Reddit, what the hell is your problem?
So last night I discovered the PunchableFaces subreddit. That’s right, an entire subreddit devoted to posting pictures of people so that Redditors can fantasize about doing them bodily harm.
While most of the pictures in the subreddit are of boys and men – some targeted for being “faggots” – the recent posts (as of this writing) with the greatest number of upvotes and comments were, naturally, aimed at women. Specifically, at two outspoken feminists who’ve been singled out by Men’s Rights Activists and #GamerGaters for endless harassment: video game critic Anita Sarkeesian and Canadian feminist activist Chanty Binx, perhaps better known amongst her enemies as “Big Red.”
Here are five of the worst comments I’ve run across in the, er, discussions about these women.
Needless to say, TRIGGER WARNING for explicit threats of violence and rape.
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.
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1) This rapey comment about Anita Sarkeesian:
2) This comment about Sarkeesian with more than two dozen upvotes:
3) This comment about Chanty Binx:
4) This other comment about Chanty Binx:
5) And this other other comment about her:
BONUS: Three comments about much-maligned game designer Zoe Quinn, the subject of another post on the PunchableFaces subreddit:
![fuckyourteam 2 points 2 hours ago Wtf is this cunt looking at? permalink save report give gold reply [–]edu_gon95 [S] 5 points 2 hours ago Hopefully an incoming fist permalink save parent report give gold reply [–]ovenbutt 2 points 2 hours ago I want to pretend it's a fist coming straight for her face.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/quinncomments.png?ssl=1)
One more BONUS Zoe Quinn comment:
Oh, and as an ADDED BONUS, here’s another terrible comment, this one directed at a gay teen boy whose picture is the third-most upvoted one on the subreddit as of this writing.
Why exactly is Reddit providing a forum for hate speech and explicit violent threats directed at, among others, gay teenagers and women who are already the regular targets of widespread harassment and threats?
H/T: r/againstmensrights
The problem is that my asking him if this could please be the last time was what kicked off the latest round of nonsense. Do we really have to do it again in a few hours?
If I’m lucky, “a few hours” will translate to “after PoM has gone to sleep.”
Both Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe are making excellent career choices in their post-Potter careers. Radcliffe appeared in the wonderful Woman in Black and showed some considerable acting chops (25 mins of screen time where he was the only actor on screen) and now has Horns coming up, which looks incredibly weird and wonderful, and WOW his U.S. accent dead-on.
As for Watson, I think she really has the opportunity to make the full transition from child star to legitimate major headlining star and Award-winner. She’s making great role choices and seems smart and savvy. Whatever the vengeful army of dudebros has in store (probably nothing) she’ll probably turn it around on them and come out ever better than before.
Also, hellkell and Cassandrakitty usually end up on the side of right when they call troll.
If they’re calling troll and you aren’t a troll, it’s a pretty good sign that there might be something you’re missing… I don’t think you are a troll, but you’ve been a bit trollish. We all step in it, on occasion. It’s leaping out before you get irrevocably stuck that’s the key.
Just one quick comment on my comments I use voice-to-text, so sometimes there are sentence fragments that show up in the middle of my sentences that I fail to remove when I proofread if I proofread at all. I realize that makes what I write that much harder and more tedious to read. All I can do is promise to try more in the future both for clarity in what I write and less adversariality.
Is it just I, or does the opening of this post appear to turn this into Prejudice Olympics?
RE: Cassie’s Major Domo
Radcliffe appeared in the wonderful Woman in Black and showed some considerable acting chops (25 mins of screen time where he was the only actor on screen) and now has Horns coming up,
Oh, Gigi really wanted to see Woman in Black! It was good, then? I can’t abide jump scares or heavy gore, but if it’s more psych horror, that’d be awesome! Not sure what I think of Horns, though.
