Last night was the grand premiere of The Sarkeesian Effect (Team Jordan Owen Edition), and the response from critics and audience members alike has been overwhelming!
That video of crickets has gotten more than 3,344,825 views on Youtube. That’s 371,647 times the number of people who apparently showed up at the Sarkeesian Effect premiere/#GamerGate Meetup at the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema in Atlanta last night.
Yep. According to the organizer of the #GamerGate meetup, only nine people showed. Including the director.
@mundanematt @jordanowen42 But yeah, including me, Jordan, and my bf, only 9 people showed up.
— Artist Lisa M (@ArtistLisaM) August 1, 2015
Meanwhile, on Reddit’s Kotaku In Action subreddit, one of the main #GamerGate hubs, the excitement was palpable.
Even Jordan Owen — the director of this incarnation of the Sarkeesian Effect — was uncharacteristically quiet; his reports from the premiere consisted mainly of photos of the screen, evidently his attempt to prove to the critics that, yes, the film exists.
https://twitter.com/jordanowen42/status/627336679112736769
https://twitter.com/jordanowen42/status/627343425369702400
https://twitter.com/jordanowen42/status/627350752097341440
Those last two pics seem to suggest that the insidious “Sarkeesian Effect” that gave the film its title is Ms. Sarkeesian’s uncanny ability to cause her critics to wear plaid shirts vaguely similar to her own signature look.
Online, the only people excited about the event that I could find were an assortment of popcorn-munching critics of #GamerGate. And they were mostly excited about the discovery of the official Sarkeesian Effect website.
Sorry, I meant to say the discovery of ANOTHER official Sarkeesian Effect website.
You may vaguely remember the official website, unveiled several months back, an amateurish unfinished job, with crappy graphics; the links on the front page to the film’s trailer, press coverage, Sarkeesian Effect wallpapers (!), and a list of theaters showing the film (!!) all led to this page:
And they still do.
Owen says that this unfinished mess of a website is still the official Sarkeesian Effect website. But now it’s been joined by a second unfinished mess of a website that also seems to be staking a claim as the official Sarkeesian Effect website. It’s not clear if this new site is the handiwork of Davis Aurini, or if Owen hired someone to put it together and just forgot about it.
Weirdly, this last option seems the most probable. Given that the site was promoting the premiere last night — a premiere of Owen’s version of the film, which Aurini had disavowed in advance — it seems unlikely that Aurini had anything to do with it.
While a teensy bit slicker than the original, the new site isn’t quite ready for public consumption. Here, for example, are the bios of some of the famous NAMES interviewed in the film.
Yes, that’s right: Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s …
Also, Karen Straughan — the blabby FeMRA videoblogger and “Honey Badger” — is actually three women sitting next to each other.
Alas, the now-feuding “filmmakers” behind the “film” don’t fare any better themselves. In addition to giving both of them the Lorem treatment, whoever made the site also managed to misspell Aurini’s last name.
Clearly, from now on, Davis Aurini will be known as Davis-a-rooni.
Even the site’s Quick FAQs section has an impressive Lorem ratio.
And, yes, it is true that FILM starring NAME, NAME and NAME, has been featured on MEDIA.
This site, as, er, wildly optimistic about the commercial prospects of The Sarkeesian Effect as the old site, also includes a link to theaters showing the film. But instead of leading to a “Coming Soon” page, the new site links instead to … a blank page on Google Docs.
I can only hope that the film itself — presumably headed ultimately for a YouTube release — lives up to this amazing website.
Sorry. I mean BOTH films live up to BOTH websites.
H/T — @tortoiseontour, who alerted me to the website and pointed out the misspelling of Aurini’s name.
The popcorn-eating gif made me chortle. And then this:
But see, they’re not TOTALLY influenced yet because they aren’t wearing hoop earrings! Everyone knows that Sarkeesian’s evil power comes from her earrings!
…Seriously, I saw a YouTube video by someone – Thunderf00t, maybe? – claiming that Anita Sarkeesian is a hypocrite for pointing out misogyny in the media while wearing feminine things like earrings and makeup. Because, yeah, that totally makes sense! (/sarcasm)
EOI-“Seriously, I saw a YouTube video by someone – Thunderf00t, maybe? – claiming that Anita Sarkeesian is a hypocrite for pointing out misogyny in the media while wearing feminine things like earrings and makeup. Because, yeah, that totally makes sense! (/sarcasm)”
What?!?! That makes zero sense. Oh the lolz. What has wearing makeup and earings got to do with her argument that women in video games lack agency, are often killed in horrible ways, beaten and degraded, are often kidnapped and held hostage because the developers go for the quick and easy plot device? There is no connection what so ever!
I’m not at all surprised someone thinks wearing earrings undermines a feminist argument.
I remember back in the 70s someone was astonished that there were articles about skin care in Ms. Magazine. Apparently he didn’t think feminists washed their faces.
I have to say, I always read his name as Aroony.
@epitome of incomprehensibility,
Yeah, all his videos are horrible. He even used the argument that getting mad at the damsel in distress trope is calling firefighters and police sexist… Basically he took calling out Double Dragon for using the trope as calling the brothers from the game sexist… So if those guys are sexist for rescuing a loved one, then how sexist must firemen be for rescuing people in fires?
misseb47
They used that argument against the umm… Ms Male Character episode. Basically because she was saying that usually the way the game creators show a character is female is by simply putting a bow on her head, or makeup, or other cultural gender signifiers, and this is usually their only characteristic. They, however see this as “blah blah make up baaaad raar” so call her a hypocritical for wearing makeup and earrings.
