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.
Oh, and what’s even better about that statement I linked is that says that Kotaku already had an ethics policy covering giving good reviews for bribes and the like.
Oh dear. This thread has a gamergater posting honey badger videos and trying to pull the “actually it’s about ethics in games journalism” bit as if anyone buys that anymore. And as a bonus, Ken is sealioning again.
I think it’s time for bed!
he shows the evidence in the video. from about 19 minutes in, to 21 minutes in is where he shows the proof
Why can’t you show us the proof then, Venny? Why do I need to watch that video and give the guy more views?
But, to humor you, I did watch the video where you described. All it is is fucking posturing. He’s just stating coincidence after coincidence as if it’s some sort of proof, all while making some vague references to the mafia like it means something.
As if Leigh Alexander left Gamasutra because she was an evil villain, rather than the fact that, y’know, Gators harassed the shit out of her.
Oh, and why is Offworld less popular than Gamasutra? Because it’s new! It was literally announced LAST MONTH.
As usual, Gators got jack and shit beyond their conspiracy theories.
@venny:
No it doesn’t.
Bla bla bla Quinn Bla Bla Bla Zoe Bla Bla Bla Congressional Hearing Bla Bla Bla Harassment Bla Bla Bla Sarkeesian Bla Bla Bla Harassment Bla Bla Bla…
I like Argon’s enunciation, but you can’t link his videos without telling me where to go in the video. He has this massive problem making his videos relate to their titles, so when you just pick one at random, what happens is that the argument you think you’re making isn’t the argument you end up making.
So, for instance, this 23 minute slogfest is…. not about the victories of gamergate or… something. It’s about…. something. I don’t know. Eerrugh.
Okay wait shit he does mention several sites updated their ethics policies towards the very end, after spending 23 minutes going “blargh blargh SJW ZOE QUINN HARASSMENT BLARGH”. And this proves your argument that? A site update their ethics standard so its okay for the honey badger brigade to annoy people at a panel?
I’m not seeing the logical connection there.
he showed screen shots from various games websites with their statements about their new updated ethics policies which all happened after gamer gate. he also showed examples of anti gamer gate writers who resigned from senior jobs at popular websites who are now working for smaller websites which sounds suspiciously like they were FIRED
Ken L.
Criticism is an opinion. It’s basically telling whoever what you think of whatever. Creative works are not some sacred thing beyond reproach or criticism. Everybody is going to have an opinion. And every person who creates has the right to ignore or listen to the criticism. The question is what the creator wants. Are they doing it for the sake of creation, or are they doing it because they want people to like it. If the former, they’ll ignore all criticism and do what they want. If they want the latter, they’ll listen and decide if they feel whatever should be changed. This will be based on who they want to like it. If they wrote something that one group loved, but another pointed out it was horribly racist. If they then notice the racism, they’d decide if they want to keep on that path, or try to get non-racists to like it. The decision is ultimately theirs (this includes all levels of the creation process with video games for instance).
There is no force. No force at all. For example, Anita is giving her opinion of how she sees the games in the industry treating female characters. They can analyze it and listen and change things, or not. It depends on if they want to.
Gamer Gate is more about trying to eliminate social critiques. Preventing critiques is not the same as critiquing. They harass and threaten those that critique. The idea is that they like the way things are, which is fine. But they are convinced it’s some kind of neutral state, and that critiques are contaminating the creators’ minds. They want to keep creation “pure”. But they don’t realize is that creators are just as “sullied” by past games, the idea that “sex sells” and all sorts of opinions that’s been put forth throughout gaming history. That all “contaminates” creation just as much as feminist critique does. But it’s always up to the creator. If they choose to change something after hearing critiques, it’s rather insulting to think they are mindlessly doing it without thinking. Believing that critiques “force” them to do anything is very disrespectful to the creators.
@fibanachi
how do you know they annoyed anybody at a panel, Alison had a very pleasant discussion, i posted the proof of it. it was some excellent constructive conversation
venny:
Well Brittney Le Blanc said:
Seems like they annoyed her. Your turn.
I choose to believe Alison was very pleasant and it was a very pleasant discussion that the panel holders just happened to find annoying and disrespectful. Since I assume the people who chaired the panel tend to know what happened at the panel they were chairing, it seems to come out at “Standards changed and people were fired so its okay for Alison to be pleasantly annoying at a panel”.
https://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/2015/04/17/rape-joke-loving-honey-badgers-booted-from-calgaryexpo-highly-ironic-tweets-ensue/comment-page-1/#comment-743262
I’m still not seeing your point, sorry?