@LBT
I really liked it, because it seemed like Hammer trying to get back to the classic Gothics that made them great in the 1960s. Also, I’m a sucker for the old-fashioned ghost story. There’s very little in terms of gore, although there are quite a few jump scares during the long solo-haunting sequence. And the ending, well, I wasn’t the only one who was disappointed with it; otherwise it was just my type of horror film: Victorian atmosphere in an old crumbling house and a numinous sense of evil.
Kirbywarp: I don’t believe they would have put it up if they couldn’t follow through, otherwise what would be the point?
I have no doubt that pictures of a naked woman’s body with Emma Watson’s face on them will show up when that countdown is over. I suspect, however, that that body will not be that of Emma Watson.
Michael McG: On the increasingly vanishingly small chance that you are, in fact, trying to discuss things in good faith, a few tips:
1: If you suspect you are creating a tangential conversation over something someone posted, state so up-front. This is similar to the policy of stating up-front when you are, say, ‘playing devil’s advocate’. It’s one thing to honestly engage folks in this sort of conversation; it’s another entirely to disingenuously lead them down your personal rabbit-hole.
2: Recognize that there are multiple ‘flavors’ of off-topic discussion. In addition to tangents (discussions that sprout from someone else’s replies, rather than the original post, such as you caused here), there are also associated topics (such as the discussion of the magnificent Ms. Watson’s fantastic speech, which applies to the subject of feminism and the need to confront misogyny–related to this blog, even if not part of the topic of this post), and personal asides, such as Leela’s. Personal asides are cool, especially for folks with a proven track-record in the community as respecting others. Note: You don’t have this yet.
3: Associated topics should almost definitely be posted in a pro-feminist manner, if you want them to be considered non-derailing. Someone bringing up #gamergate in a thread about, say, The Spearhead, is going to be received more cordially if they are doing so in a pro-feminist fashion, because then it is generally assumed by the readers that they are approaching the discussion in good faith. If you must argue about an associated topic, save it for the appropriate thread (or scroll down to see if there’s one already on the front page; many folks will continue those discussions for awhile).
Er, Phoenician…given that there’ve recently been a great deal of pictures of naked female celebrities released, I don’t know why you’d assume that they couldn’t get anything. Furthermore, given that celebrity stalkers and harassers actually do create mayhem in the lives of celebrities whom they’re after, I’m not sure why you think that these guys couldn’t possibly do anything to Emma Watson.
Sorry to be pessimistic. It’s just that these people have proven time and time again that they’re not incompetent. Hopefully, these guys are, but you never can count on that. Also, you can’t count on people believing that a fake nude isn’t actually a real nude.
Er, Phoenician…given that there’ve recently been a great deal of pictures of naked female celebrities released, I don’t know why you’d assume that they couldn’t get anything.
Because the pictures have been from hacked iCloud accounts, AFAIK. If they’d ‘counted coup’ by getting Emma Watson, they’d have announced it before she made herself a target by giving her UN speech.
I believe that what’s going to happen is a bunch of sad, cruel and horrible kids are going to photoshop her face onto porn and release it as her.
Let’s not frame these people as kids. Firstly because it’s edging towards excusing their behavior on the ground of youthful foolishess, and secondly because a lot of the sexual creepiness aimed at Watson has been specifically from older men waiting for her to be “legal” so that they can leer at her even more obviously than they were already doing when she was a child. Framing them as kids hides that dynamic, and it’s important not to do that.
Michael McG, just in case you care I wrote you off as an annoying troll weeks ago.
It has been my observation that people really want very badly for these to be kids so they can pretend they will grow out of it and improve their behavior with age. They aren’t kids and this is the behavior that gives them what they want.
The guys trying to get nudes of teens are often much older, like my age and up. Old enough to have kids Emma Watson’s age.
Their maturity level may be 15, but actual age may be way older.
Abusive people seem young, in a very bad way, like a toddler with an adult’s body and capacities.
Why even bother to make a statement like this if you yourself are not trying to provoke others for sake provoking others?
