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On Friday, Anita Sarkeesian called out "toxic masculinity" on Twitter. Here's what happened next.

Anita Sarkeesian's Twitter notifications (Artist's conception)
Anita Sarkeesian’s Twitter mentions (Artist’s conception)

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:

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:

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And the implicit threats:

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And the sexual harassment:

 

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And those who merely expressed their hope that Sarkeesian would kill herself:

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Or die a horrible death:

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Or simply die :

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But not everyone wished violence on her. Some just told her that the threats and/or harassment she’s already getting is totally justified:

 

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(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.

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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:

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She was called a “bitch.”

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She was called a “whore.”

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She was called a “terrorist.”

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And a Nazi:

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One fellow said that he thought Sarkeesian’s tweets were actually worse than the shooting itself:

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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.

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To add insult to injury, a few reported Sarkeesian herself to Twitter for various imaginary infractions:

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Another asked why she wasn’t in jail for her, er, crimes:

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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.

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.

 

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Emmy Rae
Emmy Rae
10 years ago

@cassandrakitty Oh I’m sure it’s feminine. I just can’t wrap my head around these difficult STEMlogic topics! Switching to gal stuff like defining all kitties as cute.

katz
10 years ago

“Talking about something other than me is trolling.” That’s a new one.

Puddleglum
10 years ago

I vote t1oracle in as Ponch.

tinyorc
10 years ago

Hahaha, I do enjoy the way this troll is literally like I AM NOT THE TROLL ALL OF THE REGULARS ARE TROLLS.

tinyorc
10 years ago

HOW DARE THEY SPEAK OF CATS IN FRONT OF I, GREAT T1ORACLE.

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

I personally have a BA in Feminism from Misandry University.

(It’s in Narnia, that’s why you’ve never heard of it. The Snow Queen does most of the recruitment.)

titianblue
titianblue
10 years ago

@t1oracle, poor baby, are we not showing you the respect you believe you are entitled to?

t1oracle
t1oracle
10 years ago

tinyorc

Hahaha, I do enjoy the way this troll is literally like I AM NOT THE TROLL ALL OF THE REGULARS ARE TROLLS.

Argumentum ad populum.

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

We should add “cats are trolling” to the welcome package.

t1oracle
t1oracle
10 years ago

@titianblue

@t1oracle, poor baby, are we not showing you the respect you believe you are entitled to?

At which point in your life did you decide that only females deserve respect?

katz
10 years ago

It’s got to be really grating t1oracle’s cheese that his gravatar is pink.

Emmy Rae
Emmy Rae
10 years ago

Hey t1oracle, can we talk about boy cats? I’m asking for a friend.

katz
10 years ago

At which point in your life did you decide that only females deserve respect?

Pff. Only cats deserve respect. All true servants of the Furrinati know that.

Puddleglum
10 years ago

Mwahahahahahaha, OMG, can’t breathe, cat posts are trolling!!!!!!!!!! I missed that, hahahaha, gods.

And the gender police troll is *clearly* in charge of the conversation here, deciding what is and isn’t appropriate in a post.

Folks, time for LOTS of brain bleach.

tinyorc
10 years ago

cassandrakitty:

I personally have a BA in Feminism from Misandry University.

I went there for my postgrad in Advanced Cultural Marxism! Professor Tumnus is really excellent, he gave a great lecture on intersections between feminism and even-toed ungulate privilege.

t1oracle
t1oracle
10 years ago

@cassandrakitty
You said this site was all about mockery right?

I personally have a BA in Feminism from Misandry University.

(It’s in Narnia, that’s why you’ve never heard of it. The Snow Queen does most of the recruitment.)

Were all the classes limited to 5 second lectures?

cassandrakitty
cassandrakitty
10 years ago

I did question whether or not Dean Aslan’s masculinity might be having a negative impact on his grading process, but they explained that all cats are feminine and then it all made sense.

tinyorc
10 years ago

t1oracle:

Argumentum ad populum.

Hahaha, this is great. This is not an argument, therefore the fact that you know the big scary Latin names for logical fallacies is not actually relevant. To anything. At all.

fromafar2013
fromafar2013
10 years ago

Do you understand human evolution? Tell me, what is the primary factor that influences the evolution of a species?

