Sexual harassment: it’s not just something that dudes do. And here’s a little story from the GamerGate wars on Twitter to demonstrate this.
Yesterday, an anti-GamerGate Twitterer known as @Auragasmic directed a question to Adobe Software. And got an indignant reply from a GamerGater known as Cameralady.
https://twitter.com/The_Camera_Girl/status/524654719982391297
Now, this response is interesting for several reasons.
For one, Cameralady on Twitter, called that because she is the, er, camera lady for the YouTube channel ShortFatOtaku, is the same Cameralady I ran across repeatedly when going through those logs of the #burgersandfries IRC channel, one of the main organizing hubs of the campaign of harassment that became #GamerGate.
Cameralady, one of the angriest commenters in that angry bunch, showed up in the IRC channel on August 23rd ready to do battle with Zoe Quinn, who she claimed had once “belittled me for having autism.”
She turned out to be an indefatigable researcher, digging up a great deal of dirt about Quinn’s past, including what she said was a photo of Quinn at age 13. And she passed along lurid gossip from Zoe’s terrible ex about her sex life.
Here’s the charming way Cameralady introduced herself to the IRC channel, the log of which you can find online here. (I’ve removed some unrelated comments, indicating cuts with ellipses. )
Aug 23 01.51.50 <Cameralady> fuck zoe quinn
…
Aug 23 01.52.08 <Cameralady> she’s not interested in equality she’s interested in stuffing her flappy cunt with flaacid boy penises
Aug 23 01.52.14 <TechPriest> So your in this to take her down, and dehumanize her because she deserves it….
Aug 23 01.52.38 <foTTS> To be honest, I wouldn’t credit her with depression quest since she only provided 75 lines for it, Cameralady
Aug 23 01.52.54 <Cameralady> that’s less than the lines of cum she’s swallowed…
Aug 23 01.53.26 let’s al capone her
On another occasion, she thought about releasing all the dirt she found on Quinn to the world.
Aug 23 18.57.47 <Cameralady> there’s a part of me that is evil and says MAKE A BIG DOXX AND RELEASE IT AND SHIT ON ZOE MOOOORE …
Aug 23 18.57.57 <Cameralady> but the rational part of me is “what no what will that even do”
Aug 23 18.58.18 <W334800> exactly, give her more attention her current monstrous form craves
Aug 23 18.58.34 <rd0952> attention is not the same as punishment
You may also recall in one of my previous posts about the IRC log that I quoted someone fantasizing about starting a relationship with Quinn just so she could “dump her in the most brutal, heartwrenching way possible.” That was Cameralady.
So that’s one of the interesting things about this alleged opponent of harassment.
The other one?
Well, shortly after Tweeting about how only anti-GamerGaters harass people, she sexually harassed an anti-GamerGater.
https://twitter.com/The_Camera_Girl/status/524660916810678272
When someone called her on it, Cameralady accused him of homophobia:
https://twitter.com/The_Camera_Girl/status/524668632476176385
No, I’m pretty sure what we’re talking about isn’t lesbianism (or misogyny) but harassment. When you say, to a woman you’re having an argument with on Twitter, that you want her to prove something “preferably in a post-coitus conversation with me, grrl,” that’s harassment, not a clever pickup line. Regardless of your gender.
Especially since this isn’t the first time that Cameralady has crudely “propositioned” Izzy Mariana on Twitter. Indeed, a week ago, they had this exchange:
Indeed, to even call these “propositions” is a bit misleading. These are attempts to rattle Mariana by addressing her in a crudely sexual way, not serious attempts to ask her out.
Are any GamerGaters calling out Cameralady for this behavior? No, they’re trying to pretend that she’s being oppressed as a lesbian — for sexually harassing a woman who already told her to get lost.
GamerGaters always deflect accusations of harassment by saying that “we don’t know if the harassers are GamerGaters.” Well, here’s an example of a rather prominent GamerGater sexually harassing a woman in broad daylight on Twitter — and all her GamerGater comrades can do is deny and deflect and throw out accusations of homophobia.
Oh, and give Cameralady virtual high-fives for her harassing tweet — which at the moment boasts seven favs and retweets, all of them from active GamerGate supporters.
Such ethics. So anti-harassment.
EDITED TO ADD: According to this Storify, Cameralady has done this to at least one other person.
@giddyupdude
As an autistic lesbian? This lady is pretending that being part of these groups gives her the right to do whatever the heck she wants. Just because society doesn’t want people like me doesn’t mean I go harassing people, and it doesn’t give her the right to do so either. I may lose my temper sometimes, I may absolutely suck at socializing sometimes, but I do not harass people. This woman merely perpetuates the perception of autism as a “jerk syndrome.” …I like the word perpetuates too much, don’t I?
So, no, I don’t see any problems with this post. I do, however, see problems with this woman.
The issues being her asshole behavior, sexual harassment and attempts to use her illness to deflect criticism. Not her autism.
It’s also rich that a movement started by 4channers, people who use “autistic” as punctuation, is trying to point fingers at other people. In words that your ilk can understand – troll harder.
Giddyupdude, autistic people are perfectly capable of not harassing others and you should be ashamed of yourself for implying otherwise. Ass.