OMG it’s on you tube! Actually it’s kind of epic, I’m shocked at how Jordan was able to turn this around in such a short time.
@misseb47 @Mari – Sorry, I attributed wrongly; the vid I was thinking of wasn’t by Thunderf00t (though he has a crap-ton of videos about her, which is a little disturbing) but by someone called IWALVG at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWtJpHys_xA
I wouldn’t recommend watching the whole thing. It’s pretty dull, and rehashes old discredited complaints. His criticism of Sarkeesian for looking feminine starts at 2:19. Never mind that she was talking about a trend in the portrayal of fictional characters and that she’s a real-life individual. Point: missed!
(Oh, yes, please feel free to call me eoi, e_o_i or EOI. I picked this name because I use it on another website and I like the way it sounds, but it’s a pain in the ass to type if there’s no automatic prompt.)
@Tessa:
Yes, thanks. Exactly!
And the gators still call Anita a con artist.
I can’t believe I’m seeing this for the first time. I present “The Ballad of Bathrobe Man and Skull Boy”:
@Miss Andry
WHAT DID YOU POST
Something that’s being added straight to my MISANDRY!!!1 playlist of giggles, that’s one.
“That’s one”? That’s what, even. I’m not even going to guess how that happened.
‘Everyone’s a hero in the stories that they tell, and the monologues get longer on the road to hell.’ Nice.
epitome of incomprehensibility-The video version of tl:dr. And yes, he has completely missed the point. Lol!
“(Oh, yes, please feel free to call me eoi, e_o_i or EOI. I picked this name because I use it on another website and I like the way it sounds, but it’s a pain in the ass to type if there’s no automatic prompt.)”
Thanks. I was using my phone at the time and copying more than one item with that thing is a struggle.
Tessa-“They used that argument against the umm… Ms Male Character episode. Basically because she was saying that usually the way the game creators show a character is female is by simply putting a bow on her head, or makeup, or other cultural gender signifiers, and this is usually their only characteristic.”
Oh dear! That is still quite the leap. Seriously , there lines of reasoning is: Anita thinks that there should be more to signify female characters than make up and other cultural gender signifiers+wears some make up and earrings=total hypocrite. How the hell did they reach that conclusion?
“They, however see this as “blah blah make up baaaad raar” so call her a hypocritical for wearing makeup and earrings.””
Ah! That’s how! They go to extraordinary lengths to excuse their desire to silence her or ruin her reputation that they pull anything out of their arse, even something as innocuous as wearing a little makeup, to ‘prove’ what a ‘hypocrite’ she is. All It proves is how moronic these people are. What losers!
@Pandapool
The best thing I’ve heard all day.
The press articles on the site are worth reading. Because they are all about solar powered cars and don’t mention the movie at all. Even the title reads “All Articles On Solar Roadways” with – almost heartbreakingly – “to be changed” in hilariously small writing.
I almost feel sorry for bathtub man, knowing he didn’t even get a car out of the deal.
In my experience they don’t even bring up the backlash or that she exceeded her goal. They talk like she asked for the amount of money she got and pretend that she’s not living up to the promises she made. And then there is a lot of whining about Hitman.
@ Miss Andry,
that song is fantastic, thanks for posting it. I love the line about them strangling each other with usb cables and falling over a cliff. If only the real documentary could be that exciting.
Oh, what a lovely day! If the sun were over the yard-arm, I’d be raising a glass of Frothy Freeze Peach (Archers, lemonade, crushed ice) to toast the “success” of the “movie”.
How can we be sure that’s not a herd of cats in a three-women-on-a-sofa suit?
Well no surprise here, crickets are smarter than that lot anyway.
Karen Straughan talks enough for three people or maybe she hires a ready-made audience.
I want to see Dan Olsen do a comment track on this. Dude did good on the “rough draft”, now let’s see him on the finished product.
Given the strong delusions of grandeur these guys seem to have, I kind of don’t feel good about making fun of their failure or at the very least, taking joy from that. I don’t know. It almost feels like punching down, in a weird way. I mean, yeah, they can obviously be categorized as jerks, to but it lightly given many of their actions and statements. But 9 people? Really? How big was the theater? What’s the seating capacity there? 50? 100? More?
It’s so weird, too because there were all these people supporting them and shouting from the rooftops along with them about the “Anita SHARKeesian Monster” and how this film was so important and was going to “change the world” (didin’t Aurini say as much in one of their campaign videos?) and none of them could be bothered to show up? It makes me think of Eric Cartman from South Park, sitting alone at his birthday party, surrounded by stuffed animals, pretending they’re telling him how smart and cool he is.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not praising with faint damnation here. These guys, much like Eric Cartman need a wake up call to just how awful they’re treating others. However, also like Eric Cartman, some people just can’t be helped. Some people just lack empathy or compassion. So, I’m afraid I’m just not in the mood for popcorn. These guys don’t make me hungry, they make me depressed because they’re just so lame and clueless.
I could become homeless, literally any day now (long story) and thinking about all that wasted money, thousands upon thousands of dollars just makes me want to weep. And even if the money had been up there on the screen, the premise of their thesis is fundamentally broken, rendering the entire movie pointless. They operate under the belief that Anita thinks video games makes you sexist, only she never fucking said that! They can make you sad, happy or angry, just as with any art but they don’t make you sexist. You kind of have to already be a little (or a lot) sexist for games to really affect you in that way. Nature versus nurture, right? At least, that’s what I’ve gathered from Anita’s videos. They even gloss over the thing she says in all of her videos, that “it is possible, even necessary to enjoy something, while at the same time being critical of its more pernicious aspects.”
These clueless guys don’t make me angry, anymore. They make me sad.