Like their identical cousins the Men’s Rights Activists, GamerGaters have a bizarre fondness for terrible graphics and “memes” and collages of blurry screenshots designed – if that’s the word for it – to spread their sometimes incomprehensible propaganda.
The graphic above, found on Twitter, is my favorite GamerGate graphic so far, I think, and not only because it looks like a famous old Windows screensaver gone wrong. No, this little graphic wins my heart because it so baldly, if inadvertently, reveals the sheer ridiculous hypocrisy of GamerGaters claims of victimhood, and the intellectual bankruptcy of their #NotYourShield campaign.
In the graphic, as you can see, GamerGate’s mascot Vivian James, the perpetually petulant girl gamer who wants to do nothing but game, tries to fend off an array of accusations and epithets swirling around her. “Cis White Male,” “Misogynist,” “Rapist,” “KKK,” “MRA.”
But Vivian James can’t be any of those things, apparently, because she’s a GIRL. NOT YOUR SHIELD!
While it’s certainly true that Vivian James is not a cis white male, or a rapist or a member of the KKK, it’s also true that she is COMPLETELY IMAGINARY.
Unlike all those GamerGaters who are indeed cis white males, misogynists, rapists, nazis and MRAs.
If you’re trying to change the perception that your movement is made up of a bunch of entitled (and, FWIW, mostly white) manchildren who feel threatened by real women with opinions different from their own, you might want to think twice about using a manic pixel dream girl whose slogan is “shut up and play” as your, yep, shield.
Oh, I know, there are real women involved in GamerGate. But aside from Vivian James and the non-gaming “based mom” Christina Hoff Sommers, and perhaps our friend Cameralady, it’s doubtful even most GamerGaters could name more than one or two, if that.
EDIT: As several people on Twitter have reminded me, I forgot to mention one of the most creepy things about Vivian J. — the color scheme of her sweater is apparently a reference to a really creepy, rapey meme called “piccolo dick.” Which you can read about here, if for whatever reason you want to.
Also: the phrase “manic pixel dream girl,” a reference to the manic pixie dream girl trope, popped into my head partway through writing this. But after posting this I decided to google it to see if anyone else had used the phrase — it seems like a pretty obvious one. And indeed people have. Here’s a cartoon called Manic Pixel Dream Girl, an account of growing up as a female video gamer.
The strangest part about the “piccolo dick” meme is that, well, Piccolo actually has no dick. His species is asexual and reproduces by vomiting eggs.
Lol heh, thank you. Hi everyone. Shut up, Woody!
Speaking of trolls, I have indeed been lurking and looking through the archives, and I see the trolls keep coming and coming, and being asked to present evidence how THEIR misogynists are not those awful woman-haters and utterly failing to do so. Do they just really like getting trounced? Or do they genuinely think they’ll change minds here? Also, is it weird that every time I keep sort of thinking ‘Yes, find one. Please find one. If you find one it means that even those in the depths of hatred can be pulled out of their little holes!’
Thus Spake ZaraVaiyt:
“I’ll take ‘Things I Didn’t Expect To Learn From WTHM’ for five hundred dollars, Alex!”
They are not opportunists. They are the creators. The whole thing was tainted from the get-go, and anyone with good intentions joining this bullshit is nothing but an useful idiot.
@vaiyt
I think there was at least one bootleg porn cartoon featuring DB characters, which is what the meme is more likely refering to.
So…still no “feminist” Gamergomers who pan out to be actual feminists?
Thought as much.
@davidgerard:
I don’t have detailed stuff, but this Vice article is a good place to start. It covers how the anti-feminists basically thought creating a female character was a brilliant PR move.
The choice of colours thing is a bit more circumstantial, since of course KnowYourMeme’s VJ page doesn’t directly discuss that. But the implication from the creation of VJ by 4channers is strongly suggestive.
I fell bad for the girl, really.
Theses GGers created Vivian to show that GG “Is not about misogyny” but using her as a shield to deflect the PR fallout from their sexist and creepy deeds kinda defeats her original purpose. I mean, she just wants to play games, These 4channers just created her to make people think that anti-GGers are the “real misogynists” and to satisfy their sick needs. (unfortunately I have seen the NSFW pics of her).
If there is a way, Anti-GGer should adopt her.
Anyway heres an article about Vivian: http://kittenofdiscord.blogspot.com/2014/09/vivian-james-and-4chan.html
Dear GamerGaters:
I am a feeeeeeeeemale gamer. I am #notyourshield.
