Ah ha ha ha ha ha! The Sarkeesian Effect duo have split up again! It’s a Fourth of July Miracle!
So today, a furious Jordan Owen put out a video denouncing his now ex-partner Davis Aurini. Why? Because Aurini is demanding another $15,000 to edit the “film” and has set up a fundraiser without Owen in order to raise it.
According to Owen, Aurini has been “dicking around” with the footage for months in hopes of squeezing more money out of the project’s backers. Owen is having none of it, and is telling the backers not to give Aurini another cent, saying that he (Owen) will be editing the footage himself and putting out the film on schedule.
Also, the alleged “big reveal” that was going to come out in the “film?” According to Owen, Aurini decided based on watching one of Sarkeesian’s videos that she had been raped by her father, and was evidently shopping around to find a therapist who would agree to say as much on camera. Aurini’s completely unqualified internet diagnosis: that was their big reveal.
Just watch the video. It’s delicious.
And here, below, is Aurini’s fundraising video, which is what Owen is reacting to. Aurini’s unctuous, earnest tone is especially hilarious in the wake of Owen’s denunciations. Also his repeated references to “we,” as if Owen is on board with him.
At one point he assures would-be backers that he’s “streamlined” his life so he can work on the editing of The Sarkeesian Effect full-time. “As well as writing and doing Youtube videos, which I regularly do,” he adds. “And the podcast.”
Also he needs to do more filming.
He’s evidently hoping to keep the gravy train going until September.
Apparently he’s been so busy with the full-time editing (and writing and doing Youtube videos, which he regularly does, and the podcast) that he’s forgotten to shave his head.
And he seems to have fired his skull.
H/T — @srhbutts
For some reason, I think he looks like an oatmeal cookie.
If you’re gonna have this much internal strife while doing a project, you may want to keep it private when you are appealing the public for money. This is less than impressive and totally unprofessional. Imagine if 2 feminists were having this sort of repetitive fallout. It would be “they’re so emotional and not cut out for serious business!”
The Sarkeesian Effect has its own entry on IMDB
What are the “M.J.” in Aurini’s name, I wonder?
Also, that page has been up since October. Why weren’t we inform sooner? HMMM?
@Tracy,
a hairy oatmeal cookie?
I find it interesting that the only people (besides Owen and Aurini) credited in the cast are Jack Thompson and Anita herself. I’m not familiar with film making, but wouldn’t they need some kind of consent from her to list her in the cast? I sure as hell don’t think she wants to be included.
@Kirbywarp – Bravo! A dramatic reading of your post is better than anything those 2 asshats will ever create.
@Cerberus – thank you for that post. Their tantrum does seem more understandable from that angle. It is still childish as hell but that makes more sense than anything I have come up with since this nonsense started.
OT: I was reading a post that Leigh Alexander when describing people who play games as players, or an audience, rather than gamers on Offworld. I feel really conflicted about this. She says it is more inclusive that way, and I have no reason to disbelieve her. However, as a woman who has been gaming for decades and fought to be considered a gamer, I feel like that erases my experience. Do any other women feel that way?
@Pita
Although I absolutely love shu takumi’s work and I think the ace attorney has some of the best characters in all of gaming, but Maya Fey is a damsel in distress and mia fey is also overly sexualized. It’s impossible to deny that.
Pearl, on the other hand, is an amazing and complex character. And I would argue that Athena Cykes is one of the best female characters in video games.
@Kestrel
Considering “gamer” is a gender-neutral term used to describe people who play games, there shouldn’t be the need of any other word to describe us. “Players” are for baseball and football, “audience” is for someone who watches, “gamers” is a term for people who play games, whether video games or table top or whatever. It is NOT a term we will let some assholes take from us for think we’re not gamers because we’re women or play “casual” games or whatever. Saying that the term “player” is more inclusive is just letting those assholes who think we aren’t gamers win.
So fuck that shit. And fuck her for thinking that. I am a fucking woman, and I fucking game so I’m a fucking gamer. Fuck anyone who thinks otherwise, even with good intentions.
I’m tired of people giving up on things because they aren’t “inclusive”. MAKE it fucking inclusive then! Don’t let people push you out of shit for nothing! Scream what you are from the hilltops and don’t let anyone tell you anything different!
