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.
Also that was a great comment, gillyrosebee.
I’m trying to parse this last sentence and failing. Yes, the goal is to make male gamers (and everyone else) aware of the inherent misogyny in video games. Is that “shaming?” Well, I guess gamers should be ashamed of the misogyny in their hobby, and for not recognizing it earlier. There certainly is an element of “you should feel bad that this exists.” The shaming isn’t something done on purpose, though, it’s just a natural product of being made aware of a terrible thing.
People feel ashamed that Richard Dawkins, someone they admired and looked up to, turned out to be such a douche on some things. Nobody said “be shamed that Dawkins said this,” they said “Dawkins said this terrible thing.”
What does this have to do with lacking empathy?
It’s not “shaming” (in a pejorative sense) or “bullying” to point out that misogyny exists in video games. As for “doing something about it,” why is it a bad thing to want to do something about the sexism once you realize its there? The intent of Anita’s videos is to recognize a problem. If people feel ashamed once they realize the problem exists, that’s a good thing! It means they agree its a problem! And if they feel like they need to do something about it, even better! But you can’t say that Anita was trying to shame them. Then you’re blaming Anita for making you feel things.
Games are not thoughts. They are actual products manifest in the real world. Comparing the content of games to “thought crimes” is silly. Anita is not critiquing table-top rpg gamers who role-play something misogynistic, she’s critiquing a product like a movie or a book. Many of those products contain common sexist themes.
Ahh, ok. So you think Anita’s critique of games is identical to a critique of gamers.
No.
Games are the subject of the videos. Anita is pointing out sexist tropes in those games. Gamers are among the people who are showering her with slurs and rape/death threats. They are sexist also, but in a different way.
Critiquing games is not bullying gamers. Labeling gamers as misogynistic assholes for making rape and death threats is not bullying gamers any more than calling a racist racist is bigoted.
You are asking us to consider the harassers and feel bad for them, when those harassers are not being targeted except for being harassers. No.
Edward Gemmer: You know, I’d point out that Lea was talking about your past history of coments as the reason you’re a dick, not because you have mild criticism of Anita’s videos…
…if I already didn’t have long experience with watching you continuously misconstrue conversations and dance around the point.
@insanitybytes22: No, fuck that, calling out and critiquing sexism is not, and has never been, bullying. That mentality is extremely dangerous and regressive.
Oh, but Breakfastman, don’t you see? We have to be very sweet and deferential to the men folk because we’ve been SO HARD ON THEM for SO LONG. I mean, they get treated worse than slaves, after all. /sarcasm
Also, late to the party again. Wheee!
Now I’m really annoyed that ib22 has engaged in the shaming bullshit so typical of MRAs.
Edward, I know who you are and yes, you’re a sexist asshole. I did not say that you are a sexist asshole because you criticize Anita’s work and you know it. Don’t play dumb. I said I was familiar with you and with your bullshit. Don’t show up here and expect no one to know you from elsewhere. You like to go to feminist spaces and act like an asshole. You have a history of it. You should leave. Go play with your friends at the Slime Pit.
Inanity,
If someone steps on your toe and you tell them they are on your toe and you want them to get off of your toe, it is no bullying them. If they choose to stay on your toe and you tell them that makes them an asshole, that isn’t shaming them. It is stating a fact. It is not “bullying” to point out racism, misogyny or homophobia. It is absurd for you to claim it is. Then again, I’d expect nothing better from you.
I’m really, really tired of people having the nerve to use the term bullying in the most outrageous of contexts. @insanitybytes, you’re an absolute asshat and a fucking disgrace.
