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.
The way I see it, when someone presents a worldview — one that contradicts what you currently think and do — you have two broad possible reactions:
1) You disagree with what the person is saying. You move on with your life and sleep soundly, disregarding the weird things they said.
2) You think the person actually has a pretty good point, in which case, you should feel a bit guilty and stop doing the things that induce said guilt.
If Anita Sarkeesian is totally in left field, and her followers are ragey and incoherent and wrong, then there is literally zero reason that anyone should feel guilty about their claims. However, if you are feeling a bit guilty, that may indicate that she is onto something, and a pang of conscience is peeking through our sexism-steeped world.
@Tyler…if you haven’t already flounced. Here’s another clue.
Every time you read the words “an equity feminist”, you would do well to translate it from bullshit into English. In this case, the translation would be “an anti-feminist”.
“Equity feminism” does not exist. It is an oxymoron, like “jumbo shrimp” or “intelligent Tea Party member”. The people who invented the term did so because they realize that declaring themselves to be “anti-feminist” is not really good PR. And so, like good Republicans, they rebranded their misogynistic horseshit to a term that mean the exact opposite of what you might think by reading them out of context.
You’re welcome.
@kirbywarp:
The game Arcanum featured a final boss you could talk your way through, if you had a high enough speech/talk skill. Now, granted, you had to fight your entire way up *to* the final boss, but there is a game with an ultimate antagonist you can literally reason with/through.
…been here for about seven months, and this is the damn thing that makes me de-lurk. Go figure.
That’s all well and good, but the videos aren’t about the games we should have.
They’re about the games we DO have.
In the games we actually get in the real world, the character in distress is practically always female, and has no function besides being a trophy for the male main character, repeating a trend of treating women as props to develop men seen in several forms of media.
AND THAT’S THE DAMN POINT OF THE VIDEO.
Christ, you’re dumb.
But I LIKE the fact that this story always ends the same way. Change scares me, and I assume it scares game designers too. Why do these horrible women keep pointing out that other options are available to them? I, Tyler, proudly choose “boring” as my preferred option, as my comments here today have attempted to demonstrate. Tune in tomorrow for more of the same!
Fuck, I own a skull (an antique medical specimen that belonged to my mother-in-law’s great-grandfather). I have it because it looks neat and there’s more than a touch of “everyday is Halloween” in my house. I swear I have nothing to do with these chucklefucks.
Kevin K: “jumbo shrimp” might have to be retired now…
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s–RB1Oq5IQ–/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/gkkrghxetzsnpa3agfk1.jpg
Yes, it’s real.
In the meantime, please send me email, so that I can use your email address as part of the ongoing attempt to harass and possibly doxx anyone who isn’t onboard with the “gaming is a boys only treehouse, let’s keep it that way!” campaign. I think you’re as stupid as I’m pretending to be, you see, and that you will just give me this information if I ask for it, because gurls and social justice warriors don’t know how to internet.
@ nequam
The fuck is that thing? It’s a kaiju larva, kill it before it grows up and invades Sydney or Hong Kong!
Equity feminism is to feminism what reverse racism is to racism. A term created by defenders of the status quo to paint the side that fights for equality as “going too far” and themselves as the middle ground.
You know, I have a bunch of (fake) skulls on a table, surrounded by a bunch of other odds and ends. (I think my favorite is the statue of the monkey, sitting on a stack of books, holding a skull; one of the books has the name “Darwin” on the spine.) I also occasionally play at the supervillain thing, when I’m casually chatting with friends online whom I know will know I’m goofing around (talking about summoning the Great Old Ones, or building a Death-Ray on my orbital space station). This is fun and an enjoyable way to pass the time, and I absolutely refuse to cede this ground to these douchebags the way the fedora/trillby was..
Actually, if you think about it, what scares these guys more than women? There should be a series of games called The Matriarchy 1, Matriarchy : Revenge of the Vagina Dentata and so on where hapless male protagonists battle women who have escaped from their assigned social position and who just walk around acting like people, which is apparently terrifying to a certain subset of insecure manchildren.
Nequam
Awesome!
CassandraKitty
No! We will raise it for our Fempire! We need all the help we can get!
I loved how Tyler thought the “email me” thing would work. Not everyone is as stupid as he is.
I have a lot of Day of the Dead art and anatomy models around the house. I’m not a super-villain yet.
Maybe he’s referring to the radical ideology that women are people.
I think Tyler’s e-mail bid was actually a call to lurking trolls. He wants to hear from the people who agree with him but don’t actually post; maybe they’ll soothe his poor hurt feelings.
You’re cute…actual danger and ersatz danger are very different things. Since I grew up getting hit, my Atari 2600 was an escape. Adult life’s had exciting moments of nearly getting dead, too.
You really ought to get out more.
But you don’t have to use sexist tropes to make a horror game that works well…I don’t play that much because I get obsessed, but I found F.E.A.R. II to be a lot of fun. That qualifies as a horror, I guess?
It was a blast!
In fact, using stereotypes to tell a story is laziness. They can do better.
@kirbywarp: if you’re looking for games that let you defeat the final boss through pure conviction and convince them to abandon their scheme, you should play more old-school Black Isle/Troika style RPGs. I know for a fact that the first two Fallouts and Arcanum allowed you to talk the big bad to death, and I’m pretty sure the Vampire: The Masquerade game did too. Almost certain it was in Planescape: Torment too, because that game included every excellent RPG idea ever. There are lots of other games, including a lot of Bioware stuff, where you can at least get an advantage in the final fight by being a smooth talker. The example that springs to mind is Mass Effect, where you can convince the Big Bad that he’s been co-opted by the alien tech he’s embraced and he shoots himself in the head. Of course, then the tech reanimates him, but you’ve dispensed with half the battle.
TL;DR: if you want to win games by talking the bad guy into giving up, play classic Western RPGs.
Regarding the skulls as decor and apparel?
…I have one 14-year old boy and one 5 year old boy in my head who have strong opinions about apparel esthetics. They also like animal skulls, snakes, bugs, actual weaponry, RPGs, and fantasy art.
…Yep, that’s where we’re at…kind of a fun place, actually.
There’s also another trope (the macguffin) that is just as safe and done to death. Surely that would keep Tyler in his comfort zone.
Speaking of games, has anyone played Destiny? I don’t want to just go buy it because I don’t like Halo, but the trailer makes it sound like it might be ok. I’m wondering if the solo campaign will be any good or if it’s just tacked on to the multi-player stuff.
@Ohnomatic Welcome to de-lurked status! Here’s your Welcome Package.
Call me weird (and I am) but I just went to a website to find the cost of a genuine human skull. It’s about $2,000. I’ll stick with my badger one, thank you.
There was a story back in the 80s when I was doing Hamlet for A-Level about someone who donated his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company so that he could play Yorick.
I also own a skull! I carry it around inside my head for safekeeping.
/Steven Wright
The one Aurini has is probably from India.
http://archive.wired.com/medtech/health/magazine/15-12/ff_bones?currentPage=all
Apparently the illicit bone trade’s thriving..I think I’ve seen real skulls for as low as $ 200.
I like Dayak carved buffalo skulls-the buffalo dies of old age AFAIK, and then artists carve the skull in the style of Dayak trophy skulls.
But those are not cheap.
My roller derby league’s logo has a terrifying skull that conveys the message “we’re total badasses and we’re going to beat the shit out of you!”
But sure, we’re an alternative contact sport team with a playful identity, not a movement trying to pass for humanist and human rights’ aligned 🙂
Apparently it’s the goal of most of the tools to join the Coalition States.
Which is such an obscurely geeky reference I’m betting the only one chuckling at it.