*flips tables*
I feel like I’m being dramatic, but, fuck man. IDK, maybe it’s because I’m in a Dragon Age kick playing as a Dalish. I’m tired of fucking shemlens shitting in the punch bowl.
I’LL BE AS DRAMATIC AS I WANT!
*flips tables, again, spilling punch everywhere*
@Pandapool: how typical for the knife-ears to make a big scene about inclusion. The maker will see your kind eradicated sooner rather than later.
(Yes, I’ve just finished playing Dragon Age II. I’m quick, ain’t I?)
On topic: Owen seems ALMOST like he’s not an asshole. He’s talking like he’s a rational, caring human being. Then you remember the film he’s producing…
@Lordcrowstaff
http://i.imgur.com/fHiQhL3.gif
(Just you wait until I find an elf gif. And elf MAGE gif. That’ll teacha…)
@ Kestrel and Pandapool
I don’t play computer games so forgive me if I’m missing something here, but why is ‘gamer’ such an issue? Is it not just a term for people who play computer games? If so, then presumably anyone who plays the games is a gamer by definition?
I don’t understand why
(a) it’s something people can deny anyone (it’s not like there’s an exam presumably?)
(b) why it’s so important to be identified as such?
To me it’s like debating whether someone is a ‘hiker’ or something (Do you go on hikes? Yes. Then you’re a hiker)
What am I missing here?
Maybe someone can help me understand some things.
What exactly is the subreddit /againstmensrights?
Because I read the link in one of David’s articles and Sarkeesian was the topic. I saw like like maybe one person there defend her. I saw someone that sounded like an MRA in his comment and I wondered if it was actually a MRA sub thingy of some type, but then I saw several people that suggested they were feminists in their comments saying stuff like ‘even the rest of us hate her’ so I wondered if Sarkeesian actually did something terrible that I hadn’t heard about. THEN I saw someone respond to the one person that tried to defend her with “she gets harassed because she deserves it”(!! WTF?!)
So now I just. What?
I thought she was just a woman who talked about games and feminism. Even if she hasn’t ‘played’ the games, why is her critiqueing warrant so much hate?
@Robertshaw
It’s a petty HS mentality, but people do it with everything (do you even lift, bro?)
The notion that you’re more whatever than they are somehow makes you feel superior.
I used to do this before I knew about feminism. It was a sort of defense I guess, being a woman. I would use how “gamer” I was to gain a leg up in anything that might ever remotely involve other women especially, but also to put down guys who dare challenge wether I was a “real” gamer or not, and to make my opinions as a woman seem more valid -.-
Sorry if that doesn’t make sense, it’s hard to explain.
@Alan
We’re on a topic about The Sarkeesian Effect on a feminist website. A feminist website that has had articles on GamerGate. Which is a movement trying to keep gaming as white and catering to cishetro men as possible.
http://www.reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/thinking.gif
Also, @Lordcrowstaff
http://38.media.tumblr.com/b28a255833aaaa5a0533aed297f4888e/tumblr_nm2oy24zgt1qiotbqo7_r1_250.gif
Bam. Solas doesn’t like your ‘tude or tea.
@Cerberus and katz
Seconded and thirded on everything. It pisses me off so much how biased people are in their hatred.
Nostalgia Chick makes a video on sexism in cartoons, pointing out the smurfette principles, distaff counter-parts and what not. And that’s totally fine.
Anita Sarkeesian makes a video on sexism in video games, pointing out distaff counterparts, [i] referencing N-Chick’s original video for a definition of the smurfette principle[/i] and suddenly she’s a liar, scammer, con artist.
It’s like these idiots believe that video games should be immune from criticism because otherwise it may hurt their feels. They can’t possible imagine being capable of liking something while still being aware of it’s flaws.
They’ve got the morality of a toddler: Everything in their world has to be either ‘good’ or ‘bad’. So if video games are sexist, they automatically have to be taken out of the ‘good’ box and go in the ‘bad’ box. This causes them to throw a temper tantrum.
Lam: As far as I can tell, every subreddit eventually turns into a men’s rights site. If that happened to r/againstmensrights, it wouldn’t be particularly more ironic than it happening to r/feminism.
@Cerberus:
Well said. Thank you. I can’t decide whether to post a “holds up lighter” gif or a “mic drop” gif in response to that epic, beautiful thing you wrote, so please pick the one you like best and assume I posted it.
