Apparently Davis Aurini is capable of sometimes telling the truth.
As you may recall, the bald, semi-Nazi stain on humanity released his version of The Sarkeesian Effect (that was officially not his version of The Sarkeesian Effect) last week to something less than universal acclaim, with one critic describing the “film” as “worse than a dead squirrel in your wall.”
Ok, that was me.
Weirdly, it turns out that Aurini actually agrees with some of my criticisms. While still maintaining that his not-version of The Sarkeesian Effect is a “damn good film,” he admitted on a livestream last night that the section of his film critiquing Anita Sarkeesian’s alleged lies was “crap.”
He then suggested it would have been much better … if he’d actually watched Sarkeesian’s videos.
Yep. He spent a year — and tens of thousands of dollars of other people’s money — ostensibly making a film about Sarkeesian. But somehow he never got around to watching any of her videos.
ETHICS!
You can hear the whole segment on “Bechtloff’s Saturday Night Livestream: Secret Crisis of the Infinity Hour” on Youtube here. (The link should take you to the relevant portion of the livestrean, which starts just short of an hour and twenty minutes in.)
Here are the highlights.
In this first clip, Aurini responds to someone with a question about his attacks on Sarkeesian’s alleged dishonesty.
This clip ends a bit abruptly because Aurini was cut off by Bechtloff before finishing his sentence. Luckily, he went on to elaborate on his point. And threw in in a racial slur while he was at it, because why not?
And here he admits he didn’t bother to watch Sarkeesian’s videos.
It’s about ethics in making an entire film about someone without actually knowing anything about them.
EDITED TO ADD:
We Hunted the Mammoth has obtained this footage of Davis Aurini as a child.
H/T — Thanks to the alert reader who pointed me to the relevant section of the livestream.
Re: clothing for combat
Martial arts uniforms aren’t really a good example as that’s a sporting activity. If you want to know what professional close quarters combatants (as opposed to say infantry or other ranged weapons fighters) actually wear, just google ‘tactical clothing’.
As it happens my favourite tactical wear is made by Sig and their trousers are 98% cotton and 2% Spandex.
(They’re reasonably close fitting so they don’t catch on stuff but have a stretch so they don’t inhibit movement)
[Disclaimer: I myself have not watched many of Anita Sarkeesian’s videos (yet), and none of the Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series. I have, however, watched Immersive Subversion or whatever Aurini’s video was called again.]
I feel blessed to live in a world where this happened. I love the way he was all “obviously Anita Sarkeesian didn’t play any of the games and obviously that invalidates everything she says about them, that’s so self-evident that we don’t need to discuss that any further than a statement in passing”, and then sentences later he’s all “well, I didn’t watch any of her videos, but obviously there’s nothing wrong with that in the context of having made a documentary about them; and of course, if I had watched them, I could have made a much better job of that part of my documentary but obviously I wasn’t able to do that for time reasons” and, ok, he didn’t outright say this but I was definitely getting a vibe of “and because that was Jordan Owen’s bit, clearly I couldn’t re-do it better even if I thought his take on it was rubbish and even though this wasn’t a version of The Sarkeesian Effect or anything else.” Just beautiful. I mean, he’s not even acting defensive or anything, it’s all mentioned in a just-in-passing kind of way; clearly from where he’s sitting this is all absolutely uncontroversial, internally consistent, and makes perfect sense. (And it’s kind of a shame Jordan Owen’s shoddy work ruined his otherwise lovely film, but he’s going to be mature enough not to explicitly whine about it, isn’t he a great guy.)
That’s quite an accusation. Fuck you very much.
MRAs tell people they don’t like to kill themselves all the time. Including men. Feminists, not so much. We certainly condemn talk like that around here. Comments that are violent in nature get deleted and the commenter might even get banned.
I suspect you mean that men not having whim catered to at the expense of women is equivalent of trying to cause male suicide. Well, it’s not.
First of all, why are women with mental health issues not deserving of care? Again, FUCK YOU. What a piece of shit you are.
Second of all, what psychiatric resources paid for with public funding discriminate against men? That would be illegal, so I suspect none of them do. If there’s funding to help people with post partum depression, cis men couldn’t get it. But not because of misandry. Because that’s an illness that only happens to people who have given birth.
