By all rights, the furor over rocket scientist Matt Taylor’s cheesecake shirt should have died down by now. After being chided earlier this week for marring the celebration over the landing of a space probe ON A GODDAMNED COMET by doing interviews in a tacky shirt covered with half-naked ladies, Taylor offered a brief but heartfelt apology. You would have thought we’d all be able to move on.
Not so fast. Because these days apparently no controversy can ever be over as long as it serves someone’s interest to keep it going. And so a loose but very familiar coalition of reactionaries and antifeminists and angry techies have started flogging an amorphous cause they call #Shirtgate or, more popularly, #Shirtstorm, purporting to be outraged that Taylor was “humiliated” into apologizing.
So many of the angriest voices in this, er, conversation are #GamerGaters it looks a lot like a sequel. Call it GamerGate Part Two: The Straw Graspening. And it’s not just me making the connection: #GamerGaters and #Shirtstormers, often one and the same, are making the connection:
So radical #shirtstorm SJW have attacked my games my #gamergate revolt and now they are attacking #science. Am i allowed to be mad ?
— Anti-ProcrusteanBed ☀️🏴 (@antiprocrustes) November 16, 2014
I am a man. I'm sick of hearing that because of my gender, my opinions don't count and sexism towards me isn't real. #GamerGate #shirtstorm
— Lord Inquisitor Ineptus Astartes (@AstartesIneptus) November 16, 2014
https://twitter.com/Scrumpmonkey/status/533409838207078400
Heck, our old friend Milo is making the connection:
Note to those infuriated by poor Dr Matt Taylor and #shirtstorm: this is what #GamerGate has been fighting against. Are you getting it yet?
— Milo Yiannopoulos (@Nero) November 15, 2014
Oh, it’s a veritable #GamerGate Old Home Week! GG mainstays Thunderf00t and Mundane Matt have rushed out videos about The Shirt.
People are making graphics covered with hard-to-read text:
There are giant complicated conspiracy theory graphics covered with red lines and angry red text. This one notes that Chris Plante, who wrote an article criticizing Taylor’s shirt, also wrote one of the now-notorious “Gamers are Dead” pieces.
https://twitter.com/Reyeko_/status/533482641774100480
Apparently there were a few dudes who were none too pleased with Plante’s story on The Shirt:
https://twitter.com/plante/status/533244307105648640
#Shirtstormers wrote angry “letters” in too-small-type. (Click here for larger, more readable version and here for one with angry graphics, too.)
https://twitter.com/Alpha_duck1/status/533698520100777984
While others tried to draw a parallel between Taylor’s alleged “humiliation” and … rape.
#shirtgate #SupportMattTaylor #GamerGate pic.twitter.com/L8s1GrOow7
— Mark 🐸 🗑 Samenfink (@MSamenfink) November 16, 2014
#ShirtStorm #shirtgate Matthew 7:1 pic.twitter.com/bRXr7bA1Si
— Be Just & Fear Not | Let None Survive (@SuperNerdMike) November 16, 2014
Neo-reactionaries and “Dark Enlightenment” types see opportunity in the #Shirtstorm hashtag.
https://twitter.com/voxday/status/533336186535030784
Don't judge me because of what I'm wearing – unless I'm a guy. Then you can define my personality and try to ruin my life. #shirtgate #NRx
— VDARE (@vdare) November 15, 2014
https://twitter.com/antidemblog/status/533341319184531456
https://twitter.com/BernardChapin/status/533628518077186049
As do MRAs:
https://twitter.com/deanesmay/status/533758421158227969
As does this familiar name:
Women do not face a hostile climate in science. And they can handle seeing a guy in an edgy shirt. #GamerGate https://t.co/8gvTyo0bg6
— Christina Hoff Sommers (@CHSommers) November 16, 2014
They’re all there, all hoping to turn a debate over a shirt into another endless internet Benghazi.
Whelp, that broke my brain, time for bed!
I’ve come to think of the prof as a walking penis that talks out its urethra. Haven’t yet decided whether it’s got the Richard Dawkins floppy hair or not.
(Almost time for bed)
A deer once bit my sister… No realli!