@Alan Robertshaw: “I don’t play computer games so forgive me if I’m missing something here, but why is ‘gamer’ such an issue? Is it not just a term for people who play computer games?…”
It’s actually a little more complicated than that. There are multiple different definitions of Gamer.
1.) Someone who plays games. This would include board games. This is an uncommon definition.
2.) Someone who plays video games. This would include my parents, who owns half-a-dozen casual games on steam.
3.) Someone who is a hardcore player of video games. This would be equivalent to cinephile for movies.
Since soooo many people play at least some video games (200,000,000 in the United States alone and 2,000,000,000 worldwide) the second definition of gamer is a relative meaningless term. At least in my opinion it is.
Good news, fellas! You’re BOTH crap! (And so’s Thunderfart, just for good measure!)
And speaking of crap:
Yup, that’s about the size of it.
(Clearly, I am not going to get past the fart noises and poop jokes today. Oh well.)
@ Lam and Pandapool
Cheers for that. I still don’t quite get where there can be any controversy about who’s a gamer though [and I appear to have misunderstood the gamergate thing; I thought is was just a bunch of blokes arguing that harassment was a legitimate form of comment on media issues].
I’m sort of familiar with the ‘do you even lift?’ mentality; but that (to me) seems more about what’s the best fitness option rather than a test of identity. I might be missing something there as well I suppose.
But surely gaming is just gaming? Or are they trying to argue you’re only a gamer if you play one particular type of game or something? But that to me is like saying ‘cyclist’ only applies if you ride a drop handlebar bike or something; it’s demonstrably untrue, just by definition. You’re a cyclist if you ride (any type of) bikes and you’re a game if you play (any type of) games.
Leigh Alexander wrote an article about the “Death of the Gamer”, which was pretty much making the point that pretty much everyone plays some form of video game, nowadays, and that “game culture” is embarrassing and not even really a culture, just a bunch of people getting mad over the internet.
I personally disagree with the second bit. I feel there is a game culture, but I do somewhat agree with the first.
So many people play games now, that it does seem silly to want to call yourself a “gamer”, since you don’t call yourself a “movier” or a “booker”, however, I still feel like it’s a good name for someone who’s really into it, like a “film lover” or a “bookworm”, and that’s just down to how you personally feel about it. Do you feel like you love books or movies or games a lot? Do you want to be described by this word used for people who really like those things? Alright.
To your points:
a) There isn’t an exam, but many Goobers would like there to be one, and they do try to issue their own personal “test” whenever someone comes along with an opinion they don’t personally agree with. They just want the ability to say “You don’t belong here because you don’t agree with me/you’re a girl/I just don’t like you!” They want to feel like the arbiters of gaming, and that feeling is there for a lot of “nerdy” culture, especially in comic books.
b) To the Goobers, it’s an important facet of their personalities. However, what they don’t realize is that they’ve made it most if not all of their personality. They feel like if they lose it somehow, they’ll lose everything that makes them themselves.
While the rest of us can feel like it’s okay to share because we have other interests outside of gaming, and we understand that allowing more people in with different opinions and worldviews is good for gaming as a whole, Goobers are clinging to their nostalgia of the “Boys’ Club” with what can only be described as a death grip, not realizing that the games they love so much are still going to be there. No one’s going to retcon history and take Call of Duty away from them, no one’s going to say that there won’t be more shooters made in the future, but trying to convince them of that might as well be pulling teeth.
Sorry if this is word salad, I haven’t eaten yet, and I need to get on that. : P
@katz
Hah! I’m so glad I don’t reddit.
@ CS and Paradoxical
Ah, starting to make a bit more sense now. So it’s like how anyone who rides a motorbike can be a motorcyclist but only someone who lives and breathes the thing (or owns a Harley) can be a ‘biker’ (as opposed to someone who just uses a bike during the week to commute to work)?
Although they seem to be saying even a woman who lives and breathes bikes can’t be a biker; and certainly no black blokes?
Wow, this is like the General Synod and women vicars!
I’ll check out that article; cheers.
@Lam
/r/againstmensrights is basically an anti-MRA subreddit. They usually focus on the men’s rights subreddit but will occasionally include sites like A Voice For Men. AFAIK, they are feminists.