+Anita Sarkeesian has been viciously attacked, bullied, and stalked online because of her ideas that women need better representation in video games (I agree on her opinion on this). Anita is standing up to her online bullies and trolls in a way that, I hope, makes a dent future attacks.
Listen, attacking anyone online is not your RIGHT or PRIVILEGE as a human being (if you so happen to live in a country where free speech is a right). If you don't like what someone has written online, their thoughts or words, their beliefs or faith, or how they choose to live their life or who they choose to spend it with – go live your own life and worry about that. Does the fact that Anita is raising funds to make a video impact anyone's life negatively at all? People make videos all the time and put them online or on YouTube. People raise money all the time – and don't force you to chip in. How exactly is this offensive to anyone and enough that people are making games using her photo that simulate her being physically beaten and abused? How much time are these crazies dedicating to making someone else's life miserable? We don't have all that much time on this planet, I'm sure there are better ways to spend it.
Honestly, the Westboro Baptist Church have better tactics than the people that choose to single Anita out and attack her. There is a very apparent lack of humanity with these trolls and stalkers. I honestly wonder how they conduct their offline life. Do they randomly walk up to people and shout profanities to them or make rape threats? How you conduct yourself online should be a reflection of how you are offline. Someday one of the people that trolls try to victimize will show up at their front door. With a mob. Sadly, I'm sure when that vengeance is dealt, the law will not be on the side of the person who has been harassed.
From the +New Statesman article, and my feelings exactly:
I think Sarkeesian has been incredibly courageous in sharing what's happened to her. Those obscene pictures are intended to shame her, to reduce her to her genitals, and to intimidate her.
People are more than the sum of their parts, and as such cannot and WILL NOT be torn down and reduced to a plie of slander and vulgarities.
Embedded Link
New Statesman – This is what online harassment looks like
Current affairs, world politics, the arts and more from Britain's award-winning magazine
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The difference is that one replicates, which bullies do not, so we don't ever mention the other unless we are in WoW.
Honestly, it reminds me why I hated 8th grade.
Thank you for calling it harassment rather than bullying. We are making a lot of trouble for ourselves if we continue to interchange those words for the sake of hype and media attention.
I find less of this deplorable activity on Google+. Not sure why. Maybe because it isn't cool like Facebook..
+Andrew Daley there is still a good bit, it's just that the circle system makes it very easy to blind yourself to it.
I am appalled that a troll would use a (living) woman's picture, and mock up a virtual response to beating her up. Black eye, split lip, broken nose.
Turning off the ability to comment on Public posts to people in your circles or extended circles is pretty brilliant, and a Google+ feature I don't see used much.
+Christian Smith Google+ FTW.
That sucks! Hopefully this will bring light not only to what harassment is but also the issue of how women are treated by some jerks in the video game industry. Pair it will the twitter episode that happened at VidCon and +Felicia Day and it is obvious that there are issues. Not just that people hold some crazy views (an issue in everything;) but how comfortable they are in blasting women. Ok, gotta put the soapbox away not.
The images and comments are horrible — yes, harrassment plain and simple, and I'm glad she had the wherewithall to expose the pictures. It is sad that we still live in a time where some people feel this is an acceptable way to express one's opinion :/
The Internet is full of 'wonderful' people for many reasons. This is just one.
The Higgs Boson is a prime example. Physicists are quite exited about it. The Internet? They're more interested in the font that was used during the presentation.
People are stupid, pass the salt.
What I find odd is that a lot of trolls online might be the nicest people in real life. I don't know if they hide it well, or if maybe they are fulfilling some Freudian fantasy online. Either way, they're assholes.
Makes me physically ill.
+Christian Smith that leaves me feeling uneasy, that the trolls have wives who explain the black eye as – I walked into a door.
This is just against civil rights towards women, plain and simple.
I noticed the article is from the New Statesman. Maybe more happened in re: Oracle vs. Google.
+Lynette Young I completely agree with this post, but in response to your comment about blocking comments on public posts, when someone turns off my ability to comment on posts I almost always uncircle them. In light of this topic I see why you would want to, but when it happens to me it seems rude, as if the poster is saying that their ideas are worth more than mine so I should want to read their thoughts without saying anything.
I do not like the fact people make remarks towards women just because gender or age. It is just people acting worst than elementary kids.
+Joe Naylor I have seen people block over some disagreement of links. It's easier to be brief here in comments and link to the blog for the length. Too bad, not everybody sees it that way.
