GamerGaters like to loudly profess that they oppose harassment. They also like to claim that most if not all of the harassment that has occurred comes from people that aren’t “real” GamerGaters.
So what do GamerGaters do when they’re confronted with evidence that someone in their ranks — not an anonymous nobody but someone with some standing in their community — is harassing someone?
Well yesterday we had an opportunity to see just that. I wrote about a couple of instances of sexual harassment from a GamerGater known as Cameralady.
While not as famous as GamerGate celebs like Milo Yiannopoulos or InternetAristocrat or, you know, Adam Baldwin, Cameralady is, at least in Gamergate circles, a bit of a player. She was an early and especially eager opponent of Zoe Quinn, and devoted a great deal of time and energy to digging up dirt on Quinn and others. Many of her “findings” made it into GamerGate propaganda on the web and in assorted YouTube videos.
And her sexual harassment was about as blatant as it gets. In the midst of an argument on Twitter, she tweeted a crude sexual come-on to a woman who opposes GamerGate, and was immediately told to get lost. A week later, in the midst of another Twitter argument, she Tweeted another crude come-on to the same woman. The evidence was as plain as day, and I included it all in my post.
So what happened after I posted a link to my post in the #GamerGate hashtag on Twitter? Did other GamerGaters call her out on her behavior?
Well, no. Instead I was besieged by dozens — hundreds? — of tweets from GamerGaters who assured me that the harassment wasn’t harassment at all.
The tone of the discussion was set early on by Cameralady herself, who insisted that her harassment was simple “flirtation” and that anyone who thought otherwise was some sort of anti-sex puritan prude.
https://twitter.com/The_Camera_Girl/status/524967395715477504
https://twitter.com/The_Camera_Girl/status/524968506480410624
https://twitter.com/The_Camera_Girl/status/524969608043044864
I’m not exactly sure how that would absolve her for her bad behavior. If you shoot someone and you miss, you’ve still committed a crime. If you crudely proposition someone who earlier told you to get lost and they for some reason don’t hear you, well, same thing. Also, the woman she harassed did in fact see her tweet.
She also tried to explain that what she was doing really was flirting, and that I didn’t understand because I’m not a lesbian.
@The_Camera_Girl @DavidFutrelle So it's okay to sexually harass people because you've had sex with other women?
— BlackFish (@BlackFish775) October 22, 2014
Later, she tried another excuse.
https://twitter.com/The_Camera_Girl/status/525087005823483904
Apparently she sends crude sexual comments to so many women she can’t keep track!
Other GamerGaters did their best to minimize, deny and deflect.
@The_Camera_Girl @alexvdl0 @DavidFutrelle I think hes jealous
— SteamPunk_Devil (@SteamPunkDevil_) October 22, 2014
Even those who accepted that what had happened was harassment did their best to change the subject.
https://twitter.com/DanielGauss/status/524965533234393088
https://twitter.com/DanielGauss/status/524970974744039424
But if you really want a sense of the sheer horror of dealing with GamerGaters on Twitter, well, you’re just going to have to jump headlong into the middle of it.
Here you can see all of the responses to my Tweet linking to my post. Here you will encounter every type of deflection known to humankind, as you scroll downward through an argument that never seems to end.
Witness the terror of endless arguments with people who ask for proof that is already in the article they are ostensibly discussing! Hear the demands for screenshots that have already been given to them!
I never know if they’re really this obtuse, or if they’re just screwing with me.
It reminds me a lot of this classic Monty Python sketch. The only difference is that the Monty Python sketch is over in six minutes, while Twitter never ends.
Fucking WaPo story
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/09/12/with-gamergate-the-video-game-industrys-growing-pains-go-viral/
with a stock photo of whitebread douchebros, not a person of color or woman in sight. Where are my awesome cosplayers?
I think if you create a fake screencap mocking you being on the autism spectrum and argue that harassment is flirting when you do it because you are a lesbian as justification for abusive behavior, then both those assertions are going to be evaluated. Particularly by peeps who are lesbians and or on the spectrum.
That is utter nonsense.
Please supply examples of strictly _sexual_ harassment by males in GG. Plenty of sexualized violence, but no overt comeons or catcalls. Sexual attraction is a sign of weakness for males in that crowd. MGTOW (while obsessing over women and their evil ways) doncha know.
