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Anita Sarkeesian shows what one week of harassment directed at her looks like

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Video game fans are fucking crazy. I feel sorry for anybody who gets hate mail.

Same here. I felt the same way for Phil Fish.

Although what is happening to Ms. Sarkeesian is an even greater injustice because of her intent to educate the very same ignorant people that are berating her and her gender.

In general, I've come to think that this is as much a videogame community issue as it is a general sexual discriminatory issue. The videogame community seems to be loud and proud with regard to its ignorance.

But then again, maybe my disproportionate time spent with other gamers is clouding my perception, and this indeed is simply societal bigotry that pervades all aspects of entertainment.
 
I think it's ironic that a woman who's trying to make videogames more attractive to other women is being attacked by men who would LOVE to find girlfriends/wives who play videogames, and therefore, share Anita's goals completely!

i think both sides see the problem in a different way, so an anita worshipper won't make good wife material. ┐(´ー`)┌
 
That list of screenshots had a real impact on me. No matter her cause, whether or not you agree with it, nobody should be treated like that.

One of those truly depressing things that makes me lose all faith in humanity.
 
Some of those are not even threats (though offensive) , and everybody involved in controversial subjects get a shitton of those anyway.

http://media.tumblr.com/c4e89f8577660fce1b959232383879f2/tumblr_inline_nitxijhzdO1qikfve.jpg[img]

This is as much offensive as anything she says.
Anyway she's an intellectual fraud, making lots of money while ignoring women's true problems.
The fact she says things like this is an insult to women who really have fough for their rights and are or have been in danger.
Also, if there aren't women in game studios is because engineers are 99% male, as women choose other careers.

Now I raise my flame shield.[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Great-God's ass]because engineers are 99% male[/QUOTE]

[URL="http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=957274"]No.[/URL] I know first-hand the situation for females in engineering isn't great, but don't make up numbers when more accurate figures are readily available on this very forum with little to no work required from you.
 
It doesn't matter that she has made any money at all from this, she had a small channel and made small videos about feminism in culture

The only reason she has any money or fame is because people got irrationally upset that she decided to make some videos about video games and gave her all this publicity and then the hate was reported on and subsequently proved her point about the industry being a toxic place for women

The ones who hate her the most have put her where she is, and though all of this she has tried to just stick with it and make her videos

She could have made $100m from this and it wouldn't invalidate her point

Her videos are not perfect, and every example she uses isn't either, but all her videos are setting out to do is highlight some issues

If you think gaming has no issues at all you're deluded, her videos should be the starting point to have a debate on the portrayal of women (and other minorities) in video games, but instead everyone is too busy obsessing over her for the most ridiculous reasons

Well said. No, her videos aren't perfect, nor her analysis, but damn, what is?

Here's what's real: consistently, frequently, women are shut out of the gaming industry at many (every?) levels. People argue against us when we say we're gamers; we're rarely heroes; our avatars, when we get them, are often hypersexualized and/or poorly dressed; we are frequently used as plot points and/or objectified. The list goes on and on and on. It doesn't stop because people can find a few examples of games that have fewer issues; it doesn't stop because someone says it's not a "real" problem; it doesn't stop because some people like to pretend it's just fine.

That there are some of the same issues with hypermasculinity in games also does not invalidate the above, nor does the fact that some circles are simply toxic.
 
That list of screenshots had a real impact on me. No matter her cause, whether or not you agree with it, nobody should be treated like that.

One of those truly depressing things that makes me lose all faith in humanity.

At least with posters like you, we know not all junior members who come into these topics are throwaway accounts/undercover GGers/straight up hateful
 
What is with all the juniors in this thread?

I also got the feeling that some just created accounts to continue their harassment here.

Edit: We got atleast some better ones.

That list of screenshots had a real impact on me. No matter her cause, whether or not you agree with it, nobody should be treated like that.

One of those truly depressing things that makes me lose all faith in humanity.


Don't give up. Give them some deserved shit.
 
With all the discussion on trolling and why people behave in this manner, I thought this might be a good place to drop these links. This American Life had a great segment this week on Internet trolls -- including an online journalist who was trolled and confronted her troll through an article, his reformation, and a direct, frank conversation with him about why he did what he did. It's fascinating to listen to -- but, I'm also including a link to the transcript for those who can't listen. It's the very first segment.

http://m.thisamericanlife.org


http://m.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/545/transcript
 
I know very little about Anita and this path she has walked, but since day 1 people have criticized the way she has gone down this path. Most have not attacked her for being a woman or her message, it has been about how she has handled everything.

And whenever someone criticized how she did things or gave her advice, 100s of posts would follow of people calling them woman haters.

Both sides of this "thing" are wrong and right, that's how most things work.

Anita should be able to do her project and fulfill her promises with the money she was given, she apparently hasn't and people have a right to be angry at her. Anger does not mean making threats and people should not immediately jump to her side when those threats occur.