Third of all, in the US, the VA is funded separately from the rest of the budget. Any PTSD from military service would be covered under veteran’s benefits. Any funding going towards mental health for any other government program has absolutely nothing to do with funding for veteran’s care. If you were actually concerned about veteran’s issues, you’d know this.
Two things. First, “tactical clothing” is not a thing that existed before the last decade or so, and spandex was invented less than sixty years ago in a very specific scientific and social context. It’s not only not what most people think of when they think, “Ahh, I will need freedom of movement today,” it’s also something that is bizarre to shoehorn into alternate dimensions and past universes. There’s no reason for it to be there at all. Second, I have no idea why you think “martial arts” are a “sporting activity.” These disciplines are called “martial” arts for a reason.
Any military types like to chime in on whether or not members of the infantry need to be able to move freely?
There are options other than spandex. Why is this so fucking hard to understand? Why aren’t the men in spandex if spandex is the logical choice? Why don’t people complain about how illogical it is to put the men in clothes when they think spandex is the only correct option for the women?
re: Tracer, the conversation is making my stress levels spike, so I’ll bow out of the conversation.
I don’t disagree with anything you are saying, PoM! It *is* total bullshit. But I’m still really interested to see whether the Tracer character is going to creep back towards the banal sexy-spandex-bunny or if they’re going to be true to what they seem to want, and whether that will change how the masses perceive her. I think it could represent the beginning of a changing attitude towards the sorts of roles that women are allowed to play in these games.
But that’s my opinion, and is likely not right. We will see!
@Galt, you Randian Rascal you.
Learn to format for legibility. I’d reply to you, but to be honest your glutinous gob of text is just too dense. Apply some whitespace.
@ POM
Within the martial arts/fighting community there’s a distinction between sports based activities and practical combat like military SWAT etc. The terms most people use are martial arts for the former (sometimes, ‘traditional martial arts’ although that’s also used to differentiate from MMA) and combatives for the latter.
Of course combatives are martial arts in the ‘skills useful in combat’ sense, but in that sense so is radar operation. And a lot of combative techniques derive from traditional martial arts.
(Fun fact: in Japan originally the sports variant of a fighting style ended in ‘do’ and the combat variant ended in ‘jitsu’)
As for infantry wear, of course it allows for freedom of movement, but that’s just one factor. Environmental protection and camouflage are also important. The key mobility issue in infantry is the amount of gear carried. Tactical operations have that less as a factor. They’re usually over very quickly and operators aren’t deployed for anywhere near as long as regular soldiers (hours rather than weeks or months) but ease of movement is very important.
Compare what SAS and SEALs wear when on counter terrorist operations versus battlefield work.
What the fuck ever, Alan. You’re totally right and Tracer should have her butt crack literally showing because of reasons. Stupid, stupid me. Spandex is the only possible option for her. I should get some for myself to wear after work because I would obviously be more comfortable in it. You have said so, so it must be true.
I give up.
eta: I don’t know why “spandex painted onto a woman’s butt is logical and not sexist” is the hill you decided to die on, but you can fucking have it.
Yup. I used to be a diver. I wore a Speedo. It suctions to the body and is skimpy. This allows freedom of movement without weighing us down in wet clothes. But of course the male divers wore Speedos too. In fact, theirs were even skimpier because our culture allows men to show their nipples in public but not women. It’s not like we were in bathing suits while the men were diving in big cargo pants and hoodies! If a video game, movie, comic book or whatever other action story has women in skintight clothes, that’s fine. But the men need to look like that too.
@ POM
I think you misunderstand me. I’m certainly not advocating for that. Sorry if I haven’t made myself clear. My point was that the clothing for that character, from the one pic I’ve seen, is nothing like what actual combatants wear (in reference to the ‘practicality’ points that have been mentioned).
As to spandex, these are the trousers I was referring to.
http://www.rogueeliteinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/203-2-199×300.jpg
100%! I long for the day when design choices are about communicating social role and not about sexual availability. You communicate far better than I can.
@weirwoodtreehugger
Yeah, damn straight it’s a big accusation, and it’s a true one as well, so far as I and many others are concerned. I’d advise you not to threaten me with a good time, but I can’t imagine having a good time with a budding Lorena Bobbitt like yourself.
“MRAs tell people they don’t like to kill themselves all the time. Including men. Feminists, not so much. We certainly condemn talk like that around here. Comments that are violent in nature get deleted and the commenter might even get banned.”