Not that this matters, really, I don’t care, but could you take 5 minutes to tell me what your point is? I’m curious and want to know. Or are you just here to go “No, actually it’s…”? Because that’s fine too!
Nither you nor any of your precious videos have any proof they were fired, you insufferable twit.
You’re basing all of this, ALL of it, on pure. Fucking. Speculation.
“Oh, they left right after this happened!” So. Fucking. What? That proves NOTHING. Unless you have hard proof (like an admission from Leigh Alexander or from someone else), all you’re doing is speculating. That’s not evidence, it doesn’t mean you’re right, and it’s not infallible.
For all you know, Leigh Alexander and several other anti-GamerGate writers left either due to harassment from Gators, or because (and I know this is the case with Jim Sterling) they had some ethical disagreements with their employers and left of their own volition to go start their own projects. Alexander announced Offworld, and Jim Sterling started his own website to continue the show he had on The Escapist, as well as do podcasts and game reviews.
Good to know you’re not reading any of my posts then. I posted on the previous page that one of the panelists, Brittney Le Blanc, had done an interview with The Mary Sue after the incident, and she said they were there to derail the panel and were extremely disrespectful.
They may have coated their goals with “polite” conversation, and the panelists may have kept going because they didn’t want to disappoint the rest of the audience, but the panelists still came out to say that they were extremely disrespectful.
On top of that, the Honey Badgers were asked by the organizers of CalgaryExpo to leave. That means someone had enough of a problem with them to get the organizers and upper management involved, and management agreed that the Honey Badgers were breaking the rules and being disrespectful.
Are you going to keep insisting you’re right and get yourself banned for your tedious trolling or what?
So, at 19 minutes in, the guy brags that #gamergate was behind Leigh Alexander (this Leigh Alexander) into moving from Gamasutra to a site called “Offworld.” They totally drover out of a popular site! Success!!!
Except, that new site (anounced about a month ago, pretty much after #gamergate had died down, a few days after Davis and Jordan’s little breakup/makeup) is designed to “be a space where we publish writing from women and other voices that games have marginalized; it’ll be a space where we’re allowed to enjoy diverse games and culture again, instead of only ever being invited to reveal our wounds or perform as activist novelties.”
So, basically she’s got a new project in the works doing everything #gamergate hates, with quite a bit of support. Success?
At 20 minutes in, the guy tlaks about various websites updating their disclosure policies. Hmm, ok, credit where credit is due, these did occur after the endless fart that was gamergate made enough stink about something that did apparently deserve to be addressed.
Woohoo.
Any movement can claim victory for something if they spray enough bullshit everywhere. If they claim a noble-sounding cause, some subset of the group will find something noble to pursue and get it done. But keep in mind the accusations gamergate made; they promised to expose massive corruption across the industry, shining light on the evil SJWs infesting our games. They got a couple websites to be clearer about their policies. Suc… cess?
Plus they drove a bunch of women out of the industry, terrorizing others to the point of silence on social media. And they became a symbol of a modern, rabid hate group born out of nothing.
Excuse me for not being quite as excited over the trivial stuff.
Tedious troll is tedious, and if I’d clicked on all of the crap trolly has posted, I would have wasted like 3 hours of my life. At the US minimum wage, that would be more than $20 worth of my time. If just 10 Mammotheers watched them all, that would be almost $220 that trolly cost the commentariat in order to say a whole lot of nothing.
Just putting that into perspective.
Wow… I can’t even with all the spelling and grammar what went on in that post. Oi…
@fibinachi
“could you take 5 minutes to tell me what your point is? I’m curious and want to know.”
well i started off responding to somebody saying that they infiltrated the conference and got in under false pretences which i dont believe is true, which i said. I also responded to someone saying that gamergate never wanted to make any changes just stop changes which i also disagreed with and i posted up some proof of some changes made thanks to gamergate.
I also think it was sad for them to be kicked out seeing as they had spent a lot of money and travelled a long way to get there and were all very excited about the experience. I also believe Karen when she said they wanted to kick em out the day before but were looking for an excuse
Maybe if they hadn’t registered their booth under false pretenses and proceeded to derail a panel, they could have stayed then, hmm? CalgaryExpo’s rules do state that if you break the rules, you get tossed out, and you don’t get a refund.
