Anita Sarkeesian vs. Every Loveshy Guy Ever

The things this woman has gone though is insane. There's a lot of links as the drama has ramped up.

Anita Sarkeesian aka Feminist Frequency is a video blogger who dicusses feminism and pop culture. She is the author of the Tropes vs Women TV series.
She started a Kickstarter project to fund a new series about women in videogames



What's that? A woman on the internet?
A woman who DARES to speak her opinion?
ABOUT GGAAAAAYYYYMEEESSSZZZ?

Well, male gamers just can't have that.

I haven't been following the drama itself, but she made a post dedicated to what has happened so far.

Her address and phone number have been spread, photoshops of her have been made, her youtube, twitter and email are filled with thousands of hate-messages, and there have been attampts to hack her email and DDoS her site.

Another article was written

And a followup, because someone has now made a game where you click to Assault Anita Sarkeesian.

Because she WANTS to make a video where she talks about her opinion of video games. She hasn't even made the videos yet. The mere mention of a woman showing her intention of criticizing gamers' precious, precious games has them feeling so threatened that they need to harass this woman day and night.

The upside to the drama is that her kickstarter got massive attention and she was waaaay overfunded. (The downside, now all of the Loveshy Cretins see her as a gold-digging scammer)

You can browse the rational, well-thought out discussion on Youtube!

Or check out her totally accurate and not vandalized Wikipedia Entry!

Though not all men who saw the drama reacted badly. Jay Smooth comments as poignantly as ever.

Just... make the videos, Anita. Make them well. Show them all wrong.

^
E-Drama =/= News you fucking asspie.

Except for the fact that SHE'S IN THE ACTUAL FUCKING NEWS, SHIT HEAD.

Here's another article about her: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Here's an article about the violent game that was made about her: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Globe and Mail not newsey enough for you? [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

How about the Huffpo then? [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Macleans [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Perhaps a Destructoid interview is more to your tastes [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Or Kotaku [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Jesus, Mikey, it's like you don't even read.

Frankly, I find the nature of the backlash against her to be... appalling, but a partially understandable. A little. Maybe.

I didn't hear about her Kickstarter until the douchebaggery had set in, and by then, her Kickstarter had already exceeded its original goals and so, she was going to use the extra funding to expand on other tropes.

My gut reaction, after reading the entire list, was the same one I had after spending too much time on TV Tropes: Despair. Is there any way that I, as a writer, can hope to create a character without employing any of these tropes? How can I avert one without employing another? It didn't seem like it was possible; virtually any character you could possibly imagine employs a trope and role of some kind. But, that's a face-value judgment.

An insecure asshole will not really seek out rational answers to this conflict. They'll try to dismiss the very notions that bother them by writing the speaker off as, well, some sort of trope they accept. So you see a lot of misogynistic behavior, coupled with the LOL I TROLL YOU LOL culture of the Internet.

I realized that I hadn't heard what she had to say about these tropes yet. Until see these videos, I have nothing but my gut reactions to the list to go by. And for all I know, there could be legitimate parts of some tropes that could balance out others. I don't know. I'd have to wait and see what she has to say about these issues. So I think the only reasonable thing to do is to let this happen, and then, once it does, critique it on its actual merits, not knee-jerk reactions.

That'll never happen on the Internet, though. Use the wrong buzzwords and you've already decided the course of your discussion.

Having said that, Ms. Sarkeesian seems a little "out there" (if you want to see a penis, you'll see a penis) but you can't win 'em all. I wish her the best in this endeavor.

EDIT: PS where is the loveshy

I was promised loveshy

Where is the fucking loveshy

and once again asylum contributes nothing

That fucking douchebag Ben Spurr who made the game where you can beat up Anita Sarkeesian is all I DON'T HATE WOMEN I JUST MADE THIS GAME WHERE YOU BEAT UP A PERSON. I fucking hate that shit. Where's his game where you can beat up Jack Thompson? Or any man for that matter? I wonder how he'd like it if someone made a game where you hack Ben Spurr's balls off and then gut him like a fish.

Cyberwulf wrote:

Where's his game where you can beat up Jack Thompson? Or any man for that matter?

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

that took me all of four whole seconds on google

I'm somewhat in Penguin's camp. Somewhat.