Michael: That, right there? Stop it. You have been sniping at regulars since you showed up here. I’m sure you’d like to be thought of as posting in good faith, but that’s a two-way street.
You are coming off as…if not a troll, someone who is not here in good faith.
Do. Not. Even. Go. There.
Do not tell someone what their feelings are. That’s gaslighting. It’s unacceptable.
Consider this a mod warning, Michael. You’re doing this legalistic shit far too often, this pedantic derailing that always curiously amounts to siding with the abusive party until you have to insert an “of course what they’re doing is wrong, BUT this is more important” clause.
I don’t give a damn why you’re doing it, but stop it right there.
Why? In case you cared (see, I said it right up there) about the opinion of another person regarding your annoying behavior. That is why.
-Sparky: “Leela: Hugs, if you want them. I’m a nurse too, and the job’s hard enough without coworkers making it worse! There’s definitely something wrong if your crying on the way home. Are you able to transfer to another unit or look for a new job? Is your manager supportive that you could talk to zir about it? If you are able, maybe take some vacation time, even, just to give yourself a little break, if you can.”
This is all very good advice, and I am going to talk to my manager tomorrow. We will see what she says. She’s kind of part of the problem. She is *very* good friends with quite a few of the nurses and that’s generally fine, but I’ve overheard her gossiping about people who have come to her with issues (long story short, someone went to our pseudo-union because she scheduled them 5 days in a row, and she was talking to someone about this… on the floor.) Sadly, we are so understaffed that the only way I could get vacation is if I call in sick, and I used the last of my sick hours yesterday for a mental health day. Hopefully it goes well tomorrow, we’re so short that I can’t see her not trying to make me want to stay. Now that I have a year of experience, it shouldn’t be that difficult to find another job. Thank you for the hugs, I have a stomach ache about going into work tomorrow.
– Shaenon,
You made an incredibly adorable baby!!
Belated hugs, Leela, and I hope you manage to sort or escape that rotten situation.
emilygoddess –
I’m sorry you’ve been dealing with the gossip and backstabbing. I wish I knew a good way to change places that are like that (and where I’m at now). Hopefully in 6 months we are in much better places!
No, that’s it. Enough.
Michael, what the fuck is your deal?
You can’t fucking start with “I’m sorry for derailing conversations so often” and then continue with “Oh, I’m sorry, just because you think I’m derailing and annoying doesn’t make it true!” and then go to “And I’m sorry if I’m being adverserial, it’s just who I am!”
You are plain adversarial. No ifs or buts about it. TO WIT, the brain-mine that is our previous discussion on “cretin”
here where you dance “don’t use cretin” to
after 1! ONE post and rock right insulting people and being a snide little snipey asshole and, guess fucking what, that thread ends up with:
I don’t give a shit. You don’t get to constantly be a raging, sniping, pedantic version of some WW 1 era sharpshooter hanging around waiting for a target to make itself know, jump in, proclaim “fuck you and your opinions you just can’t handle my truthism” and then retreat to some shelter of “Oh, I guess I’m being adversarial again, my bad”. That’s not how anything works and I’m actually getting annoyed with it now and I’m so fucking Zen I shit koans, so making me legit annoyed is one hell of an achievement.
It’s the same in the “is ur ass biff?” thread – here where you go straight from “My opinion is this” to “that’s not a valid interpretation of my opinion, can you point out exactly where I said that?”
Stop trying to play “trip ’em up with a vague wording and then pounce when they point something out”. It’s not a fun game, and I’m getting real tired of it.
And stop whiplashing so hard I’m getting neckpains reading your words by bouncing straight from “I’m sorry if I was adverserial” to “Fuck you and don’t quote me and you can’t tell me what to think and you don’t get to decide if I’m being annoying” to “And by the way, then just IGNORE ME!”.
http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-get-a-fucking-grip-2/