Leave it to Vox Day, the proudly reactionary sci-fi author and game developer, to say what most of his #GamerGate comrades spend so much energy denying: that their little movement is at least in part a backlash against women in gaming. At least against real women, with their own opinions.
As Vox writes in a post on his Alpha Game blog,
Games have long been an escape from women and social pressure for many young men, so it should surprise no one that they aren’t particularly keen on seeing their retreat invaded by the very things from which they are escaping.
So why exactly do guys want an escape from women? Well, as Vox once explained in an interview with “Dr. Helen” for her book Men On Stike,
Women can be entertaining, but they’re expensive, inaccessible for most men, and from the male perspective, shockingly unreliable.
What makes it worse, Vox suggests on his blog, is that the kind of guys who play a lot of video games aren’t exactly the guys scoring the top quality women.
When people ask a gamma or an omega if he wouldn’t rather be out and about “with a real girl” instead of playing games, they should first keep in mind what sort of “real girl” is probably on offer for him. And considering the alternatives, who can truly blame him if he looks at his choices and decides that games and porn are genuinely the better option.
Huh. Aren’t you a game developer, Vox? I thought the first rule of GamerGate is that journalists and developers shouldn’t insult their customers.
But GamerGaters were quick to pardon Mytheos Holt for calling them all a bunch of dateless losers, and I suspect they’ll do the same with Vox, because no matter how pathetic he thinks most gamers are, it’s clear he thinks women are worse.
Does anyone else here get the vibe that GG is very similar to the awful l33t* gamer vs. casual gamer divide that sprung up a few years ago, perpetrated by “l33t” gamers? I know it was** prevalent in World of Warcraft, and it was basically people (guys) who played WoW for something like 30+ hours a week telling people who played in single digit hours that they shouldn’t expect to have good gear, or be involved in raids, and to quit whining about how the content focus shifted to people who were in the more difficult raids (that the casuals couldn’t do because basically their gear wasn’t good enough) – because WoW should only be for l33t players and casuals should just shut the fuck up about the crumbs they were thrown?
@Buttercup: your first paragraph reminded me of this.
* elite, their spelling, not mine.
** I only read the WoW forums when I played from 2004/5-2011, it may have changed.
@pallygirl Yeah I think it’s part of the same mentality. I remember when they finally did start making raiding more accessible to “casuals” — suddenly WoW became “too easy” and not a “real game”.
@Chun-I You don’t have to make any sacrifices to Tumblr feminism to be welcome here. But the tone of your posts seems to suggest you aren’t here in good faith. If you’ve got something to say that you think is going to make us all irrationally angry at you, why don’t you just come out with it and we’ll see? 🙂
“I am a person. I have arms, legs, and a mouth. Am I welcome here?”
My question is about as meaningful as Chun-I’s at this point. You’re not exactly giving people a lot of useful information to go on there, dude.
wtf
Its name is Susan, in case anyone was wondering.
(Tumblr feminism, I mean.)
i can’t remember anyone here asking anyone to give up fedoras, or do anything in the name of tumblr feminism.
By the power of Tumblr feminism, I demand that you crush that fedora!
fedoras are magic. if you put one on, it makes you a pretentious misogynist even if you totally weren’t one before, and once you banish it forever you are cured.
Policy of Madness: reminds me of this.
@Chun-I:
I doubt anyone here cares if you are masculine or not, if you wear a fedora or not, or about “tumblr feminism” or whatever it is. It’s up to you and your choices.
Just be a decent person, and you’ll do fine. A good start is to stop thinking that tumblr feminism is a thing. You’ll look a lot less like a generic 8chan user then, which also helps with the decent person bit 🙂
Also, if someone had been bullied their whole life by MRAs that would make them, what, 10 years old? Maybe 15, tops? MRAs as a presence significant enough to notice are pretty much an internet phenomenon.
@sunnysombrera
that was funny for 40 seconds then wasn’t anymore 🙁
We should start performing tumblr feminist exorcisms on people.
“The power of Tumblr compels you! The power of Tumblr compels you! Get thee behind me fedora!”
And then their head starts spinning and they puke kitten gifs and Dr Who jokes.
@Policy of Madness UGH right? As soon as he turned into a fat guy I turned it off. So over fat being a synonym for pathetic.
@deniseeliza
also: a fat guy thinking he is sexually worthwhile = shorthand for hilarious?
no.