Wow, a troll without a consistent point. How unusual.
WTF are you talking about? How did you get from “nobody would put up with her bullshit half as long if she were a man” to “male GGers never sexually harass anyone”?
Go home, adults are talking here.
PoM, the Cameralady twitted a fake screencap of one of the targeted women calling her an effing aspie.
Remind you of someone whose initials are JB dunnitz?
Y’know, all due respect to all y’all but this is the second time somebody found an excuse to call me a troll on some pretty flimsy evidence. Today is just not the day for it, as this shitstorm is really getting me down. Let’s just agree to disagree without being disagreeable, mkay? Not like I came here calling for the public execution by scarab of Zoe Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian, amirite?
@thebewilderness
Yes, yes it does.
What I don’t get is how people here speculating about cameralady’s neurotypicality and/or gender is helpful, either in a general sense or to people with autism.
I will disclose that I am on medication right now, and it could be that this is completely obvious but I’m not seeing it.
Build a bridge, live under it.
And, hey, it’s entirely possible that I missed male GGs sexually harassing people (as opposed to threatening sexual violence). Frankly I find reading this shit quite draining and don’t consume as much of it, maybe, as you guys and gals do. The solution would be to treat this as a genuine request for information until proven otherwise, hmm?
Again: WTF are you on about? Why are you drawing some kind of arbitrary line between “sexual harassment” and “threats of sexual violence,” as though threatening to rape someone is in some way not harassment of a sexual nature? How did you get from me denying your completely reality-free assertion that women get away with sexual harassment twice as long as men, to this bullshit about how GGers might be many things but they aren’t sexual harassers?
Entitled much?
So… male GG’s have threatened sexual violence, but they haven’t sexually harassed anyone? Really? Realllllllly?
Her bullshit would be going on twice as long if she were a man.
It”s Trolly McTrollerswampmud
@Policy of Madness, what you checked in your posts are the tells.
There is this thing called google that one can use to find information on the internet, rather than expecting others to do it for you.
donovan: go word vomit somewhere else.
@Policy of Madness
YouTube, Twitter (not even counting that faked screenshot because yeah, fake), 4Chan, Something Awful, Cheezburger, random no-name forums and comment sections… I’ve seen it get thrown around more often than “Stupid” over the past year. I dunno, maybe I just notice it more than other insults because it offends me more than other insults.
As for furthering, because those types of people see her shitty behaviour and file it under “Another autistic asshole,” although I suppose that’s going to happen whether or not she’s lying, isn’t it. Ugh.
As I mentioned, I’ve had a long day and I apologize if I’m asking anybody to do unnecessary work. The distinction I make exists for GGers, as far as I can tell – _not_ for me. My point is that a man doing the stuff she is doing would be quickly categorized as a “beta” and ostracized. But, like I said, I stumbled across this bullshit in the last 3 days or so and probably haven’t been paying attention as much as you guys. i’m perfectly willing to take your word for it if you tell me i’m wrong. I didn’t come here to debate this, or anything, only to try and find some sympathetic ppl who understand how I feel when someone comes to what I consider a safe (and _inclusive_) space and takes a big shit on the carpet.
That said, perhaps it would be beneficial to make a distinction between “ignorant” and “troll”.
@M. the Social Justice Ranger
I think I understand, and you’re correct, and I agree.
Donovan, your ignorance and your wanting us to fix it IS taking a shit on our carpet.
Why not split the difference and call it tone trolling (which is what it is)?
“The solution would be to treat this as a genuine request for information until proven otherwise, hmm?”
You could find some of that right here on this site by simply using the search engine — same with any of the linked web sites in the side bar. Type in “gamer.” Go ahead. You can do it. Why is the burden to prove your claim on us?
I predict that donovandigital is only a short distance from angrily deciding that those damned feminists are vicious and cruel, mainly because I wouldn’t let ‘splaining, completely false statements, and bizarre hairsplitting about what sexual harassment is, really, just slide without comment.
@hellkell sorry about that. I’ll try to do better.
No, trust me, I know digging through this sewer is work and I don’t really have any right o ask anyone else to do it for me. Maybe I had it coming, maybe I didn’t, but I certainly didn’t expect it. Maybe next time it’ll be less painful., or maybe there won’t be a next time, who knows. Only babies and MRAs flounce away and promise to never come back.