What a surreal life Anita Sarkeesian must lead, in which virtually everything she says and does becomes grist for the Great Internet Lady Harassment Machine, Sarkeesian Division.
Take the latest blowup, which followed a few comments Sarkeesian made in the wake of Friday’s school shooting in Marysville, which may have been triggered by the shooter’s angry response to a romantic breakup. On Friday, Sarkeesian posted a few thoughts on the matter on Twitter:
We need to seriously address connections between violence, sexism and toxic ideas of manhood before boys and men commit more mass shootings.
— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) October 24, 2014
Not a coincidence it’s always men and boys committing mass shootings. The pattern is connected to ideas of toxic masculinity in our culture.
— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) October 24, 2014
While it it not literally true that every single mass shooter in history has been male, we are talking about an almost exclusively male club: one recent attempt at crunching the numbers found that 97% of school shooters have been male, and 79% of them white. (The Maryville shooter was Native American.)
In any case, the notion that a crime so heavily associated with men might have something to do with our society’s notions of masculinity isn’t exactly a radical notion. Indeed, it seems rather obvious.
But to Sarkeesian’s many haters, on Twitter and elsewhere, it was as if Sarkeesian had just posted a video of herself drowning puppies. Cue the twitterstorm.
Here are just a selection of the literally hundreds of lovely comments that Sarkeesian had Tweeted at her on Friday and Saturday after making her original comments.
[Giant TRIGGER WARNING for violent, explicit threats, harassment]
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There were, of course, the explicit threats:
And the implicit threats:
And the sexual harassment:
And those who merely expressed their hope that Sarkeesian would kill herself:
Or die a horrible death:
Or simply die :
But not everyone wished violence on her. Some just told her that the threats and/or harassment she’s already getting is totally justified:
(Apparently by “fishing” Mr. de Alba means “expressing an opinion or making an observation.” Also note that the tweets that set off this latest wave of harassment didn’t contain the #GamerGate hashtag. )
Speaking of harassment, we’re just getting started in our chronicle of the latest wave.
Let’s continue with an assortment of Tweets using the c-word, a favorite slur amongst Sarkeesian’s detractors.
Why, yes, that is Suzanne McCarley, A Voice for Men’s “Assistant Managing Editor” happily adding her voice to the harassment.
Others pulled out the f-word:
She was called a “bitch.”
She was called a “whore.”
She was called a “terrorist.”
And a Nazi:
One fellow said that he thought Sarkeesian’s tweets were actually worse than the shooting itself:
And one even declared her “officially worse than Wil Wheaton,” the former Star Trek:TNG actor who has won mass opprobrium from internet dicks for publicly expressing his belief that people should not be dicks.
To add insult to injury, a few reported Sarkeesian herself to Twitter for various imaginary infractions:
Another asked why she wasn’t in jail for her, er, crimes:
Just to remind you: these tweets are all from TWO DAYS’ worth of harassment and threats on Twitter. And this isn’t all of them.
At this point anyone who claims that Sarkeesian is “making up” the harassment she gets, or writing it herself, or just the work of a “few trolls,” is either disingenuous or delusional.
I’ll leave the last word to Sarkeesian herself.
Our culture is deeply sick when simply asking questions about how toxic forms of masculinity may harm men leads to hours of hate on Twitter.
— Feminist Frequency (@femfreq) October 25, 2014
EDITED TO ADD:
ATTENTION NEW COMMENTERS! I would like to draw your attention to this bit from my comments policy:
[I]f I’m writing about someone who’s gotten harassed by misogynists on the internet, and you want to talk about how much they deserved it, or what a lying liar they are? Well, fuck you! Your comments go right into the trash.
So take that into consideration. It might save you some time.
CORRECTION: I removed a screenshot of a Tweet that wasn’t threatening but was posted by a troll. See here.
If mockery is vitriol, wouldn’t “mocking and vitriol” be redundant? If I am masculine (in some ways, anyway), does the world explode if I mock t1oracle as well? Is it mockery if I sit pondering how many logical fallacies and misunderstandings of the english language t1oracle could possibly display before his final flounce?
