A little realization hit me while I was watching videos about #GamerGate recently. MRAs and #GamerGaters really seem to enjoy depicting themselves as cartoon villains. Above, the skull-in-a-Koolaid-pitcher mascot of MRA videoblogger Bane666au.
Below, a screencap from a video by Mundane Matt, one of the movers and shakers behind the whole #GamerGate thing.
Once the smokey skull intro is over, here’s what you look at the rest of the time when you watch one of his videos:
And while we’re at it, the logo for his channel:
When they’re not depicting themselves as evil skulls with creepy eyes, MRAs and other antifeminists like to identify themselves with fictional villains:
That is, when they’re not posing as supervillains themselves:
Oh, hey, it’s our friend Davis Aurini, from earlier today, in an unphotoshopped screenshot from a video of his.
Oh, and here’s a screenshot from a more recent video of his. Note the skull. That’s right: he owns a freaking skull.
I hate to tell you guys, but I think YOU’RE THE BADDIES.
Yes, I know I’ve posted this video before, but once again it seemed very very apt.
You know, I actually believe you. So believe me when I tell you this: You have a LONG way to go to come back from this kind of statement:
That is a strawman argument, a blatant disregard for facts, Not All Gamergaters, AND minimization of the magnitude of harassment and plain evil perpetrated for explicitly gendered reasons, in just two sentences. That’s a lot of ground to make up, and that’s ignoring everything that came after those two sentences.
If you want to be taken seriously as a non-troll, you should probably start by understanding what you did and why it was a terrible thing to do.
GOM: You need to be aware that you have fallen in with a group of grizzled, battle-scarred veteran feminists
…who are busy earnestly arguing whether “stuck in your parent’s basement” is ableist…
[Raises eyebrow]
Tyler, pretty sure no one here is going to email you to discuss things. Just like no one writes their phone number on a bathroom wall just to start a baking club. If you really want to discuss issues, do it in the chats here like everyone else.
Errrrrrr…intersectionality?
Seriously though, I’m a little baffled by the idea that insults paste off of shared group characteristics–that don’t directly relate to the reason that the group is being criticized–don’t themselves include certain societal prejudices predicated on those characteristics.
@Michael McG — I think the problem is that living through your computer and losing contact with the real world greatly exacerbates the self-reinforcing nature of whatever echo chamber you happen to end up in. We all suffer from conformation bias — I sure as hell do — and you have to work your tail off to avoid it, not marinate yourself in it.
Ooooo, the troll is back! Hang on while I get my GamerGate Bingo Card!
Tyler, put your ableist eyebrow back where it belongs. A number of regulars on this blog have suffered from mental health issues, and all of us want to be sure that we don’t make their problems worse by being insensitive to their history of being treated to insults like “crazy” etc. Everyone has unreasonable prejudices; we’re working to get rid of ours. How about you? (If you don’t, you’ll find it very uncomfortable here.)
Yeah, I’m just a little sensitized to anything that suggests that online interactions are any less real than face to face interactions. I say that is an explanation of my comments not as a request for anyone stop saying anything in particular.
@pendraegon:
I (think) I understood that reference!
Seriously though, I’m a little baffled by the idea that insults paste off of shared group characteristics–that don’t directly relate to the reason that the group is being criticized–
It’s a caricature and a stereotype, a kind of synecdoche where what is being referenced is NOT mental illness (per se) but the idea of a man-child who is too socially backward and mature enough to leave the family home as an independent adult.
Got it…it’s ageism–not ableism, classism, or sexism.
I feel sooooo much better…
Incidentally, mmcg, I get the part of your point about it being a categorical slam on people who might have purely practical reasons for continuing to live at home. I have two grown children who live at home — we have a big house, they aren’t in relationships, and it’s convenient for them to save money toward a time when they might want to buy a home or something. I also understand your point about virtual vs face-to-face contact, but I partly disagree with you in that I think it’s much harder to retain a clear view of how the world actually works unless you work hard not to shield yourself in an echo chamber. Not that it can’t be done — I just seem to see a lot of folks who clearly aren’t doing it.
The only reason insults like “in your mothers basement” work is because society has certain expectations able-bodied possibly middle class adult men namely that they live in–and possibly own–housing independent of their nuclear family of origin. If there were no societal stigma to living with one’s parents, there would be no would be no inside loss of status in noting that particular individuals do so.
In particular, one would not be able to portray a man who lives with his parents past the age of legal majority ass less able bodied, last adult, and less a man. Moreover, one would not be able to contrast the lack of able bodiedness adulthood and manliness with an individual’s self perception of being the most able bodied adult and manly simply because he is a man speaking out against women thereby deepening the insult.