Allow her to report these threats to twitter and stop allowing yourselves to jump up to save her from her problems, she is an adult and can handle immature individuals on the internet.

Her message is what you should focus on, not the people angry with her or her constant posts about it. FOcus on her project and motivate her to get it done. Then the backers of her project will be happy and discussions can occur on her project.

Please tell me I'm wrong, I'd love to hear your logic on how doing anything else will be positive.

You should have stopped writing after the first sentence. smh
 
At least the whole junior thing can help us remember that biases are very real, and that we need to be constantly working to overcome our own. Whenever I see a long post in a thread like this by a member like "xXLord of LordranXx - Junior Member" I automatically start reading it to look for errors, and then actually get a little surprised if I agree with it.
 
What is with all the juniors in this thread?

Be0KbvL.gif
 
I know very little about Anita and this path she has walked, but since day 1 people have criticized the way she has gone down this path. Most have not attacked her for being a woman or her message, it has been about how she has handled everything.

And whenever someone criticized how she did things or gave her advice, 100s of posts would follow of people calling them woman haters.

Both sides of this "thing" are wrong and right, that's how most things work.

Anita should be able to do her project and fulfill her promises with the money she was given, she apparently hasn't and people have a right to be angry at her. Anger does not mean making threats and people should not immediately jump to her side when those threats occur.

Allow her to report these threats to twitter and stop allowing yourselves to jump up to save her from her problems, she is an adult and can handle immature individuals on the internet.

Her message is what you should focus on, not the people angry with her or her constant posts about it. FOcus on her project and motivate her to get it done. Then the backers of her project will be happy and discussions can occur on her project.

Please tell me I'm wrong, I'd love to hear your logic on how doing anything else will be positive.

So, we should leave her to fend off the vicious hordes by herself? Where's the logic in saying that good people should do nothing, while hateful misogynists get free reign over the internet?
 
I know very little about Anita and this path she has walked, but since day 1 people have criticized the way she has gone down this path. Most have not attacked her for being a woman or her message, it has been about how she has handled everything.

And whenever someone criticized how she did things or gave her advice, 100s of posts would follow of people calling them woman haters.

Both sides of this "thing" are wrong and right, that's how most things work.

Anita should be able to do her project and fulfill her promises with the money she was given, she apparently hasn't and people have a right to be angry at her. Anger does not mean making threats and people should not immediately jump to her side when those threats occur.

Allow her to report these threats to twitter and stop allowing yourselves to jump up to save her from her problems, she is an adult and can handle immature individuals on the internet.

Her message is what you should focus on, not the people angry with her or her constant posts about it. FOcus on her project and motivate her to get it done. Then the backers of her project will be happy and discussions can occur on her project.

Please tell me I'm wrong, I'd love to hear your logic on how doing anything else will be positive.

You wrote all that about someone you know little about? interesting.
 
I pretty much knew what to expect reading that, and still couldn't go through much of it. IMO, most important thing is the support from smart people. That makes insults from idiots much easier to ignore.
 
Same here. I felt the same way for Phil Fish.

Although what is happening to Ms. Sarkeesian is an even greater injustice because of her intent to educate the very same ignorant people that are berating her and her gender.

In general, I've come to think that this is as much a videogame community issue as it is a general sexual discriminatory issue. The videogame community seems to be loud and proud with regard to its ignorance.

But then again, maybe my disproportionate time spent with other gamers is clouding my perception, and this indeed is simply societal bigotry that pervades all aspects of entertainment.

it's worth pointing out that phil fish somehow started getting it EVEN WORSE when there was that guilt-by-association shit with that indie game panel that Zoe was also on...

It's from Basilisk II, the cult classic PC game. Any gamer could tell you that.

*Assassin's Creed Avatar* is that even a real game or is that a walking simulator
 
Please tell me more about "women's true problems."
Much lower salaries than men
Household violence
Harassement at workplace

You don't ignore one set of problems because there is another set of problems elsewhere.

It can be argued that there aren't more female developers precisely because gaming culture doesn't make them feel welcome in it. Her current predicament is a clear example of that and it mirrors the kinds of situations most women face in gaming.


I'm sorry this is just super distressing and factually and logically untrue. I don't even know where to start.



Why do you think that is the case? Why would anyone want to be in video games culture, especially as a woman, when you see people behaving against women like this?
I'd like to hear how my point is untrue.

And, are you implying I'm insulting women? That's interesting. There are no female developers or engineers because most women are not interested in that because of a completely different cultural factor broader than videogames. (This point also applies to the quote above) So if anything, programming and engineering should be marketed to females as "cool" since childhood, but that'll take at least 20 years.

If you were treated like Anita, and had people say you were ignoring women's true problems and were insulting women with "real" problems every time you drew attention towards your own harassment, wouldn't you choose another career?

Are men's true problems the fact that women are trying to change our videogames, like the tweet suggests?
She chose to start a series of videos (Which, if I'm not mistaken, she hasn't even completed to the kickstarter terms) that were inherently controversial and indeed drew attention away from more serious problems. It's not bad per se, but she takes it WAY too seriously.
Also, a developer's career is not Anita's. Has Corrine Yu (Random female developer) ever been harassed by gamers?
 