Go take a Lego bath.
*resumes playing FFV*
@Jono, that adds a layer of weirdness. CameraLady, the person who said she received the “aspie” tweet from Wu, says she has Aspergers. Futrelle has outlined in other posts here the fact that she’s a huge troll and she’s been an eager participant since at least Gjoni’s blog post went up on 4chan. It wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn that she’s part of the core group that has been harassing Sarkeesian for the past few years.
The only thing that’s clear is that whatever happened, it was an attempt to smear Wu.
No, I won’t shut up. Yes, I plan to play.
Deal with it.
My hobbies are my hobbies, and you’re just making them look bad. Still not kicking me out.
I’ve had these “discussions” with Gaters.
This comment section has more hate than youtube… D:
Of course there’s hidden rape symbolism in the colors. Why wouldn’t there be? It’s not like it’s bad enough using a cartoon woman literally as a shield against criticism yet again, of course there has to be extra horribleness.
@kirbywarp:
Not to mention the thousands of women intimately familiar with the two most common fallback defences from GGers – “that wasn’t even really harassment!” and “she’s making it up for attention!” – in very different contexts. It makes me feel kind of ill to even consider how awful it must be for women in the industry who might be triggered by those same sentiments watching them being repeated over and over and over with regards to Sarkeesian, Wu and Quinn.
I must admit, I’ve always been a bit confused about what Not Your Shield means and how it is used.
It is, of course, a creation of GamerGate, but as best I can figure the idea behind it is that it is to be used when anti-GGers point out sexism, by claiming that pointing out sexism is hiding behind women and avoiding the real question (which as we all know is really about ethics in games journalism), I think? Maybe?
All I know for sure is, never trust anyone using Not Your Shield in earnest.
@falconer:
The best I can figure is that when GG is called sexist or racist, they can show that women and non-white folks also take part so the cause couldn’t possibly be sexist or racist (otherwise those women and non-white folks wouldn’t take part). We aren’t targeting women for harassment because they are women, women are part of our movement! Which is BS in many, many different ways.
But the name, #NotYourShield, still makes no sense. It’d work if somehow the SJ crowd used the participation of non-cis-white-men as a beatstick, saying our cause was more legitimate because of our diversity or that women and minorities support our cause so we couldn’t be wrong, but that doesn’t happen. It’s actually the other way around.
@davidgerard
Found it. “Daily Dose” is another name for the “Piccolo Dick” meme.
Err… NSFW/TW, it’s an archived 4Chan thread, sorry.
@kirbywarp:
Ah, so, it’s entirely hypocritical. They’re using Not Your Shield as a shield.
That’s so ironic I keep looking for a masked chorus to come out and recite backstory at me.
<.< >.>
*bloops your pink tummy*
@Falconer:
(the internet is failing my desire for animated giggling kirbies, so here is kirby eating a watermelon)
http://media.giphy.com/media/u5GxLmudnA8vK/giphy.gif
The whole “The Gatekeeper” and “Fake Geek Girl” thing is just so… weird to me. I know it is a real phenomenon, but it is so damn strange. If you like something, shouldn’t you be happy someone is getting into it, even if they’re just dabbling?
I’m pretty big into fiber arts (just finished sewing my first quilt top today… now I need to learn to quilt 😛 ) and the general consensus in the fiber arts community is that the more, the merrier–for one thing, it helps you get supplies. I’ve certainly never gotten any aggressive grilling about how much I know, even in hobbies I dabble in (crochet, tatting) rather than something like, say, knitting, which I’m pretty damn competent in.
I’ve only really seen it in “geeky” hobbies, particularly male-dominated ones (and often to women in male dominated hobbies)–does it happen in sports fandom, or other more “mainstream” hobbies?
… I have suddenly begun to consider the biology of Kirby, where I was blissfully untroubled before.
When he swallows the watermelon, where does it go?
That’s gonna keep me up tonight. Oh no, wait, my babies are going to keep me up tonight, so plenty of time for imponderables while I try to convince them that, no really, most people sleep straight through.
Anyway, I should get some shut-eye in preparation for said baby convincing.
@Falconer:
Actually… at least in the anime cannon, Kirby’s stomach is basically a tardis, bigger on the inside. All the food and stuff he eats just floats around in a void, whole. (There was an episode where someone got Kirby to swallow them so they could get back a bunch of apples he stole, I think, and they were all just floating around like little red stars)
He’s depicted as getting hungry, but I think for the most part he’s just eating things for fun.