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.
“You can desire some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot desire all of the people all of the time.” – Abraham Lincoln
It’s so amusing that JV and t1oracle both don’t seem to understand that feminism isn’t the opposite of masculinity, and both continue to prove that toxic masculinity is still a massive problem – after all, they’re here, crying about their fragile egos getting bruised by toxic masculinity getting called toxic.
Some people dying? Pfft, not really a problem, but their ego getting bruised by facts? ZE EVIL.
Even more hilarious is the two of them (totally different people!) painting a much worse picture of men than anyone else on this site combined. I mean, you got t1oracle with his statistic that utterly damned men, and JV who apparently thinks men are so fragile that without social pressure, they (he) would explode. It’s funny how the misogyny-apologists are also the biggest misandrists here. And they don’t even notice!
@cassandrakitty
That would be nice. A friend of my grandfather’s said the best part of becoming elderly was being free from the tyranny of the male sex drive. Seriously, I’ll never forget that. That in no way means “men can’t help it.” It’s just always there. Until you get old, apparently.
@Puddleglum: Well, owls are the cats of the sky. It is known.
Yes, in fact I find that’s what works best for me. Feel free to give it a try. Step by step instructions are in the Bisexual Primer you should have received in the mail the day after the first time a straight guy asked you for a threesome. Unless it got lost. It is invisible.
I imagined a drawing by leiceogale (sp? They did the hilarious “I’m just a penis” ones) of a penis version of Uncle Sam saying “I want YOU, women. Constantly. All day long.”
I’m not sure where I indicated that I wished to enter into an extended conversation with a creepy neanderthal. Perhaps you mistook me for someone who doesn’t think you’re a sexist dumbass?
The set of social rules that encourage one gender to be driven, physically stronger and less attached to child-bearing, and then gives that gender all the power, were actually created to MITIGATE the problem of driven, physically stronger and less attached to child-bearing people having all the power?
Mind. Blown.
@cassandrakitty
It would be even more rampant than it sadly already is. It really would. And I never said current gender roles were 100% effective.
@JV:
Dang, this “tyranny of the male sex drive” sounds terrible. Glad I don’t have to deal with it. Despite being male. And having a sex drive.
JV:
So I just got on Skype with my (male, heterosexual, twenty-something) friend and asked him how he feels about living under the tyranny of the male sex drive.
He asked me if I’d been drinking.
I’ve found that the best way of handling the straight guys with no sense of boundaries is to respond with an enthusiastic grin and “Oh, that sounds awesome!I know this really hot guy…”
If they’re going to be homophobic idiots I may as well leverage it against them.
I HAVE.
BUT THAT IS NOT THE POINT.
Really? You thought that the corollary of “masculinity” might be “feminism”? And you’re still arguing that that was a reasonable thing to do, for someone who understood the dictionary definition of both?
Yep, going to focus on that because … WTF!?!
Dude, you used a disability (ADD) as an insult term. That’s not kosher; it belittles the struggles of those who actually HAVE THAT CONDITION, and equates them with stupid people.
Whereas, when we call you stupid, we are actually describing you quite objectively. Because damn, dude, you are fucking OBTUSE.
But please, do whine louder. I believe there are still some corners of the Internets that haven’t had a good laugh at your expense yet.
Probably at the same point you decided that you were the center of the universe.
@weirwoodtreehugger
Never said that. Of course women get horny. I said men are ALWAYS up for sex, in general. Are you saying that is also true of women?
It’s strange that men who are very angry about the term “toxic masculinity” keep posting things like this. 😀
Yes, I’m sure the wish to control women never played any part here. It’s all about restricting men. Yup!
@ JV
For gods’ sake, different people have different levels of sexual drive/interest. It is only gendered in the sense that patriarchy promotes it as a masculine ideal, often to the detriment of men (and women, gods above). It’s why ‘he couldn’t help it’ is a go to excuse for rapists. It’s why male rape victims are often dismissed or congratulated (!!) when they are raped by women. Shit.
People in general range from very sexually driven to asexual. It’s a thing!
Anyway, here’s some…masculinity? Femininity? I don’t even know. But there is cuteness. And also a kitten.
http://th00.deviantart.net/fs71/PRE/i/2014/301/c/a/untitled_by_jewelleddragon13-d84h3gi.jpg
In the context of JVs view of the world I think it may be bestiality.
JV is why the internet can’t have nice things.
@tinyorc
Well there you go, we’re all a little different. I can say that there are many men who have a different experience of it then your friend.
JV:
Shit, this means my boyfriend is broken. Where do I trade him in?
JV: “I never said men are constantly up for sex, I said men are ALWAYS up for sex.”
Dang, I am learning more and more about my gender with every passing moment. Do tell, do tell.
I can say that there are many men who have a different experience of it then your friend.
Well, yeah. That’s where toxic masculinity comes in, and why making their masculinity less toxic would be a boon for them. 🙂