different from the common daily abuses that anybody with internet fame can anticipate?
You want a rebuttal? Read the fucking multiple threads about this, we’ve covered all this.
Wow! Thank you, Dalton, I have seen the light! If there’s something bad happening that you think should change, don’t bother trying to do anything about it because you can’t make a difference anyway! Nobody can! So why even try to help the hungry and the homeless, eh? It’s not like I can change the whole socioeconomic environment that lead them to be hungry and homeless, right? I’m not actually going to be able to change anything or do any good! For that matter, I should just hang up my nurse’s hat now! Disease and death are everywhere, and there’s no way little ‘ol me can change that, so whats the point? Why care about hunger, or homelessness, or the overwhelming amount if misogynistic death and rape threats sent to outspoken women on the Internet! Nothing will ever change, because no one should ever bother to try to change it! Just like things should be! No one should ever care about anything!
In case you couldn’t tell, that whole screed was massive sarcasm.
C’mon, person. Maybe this train of thought is a trope to you but the idea that people should feel entitled to publicize themselves without the inevitable pointless hatred is a new one on me. I simply refuse to believe that Anita is the first person you’ve ever heard of becoming suddenly famous and at the same time becoming the sudden object of internet hatred. It is a consistent pattern. Happens every time.
And yet this time people say “lo, sexism” and “lo, internet bullying,” because why?
Huh. You appear to have absolutely no clue about the issues at hand. Perhaps you should educate yourself about them before telling people that thy have no business caring about them.
Hmm… nope, don’t buy it. I think you’ve confused “months” for “years.”
Are you really this fucking dense? Because when women on the internet speak up, this is the kind of shit they get, that’s why.
Jesus Christ, do you even pay attention?
Because, sparky, a hungry homeless man is a problem you can solve very easily with materials you have available to you. The tendency of people who are granted anonymity and freedom from consequence to try to wreck other people with words is not something that we can solve even at length because we have no tools with which to solve it. Being mean is a right people have.
And honestly, it’s all empty bullshit. Anybody can see that it’s all just posturing and meanspiritedness, can’t they?
Oh, look, Dalton’s dudely privilege is showing. That took no time at all.
Hellkell, “when *ANYBODY on the internet speaks up, this is the kind of shit they get.” Anita’s woe, the abuse that this story is written about, is not unique. Give me five minutes and I’ll find you as many white privelaged males who have had it worse than her in their public lives and come out alive. And I won’t even try to blame it on man-hate.
Man, which privilege? I’m getting the impression that I’m not the one you guys are trying to communicate with. Spell it out for me.
Why don’t you take that five minutes and look up the kind of abuse women get on the internet and how it differs from the kind men might get? Or better yet, fuck off.
I’m not your Google monkey or your momma. Figure it your own self.