And you can believe whatever you want, sugar cube, but the facts are against you on this one. Your “proof” is just wild speculation, and all your beliefs have been pretty handily disagreed with by other commenters, who backed their shit up with far more credible resources than the Honey Badgers themselves (who are obviously biased) and a YouTuber who speculates that people got fired because of GamerGate, when, in reality, they could have left for a number of reasons.
Now, do us all a favor and flounce and stick it. You’re tedious and boring.
The only honey badgers I want to see around here personally are Hufflepuffs.
Of course you do, venny, of course you do.
*pat pat*
Odds are that if they didn’t bother making asses of themselves during the panel convo, the organization wouldn’t have even known (and/or cared) that they attended. It’s more likely that the Honey Badgers wanted to be kicked out, given their confrontational attitude, and found an excuse.
but they didn’t register the booth under false pretences. they were given badges that said “honeybadgers” Karen said that Alison used the email address for her comic website when she registered because she didn’t think it would be a problem but that afterwards the organisers said that she did it to fool them and that they would never have let the honeybadgers have a spot there.
Do you think they were hoping to get kicked out so they could drum up some publicity for themselves?
Seems to have worked with you.
there is no evidence of them breaking the rules. Alison had a very pleasant and friendly panel exchange with the feminists.
I listened to the recording you posted, and I don’t get the impression that the two Honey Badgers in attendance (according to AVFM, Alison Tieman and Sage Gerard) are there to do anything but heckle. That’s against the con’s rules, but even if it were permitted, it’s effing rude.
From about five minutes in you can hear them snickering and muttering into the recorder to point out what they see as evidence of man-hating (for example, when the panelists talk about how they dislike male fans challenging their nerd credentials). At about 18 minutes in, the panelists are sharing stories of being harassed by GamerGaters and MRAs. One panelist says, “When did it become dirty for women to be into these things?” That’s when Tieman stands up and says, “Would you like us to field that question?”
The ensuing conversation is polite, but it’s not much of an exchange. Mostly, Tieman keeps repeating that she’s opposed to feminism because it defines women as victims, and the panelists keep saying that’s not what feminism is about and bringing up constructive feminist issues. They agree with her on many points, which only seems to fluster her.
Tieman and Gerard interrupt the panel a few times but seem to lose interest when it becomes clear that no one wants to argue over the validity of feminism. The panel moves on to other diversity issues in comics, then to recommending favorite titles, and the Honey Badgers go back to talking to each other. They start wanting to leave at the half-hour point. Near the end of the hour, Tieman complains that the panel has been “dull as hell,” and Gerard agrees. It’s hard not to get the impression that they came to pick a fight and are disappointed and bored when none ensues.
After the panel, Tieman immediately recorded a YouTube video calling the panel a group of whiners “donning the ball gowns of their victimhood.” That’s not a fair characterization (I guess… I admit I’m not sure what it means), and in fact the panelists seemed confused by Tieman’s repeated attempts to turn the conversation to victimhood. She could only have gotten that impression if she’d ignored what was actually said in favor of listening to the imaginary feminists in her head.
Is that even a question? The big-name MRAs do shit like this all the time. Then turn around and scream about “SJW false flags,” because they feed off projection like plants feed off sunlight.
Proof or shut up about it, venny.
Show us the badges that say “Honey Badgers”, not just go “B-but Karen said…!”. No one here believes a word of what Karen says. She’s been known to twist the truth and lie about things before to better suit her narrative. All the Honey Badgers have. If you want to convince us, show us some goddamned physical evidence instead of just parroting what Karen said. She’s not trustworthy here.
Why use the webcomic email if they wanted to promote the Honey Badgers? Why not just straight up use the Honey Badger’s email? Why would you do that unless you deliberately wanted to make it look like you weren’t there to promote that group in particular?
You said it yourself: “the organizers said […] that they would never have let the Honey Badgers have a spot there”. So, they used an email they knew the organizers wouldn’t recognize and told them they were there to promote one of their member’s webcomics.
That’s exactly what “false pretenses” means!
And, again, even if they weren’t there under false pretenses, they deliberately disrupted and de-railed a panel, heckling the panelists.
That goes against CalgaryExpo’s rules, as I said earlier.
Pink Ribbon Scars and masculine rape fingers… Maybe the person who uses those words should meet my wife, a victim of childhood sexual abuse and stage 3c breast cancer with mastectomy scars. That person could talk to my wife to find out what it’s like to live the dream