Long time lurker, first time commenter, sorry/notsorry for just jumping in. =P
@redpoppy: Oh right, yeah, I forgot, social change doesn’t happen because people fight for it and critique the existing power systems, it just magically happens when the people in power feel it is the right time, and we shouldn’t try to expedite that at all. 😛
Lea, no one is saying it’s a person’s fault if their toe is stomped on. However, there’s no empathy here, no awareness of the fact that the goal is to shame some toe-stompers into becoming aware of the inherent nastiness in toe-stomping. To shame and bully them into doing something about it. It’s like policing people’s fantasies, judging them for their thought crimes. If you consider how many toe-stompers stomp to escape the world of bullying, this would be perceived as simply another attack. Does that justify toe-stomping? No, but can no one even consider where that might be coming from?
Breakfastman- Never! The South was WELL on its way to ending slavery on their own. They were just doing it gradually. Weening themselves off of it like one would do a potent drug. Having that civil war (that they started BTW) was so unnecessary and evil because the North were just a bunch of big bullies. Especially those Abolitionists. I mean, won’t someone think of the white dudes?
pawsjones- It’s actually quite common and EXTREMELY maddening when MRAs and anti-feminists appropriate feminist/womanist/SJ language for their bullshit arguments. They misappropriate it and turn the whole damn thing into farce.
redpoppy: Yup. I’ve taken to referring to it as Cargo Cult social justice. They use the terms, attempting to get the veneer, but with no understanding of the substance.
@pawsjones
Hi!
@redpoppy
They surely do, and I know it all too well. I’m not in the least surprised, it just gets to me more some days.
@Auntie Alias
Hello! May I be so bold as to say I adore your nick, it’s brilliant!
So a history that includes threatening his then girlfriend with murder-suicide doesn’t count as a pattern of behaviour? I’m going to side-eye that. I definitely agree that what happened to him in prison was horrible.
Can you prove that they are sexist.
Can you describe what a sexist game would look like to you? What would a video game have to entail for you to consider it sexist?
On the subject of “gash cash”, that phrase (or rather, juxtaposition of words) has been around for quite awhile. The first time I saw it was on a full-page phone sex ad in a porn magazine (Hustler’s Barely Legal, in case anyone’s curious) in the early 1980s. Specifically, it said “More ga$h for your ca$h”. Note that the magazine wasn’t mine; I was only something like 7 or 8 at the time. Also, I considered the pictures and ads which consisted of the bulk of the magazine to be boring and mostly read what few articles it contained; mainly remember that ad because of that odd wording.
As a side note, I also remember one article in particular, “The services of a slut” (or something similar, don’t remember the exact title) which also struck me as weird at the time, though I wouldn’t have been able to say exactly why back then – it was basically anti-slut-shaming, sort of, while making sex to be all about the man’s pleasure.
And as a further note, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least some of the MRA were exposed to such things at a very young age (seriously, even pre-internet, at least some children had easy access to porn) and were thoroughly corrupted by it.
@pawsjones
Thanks! Are the paws in your user name kitty paws?
“No one has even once said You are bad people for liking this”
Of course they have. That’s the whole point of pointing out the violent imagery in video games. That’s the whole motivation behind social justice, to try and shame people into becoming aware of their behavior.
“However, there’s no empathy here, no awareness of the fact that the goal is to shame some toe-stompers into becoming aware of the inherent nastiness in toe-stomping”
No, when somebody steps on your toe, I think you should assume it is personal, deliberate, and motivated by nastiness. Then you should revel in your feelings of persecution and launch a good campaign to get toe stepping regulated and banned.
@insanitybytes22:
(Hey, btw, the topic is “misogyny,” not just violent imagery. Don’t leave out the sexism and pretend this is just people grasping pearls at violence existing in games)
You don’t understand what shaming is. Saying something is bad isn’t shaming. A result of pointing out the bad thing might be that people are ashamed that the bad thing exists, but that’s just a side effect.
Social Justice is not about making the oppressors or the privileged feel bad. It’s about fighting for the rights of the oppressed and the non-privileged.
Get it right.
Yeah, no. Back away from the word “shaming,” I think it’s tripping you up. Might watch out for “bullying” as well.
Deliberate toe-stepping IS banned by law. It’s called ‘assault’. Your examples are as tortured as the dudes in my mentions.
Ninja’d by kirbywarp.