When women, in conversations online, point out the ridiculously tiny percentage of video games that feature women as protagonists, they tend to get flooded with responses from indignant gamebros telling them that if they don’t like the games out there, they should just make their own.
The gamebros mean their comments to be conversation-enders. Just as Vivian James, #GamerGate’s imaginary girlfriend, tells game critics to “shut up and play,” these guys are telling critics of the retrograde gender politics in gaming to “shut up and make games.”
It never occurs to them that some of the women they smugly tell this to … might already be doing this.
One of the more entertaining aspects of following the Twitter account of much-harassed game developer Brianna Wu — known in #GamerGate circles as Literally Who 3 — is watching clueless gamebros try this “argument” on her.
LOVE IT when men tell me, "Don't like how women are represented? Make your own games!" Lol. http://t.co/LlkDLnmOVs pic.twitter.com/n0BgqwvH2B
— Brianna Wu (@BriannaWu) October 26, 2014
The whole thread is here if you’d like to see what an unpleasant fellow this Simon Wood really is.
Oh, but there’s more:
It never ends:
Of course, some of her, er, critics seem to realize that she already makes games. But somehow this doesn’t keep them from yelling at her to make games anyway.
@iMatthewCM @Swispy @SmegmaKing @Spacekatgal fuck the trolls. If you have a bitch fit about gender/races in a game, go make one twats
— Timothy Sleeper (@Sleeper83091) October 26, 2014
https://twitter.com/mchugepants/status/524445877398544384
Others demand that she start making GOOD GAMES.
https://twitter.com/BABPEEGTWO/status/525769579595718656
(Huh. Seems like a decent number of people think the game she just releaased is good.)
And this demanding GamerGater wants to know why she doesn’t make MORE games.
Oh. That.
This guy apparently thinks that instead of criticizing the game industry, Wu should be personally training a new generation of girls to make games.
@Spacekatgal Just because they are mostly designed by men doesnt women cant enjoy them and if they don't, teach women so they can make games
— Dragonslay3r94 (@Dragonslay3r94) October 22, 2014
It must be hard to find time to make games with all these dudes yelling at her to make games. And then yelling at her more when she does.
I will never understand why neutrality trolls put so much effort into defending demonstrably false claims of equivalence. How is it fun to spend days arguing about something you don’t even care about? I just don’t get it. I guess it’s because I don’t falsely and smugly believe myself superior to everyone else.
Estwald:
Wait, really? You’re response to “one ‘side’ of the gamergate issue is sending rape and death threats to women who have opinions about video games, therefore the two sides aren’t equivalent” is “but I thought you said there weren’t two factions?” Seriously? The point soared that far over your head?
You’re willful obtuseness is showing.
Sparky – you might say that the obtuseness is acute.
The fact that 4Chan – 4CHAN! – booted the Gaters says so much about how appalling they’ve been. And now 8Chan and Encyclopedia Dramatica are a-bloo-bloo-blooing about that. If your biggest online fans hang out there, you should stop selling death sticks, go home, and rethink your life.
Regarding the ‘both sides’ shtik, someone (possibly on Twitter, maybe here) offered this example: if one side says All puppies should be kicked and the other says No puppies should be kicked, proposing that SOME puppies be kicked is not a reasonable compromise.
I find it funny that GamerGaters (and MRAs, now that I think about it), seem to have a love for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. A cartoon created by a feminist, that has a main cast of female characters, where the magical land is RUN by women (All hail Celestia and Luna!), whose catchphrase has become “love and tolerance”, and has feminist overtones.
Really, the irony is delicious.