To put anything out for publication in any format gives a person a semi-celebrity status, aka, being a public figure. Some mockery is to be expected. Just look at what we do here, although for the most part, we try to keep our snark to the story or art rather than the person who created it. However, this was entirely overboard, and yeah, shows what a misogynistic culture we live in. I know some people will say "Oh, it's only the internet" and "You have to expect that online", but no. No we shouldn't have to expect rape and death threats for what appears to be a fairly innocuous examination of tropes in video games. (Again, like Penguin, I'll have to see them to judge, but the idea itself isn't like OMG THE DEATH OF GAMES or whatevs) It's wrong. I don't care who you are--threatening to physically hurt someone for expressing, scratch that, for having the idea to express something you might not agree with is fucking wrong.

That being said, I'm completely unsurprised by it. For the most part, gamers in general are pretty chill, male and female alike. However, there is a bad subsection which people draw memes and stereotypes from which are... well, pretty fucking accurate. A guy gamer will never have to endure unwanted remarks, advances, and touching like a female gamer might. Just because it's a woman expressing an opinion, or has an interest in a hobby which is traditionally male-dominated, doesn't fucking make it ok to harass her, and that's what this is.

Of course kicking a beehive is going to provoke the bees but at the same time it's painfully revealing of inherent misogyny in society. Why else would shit like this be so fucking funny to a majority of people who get their jollies off on mocking other people, without seeing the fucking line? That their behavior in itself is the fucking trope?

In a way though, it's predictable, expected considering, fucking sad that yanno, girls still getting treated like shit as a part of a joke is still fucking funny, but she got the money to fund this and more projects so it's created enough empathy and buzz in order to get shit done and leave miles of comments that shouldn't be read. Ever.

Dave Futrelle of Man Boobz has a good article up about the toerag who made the "Let's Beat Up Anna" game.

From his Steam account:

Quote :

I think it’s just adorable how absolutely no girls are any good at video games, just like how no woman has ever written a good novel. They are nothing but talk and no action, probably because girls are such emotional creatures and base everything they do on their current feelings and then try to rationalize their actions later. How pathetic.

You know what’s priceless? When a gamer girl posts a pic of herself looking as slutty as possible and then throws a fake fit when people talk to her like she’s a whore. What did you think was going to happen, you dumb broad? Lose thirty pounds.

From his twitter:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

What. A. Pillock.

Excellent comment on the manboobz article:

Quote :

It’s true. Very few women will reach the lofty heights achieved by modern masters such as John Grisham and Nicholas Sparks. They’ve restricted themselves, by mere misfortune of their biology, to write such base fare as Harry Potter, Frankenstein, The Bell Jar, and To Kill a Mockingbird.

the asylum wrote:

Cyberwulf wrote:

Where's his game where you can beat up Jack Thompson? Or any man for that matter?

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

that took me all of four whole seconds on google

she asked where his game was, genius

Cyberwulf wrote:

Excellent comment on the manboobz article:

Quote :

It’s true. Very few women will reach the lofty heights achieved by modern masters such as John Grisham and Nicholas Sparks. They’ve restricted themselves, by mere misfortune of their biology, to write such base fare as Harry Potter, Frankenstein, The Bell Jar, and To Kill a Mockingbird.

That's gotta be sarcastic. Because while the right sort of pretentious twat can get away with putting Rowling on that list, the other are just ridiculous. Harper Lee is awesome and John Grisham is like Michael Chrichton, but with lawyers. 'Lofty heights', bah.

Also, why would you unironically call yourself manboobz?

Jay/Cris wrote:

That's gotta be sarcastic. Because while the right sort of pretentious twat can get away with putting Rowling on that list, the other are just ridiculous. Harper Lee is awesome and John Grisham is like Michael Chrichton, but with lawyers. 'Lofty heights', bah.

I, uh, think that was the point, dude.

^efb

Jay/Cris wrote:

Cyberwulf wrote:

Excellent comment on the manboobz article:

Quote :

It’s true. Very few women will reach the lofty heights achieved by modern masters such as John Grisham and Nicholas Sparks. They’ve restricted themselves, by mere misfortune of their biology, to write such base fare as Harry Potter, Frankenstein, The Bell Jar, and To Kill a Mockingbird.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

That's gotta be sarcastic. Because while the right sort of pretentious twat can get away with putting Rowling on that list, the other are just ridiculous. Harper Lee is awesome and John Grisham is like Michael Chrichton, but with lawyers. 'Lofty heights', bah.

Also, why would you unironically call yourself manboobz?

Quote :

Man Boobz -
Misogyny, I mock it

Because it is ironic. MRA's are men, who are boobs.

