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.
But what about Erin The Dude and his attack chickens?
Because “I hope she steps on a Lego” is totally the same thing as “Here’s her home address, telephone number and grocery shopping schedule so whoever lives close can find the most convenient time to choke her to death”.
Boring troll is boring.
Erin the Chicken Master didn’t have the staying power of Mikey and lacked that Tom Martinish dedication to one word or phrase, I thought. Not that Mikey was up to much compared with the eldritch horrors of the trolls of yore.
I do think that any junior primary teachers here could come up with some kind of token “also competed” merit rosette for poor old Woody. He can’t get it for “all my own work” because we’ve contributed more than he did. But a mention might be in order.
Shut up, woody.
Is that where the “directly on the beach” stuff comes from, a troll called Mikey? I missed out on that thread, boo.
I still have a soft spot for t1oracle “stop posting about cats and ignoring me, that’s trolling!”, who needed a few hundred posts on what an adjective was. And still didn’t get it.
Has anyone but Woody ever completed a troll challenge ?
Well that “Comfort Women of Conshelf 6” certainly read like it was churned out in a month.
@ Joker,
Literally no one here cares, bro.
Yeah, that’s too many teal deer. Even if you posted it, I wouldn’t let that screed through – mostly because it’d be fun to watch you complain about your wasted time some more.
Much better to waste your time complaining that your time is being wasted. What you’re not getting is that WE DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR TIME. We don’t care about your arguments. No one gives a fuck.
Again: opposing comments get posted here all the time. it’s not the dissent itself that’s keeping you in moderation.
Show me where I complained about you not rebutting anything. Go on, I’ll wait.
I love (eh..) when trolls come here and say things like “you delete any dissenting opinion”, it just shows how much they miss the point of this blog (and how much of the FAQ they haven’t read).
Farmer Mikey was so hilarious.
He hated being called farmer Mikey sooooo much, and he was so invested in the Southern Gentleman 52 year old Farmer Joe persona…
He was also very, very creepy. Like, bile up the back of the throat creepy. When he wasn’t hilarious, of course!
“Why are you calling me Mikey! I don’t know who you’re talking about! (Even though I’m the same IP and doing the exact same tricks as Mikey, I’m not him, REALLY!”
Inanitybytes was inane… Woodyred was kind of funny, though!
“Fine! Moderate me! You can keep your inferior Woody. I never liked you anyway! Why are you moderating me! I’M THE SUPERIOR WOODY!!
Thus Spake Zarashadethedruid:
You know what? All that aside, if an MRA, gamergater, or PUA came here with something other than PRATTs, insults, and “you’re all mean man-hating feminazis who hate men so now I choose not to grace you with my awesome genius manthoughts” whines… if he offered honest, intelligent, and reasonable discussion… I bet he could actually find some good dialogue here. Of course, the risk of a good-faith effort to change somebody else’s mind is you may find you were wrong, and your own mind has changed instead…
LOL, we don’t think we could get a reasonable discussion from you, because you are not reasonable and you’re stupid.
We were talking about some hypothetical MRA we have never seen. The problem is that if a person was smart, well informed and reasonable enough to put forth a good argument here, how could they also be stupid enough to be an MRA?
Sorry, can I just butt into this conversation for a mo’, isthisafuckingjoke? I think you’ll notice I haven’t so far. I just wanted to mention that:
could be true, but it could also be the fact that multiple people write comments here, and have different opinions, also in regards to what level of moderation is good and what is bad and how much and how little.
We don’t have to be an undifferentiated blop of indistinguishable sameness.
( which is meant to infer, imply and implicate the notion that jumping straight to that conclusion is perhaps some kind of indication that you’re way off base. Maybe not leading in with:
would have resulted in these Cultists of the Cat responding with more mental chess (the opposite of gymnastics, see) to your posts )
Just bounced a couple of boring, boring troll’s boring, boring screeds. Because I can.
That seems sort of mean, though. Could we not? I’d rather they happily dug their own mildew infested meme-mine.
maybe make his troll challenge that he can only do one (short) paragraph per comment and he only gets one an hour, or something – force him to be concise.
… not that this is particularly high roll trolling by any stretch.
And yeah, insanitybytes22 was pretty inane.
Anyhow, contrapangloss already responded to something (in a neat comment back a page) but I want to add a few words too.
It’s sort of hilarious.
Premise? They’re sending threads to shut down a woman who doesn’t know her place.
Offered alternatives?
1: people are pissed off and express it with threads of violence (pissed off because a woman is offering an opinion they don’t like, so better shut her up)
2: the threats aren’t meant literally – implication: they’re made because the people are pissed off that a woman is having this opinion, so better shut her up
3: Someone complains about misogyny, and the response is more misogyny (because a fucking woman is making these complaints, so better shut her up)
4: An intention to drive off or scare off the target, because she says something they don’t like (which pissess them off, and makes them try to shut the target out)
… real smooth way of showing how this harassment can be interpreted in a different way.
It’s a completely different interpretation! Yep!
Thus Spake Zaraisthisafuckinjoke?!:
Please note the adjectives associated with “discussion” in my post: “Honest, intelligent, and reasonable.”
If you resent being treated like a clown, why not lose the facepaint, oversized shoes, and squeaky nose?
Thus Spake ZaraFibinachi:
But it’s sure easier to dismiss us if you pretend we do. Create a straw-feminist caricature (“Hire only wymmyn in STEM jobs! Paternity tests are misogyny! KILL ALL MEN!”) then insist she represents every feminist everywhere. Then suddenly it’s easy to rebut feminism: “If you believe men and women should be equal… why do you support the draft for men but not for women?!” The straw-feminist caricature shrieks and vanishes in a puff of sulphurous smoke, and you get to do a victory lap while the crowd cheers and chants your name. (Disclaimer: Cheering crowd may be just as imaginary as the straw-feminist you just thrashed.)
Have we not made ourselves clear on this? You not posting IS THE OUTCOME WE WANT. You’re trying to threaten us with stuff we actually want – it’s like threatening to kill someone unless they eat a delicious cookie. It’s just not going to work out the way you want.
I didn’t say “any response”. I was specifically referring to the 8-page screed you claim to have in waiting. No one wants to read your teal deer.
…unless it’s in iambic pentameter or trochaic tetrameter: in that case, I’d read it for the lulz.
Yes, I like bad poetry, who asked?
So don’t. The only one who thinks we ought to impress you is you.
.
We DO accept it. It says right on top of the blog that we’re here to mock misogyny. We’re not here to make a case for feminism or to debate every idiot who wanders in with the same tired arguments we’ve heard a thousand times before, and yet you idiots come in here and demand those things and try to act like you’ve won when all you get is mocked – which is LITERALLY WHAT YOU WERE PROMISED.
Not really clear on the whole concept, is he?
… theennnnnn don’t? Seriously, if you can’t tell, the excessive moderation is basically a special present just for you, as a not-so-sublte hint that we aren’t interested in any “debate” you have to offer.
Unless it’s in iambic pentameter, of course. I’ll sonnet with you any day, because at least there’d be fun in crafting a response.