Earlier today, the illustrious Honey Badger Brigade was booted from the Calgary Expo, a major Canadian fan convention devoted to all varieties of geeky pop culture.
The Honey Badgers — a mostly female A Voice for Men spinoff group known for its unlistenable internet “radio” shows — was sent packing after conventioneers complained about their connections to #GamerGate — a nine-month-long orgy of harassment targeting outspoken women in gaming and their supporters — and their alleged disruption of a panel devoted to women in comics.
According to Calgary Expo officials, the group was kicked out for “actively disregarding” the Expo’s efforts to provide “a positive and safe event” for attendees.
The Honey Badgers love to claim that they “don’t give a fuck,” but apparently their fans give quite a few, and AVFMers and #GamerGaters are rallying to their defense on Twitter. Which has led to some, well, pretty ironic Twitter exchanges, like this one below between this, er, intriguingly named #GamerGater and the official Calgary Expo account.
PRO TIP: If you’re trying to convince the world that the Honey Badgers didn’t deserve to be kicked out of the convention for contributing to an unsafe space for women, you should probably not do so while referencing “MasculineRapeFingers” in your Twitter handle.
Or include rape jokes/threats in your actual Tweets:
https://twitter.com/nickwcoleman/status/589171826502213634
Of course, it’s no wonder the Honey Badgers have attracted fans like these, given how fond they are of rape jokes themselves. Their now-disassembled booth at the Expo featured a poster of #GamerGate mascot Vivian James — a character designed to reference a channer rape joke — hiding behind the Honey Badger mask.
And before Vivian James was even a thing, the Badgers sold t-shirts and other merchandise featuring a cartoon octopus they describe as “the world’s cutest rape joke.” No, really, here he is:
To see the full array of Mr. Tentacles merchandise available, visit their CafePress store. (Archived version here.)
I’m no lawyer, but it seems to me that this in itself would be enough to get the Honey Badgers booted from the Calgary Expo. A group that literally sells rape joke t-shirts and coffee mugs to raise money for itself is a group that doesn’t belong at a convention that’s trying to be “positive and safe” for its attendees.
Add to this their connection to #GamerGate — a hate movement — and A Voice for Men — a hate group — and it’s pretty clear that Calgary Expo officials had more than enough justification for their decision to send the Honey Badgers on their way.
EDIT: The woman behind the MasculineRapeFingers account insists “[m]y twitter handle isn’t a joke. I’m a female who enjoys rape fantasies.” I’m not sure why that makes the Twitter handle any more appropriate, but I’ve reworded the post accordingly.
Heads up, missing inverted commas after the “don’t give a fuck” quote in the 4th paragraph.
Reblogged this on My Bloggerdiok.
I feel like the “world’s cutest rape joke” is from the disgusting consistent joke in anime about school girls and tentacles. I suppose, in that sense, it fits in geek culture, since anime sort of falls into that category?
Wow. They have truly outdone themselves. Do you know how hard it is to get kicked out of a convention before it even starts?
Also, OT, but remember that guy from Reed College who would always be talking about rape? Well, he just got arrested on sex abuse and harassment charges. http://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/former-reed-college-student-arrested-sex-abuse-charges#.vqPg618Lg I know, I’m shocked too.
charleswheeler, either that or the entire rest of the post is the quote … and it still hasn’t come to an end!
Oh, ok, I’ll fix it. Thanks!
@Cthulhu’s Intern
HA. HA. HA.
Can’t wait to see the reaction on the KiA subreddit on this.
(That was, OC, sarcasm. I most definitely can wait)
I really wish there were some hard, first-hand examples of what they were doing to get kicked (besides the dumb T-shirts. They were a bit tasteless to be sure, but I don’t think they are necessarily kick-worthy). Until some show up, it’s way to easy for certain kinds of people to claim “persecution” and whatnot, from what I’ve seen. They tend to get real quiet real quick when confronted with their actual words and actions.
I really wish that the people who actually care about ethics, games journalism, consumerism and what-not would just, decouple themselves from Gamersgate. There are actually a decent number of folk, in my experience, for whom those topics are super important, and have also managed to convince themselves that the sexism and harassment really is “just a few bad apples” and “not what the movement was founded on,” and such. Because, that sort of stuff *is* super important, and super relevant to gaming. There are shady things that happen, and some pretty anti-consumer practices that are carried out, but Gamergate has made it all but impossible to actually bring up that stuff without getting lumped into one group or the other and immediately hated on.
Just really wish we could actually get a consumerist gamer movement… and let the crazy-folk have their little gamergate thing off to the side where it’s wholly irrelevant.
@RC
The first link states that they were disrupting a panels.
By this point, I think people who actually care about ethics, games journalism and consumerism *have* left Gamergate.
I’d give any of them who claim “actually it’s about ethics in games journalism” a really, really hard look if I were you, and I think you’d find that it, in fact, isn’t.
The Mary Sue has some more info. Apparently they also disrupted at least one panel and may have gotten their booth under false pretenses (saying it as for a member’s webcomic).
http://www.themarysue.com/calgary-expo-gamergate-evicted/
Oops, somehow I missed that David included that link in his post.