Gonna say, anyone
canrightly say anything they choose on the internet. Just as much as the initial poster has the "right" to say what they think is right, doesn't grant them some form of magical sanctuary from the harsh words of others, and they should befarmore than prepared for the onslaught of filth from the torrents of goons and trolls on the internet. If, at any point, you find yourself hurt by what another person has posted against your ramblings, which are not in any way more valid than any other humans', you have forgotten the #1 rule of the internet, and that is that some fool is going to slander you as hard as they possibly can. Doesn't make them right. Doesn't make you wrong. Don't ever get so uppity in your personal crusades that you do not allow others to voice their response, regardless of how inane and petty they may be. That is the right all users of the internet have, to be a pest or not to be a pest. By ever walking the planes of the mind and dancing amidst the stars of spiralling data that we call the internet, you must remember, you'll probably step in some pretty rank offal. Don't try to clamp down on anyone's freedoms, and make sure you have the grit to sort through the morons and continue to voice your own beliefs. Do be torn down by another'swordsis silly, weak, and more petty than the fools who sling them. Ever heard of "sticks and stones" and other such cliches? If you want equality on a new plane, you have to play with the veteran players, literally in this sense, and you're going to have to drag yourself through the minefield. Get ready, gonna be a tough ride. You wanna win in this world, best have a strong backbone.+Eric Howell While I agree with the gist of you are saying, taking pictures off another human being and then photoshopping it look like they have been assaulted and then threatening rape is not right. It is wrong. If it was done in the real world, the police would be involved as there is a good suspension of danger to the person receiving the threats. It is okay because it's done online and not IRL.
Freedom of speech is important to. threatening rape is not expressing your freedom. It's threatening rape and you should be punished anyway possible.
and they say feminists have no sense of humor
This woman is an idiot, but she was easily avoided until all of this started. People should just learn to ignore idiots. Trolling isn't OK. Being jerks isn't OK.
While I personally agree that crimes of a sexual nature are some of the most heinous acts an individual can aspire to and should be punished mercilessly, I don't condone any of what has been said, I do condone their right to say it. Granted, I would probably carry a can of wasp on me at all times. Note, wasp, not wasps. Any person carrying around a jar full of tiny buzzing helicopters with needles should probably be put to death. And trolling
isokay, that's why SO many people laugh at Daniel Tosh, royal jerk he may be, it's just that people can't go about whining about how someone said something that made them wanna cry. Suck it up and walk away. And buy a jar full of hornets.Create a game that better represents women then. Don't troll the industry. What's up with all the double standards these days?
I don't agree people should be trolled or harassed online simply because of their ideas.
This makes me look differently at an experience I had a few years back. My husband and his friends played a lot of WoW. You could even say he had an addiction to the game. Somewhat as a joke, but somewhat seriously, I started a website called "WAWOW: women against World of Warcraft." I was shocked at the response I received from women in similar (and far worse) situations than me. I was more shocked at that hate directed at me; they included death wishes (in "leet speak") and suggestions for what I could do with my website. I kind of laughed about it and moved on.
People think that they don't need to behave on the internet. They think that the rules of human decency and respect don't apply. Penny Arcade calls it the "Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory." This story is a truly extreme example of that.
Ah, but they will. Trolls suck, but they think =you= suck. For some, the difference falls to solipsism. But I digress, you're always going to have to deal with it. Your chances of one of the 13 yr old boys who are probably the ones slamming you with all the strange threats of sexual violation, or on the off-chance they may be an adult, actually assaulting you is statistically inferior to being hit by a bus. Words and pictures won't break you unless you let them.
+Alison Bernstein We've tried walled gardens, before, and now we have FaceBook, and everybody else.
The "bad" People in the World, simply cannot handle it when someone just might better themselves. Those People who dare to step outside the box must be quickly and thoroughly brought back down to the level of misery as the abuser!
+Lynette Young How would you like to see change implemented?
Blow 'em off— Trolling and harassment is people with little or no brains
Whoa, that is full on and unacceptable. (I read the blog post)
Wow. I was ready to mount some sort of defense in the name of free speech, but the images, attacks, and tactics of Anita's critics are so vile, they are indefensible. Thanks for sharing this article.
horrible!!
Like
+Nobilis Reed I'd like many more women on gaming dev teams for sure – and absolutely in the supporting industry such as con's. I'd like to see more gender-neutral (meaning no anti-female) characters and story lines designed for GIRLS. Yes, women and girls like to play WoW, GTA and Skyrim, but the way women are portrayed (if at all) are heavily designed to be degrading (which, sickly, is supposed to appeal to the 14-23 year old males). I would also like to see the community finally act like adults and self-police misogynist behavior instead of gorging themselves on it and acting like a hormone and rage filled mob.