There’s a difference between telling someone to kill themselves and actually creating the circumstances which lead to people doing so. Feminists support structural ‘reforms’ which exploit society’s inherent need to protect women at the expense of men. Men live in a world which is hostile towards their needs, and yet, many of them don’t commit suicide; you people, though, seem to think that being told to ‘kill yourself’ is a compelling reason to follow orders, even if you find the people giving these orders to be odious (as an aside, I’m not an MRA, so I don’t know why you’re bringing this up, I’m more of a general anti-feminist). I suppose if someone told you to put your paycheck into a blender, you’d do that too?
“I suspect you mean that men not having whim catered to at the expense of women is equivalent of trying to cause male suicide. Well, it’s not.”
No, I just want for you to stop trying to restructure society so that it’s stacked against men. It’s almost impossible to talk to feminists because of your tendency to straw-man your opposition and the fact that you only hear what you want to hear.
“First of all, why are women with mental health issues not deserving of care? Again, FUCK YOU. What a piece of shit you are.”
Now now, last time I checked, name calling (i.e. “piece of shit”) wasn’t tolerated in the comments policy. Calm down a little, and people might be more willing to listen to you, instead of assume that you’re all a bunch of children who just want things and government money handed to you.
Veterans are different because they’ve actually EARNED what little assistance they’ve got. Women and feminists tend to support these leftist scrubs who make grand promises of “free,” universal healthcare, apparently unaware that it will be the higher earning MEN that pay for all of that in taxes, thus negating the idea that it’s “free.” That money should go to people who have EARNED it, not to a bunch of parasites who want to go to the hospital on the backs of someone else’s labor.
I should apologize too! I was being confrontational and probably not understanding you, and I shouldn’t have been. I’m sorry about that.
Men left the raising of families to their wives, historically. And women died for their families, too, by the way, often in childbirth. Additionally, in societies where only men died on the battlefield, it’s because men decided that women weren’t permitted to be on the battlefield.
Women had responsibility without rights. Women were responsible for running the household (even poor women who also had to work in the fields or in the shops). Women were responsible for all the work of cooking, cleaning, raising children, running any errands of the household, mending, and whatever else their husbands might decide they had to be responsible for, because as you’ve conceded, women were entirely under the control and at the mercy of their husbands or fathers.
I was very polite and not at all snarky about the issues you raised. I explained to you how they came about, historically, and the only issue I didn’t explain the history of is one I’m not sure is real, and which you still have not demonstrated to be real. I didn’t make light of any of them, even the one I didn’t think was real.
May I ask you, if the “natural” gender roles are so natural, why do both genders chafe against the restraints of them so hard?
“Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.”
@ galt
Isn’t your use of trying and restructure an admission that society isn’t therefore currently stacked against men?
@SFHC
Tell that to feminists and other assorted leftists, who tend to get the two mixed up on virtually any day that contains 2 vowels.
JUst look at this enlightening discussion that’s going on in the comments section, about what sort a pants a fucking video game character should be wearing, for Christ’s sake! I’m talking about issues like suicide, economic coercion, PTSD, and this is what the social-justice movement with over a century of experience has decided to focus on now. And men are the privileged sex?
Brb, gotta go to the bathroom; will DEFINITELY be man-spreading on the can!
Hey, paragraphs! Let’s see what we gots, here.
…
Actually, I just spent ten or so minutes trying to dissect that diatribe and I really just can’t. I know full well that whatever I write will be summarily ignored or misinterpreted, so there really isn’t any point.
Mr Galt, your big problem is that you think that everyone is selfish. Feminism isn’t a monolithic power bloc trying to Crush Da Menz, and it’s not trying to accrue power for itself at the expense of everyone else. Humans are more complicated than the selfish, rational actors of Objectivism/Neoconservatism.
Examine what feminist thought actually is, and what it is trying to do. Go to the source, the feminist literature itself. Look at feminist initiatives that aren’t engaged in the culture war. And maybe consider that perhaps feminists are just as human as you, or anyone else?
@ scildfreja
If you get a mo I’ve got a technical question that would really benefit your expertise on the sleeves thread.
@Galt
The comments policy describes name-calling as “not so much” in relation to “fine”, but not forbidden outright. So perhaps you can grow a spine and email David or the mods if you think there is a problem? I suspect that they don’t want to stop some well deserved name-calling that results from the appearance of people with shitty characteristics.