As for the comment - yeah, I'm pretty sure it's sarcastic. Dave does occasionally get Men's Rights types on the blog, (accusing him of being a Mangina, specifically. That is a man who has given up his cock and been brainwashed by Feminazis, trators to their gender - the worst sin imaginable.)but usually only when he writes about them specifically.

TheHedonist wrote:

Jay/Cris wrote:

That's gotta be sarcastic. Because while the right sort of pretentious twat can get away with putting Rowling on that list, the other are just ridiculous. Harper Lee is awesome and John Grisham is like Michael Chrichton, but with lawyers. 'Lofty heights', bah.

I, uh, think that was the point, dude.

Oh wow, my sarcasmdar is off tonight.

I've now browsed some of the shit that's been said and motherfuckerwow. It goes well beyond the usual 'lol i troll u' bullshit threats.


Also, Penguin, if you want to see an excellent example of how to NOT stick with the usual horrible tropes when writing female characters, check out David Weber's Honorverse books. Spoilering for off-topic:

Spoiler:

I think I read Flag in Exile a long, long time ago.

I enjoyed the video, it was well paced and the narrator was not boring......


It's a shame she never followed up.

Ratchetmon wrote:

I enjoyed the video, it was well paced and the narrator was not boring......


It's a shame she never followed up.

Her videos aren't made yet.

Penguin wrote:

I think I read Flag in Exile a long, long time ago.

I expect reading that one by itself wouldn't really do much for someone. I'd say the one weakness of the books is that they do not stand alone well. Of course, part of that is because there's a hu-fucking-normous metaplot, in addition to plot arcs that span upwards of 5 books.

Hey, you know the backlash just proves her point. I'm actually really happy to have someone like Anita out there producing material that could be used for college research papers (a source I would've killed for during my undergrad career)

These guys just hate it when their privilege (which they will staunchly deny the existence of which is fairly typical when privileges are bestowed upon those at birth) is being called into question. And, after watching her current videos and the preview for her Tropes vs. VG, there isn't a single instance where the content could be construed as blatantly inflammatory towards men.

As a sort of side note, and please feel free to just skip this if you like since I'm just sort of reflecting, I attended a fighting game tournament late last year in Seattle (West Coast Majors) I knew that fighting games were geared primarily towards men. HOWEVER, I was severely taken aback by the fact that out of the 300+ entrants, only 2 were women. Myself and another woman (who was an absolute beast at MvsC3) As the months went on, I was telling Hawaiian how bizarre (and to some extent off-putting) it was to see my gender underrepresented... but that's not to be confused with a feeling of marginalization because I didn't feel cornered or like a bunch of dudes were hating on me while I was there.

I suppose what was really gnawing at me was what I did initially before even going to Seattle. I don't wear make-up, jewelry, and I don't typically dress in clothes that accentuate curves or draw attention to physical features... because I just don't think about it when I walk out the door and it just isn't me. However, I made a specific attempt to look pretty for a fighting game tournament... Why? I think it was for validation. I may not be able to be professional at MvsC3, but I can certainly be gorgeous... it's a defense mechanism. Hiding my awkwardness and who I really am. It's a defense mechanism that I use, like pretending to be male in online chats and forums, to navigate a predominantly male subculture that hasn't always been welcoming to those that partake in the same interest while also having a vagina. I don't hate men, I love them dearly because I love people, and I know that there are tons of good men out there (I married one) but the problem is that there are systemic factors in place that marginalize in some way or another those who are not a man.

I apologize for a long-winded post as I know it's generally frowned upon and for sometimes a good reason (like for instance this post), and I did sort of take away from the initial content to talk about personal experiences. However, I think Anita has not only opened the door to examine how we see women in this form of media, but it also gave me a moment to reflect on how I position myself in relation to this particular subculture/hobby that feels both enjoyable and unwelcoming.

Eeveegou wrote:

So, basically you're just beating around in a circle before saying that she's politically correct for doing this?

Reidmar wrote:

Eeveegou wrote:

So, basically you're just beating around in a circle before saying that she's politically correct for doing this?

Sort of, but it was more of a reflective analysis. It's also the reason why I said it was okay to skip it. But I mean, rudeness is also okay I guess.

Reidmar wrote:

Over the past year I've really started to hate this dumb fucking emote and its usage.

"HERE'S MY OPINION I DARE YOU TO ARGUE WITH IT "