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.
http://scontent-b-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/149348_10152505093031275_4804427533349387982_n.jpg
Gah, fucking Facebook.
re: Pallygirl
They also managed to misspell MacKinnon and Jeffreys. Six names they could have copy/pasted, and they got two of them wrong.
Nice use of extreme bias and selective screenshots, really fine journalism, no really, top notch, I swear.
I apologize if this ends up being posted twice.
Anita Sarkeesian is my hero. I can’t even say how much I admire her fortitude and honesty.
I’ve dealt with this often in real life — not the rape threats and much less swearing — just the strong negative reaction (one that is often terrifying) I get from men (gamers and non-gamers alike) when I talk about equality, gender norms, rape culture, etc. It’s hard to handle vitriol (not that what I’ve received is anywhere NEAR what Anita has had to deal with). It’s even worse on the Internet (with its relative anonymity) because others can so easily forget that you’re a person with feelings. Honestly, I try to be careful when commenting online because my skin isn’t superthick.
I think Anita picked the perfect time to talk about toxic masculinity and misogyny. This shooting, it seems, as many do these days, stemmed from an unhealthy view of masculinity (that unfortunately is fairly common) and a sense of entitlement (that women owe men something simply because men desire it). The current emotionally charged atmosphere might make these phenomena and their consequences easier to see and could actually motivate change. Might force people to ask whether this is the kind of society they want to live in.
mikebaker
Psychological issue? Let’s see.
Is there anywhere else in the world where people get upset because someone they’re attracted to, or actually involved with, tells them they’re not interested? Yes. That would be everywhere in the world that happens.
What happens next? In most places, most of the time, the unlucky lover is unhappy for a period of time, maybe long, maybe short. Then they move on to other (possible) relationships with other people.
In various places, rejected lovers do other things. Some write songs or poetry. Some throw themselves into work or sport or hobbies. Some get depressed, others get angry. How do they express their anger? Do they lash out physically at the person in question or at others or just by going to the gym or running more often?
Most importantly, people who lash out at someone who rejects them might use their fists or they might use a weapon. Why do some people use guns? Because. they. can. In most advanced industrial economies, most people can’t get access to guns. So they don’t.
Sarkeesian didn’t say it. But the two underlying cultural issues are access to guns and the willingness to use them. Unless you think that all male Americans are suffering from a gun-related mental health problem, then the issue is not individual psychology, it’s culture.
Seconding everyone who saying that making this about how Sarkeesian “reframes” things is fucking bullshit. Sarkeesian could do a video about the Earth is round and the Flat Earth Society would suddenly get flooded with membership applications. Sarkeesian has no control over people on a personal crusade to willfully misinterpret every single thing she says. The only way she can stop that from happening is by shutting down her Twitter account and not making videos anymore. Which is exactly what her harassers want.
I’m glad she spoke out. I’m glad she used her platform to call a spade a spade. I’m glad she’s using her position of fame to talk about toxic masculinity. And I don’t any of Mike Baker’s vague nebulous “negative effects” matter a shit, because I think “negative effects” is just a disingenuous and cowardly way of saying “Sarkeesian should sit down and shut up.”
Yah, the “It’s a mental health issue!” comments are an easy way to simplify (inaccurately) an issue so you don’t have to think about it any further. Meanwhile the majority of people with mental health problems are the victims of abuse, not the other way around. And while mental health IS sometimes a factor, it’s not the main factor. One need not be mentally ill to be violent when violence is an accepted, and encouraged part of being a guy. When the overwhelming majority of violent attacks are carried out by men against other men and women alike; one has to have their head particularly far up their own ass not to at least admit that there might be a problem with how men are taught to be masculine. Or, to simplify: being a fucking douchebag is not a mental health issue.
It’s frustrating how they insist on proving us right, but can’t see themselves doing it. It really is.
@Shalimar: shows how closely I was paying attention to the graphic.
On the gun side, I am so tired of seeing the old “but they had mental health issues” being used to excuse (normally) male gun violence, particularly in schools.
See, in order for this canard to even be remotely correct, there would need to be a correlation between mental health and gun use. So anyone using this pejorative, lazy, and incorrect trope is saying:
– people who have/use guns are at greater risk of mental illness, or
– people who have a mental illness are more likely to access/use guns
And once again we come back to fucking internet diagnosing of mental illness (and curiously unspecified). People doing this fucking diagnosis are not trained clinicians, they have not had access to sufficient information in order to make the diagnosis, so they should just STFU. They are spouting ignorance that actually harms other people. There’s enough misperception out there about the risks from people with mental issues, without this bloody “the gunman was mentally ill” trope being trotted out yet fucking again.