Oh shit! I own a fedora! My roommate gave it to me for Christmas four years ago. What should I do? Help me, We Hunted the Mammoth! You’re my only hope.
@Chun-I:
Yeah, as others have pointed out, talking about “Tumblr feminism” is not exactly convincing anyone that you’re here in good faith. AFAIK, it’s mostly used as a derogatory phrase by anti-feminists. I can only see actual feminists calling themselves that in an ironic sense (see weirwoodtreehugger’s and cassandrakitty’s hilarious posts).
Re: masculinity: As long as the type of masculinity you embrace isn’t of the toxic variety (you know, thinking of women as inferior to men, thinking that attention from women, sexual or otherwise, is something you are entitled to, thinking violence is an acceptable solution in your dealings with people, etc.), being or not being masculine is not really that relevant here. That said, it’s good that you see that gender expectations cause problems in our society. It’s a start.
About being nice: Actions speak louder than words. If you’re a nice person, it will shine through. If you’re not, it will also shine through. Part of the problem with Nice Guys (TM) is that they’re quick to proclaim their niceness without actually being nice. Saying something doesn’t make it so.
More broadly, it’s problematic to identify too strongly with niceness as a quality, as you’re then less likely to listen when people point out that you’re doing or saying something not-nice, and will instead get defensive because you’ve invested so much in the idea that you’re nice and get all “how dare you imply I’m not being nice you big mean meanie-pants.”
When others say that you’re saying something bad, they’re not attacking you as a person, they’re criticizing the ideas you’ve most likely picked up somewhere in our culture. If you really are a nice person, you’ll work towards eliminating the fucked-up beliefs you may have about how the world works. Being nice is something you do, not something you are.
We all make mistakes. We all mess up sometimes, privileged people (especially white cishet men, myself included) more easily than less privileged people, because that’s how privilege works. The important thing is to listen and learn when others explain to you why something you say or do is problematic, apologize, and do your best not to engage in said behavior anymore.
Part of being a decent person is realizing that not everything is about you personally. Understand that and you should be fine here.
@AltoFronto – They’ve really shot themselves in the foot by retreating into a doubled-down version of the He-Man Woman-Haters Club, haven’t they? Anything that smacks of self-improvement or decent human behavior gets rejected as part of the feminazi PC conspiracy. Politeness, love, relationships, tolerance, equality, courtesy, critical thinking – those are all for “lesser” beings, They don’t want to do what Mom tells them, but guess what? Mom is right about a lot of things.
I’m curious to see how long they plan to sit around in their underwear, surrounded by pools of flyblown bacon grease, playing Call of Duty, sulking about women, and refusing to be even minimally civil. What is that going to accomplish? I mean, it just sounds like a punishment Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle would think up.
Oh, great. Now I have U2 stuck in my head.
Well, that was a pointlessly long rant.
Re: the video: I watched the whole video about the fedora guy, and I am not really sure what the point is.
SPOILERS: They do make fun of his fatness and voice, but then towards the end, a woman is reading the guy’s OKCupid profile, looking at his picture and thinking aloud how he is just her type – if not for the fedora. So… fedoras are bad, I guess? Hmm. Also, the fedora is an alien entity.
Cannot brain today. Curse hangover days.
By “pointlessly long rant” I was referring to my earlier post, not Buttercup Q. Skullpants’s. I should really try to refresh every so often.
So, what’s the message? Being fat is okay unless you have a fedora (but we’ll still make fun of you for being fat)? Body acceptance but not fashion acceptance? I’m so confused.
“… they puke kitten gifs and Doctor Who jokes.”
Dammit! Now everyone is going to stare at me when I come out of the bathroom because I just hooted with incredibly loud laughter.
Puddleglum
YES! Mine too! (Though, let’s be honest, I was gonna buy those games anyway. Gators just give me a good reason to keep buying them. Like a petulant child who gets told I can’t have candy, I WILL EAT ALL THE CANDY IN UTTER DEFIANCE.)
I figure if more people buy video games who aren’t for #GG, maybe devs will notice and realize that they’re a really gross minority that shouldn’t be catered to. Money talks, ya know.
AltoFronto,
Do you have a source for that? I’m aware that slightly over half of frequent gamers are women, but that isn’t exactly the same thing. It may be that the GamerGators individually spend a lot more money on video games than you or I do. Or it might not; I have no idea.
Of course, even if that’s true, the publishers who cater to gators are neglecting the opportunity to develop new markets, which will probably bite them in the long run, but at least there would be some internal logic.