Wait, #GamerGate is still going? Are they still trying to convince people outside 8Chan that their “movement” is about “ethicks in vidya garme geurnalism” or whatever, and not just a collection of shitty people harassing women? Do they still think they’re “winning” against “the eeeeevil SJWs”? Are they still trying to pretend they’re relevant?
#GoodGrief.
I don’t get the Mr. Tentacles thing at all but something tells me I don’t want to.
I am so glad people are finally starting to stand up to this kind of crap. Good for the Expo peeps!
Cthulhu’s Intern, thanks for that, I just did a quick post on it. I’ll happily give you credit in the post for bringing it to my attention if you’d like.
Sure. Thanks.
The honey badger is basically the Eastern Hemisphere counterpart of the skunk.
I definitely believe this. Women are always calling themselves females and obsessively share their fetishes in such a way that makes other people uncomfortable.
David, I just came across this article on a guy named Sargon of Akkad and Thunderfoot- GamerGoobers who make youtube videos for profit, usually speaking out against the evils of feminism. Thought you might be interested, if you didn’t already know. Sadly, I heard of these guys because my bf follows them on twitter and youtube and because my misogynist radar started going off on crazy, I decided to look into them further. So upset he’s looking at and listening to this kind of hate mongering!!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/17/1370280/-Sargon-of-Akkad-and-Thunderf00t-Gamergate-s-Well-Paid-Talking-Heads#
From the HB’s crowdfunding campaign:
Is it possible to die from irony exposure? Because I think that might be happening to me.
Letting creative communities create (unless they create stuff we don’t like or that we assume has an AGENDA); consumers consume what they want (as long as they don’t ask for things we don’t like bc AGENDA SJW OMG); and gamers get down to the business of vidya without being judged (just quit complaining about sexism or racism or other isms AGENDA!!!1eleventy and PLAY without THINKING about it JEEZ)
They went to the con under false pretenses, with an agenda. At this point, the shenanigans are getting predictable and boring. Le sigh.
I dread to think what “making the world less safe” means… Even if they just mean they’re going to put out more radio episodes, or be obnoxious at conventions, the statement really sounds like a threat.
Also, they apparently interrupted a panel to talk about body diversity amongst male comic-book characters, but they got into the Expo through Tieman’s comic, which seems to predominently feature ripped dudes and skinny women.
Oh and apparently
Hmmm, like those mythical “fake” geek girls that every territorial nerd likes to complain is ruining the culture?
They won’t use this episode to think and realise that the Expo organisers’ decision actually reflects the majority opinion towards anti-progressives as a whole. They won’t twig that they’re not welcome, and that most people don’t want or need their “activism”. They’ll throw a big tantrum and claim they’re being victimised instead. Rather hypocritically.
I am so sorry for using the c-word in my last post, guys! I’ll be more careful in the future.
Just curious if this Sargon of Akkad douche was on the radar before? He seems like a pretty big player in the “let’s keep GG alive, dudebros” world. I browsed through his twitter page (I don’t use twitter myself) and it’s FULL of misogyny and eeeevil SJW talk. Blah.
They “bullied” the women out, in the link one even said they were brutalizing women…
And they accuse others of claiming victim hood? Laugh my fucking arse off
I’m with Tracy: My Irony Radar® is going off loud and clear.
Sure, wanting to let people make and play their games how they want is all well and good (and this is a point which feminists can agree with you on!), but let’s face it: it’s not an extremist position. It’s neutral.
The position you currently occupy, Badgers, actually is extremist (when you want to admit that you just don’t want what you’re about to say you want).
And yet they’re harassing Zoe Quinn and Brianna Wu, who make games for a living that just so happen to have stuff feminists and “Ess-Jay-Dubbas” like in them.
What happened to just letting creative communities create what they want without anyone pushing their “agendas” into it? Oh, wait, I forgot. It’s totes okay when Goobers do it.
Unless we want games with more legitimate female/trans/queer/people of color in them, or we want communities that are safer for gamers who fall under these groups to participate in, or we want people to stop being harassed.
Then why are you being Judgy McJudgerson about me wanting to play more varieties of games? Why are you peeps hating on what I would want in/to play in a game?
Oh, I know. You just want more of the games you like, and fuck everyone else who may not like them or would want something different.
Though, funny thing: I don’t recall anyone saying that you still couldn’t have your Law-breaking simulators or BattleCallofWarDuty 6’s. We would just like more games that are for more people than the stereotypical gamer dudebro (White, cishet, twenties to thirties, middle to upper class).
You’ll still get your games, and they’ll be considered art! But, they’d (still) be critiqued as art, and thus, you’ll have to hear people say mean things about the games you like that you may not agree with.
Poor thing. [/eyeroll]
@Paradoxical intention-Word! I also love how they assume the status quo is not rife with an agenda. Eyes rolling along with you.
To no one in particular.
If one had dedicated decades to all the above related geekery, then why the need to craft a persona and infiltrate said communities? They don’t even pay attention to what they say themselves. Ah but it is us ladies who are the fakers.