Nice excuses from Camera lady, though. “I was just flirting,” huh? Did you learn that one from the street harassers who are “just trying to give you a compliment, God!”
I think everyone is giving giddyupdude far too much credit. This is an ordinary troll, not someone who is confused and honestly thinks that autistic people and lesbians are legit immune from any criticism of their behavior.
The pattern boils down to this:
Anti-SJ: You think X group is immune from criticism, and you call any criticism X-phobia!
SJ: No I don’t, and bigotry isn’t criticism.
Anti-SJ: Oh yeah? Well, I’m part of X, and I don’t agree with you. If you criticize me, you’re being X-phobic!
SJ: …
Anti-SJ: Checkmate, SJW. Hoisted by your own petard.
I hate to say it, I’ve seen way too many neurotypical trolls lie about being autistic as an excuse for their trolling and a shield from punishment – and referring to herself as “Disabled” is something of a red flag in that direction, since a lot of us on the high-functioning end of the spectrum don’t really like to think of ourselves that way regardless of whether or not we technically are – to believe that she actually is.
*But I’ve seen. Missed a word somehow. o_O
@kirbywarp
They can’t and don’t understand non-strawman feminism. The end.
You’ve been told, but hear it again: Being autistic is not a free pass to be an asshole. Plenty of autistic people can learn about boundaries and appropriate behavior, which is more than I can say for gamergaters and assholes like you.
She does this A LOT of women, and quite frankly Camerlady is in the top #3 reasons why I would never join GG, and I have hundreds.
Well, when one’s worldview depends on them not understanding feminism, you can bet they will do their damned best to not understand it.
These disingenuous dirtbags would like us all to know that their various female sock puppets and sock puppets of colour are #notyourshield, but cowering behind a harasser’s autism and sexuality is totally cool. For them.
@seraph4377
Yeah, the RabidBadgers came to my mind as well after posting.
Still, it smells like manly shit to me.
“they will do their damned best to not understand it.”
Hell yes, they will!
Today in “It’s always projection”: #notyourshield, ours.
Yes, in the same way that all 14 year old girls on the internet looking for an older man to fuck are actually 42 year old sheriff’s deputies…anyone claiming to be an autistic lesbian anti-feminist gamer is more likely to be a Cheeto-eating troll living in his mom’s basement.
My money is on “persona adopted by a troll”.
Maybe even someone who also goes by the name giddyupdude in an alternative persona.
It is “gamers” after all.
Of note for a possible future article: http://www.popehat.com/2014/10/21/gamer-gate-three-stages-to-obit/
Hmm. She RT’d this a couple days ago:
https://twitter.com/BloomfieldJanet/status/523458962704699393
So we can likely add MRM connection.
I smell sock too; like someone upthread said, “I was just flirting” sounds waaaaay similar to “lady can’t take a compliment” and this is logic I’ve seen almost exclusively from the cishetman set.
So it seems that today the marching orders of GamerGate are as follows:
1. Be a willfully obtuse, ingenuous asshole in someone’s mentions.
2. Push and push until the person gets pissed off.
3. Say “well I need to disengage have a nice day” (a lot of them have been saying “gonna go play some vidya!”) as soon as the target is angry.
4. Immediately accuse them of harassment if they tweet one more thing.
5. For bonus points, have some rando slide into the conversation and perform number 4.
They’re some horrible gaslighting bastards. I think the rule is, “anything they’ve accused their opponents of is something they’re in the middle of doing”.
FWIW, I think she’s really a woman; she’s been around for a while on youtube, so she would have to be an incredibly dedicated troll if she were a he.
@Binjabreel
That’s why I started responding to them with AutoFill and/or utter nonsense. I’m fairly certain word got around that I was a troll, because they stopped responding to my tweets. I have zero problems with that, and I got to amuse myself for awhile. Win-win 🙂
To anyone who thinks that aspie is an insult:
My best friend and sister-from-other-parents is an extremely high functioning autist and the president of a local organization that educates the public about autism and provides services and such for autistic folk and their families and friends. It is she who, with great patience and kindness, has taught me about autism. According to her, aspie is NOT an insult and even most low functioning autistic folk can, and do, learn basic courtesy.
I seriously doubt the autism of cameralady. From what I have read, it is my opinion (and ONLY my opinion) that she is using this as a way to get away with behavior that is, to say the least, horrid.
It honestly does not matter if she has autism or not, and I don’t know that speculation one way or the other is profitable. Her neurotypicality status is irrelevant to the fact that she is a terrible person. Neurotypical y/n and terrible y/n form a 2×2 grid in which all cells are filled with people.
Oh, fuck off, asswipe. Lesbianism + autism does not an excuse make. Harassment is harassment no matter who the harasser is. Or what their personal issues are. It’s an ACTION, not an identity.
And for what this is worth, I’m gonna third Luz and Seraph here, and say that this one smells like sweaty dude-socks behind a very thin shield. I know a lot of lesbians, and a number of people on the autism spectrum, and even some who are both. Precisely NONE of them would ever pull shit like this. If anything, they tend to be avoidant rather than harassing. This behavior is NOT consistent with being LGBT or autistic.