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.
Is it bad that all I can think looking at the last image is how badly the coffeemaker on the right needs to be cleaned? Poor kitty, its belly will get all dirty.
Of course, the true coffee cats are civets: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/sep/19/civet-cat-coffee-worlds-most-expensive-brew-made-sustainably-kopi-luwak
Let’s not make it a political issue. Instead, let’s armchair diagnose someone as mentally ill, because that’s surely an opinion with no politics in it whatsoever!
I can’t help but feel that something has gone very wrong with the world when people are willing to pay extra for a coffee because some cat pooped it before brewing.
If only Anita hadn’t been born an intelligent, courageous, and reasonable female she could have avoided bringing all this harassment on herself. I blame genetics! *end sarcasm*
If people are willing to pay for cat poop coffee, I have plenty of poop and can get more coffee.
Instead of civet coffee, try tuxedo coffee! Guaranteed to have 50% more antioxidents!
(I mean, if we’re already pulling stuff out of asses…)
Hats of to Anita Sarkeesian, and to David, both of whom deal with this every day, while I go off, noping into the sunset.
I am physically unable to even today.
Hey, three dudebros that are totally not the same person, hate and slurs are still hate and slurs no matter what context you put them in.
Oh, and mockery sites are TOTALLY obligated to be teh jurnilizms.
Shut up, Woodies.
Hey, their comments don’t seem to be showing up now. Did they get eaten by the mods?
I’ve let through some comments that are sort of borderline Anita-blaming. Email the mods if any of these new commenters go off the rails.
I do have a question for the commenter who claimed I was misrepresenting one of the tweets I used by “taking it out of context.”
Here’s the tweet. If you click on it you can see it in context.
https://twitter.com/psychicpebble/status/525857072823291904
How exactly did I misrepresent it?
I sometimes feel like an interloper here, but this feels right up my alley. (At least the toxic masculinity stuff)
Some of this reminds me so much of the Pick-up artistry crap where men define themselves by their success with women. A rejection is treated like an assault on their masculinity. So an attack with a gun makes sense to men in this situation. It’s a rational decision made from awful, terrible preconceptions. Mental illness doesn’t even necessarily enter into it.
Also, I love the comments on politicizing and it’s use to shut down discussion.
Yeah, NO. These tweets are merely quoted verbatim. Reposted in their entire glory, even.
And besides, just how much “context” do YOU require to explain “sexist cunt”, which is an oxymoron (and a self-cancelling phrase) if ever there was one? The only context I need to see is the one I already see all too often: MISOGYNY.
And in the case of the women who called her that, INTERNALIZED misogyny. And blatant sucking-up to unworthy dudes, too.
Famous mythological family – Gog, Magog and Demigog.
The “anyone who quotes me is a liar” avoidance of responsibility for your words strategery doesn’t actually work. FYI
Any relation to the Oggs?
Firstly, Reading Comprehension. It’s a thing. Elektra mentioned Sarkeesian’s videos (the ones addressing misogyny in video games, you may have heard of them). Not her speeches on other topics (Like the TED one which was about, oh, I don’t know, online harassment?) or her blog or her twitter account.
Secondly, your ‘giving trolls a platform’ thing? Nice victim blaming there. Sort of like icing on the crap cake you posted earlier.
Major? Is she in the military now? Or are you trying to say she’s an undergrad college student? Because no.
So, she should censor herself because misogynists irrationally hate her? She doesn’t have the right to opinions anymore?
b) Reframing this in her position of fame could have negative effects, especially on the day it occurred. I followed her tweets hoping that she would mention mental-health problems. Shootings in America may in fact have a lot to do with masculinity, but rational, mentally healthy men don’t shoot people because a woman turns them down. There is no evidence that misogyny is a mental-illness but a product of cultural-norms. Reframing this in her position of fame could have negative effects.
This happens more in the US than in other industrialized countries. The overwhelming majority of people who commit this type of crime are male. This suggests it is, in fact a cultural thing. Why are mentally ill people in other countries not doing this? Why are mentally ill women not doing this? What mental illness are you even internet diagnosing him with? What are your qualifications to diagnose people? It’s almost like you’re just pulling stuff out of your ass.
Oh good. A neutrality troll. It’s not like we get those every day.
Man are expected from children to fit a certain mold. If they don’t fit that mold something is wrong. Listen to kids and the ways they bully each other. Even when they are kidding, it’s still an insult to “throw like a girl”, don’t “be a pussy”, I could go on. It’s hammered into boys. Just as a certain mold is expected of girls. How many stories do we read to girls end with a marriage to get the happy ending.
The reason these people are mad and lashing out is that she is exposing the truth. These people are losing what makes them who they are. They are losing their definition. I feel sorry for them. They can only be whole by fitting into the outdated gender roles.
I can be proud that in my family I am making every effort to break the circle. Teaching my boys and girl that they don’t need these gender roles. That they can reach further. Differences can be excepted. And even treasured.
Forgive these poor lost people. They are scared. One day they will learn, but until then the blinders they wear will keep them from seeing how big the universe really is.
Good gods. This is the second person claiming those tweets are out of context. What exactly is the context that makes it acceptable to call someone “whore” or “cunt?” Please explain.
I’m pretty sure that “selfish shithead” isn’t a medical condition.
I hope not. Giant Oggs would be scary.
Look, statues of them in Melbourne:
http://i.imgur.com/S9AoJuc.jpg?1
So this is a tough one. I have PTSD pretty bad, and usually skip over reading the actual comments people make, I take people’s word for it. For some reason I was just feeling invincible. Maybe it’s this ridiculous can of coke I just drank at ten pm. That should not have happened. Anyway, so not feeling too hot. If I were Anita I know for a fact that I would not be reading these tweets, and i would have a volunteer do it. I wonder if she reads all those herself? I don’t recommend it.
I love the people that will come out and say “OK I’m going to say it”. loved that one.
You, ma’am are so incredibly brave.
So on the Sam Seder channel, a video is up of someone calling in to their show, to that Matt guy that interviewed Brianna Wu, he’s the one that debated Paul Elam, anyway, someone called up to talk about gamergate, and Matt asked him to name one “ethics in journalism” issue gamergate has tackled. And he couldn’t come up with even one. He ended on a note saying somethng regardng George Soros. It was weird. So that comment section on that video is not as bad as the Brianna Wu interview video, but there are people there going on and on and on about Zoe Quinn. So the question is posed, why did gamergate not go after the journalist if this is about ethics in journalism, and they do know that the journalist in question never reviewed her game, right?
IDK I guess i’m on a tangent. I don’t understand mobs. It’s one of the things that scared me as a kid, any depiction of a mob would upset me greatly. Then I leaned in highschool there is “mob psychology” so people quit being individuals when they get in to a mob. There is a whole different psychology to it.
The upside of thsi whole thing, is that I have had very interesting and bonding conversations with my oldest son who is twenty on this, and we watched some educational videos together. He’s a really smart kid and I love him.
@Puddleglum
How is it victim blaming to say that reposting and screen capping trollish comments is essentially giving them a platform that displays their content? Is it not true? Wouldn’t they not have a trophy to droll over if it was completely ignored?
What the???