It’s also fucking circular reasoning: how do we know he was “mentally ill”? Because he shot a bunch of people. Why did he shoot a bunch of people”? Because he was “mentally ill”. Explanation this is not. Harmful this is. Why are some people not understanding this? Surely it’s because they don’t want to – the fucking message is really simple.
And do not get me started on the difference between legal insanity and psychological/ psychiatric ill health.
A reminder for new commenters!
Here is an important bit from this site’s comments policy:
Don’t worry angry dudes! I’m sure you can find some other place on the internet where you can talk forever about how Anita totally brought all this upon herself.
“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.”
—–
Just out of curiosity, David: One time you suggested on this site that that the interest and popularity of MRA’s and their issues is far less popular than they are willing to believe and perceive. Yet here we have an example, where they’re appeared to be more popular than we seemingly like to admit. The horror. But are these views still in the minority, and they just happen to be real noisy about it? Or are we on the crest of a very dark spiral downwards? I’m not sure you can answer that, but if you can, I hope for humanity it isn’t the latter. 🙁
wow the hate machine is horrible. it seems as if any challenge to masculine culture results in a COMPLETE FREAK OUT.hoy shit
“Politicizing” (i.e., explain a phenomenon through the use of political categories) is not just correct for all the reasons said before in the comments. It is also helpful for the victim’s families to explain the context in which a loved one was killed, and start the healing process. The hardest mournings come from deaths that are unexplained or not understood.
So true.
But even if we accepted that something most mass shooters have in common is mental problems (it is not, unless we include there everyone with toxic entitlement and the possibility of feeling frustrated or humilliated, and certainly not all people with mental issues are murderers — only those with toxic entitlement that happen to feel frustrated or humilliated). Why is it such a fucking problem to observe that they were almost 100% male?
HCK,
The problem with your diagram is that some things are like Nazi Germany. For example, the Greek Golden Dawn political party.
The thing is, sometimes the point of saying something is like the Nazis is so that it can be stopped long before it gets too much like Nazi Germany. We don’t want to wait until death camps are killing millions before its okay to make the analogy.
Tony: ”
I don’t have the reach or influence for anyone to see it, but someone who does should point out this contradiction. The Washington Post article is a puff piece glorifying a gentler side to the movement that *does not exist.*”
The writer of the WaPo article has a Twitter account. Someone just needs to tweet at the writer, with a link to the person’s abusive tweet, and a screenshot
Are you Jon Hamm?
I love Jon Hamm.
Honestly I felt she brought up a pretty interesting point, one that’s so sympathetic to men it could just as easily be a men’s rights talking point. In fact I think it’s pretty close to things I’ve heard some of the less crazy men’s rights advocates say back when I first learned about that movement. That thunderfoot guy all the gamergate people are so fond of actually touches upon the idea of toxic masculinity in his vs. women video. It’s bizarre that when he says it the gamergaters cheer but when Sarkeesian says it she’s Hitler, Bin Laden and Death Panels all rolled into one.
@Elektra
What do you mean she doesn’t mention her harassment? Every speech she has given from TED to XXOO she has talked about it for more than 3/4 of her talk. She absolutely uses her criticism to position herself in the media and social consciousness and makes much of this about herself and the treatment she gets on the internet. Her blog and twitter is full of screenshots of negative comments left to her, it’s like she is giving the trolls a platform.
@Mike Baker
Anita has been awarded a field promotion by the Feminist High Council. She’s now a Feminist Lieutenant Colonel. Just FYI.
She needs to check in with General Amanda and General Jessica and impress them with her dedication to increasing the number of acts of misandry she commits daily before being promoted any further.
Double xp from tweets. Quadruple when it’s a holiday weekend.
And……………. level up.
Final clearance and promotion will be given by the twin zombie Empresses, Dworkin and Solanas.
The world view is the problem with people who feel entitled to kill people who say no to them. Just as the world view is the problem with all abusers.
Dismissing violence as a “mental health issue” for each and every individual after the fact is absurd.
Brain bleach delivery!
An old but adorable one:
Bunnies and puppies do it too:
http://s1.hubimg.com/u/2662156_f520.jpg
This kitten breaks the mold by using a wineglass instead of the traditional teacup:
http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/c4/0f/f0/c40ff0c160064273393604e307f093e0.jpg
This one is very adventurous but cannot fit:
http://www.catster.com/files/cat-sleeping-coffee-maker.jpg