Egads! I didn’t know you were an evolutionary biologist! Where did you get your degree? Wait… Dawkins? Is that you? (I”m joking… maybe).

The ‘primary’ factor is the rate at which mutations arise, increasing the likelihood that a more ‘fit’ (or at least not ‘less fit’) phenotype will arise for that particular environment. Hence why bacteria evolve (as is the case with antibiotic resistant bacteria) at a very high rate compared to something like trees, or elephants.

That’s also why populations with high levels of genetic variability will be more like to survive in a rapidly changing environment. That’s why humans have been so successful; we’re very ‘plastic’ in terms of our adaptability.

marinerachel
marinerachel
10 years ago

DO U EVOLUTION?

Yeah, I did a degree in it. Don’t try ‘splaining it to me. You’re probably wrong about a lot of it and I’ll have to correct you and eurgh.

fromafar2013
fromafar2013
10 years ago

I don’t need any form of expertise or credentials to have valid feelings as a human being.

“Other people’s actual facts hurt my feelings!”

TIL, feelings > facts!

katz
10 years ago

You know, I’m not sure argumentum ad populum is actually a fallacy when the topic of debate is “does everyone dislike you.”

ceebarks
ceebarks
10 years ago

You know, I’ve always been told that having multiple children would make me viscerally understand the innateness of the standard gender traits but I’ve got three boys and a girl now, and thus far I can’t say that’s panned out. My oldest son is nine and is a physically affectionate nurturer who loves to cook and “take care” of an assortment of teddy bears, while my daughter, 8, is a standoffish independent kid who’s obsessed with Minecraft, prone to lashing out physically when things don’t go her way, and has a pile of dolls that she ignores totally.

The younger two boys both have complex, evolving personalities and preferences and roles of their own, too, in response to the family environment and friends and their own hardware. (They’re all more complex than that, of course: you can’t capture four people in a paragraph.)

None of them fits neatly into any “masculine” or “feminine” box I’ve ever seen though. In a lot of ways, neither do my husband and I. Every time I hear someone talk about “masculinity/femininity” I wonder where exactly those models came from. I know what the paper sketch looks like, and sometimes I even think I see it spontaneously emerge IRL! But then the more tightly people try to apply it the more it breaks down and becomes nonsensical/dysfunctional.

So… I might need a degree in feminism to know what masculinity is, lol

vaiyt
vaiyt
10 years ago

@JV
The majority of the behaviors you listed either have no evidence to point they’re unique to men or women, or have plenty of evidence that show they’re the result of socialization.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nQ-nxqcuLsU/Tr_TimJmlBI/AAAAAAAAAo0/sp22VFq5wdo/s1600/sex-differences.gif

– For example, women in many societies (with a greater degree in some than others) are socialized since an early age to not be aggressive, and the threshold for acceptable aggressiveness in women is much lower than with men. That means women who maintain an aggressive behavior have to do so against their nurture and societal disapproval, which is not easy. That has nothing to do with making life easier for the majority, but with CREATING a majority by browbeating people into narrow boxes since they’re born.

– “Verbally focused” is bullshit, as research shows that men on average talk as much as women, it’s just stereotype that leads people to add any instance of talky women to “women being chatty” while not counting chatty men.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/files/2013/02/female-vs-male-word-counts.png

– The majority of men are NOT stronger than the majority of women, that’s not what the generality means. It means the peak of men’s bell curve of athletic ability is higher than women’s, and evidence indicates the peaks would be closer without the pressure on women to avoid working out too much (so much for it being inherent). If you know how to read bell curves there’s a significant amount of men behind the average woman, and a significant amount of women ahead of the average man, especially when you factor in age, weight and height.

That’s what I can focus on for now. I’ll agree that women face a few unique challenges regarding sex, but that can be equalized further by changing society so women have more power over their sexuality.

fromafar2013
fromafar2013
10 years ago

Professor Tumnus is really excellent, he gave a great lecture on intersections between feminism and even-toed ungulate privilege.

You had Professor Tumnus too!? He was my favorite. Really helped me out with my dissertation on misandrious hard chairs and posterior cushioning.

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