Some of those are not even threats (though offensive) , and everybody involved in controversial subjects get a shitton of those anyway.

tumblr_inline_nitxijhzdO1qikfve.jpg


This is as much offensive as anything she says.
Anyway she's an intellectual fraud, making lots of money while ignoring women's true problems.
The fact she says things like this is an insult to women who really have fough for their rights and are or have been in danger.
Also, if there aren't women in game studios is because engineers are 99% male, as women choose other careers.

Now I raise my flame shield.

Couple questions for you...
What are "women's true problems"?
What women have you spoken to who are super offended by these simple videos asking for better representation?
Why do you think "99%" of women avoid tech fields? (As a woman in tech, I could tell you, but I'd like to hear your reasoning.)

Edit: I see you answered the first one. Your #3 has a lot to do with my 3rd question.
 
consolo-do-prisioneiro-laerte.jpg


Panel 1: "Fat! Dwarf!"
Panel 2: "Ha! Ha! Ha! ...I love being politically incorrect"
Panel 3: *bunch of slurs*
Panel 4: "It's the consolation of the prisioner"
-
People clinging to a dieing culture of hate are horrible because while their culture is so dominant no alternative is given, they can hide behind a facade of good citzens and still be pieces of shit; then when it starts to crumble, when stuff actually starts to change (and by "starts to" I mean it even haven't yet), then they get desperate and crazy and the mask of civilized human being falls to reveal that civilization is only a tool for power; that we can revert to barbarism and violence in an instant.

She should gather a month of those comments and the big publishers should give her money for each one of them. She is doing them a favor by expanding their audience and getting this kind of treatment for it.
 
I feel bad for Anita, but some of these tweets are hilarious.

tumblr_inline_nityr79HzR1qikfve.jpg


I can't take these hate comments/death/rape threats serious, since I already know there are people like these out there. Despite me not agreeing with her "movement," she has my respect after all she's been going through.

Here's what's beginning to bother me; some of these tweets say something along the lines of "these threads are part of gaming, have you played multiplayer." I wouldn't want to be part of the gaming community where such threats are socially acceptable and a norm.
 
Seems to me like this is a pretty good example of where Twitter could use a better policy than "block and move on". Ugh, no one should have to deal with that shit.
 
Much lower salaries than men
Household violence
Harassement at workplace
Wait... what? Isn't that what this is? That's the whole point of this thread.

Also, there are a lot of female developers that have been harassed as well, the most significant being Quinn. I also don't think "she takes it too seriously" is a fair complaint, considering that these people in the OP take it seriously enough to threaten to murder and rape her. You're even calling it a controversial issue, showing you take it seriously as well, right?
 
One thing that I can't really wrap my head around is how Twitter doesn't just immediately ban some of these people. I understand there is freedom of speech, but when you are threatening death and rape? I can't imagine what PR spin exists to allow stuff like that to continue unpunished
 
I love it when men explain why a woman (who is constantly harassed, denigrated, and threatened with violence) isn't doing anything about real women's issues!
 
I would love to have the parents of these children read these tweets and look at the scum they raised.


Just to see their reactions when they realized they failed at parenting

Um, maybe some, but there is a huge amount of mainstream anti-feminism out there, and I can understand why because for many years Rush Limbaugh was my only source on what feminism was and what it was trying to accomplish. I'm sure a majority would be appalled by the crass language, but these kids are knee-jerk reacting to a world view which opposes the one they were raised to have.

Also, a developer's career is not Anita's. Has Corrine Yu (Random female developer) ever been harassed by gamers?
I would wager almost every woman who has gone into an online space has received some kind of gender-specific harassment. I mean, people get harassed period, but minority groups receive extra harassment on top of it.
 
Much lower salaries than men
Household violence
Harassement at workplace
This holds true though. She is being harassed for the work that she is doing.

You can choose to ignore the issues, but read things like the Dragon's Dogma development scandal before saying it isn't an issue.
 

Women are less motivated to join a culture and industry where people harass and terrorize them.

Regarding gender issues in video games culture, you really need the 101 lesson, because you don't seem to be informed about why representation in video games is important, why it matters how women are treated in the industry and culture, how developers and players and marketers all contribute to excluding people who aren't white heterosexual cis-dudes. I seriously don't know where to start, but you should read up on it.
 
I love it when men explain why a woman (who is constantly harassed, denigrated, and threatened with violence) isn't doing anything about real women's issues!

Videogames aren't important. We should close the gaming side and stay only on off-topic, not being distracted, talking only about what really matters.

Mariah Carey
 
No see, its online so its not real harassment.
The only explination I can think of is that he meant like sexual harassment, which both still applies in this case (rape threats) and is sort of troubling because it sort of implies that women can only have problems that are related to sex or home life.
 
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