You should also stop being a coward with respect to your claims against Moocow. There’s another insult for you, one I have already unpacked above.
Were they not paid when they were in the army or something?
Don’t you FUCKING come in here and tell women to calm the fuck down. GET THE FUCK OUT.
Oh? Oh! I get galt! Finally a troll I understand. His deal is “fuck everyone that’s not me!” I totally get that. Of course I don’t agree, but I usually have trouble ‘getting’ genuinely hateful types.
Also, I don’t pay taxes which is such a relief since my estimated quarterly is coming up and that shit is expensive.
Galt, maybe you can break down what your taxes pay for that you don’t agree with, either by percentage or dollar amount, or even why you think hungry people dont deserve to eat, otherwise I’m just going to have to assume you’re just another diarrhea spewing hate monger.
Oh well, back to the needlepoint. Toodles!
–Clever
How is it true? Citation needed. Big time. When Moocow said feminism helps men struggling with mental illness, I’m guessing he meant that feminism encourages breaking down gender norms. We don’t agree with the idea that men are expected to “man up” and deal with suicidal thoughts on their own instead of seeking help. It’s patriarchy that says real men don’t have emotions other than anger. I can’t speak for him, but I’m guessing that was his point.
Now you. Prove that feminists want men to kill themselves. Prove that MRAs do anything to help men.
You also need to provide evidence for me being a budding Lorena Bobbitt. Where have I ever advocated for violence against men? Or anyone else for that matter?
And eww to the insinuation that I would want to have sex with you. Neither misogynists or Randroids are very attractive to me.
So, wanting someone to kill themselves is okay. Taunting someone and trying to get themselves is okay. As long as they’re anti-feminists? But feminists cause suicide because why? This should be good.
Such as? Show your work.
If life is so bad for men that it’s miraculous you don’t all kill yourselves, surely you can come up with a couple of examples?
You’re not an MRA? Okay, but you have all their talking points. No, one person saying one time that someone should kill themselves is probably not going to result in a suicide. But if someone is already prone to suicidal thoughts and someone is continuously harassing and taunting them, they might.
If you actually cared about suicide, you wouldn’t be implying that if someone is bullied into committing suicide, they must be weak or stupid. There have been cases of men and boys being bullied or coerced into suicide. I daresay that someone of any gender who is being bullied and having suicidal thoughts, they’d find a lot more sympathy here than they would with you.
I’m glad you said this. You’re doing nothing but demonstrating that you don’t care about men who are suicidal at all. They’re only objects to be used as cudgels against feminists.
Actually, the comments policy does not forbid being mean to trolls. You’re only allowed to post here because we enjoy using you as a chew toy. If we don’t cause you to flounce, you’ll be banned when we tire of you and I’ll still be here.
So, you’re against government programs that help people? I suppose you’re okay with veteran’s benefits, but how about programs to help homeless people? Funding for prostate cancer research? AIDS research? Does my autistic brother not deserve his disability? Oh yes, you’re sure continuing to demonstrate that you care about men.
Nice try on the hysteria thing, but I’m actually perfectly calm. I called you a piece of shit because you are one. I’m not upset at all. I’m just relaxing in my pajamas watching the NCAA men’s basketball final. Don’t flatter yourself into thinking you’ve got me all riled up. Like I said, all you are to me is a mildly entertaining chew toy. You’re starting to get a little used up though. I think you’ve about hit the wall. Your troll market value (TMV) is getting used up. But for now you may still dance for me.
It’s so funny how you all claim that the wage gap is a myth when it’s convenient to you. Until it comes to a discussion of government funded programs. Then you all of a sudden have all the money and that’s why you pay all the taxes. How is society stacked against men if you have most of the money? That makes no sense.
Should I stop letting Galt’s comments through? He’s stepped over several different lines already.
Oh, I missed this little gem. This kind of shit only bolsters my suspicions that most MRAs/anti-feminists/whatever they call themselves come from economically privileged backgrounds and only pay lip service to class oppression to try and distract from the oppression against women that exists. If they were ever actually around working class people, they’d know that working class women work their asses off. My grandmother raised five sons, one daughter, and one niece as well as working outside the home. She was even a welder during WWII. She only retired in her eighties when she just physically couldn’t work anymore. But she didn’t want to retire. She did it because she had to. The idea that only upper class men are privileged, but all women of all classes sit around eating bonbons while the men toil away is just ridiculous.