It needs the hair, and it also needs to be lying on a bearskin rug.
(With or without the wife? Haven’t decided that part yet.)
I wonder how his ex wives feel these days.
Lucky, I’d guess.
Relieved.
Herding cats? Then we MUST have this ad again.
http://youtu.be/Pk7yqlTMvp8
That ad will never outstay its welcome. 🙂
Wow, I didn’t start studying feminism academically until my junior year in college, and my alma mater, well, let’s just point out that they didn’t even start admitting women at all until the mid-70s and they’ve not yet come to a point where women are even 40% of the undergraduate population, and even *there* CHS was not considered a feminist and she was considered, and discussed, but the conclusion was not that she was a feminist.
Well sure, they don’t actually kiss, but there’s stuff like this:
And kiss or no kiss, their relationship is arced like a romance. There’s nothing particularly subversive about it. (It would be subversive if, say, the lead woman ended the story disliking the man.)
@katz
I agree that Pacific Rim doesn’t subvert the “guy gets girl” trope, but I what I wanted to point out that it wasn’t really as clear-cut that Mako and Raleigh were going to end up being a couple.
Like, in that scene you posted above, IIRC that happened earlier on in the movie. My personal interpretation of their story arc is that while they were initially maybe attracted to one another (Mako looking at a shirtless Raleigh), their relationship grew into friendship rather than a romance.
But that’s just my interpretation. Yours makes sense too. There’s going to be a sequel (and maybe a part 3) so I guess we’ll find out there if they really do end up with one another or not.
I’ve attempted to create a tl;dr summary of the above:
(to the tune of the Pink panther theme)
pedant, pedant
pedant, pedant, pedant, pedant, peda~ant
pedantry
bis
I wish Mako was the main protagonist instead. She was the far more interesting character and contrary to what studio execs think, that would not have driven away the vast majority of male audiences. It was a decent movie but suffered from a lack of compelling main character IMO. That would have been fixed if they focused more on Mako and made Raleigh a supporting character.
I was really disappointed that the whole mind-meld thing of Pacific Rim didn’t seem to be fleshed out. If it had, then I could easily interpret the forehead touching at the end differently. You’re going to be close to someone you just shared brain-space with, basically becoming them temporarily, no matter what the previous relationship was like.
(Seriously, mind-meld! Why would they have to talk to each other when piloting the mechs?)
Sorry, I can’t let this go:
As I pansexual lady I love actual sexy ladies, not the physically impossible, airbrushed, male-gazey, objectified female forms the patriarchy holds up as ideal.
Also, I’m not entitled to boner-pleasing ladies if those images harm women as a group, and the fact that you’re basically saying “so what if it’s hurting women, I like to look at it!” makes me doubt your commitment to feminism. But good job being one of the cool girls, I guess.
$20 says “signed a paper promising not to rape anyone” was actually “agreed to abide by the con’s anti-harassment policy”.
An additional $100 says “only white men had to sign it” is shit that never happened.
Where and when did this happen? I find your complete lack of identifying details (like even the name of the conference) suspicious. Surely, surely, you wouldn’t misrepresent something like that, would you?
That’s not a definition, it’s an example. And not a very good one, since the people in the A+ movement don’t consider it a destruction thereof.
It’s the same old pattern of dudebros getting irrationally and completely disproportionately defensive and, dare I say, offended at the offense of others who only displayed some mild criticism. While telling the original offended party that they’re the ones who need a thicker skin, of course. Happened with “guys, don’t do that”, happened with “hey let’s look at these obvious sexist tropes in vidyagaems”, and now it’s happening over an obviously inappropriate-for-work shirt. All the same tactics, all the same bullshit arguments and false equivalences to social justice arguments purely as an attempt at a “gotcha, feminoids!”. Because mild criticism directed at the privileged people in society is the worst, most offensive behaviour ever EVER, right. I ain’t even surprised at this point.
kittehserf: “But this is a feminist blog for mocking misogyny, so don’t come in telling a bunch of feminists what feminism is.”