I am confused by the fact that the people who seem to be so adamantly opposed to the men’s rights movement reliance on patriarchal gender norms seem to reproduce them when criticizing the men’s rights movement for relying on those same patriarchal gender norms.
Do you have a podcast, David? I’d love to hear the sounds of sanity and sexist smack-downs while I do my dishes.
The dudes that show up here wanting to claim that “just because GG totally started as a harassment campaign against women doesn’t mean its tarnished!” are a bunch of dumbasses.
I read that recently the KKK was trying to give itself a better image. I remember them coming out when all those racist fucks were donating to the cop that shot Michael Brown, like “hey hey, we agree with you and stuff but could we tone down the blatant hatred?” (Among other things). Its the same thing. The KKK or GG or whatever shitty “movement” can try to polish that turd of theirs all they want but at the end of the day they are still pieces of shit. I know you bros want to come in here acting all rational and well intentioned but you reek of shit and there are flies buzzing all around you.
Don’t piss on my back and tell me it’s raining!
I’m actually kinda fascinated by this discussion on classist implications of ‘mom’s basement’ thing, just because I kinda come at it from the opposite end. I would not live with my parents if you paid me. I chose destitution and homelessness over returning to them, and I consider this one of the wisest decisions I ever made, even though it meant living in a crawlspace for a year.
Like, I am down with finding a new phrase, because I get those weird implications too. (Had my family NOT been full of child-molesters and their worshippers, I WOULD have lived in their basements!) Perhaps just replace with, “Fuck off, troll, go back to your bridge”? Where else would trolls live?
RE: vaiyt
read Machiavelli and try to understand that he wrote political science for heads of state, not relationship advice for antisocial losers.
Kinda tells you what these chucklefucks think of themselves, right? I wanted a husband, not a KING. *sticks tongue out at Kittehs*
RE: itsabeast
people love villains.
Speak for yourself. Villains are fun IN FICTION. I would not want to meet Hitler, Strom Thurmond, or any of these chucklefucks in actual real life. I’ve been around guys like this; they are not nearly as clever, entertaining, or thought-provoking in real life.
Errr, yeah, this:
“I am confused by the fact that the people who seem to be so adamantly opposed to the men’s rights movement reliance on patriarchal gender norms seem to reproduce them when criticizing the men’s rights movement for relying on those same patriarchal gender norms.”
The living in your mom’s basement thing isn’t a feminist meme. Basically, the expression came from nerd haters, and became popular after William Shanter’s appearance on SNL in the ’80s, when he suggested that a convention of Star Trek fanboys “Get a life.” So, you see, it’s not that confusing at all. The term was intended for a certain sect of geeks — originally. The term has been flung around here since the gamergate duders seem like the types who never go out and have any positive interaction with women. But yes, feminists don’t like gender essentialism. Thanks for misunderstand on purpose.
Can you be ageist against (non-elderly) adults? I feel like we’re the privileged ones. Also, I don’t think “you’re old enough to know better” is really ageism – but maybe we’re reading that quoted bit differently.
Not to mention it’s not as easy to endure their acts in real life, with real life victims whose lives don’t go away to leave space for the protagonist.
“You’re old enough to know better” isn’t ageism; it’s saying “your behavior might be acceptable if you were a small child, but you aren’t.”
I’m on financial outpatient status with my mom. The fucked-up thing is that I work 38 hours, full time. I don’t really make enough to meet my expenses ( and have acquired doggies ) so am glad to have a free trailer to live in.
My physical health and mental health give me issues that make it difficult to improve, but I will. I’m not arrogant about it…in fact I’m grateful because I know how nasty it would have been without one sane and supportive parent. Me dead would be far more likely.
…The guys we make fun of think they are Deity’s gift to mankind while expending no effort to do anything whatsoever for anybody.
You, sir, are not of the above sort.
I’m getting that the insult has classist overtones…but it’s not class we’re lampooning. It’s their craniorectal insertion.
I need to think, this requires coffee.
Back when we started the keyboard kommandos wanking in their moms basement (cough Jonah Goldberg cough) it was before the banksters blew up the economy. The insult does not work any more the way it was intended due to a change in circumstance for us all. Time makes fools of us.
That sums up how I feel about it. There was a time when there was no excuse for an able bodied and minded adult to not be able to live independently but that was back when there was still a strong middle class.
It’s not a huge deal and I won’t get super offended if people use the mom’s basement insult but it does rub me the wrong way for this reason. “Step back from the keyboard and experience the real world” or references to trolls residing under bridges accomplishes the purpose just fine.
Did anyone actually claim it was ableist? I know I didn’t – I don’t see how it could be. I just agreed with Michael that it was mean to people who share that characteristic (basement living, not going outside), but not the ones actually being derided (being a toxic, reality-denying gobshite). And I try to avoid insults that have collateral damage.