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.
“Less frequently and less discriminately, but not less intensely. In my experience.
*cue jokes about me being shite in bed*”
I am not “pinning” anything on you, I am explaining that there are reasons for women to be perceived as having a lower sex drive than men, and that all of those reasons are rooted in toxic masculinity. I was also pointing out that I will not be making jokes about your sexual prowess or lack thereof because it has no bearing on the conversation and is a form of body and sex shaming and I will not indulge in that. I will speak frankly about sex and sexuality. These are not topics that should be mocked nor should they be ignored.
Ha! That is true. But there’s always something new to respond to. Damn you fast typists!
No, idiot, you’re conflating racism (which is a real thing) with “misandry” (which is not; note the quotes.)
Also, you don’t understand your logical fallacies at all, since you seem to be pulling them out of your anus at random here.
I did. And you didn’t.
Because, unlike you, I’m not an idiot. Or a troll. Or redundant.
Go hump a cactus, IDIOT.
“I’ll agree that it’s not only about a high sex drive, it’s also about power and entitlement. But I’ve never agreed with the assertion that it’s always ONLY about power and entitlement.”
Nope. Rape is not sex. Sex is when your partner is as into you as you are to them. Sex is an act between equals. Sex is a shared experience. Anything less than 100% mutual consent of all parties is not sex anymore.
I love when trolls conflate “masculinity” and “my stupid ass and the ridiculous things I say”.
Not at all. I mean the internal feeling of wanting sex. Feeling horny, basically. IN NO WAY does that feeling excuse a man from mistreating anyone. I’m just saying it’s there.
Why is it that rates of domestic abuse have gone down, not up in the last couple of decades -in the US at least- if we need old fashioned gender roles to reign in abusive behavior?
The “I no curr about your sex drive” message doesn’t seem to be getting through. Maybe glove puppets would help?
So what?
@ JV
You have a higher than average sex drive. That’s okay! Just, stop trying to project it onto other men.
I am a man, I have a high sex drive, and I take great offense in assholes assuming that I am naturally abusive based on that. Fuck you, JV.
I can’t…this troll is stupider than most.
@JV:
Then I’ll repeat myself. If “high sex drive” is only about being horny, why do you think something should be *done* about it. Specifically, why do you think there needs to be some sort of social construct aimed at men to reign in that drive?
And why, if you are not referring to rape and abuse, do you reference needing a social construct to reign in male sex drive when previously you claimed that the social construct of gender roles reduced the amount of rape and domestic violence men commit?
How bizarre is it that a dude who thinks men need gender roles because their high sex drive forces them to rape is going on about how Sarkeesian is unfair to men?
Well, this merry-go-round has been fun, but I should probably do my “job” at “work” or whatever. Regulars and other friendlys, see you soon! Trolls, do your thing, hopefully, and flounce on outta here!
In case oracle is still here – cats cats cats cats cats kitties and cats!
You don’t see a potential problem there, left unchecked?
I’m not, but I’m also not alone in my experience. We ended up here because the group consensus on this board seems to be there is no use for gender-based frameworks around behavior. I disagree. That’s pretty much it,
http://www.lookhuman.com/render/product/2002/2002018096068970/tr401atg-w484h484z1-26729-nobody-cares-about-your-stupid-boner.jpg
Just sayin’.
The other funny thing about all this is, as a man, how do you know how high a woman’s sex drive is? Obviously there are many reasons why women wouldn’t go around hitting on every dude they find attractive, and you’re not psychic, so the women would have to tell you, right? Cool. So, if you’re a woman, and you’re horny, who do you tell? The dude who keeps banging on and on about gender roles reigning in predation and his sexy sex feelings and blah blah he just really loves to hear himself talk and doesn’t give a shit what you’re actually feeling?
No. You talk to your female friends, and your gay friends, and the few straight guys who you trust enough to know you can say that stuff to them without them acting like dumbasses. Guys like this? Are you fucking kidding me? I’d rather have a conversation about my libido with my granny, at least she wouldn’t start leering and saying “well, I could help you with that” halfway through the conversation.
TL;dr – If you think that women don’t have much of a sex drive it’s probably because they don’t trust you enough to be honest with you. That’s a you problem, not a woman problem.
@JV:
Nope. Especially since “high sex drive” is just about horniness, and nothing at all to do with rape or domestic violence, as you just recently affirmed.
You are correct! Men, and women, and intersex people and agender people all join you on the ‘high’ end of the sex drive spectrum. Neither ‘high’ nor ‘low’ are bad, good, normal or abnormal for any gender expression or identity.
It isn’t the sex drive itself that causes sexual violence, okay? The two things are not related. Gender based frameworks cause distress and violence, not alleviate it. We’ve covered that concept up thread.
@kirbywarp
Oh right, sorry I misunderstood you at first. I thought you meant I was equating “high sex drive” with rape. So, yeah, I am saying that social constructs are needed around sex to prevent sexual abuse, population wide. I am not saying that every man is a potential rapist.
Yeah, socializing men to be controlling and entitled to power, and women to be passive and nonconfrontational, is really going to help rein in the abusive men. If by rein in you mean give them easy targets.
Then fuck off already. You’re not special in your insistence that all men are slavering idiots and toxic masculinity must be worshipped. You don’t even know how brainwashed you are. You can’t even explain why you think the way you do. You’re not well read enough on any of this issues, that’s obvious.
Fuck off.
Maybe he thinks people are like ferrets (is it ferrets?) and if the boners are left untouched the person with the boner will actually die? His balls will explode! Literally! This is a crisis!
Hell the fuck no. I’m not going to become a fucking monster because I am horny, and I want you to stop assuming that I do. Why do you hate men so much?