Questions, so many questions.
Also, uh..you do know what website you are on t1 ?
This is a website devoted to mockery.
New tagline “we boiled the cauldron for you”.
Wow… he… actually climbed in, didn’t he? ooookaaaaayyyy
Or, as we like to call it We Hunted the Vitriol 😉
@Misha
LOL that porcupine seems to keep saying GTFO MY PUMPKIN! That’s awfully cute!
@gilshalos
I know. The article is about how horribly Anita Sarkeesian was treated by her detractors. Now that I come in here to support the masculine identity, I am the recipient of vitriol. The irony is not lost on me.
Oooh, I think it is.
@kirbywarp
Group think is also a logical fallacy.
Let the polling begin! Place your “whose sock is this” votes right here, folks.
You know, in the cauldron, the one that I’m using to melt down masculine identities in order to make some scented candles.
Like rain on your wedding day!
http://i.imgur.com/5ZSxGdO.png
TIL, telling someone they’re wrong and not knowledgeable on a subject they claim to be knowledgeable about is the same as rape and death threats!
We’re just as bad as the bad guys, guys!
The good advice (about how adjectives work) that you just didn’t take
Well who would have thought that you’d end up in the cauldron, it figures!
@t1oracle
Stop farting about and answer the seahorse question! And all other animal examples given!
@PoM
I know right? Also just saw a video where a raccoon started doing forward rolls for fun. I. Can’t. Contain. The. Cute.
@t1oracle
No it isn’t, it’s a description of a thing. The fallacy you’re thinking of is Argumentum ad populum; “I’m right because the majority agrees with me”. Which hasn’t been displayed at all here, by anyone, so wut?
@fromafar2013
“TIL, telling someone they’re wrong and not knowledgeable on a subject they claim to be knowledgeable about is the same as rape and death threats!
We’re just as bad as the bad guys, guys!”
Congratulations on having marginally more impulse control, your behavior is truly the ideal template for civilized society…
Regardless, the evening is still young and I wouldn’t put much passed this bunch.
@kirbywarp
Argumentum ad populum is the predominant tactic in this thread. Have you been paying attention?
I’m late to the thread and sure someone else will have covered this, but since this was a response to me, I’m not letting it go.
@t1oracle:
You posted that image before, and it’s still wrong (and very difficult to read. Dark text on light background, or light text on dark background, and don’t obscure your images with text. Very simple rules to follow.)
Femininity and Masculinity are categories of actions/behavior that are arbitrarily set up and enforced. Valuing those categories is not valuing the actions/behaviors in those categories, it’s valuing the division. How about you don’t police what is feminine and what is masculine, hmm? That’s equality right there.
t1oracle, why don’t you bounce along to the AVfM comment section and bother them with your ‘Gender equality means we value femininity and masculinity. Uplifting one shouldn’t mean vilifying the other’ tagline? I’m sure they’ll really appreciate it. No, really. I’m sure they’ll absolutely love you for it.
That graphic! Aahahahaha! You really don’t have any idea what you’re talking about do you? You think it makes any kind of reality based argument? Here’s some actually irony for you; femininity is the vilified gender identity, hence using ‘like a girl/woman’ and homophobic slurs to insult men who don’t ‘measure up’. *whispers* that’s enforced by toxic masculinity *whispers* The worst thing a man can be is ‘like a woman’.
Try linking a peer reviewed study, not a badly thrown together multicolored graphic.
I actually already tried to lead t1oracle to the line of logic that says that if you are horrified if men behave like women, that means you devaule and vilify femininity. But we couldn’t get past the 4-year-old point of “let’s play imagine-land where things happen that don’t happen in our world.”
I demand an indepth explanation from mr Troll on why “masculinity” is something heterosexual men are born with and why it’s hatespeech to point out that gender roles can be harmful…even to boys and men.
Really? Really, t1oracle, you’re doubling down on your “telling me I’m wrong is the same as death/rape threats”? Your arrogance is breathtaking.