Well, I didn’t do that. My understanding was that believing that women should be equal under the law — a belief that Sommers has expressed, not necessarily sincerely — is a feminist belief. That doesn’t make her a feminist. And the only one telling people how to behave seems to be CassandraKitty. But she is a regular and you are a moderator, so I am fine with no longer continuing the conversation.
To be clear, again, we are all in agreement that Sommers isn’t a feminist, including Grumpy. The question of why some women like Sommers choose to make a living working against women’s rights, the contradictions of their words and actions, is a common one. It’s one that this blog sometimes look at, and that feminist studies study. Raising the issue is not the same thing as calling Sommers a feminist.
Kat Goodwin:
FFS. You said:
These are your words, that you have posted, that we can go back and read. You did indeed say that Sommers has feminist beliefs, and that the fact that she has a career and is a professor and all – that this is a good thing for feminism. I’m telling you that no, Sommers making a living attempting to destroy feminism and all that feminsists have worked for is not a good thing. There is no silver lining there. Saying that well, at least women can have jobs and go to school now, because here’s this antifeminist woman who has done so is fucking asinine. That’s like saying, in the middle of a flood, that well, we should be thankful for all the water because at least there’s not a drought!
And fucking no, we can’t know what the fuck beliefs she has. We can’t read her mind. The fact that she is taking advantage of progress and advancements brought about by feminism does not make her a feminist or mean that she has feminist beliefs. All evidence we have about Sommers points directly to the contrary.
OK, but:
“She isn’t a feminist, but there is no feminist police and she has feminist ideas and she calls herself a feminist and she’s personally benefited from progress made by feminists so it’s complicated.”
…I don’t even know. Like, what are you trying to prove? Christina Hoff Sommers is not a feminist. She doesn’t hold any feminist ideas. Her existence is not a credit to feminism. Her work is not a credit to feminism. The fact that feminism has been successful is good. The fact that Christina Hoff Sommers has dedicated her life to tearing it down is not. Yes, she directly benefits from feminism. That makes her a hypocrite. Yes, she calls herself a feminist. This is part of a strategy to set herself – an antifeminist – and those who think like her as the “true feminists.” This is a strategy to invalidate feminism. Whether or not Christina Hoff Sommers thinks feminism is a good idea or not doesn’t matter, because of what she is doing right now. She is acting like she doesn’t think feminism is a good idea.
Saying that the existence of a successful antifeminist woman is indicative of how successful feminism has been is really just asinine. There has always been successful antifeminist women. Antifeminist women tend to be successful because they are antifeminist.
@sparky, QFT!!!!
@Kat Godwin, I think the biggest factor you’re seemingly oblivious to is that there are several branches of feminism here among the regular commenters. Not all of us are liberal feminists; hell, I’d lay odds that libfems are just one of many here. Making assumptions about what a ‘feminist belief’ is, isn’t going to get anyone very far. I don’t think all of us even define feminism the same way. Trying to achieve agreement with the Hivemind isn’t going to happen because we’re not all starting from the same point of view.
FWIW, I don’t see any contradiction at all with CMS. She’s a privileged antifeminist. Who ever said she was like an educated JB was absolutely correct.
I think Cassandra already said this, but what’s complicated or interesting about CHS? She’s the girl who thinks that if she agrees that girls have cooties, the boys will let her in the treehouse. A very common archetype.
Here is a pertinent quote:
“Lifestyle feminism ushered in the notion that there could be as many versions of feminism as there were women. Suddenly the politics was being slowly removed from feminism. And the assumption prevailed that no matter what a woman’s politics, be she conservative or liberal, she too could fit feminism into her existing lifestyle. Obviously this way of thinking has made feminism more acceptable because its underlying assumption is that women can be feminists without fundamentally challenging and changing themselves or the culture.”
— bell hooks, Feminism is for Everybody (via mahakavi)
I am old and nothing makes me feel my age as much as these kinds of discussions on how many impossible things we can believe before breakfast.
@Bina, not sure that was at me or Kat.
If it’s me, I was thinking more libfem/radfem/ecofem/socialistfem – distinct and defined branches, rather than personalized funfeminism. And by different definitions of feminism, I meant that while lots of people prefer ‘equality of the sexes’, I will always choose ‘liberation of women from oppression’.