As a parent to both a boy and a girl, it will be a cold day in Hell if any kid of mine will be exposed to the treatment of women in that manner. I sure as shit won't tollerate the representation of women (or girls) being physically or sexually abused or threatened. I wonder if the mothers and wives of these trolls know how their kids are behaving (no matter how old). Actually, I think I'd love to see a Maury Povich-style intervention that does exactly that. THAT would be great television!
(Aside: Curious why Skyrim is on your list. It seems to be one of the most gender-neutral games I've ever seen. Feel free not to answer if it would derail.)
Your first paragraph has many worthwhile goals. What do you think is the best way to accomplish them?
The last paragraph actually sounds like a good start! Especially the part about not providing support to games you don't like. The Maury Povich idea is good, too, actually; if you can't get hold of actual trolls then it shouldn't be too hard to present theatrically.
?????
First thing is first, some of the picks of her with her arms up are funny. Now you want more women in video game development, I want reality in The Bachelorette, no touring London all day and eating dinner in a fucking bell tower. What's wrong with Applebees? Better yet, I want her to work all day and all of her dates to work all day then to come home tired and pissed off at all the dumbass drivers on the road, next someone has to go pick the kid up, now they come home, sit down to a shitty dinner, complain about their day, "mommy is tired" will be said at least once, her date will offer to do the dishes since he's a "nice guy" and after that it's time to read the kid a bedtime story, say goodnight and then he's out the door because she's on tv and has an image to uphold.
Guys want to escape the same as girls do, it's fantasy and that's where it should stay.
Trolls would do themselves a huge favor by crawling back under the rock they slithered out from & staying there. The internet is made up by people of many different backgrounds & beliefs. Some you're going to agree with & some you're not. If you're going to be involved in any type of social media, you better learn to tolerate diversity. If you can't & resort to trolling tactics, then social media is not for you. A playground for children would be your better fit.
+Vicki Lynn my kids are better behaved than that <grin>!
Wow. Just wow. I'm closing off comments. No explanation needed. My stream, my rules. Idiots everywhere deciding they want to attempt to use me as their soapbox. Way to prove the human race is evolving.
Nice one Eric, from another faceless ,and I'd add charmless drone.I try to live up to that ambition,
Sick grin free of any obligation, much like paying for a poor meal.
I don't want ponies in my cereal or my FPS. Why do girls need better representation in video games?
For one thing, video games are at best a waste of time. You want girls to waste their time too?
Sometimes it feels like you'd follow us anywhere just to be there and say, I'm here too. If we jump into a flaming pile of shit will you say you need better representation in the flaming shit pile?
I don't see why you want girls to play video games, or to push video game companies to cater to girls. I play them and I know how fucking dumb they are. I'm glad most of the girls I ever knew didn't waste their time there, virtually chasing a dragon or shooting a ninja (that never happens actually, the ninja shooting, except in dues ex.)
Be happy your sex isn't stuck in the vapid ether of bits.
+Lynette Young you make me want to puke!
Why do you want more women on dev teams?
What is wrong with you people?
+Christian Smith I'm going to carefully disagree with some of what you wrote. I don't think there is anything wrong with photoshopping whatever kind of atrocity you want, rape, murder, whatever. It is not much different than watching a movie.
But threatening some action is wrong, and illegal I imagine. On the other hand, parodying an event, even a reprehensible, terrible one (assuming there is no legitimate, real or underlying threat) is also fine.
I did not look at the material in question here, do not believe that girls need better representation in video games, and would not buy videogames for any of my children anyway. I wish I never played on myself. They are a bit addictive and completely useless.
Well, I was going to add more to my original comment but I accidentally posted it and I wasn't able to edit it on my iCrap.
If you want games to better represent women, then create them, don't complain about the ones already created and sold. Let's also mention that the demographic she is 'attacking' is pretty much the same demographic for trolls, so it would be ridiculous to not expect this kind of backlash. Not that it justifies anything, it's just common sense, imo.
Games are for entertainment only. Like +Dan O'Brien said, games are a waste of time. There are plenty of other things in reality that are misrepresenting women that is way more valuable to this entire argument than video games. Such as religion, culture, literature, Hollywood, and even woman who don't share the same thoughts as feminists or at least not to the same extent.
I also believe that women aren't actually misrepresented in video games, they are represented differently to sell games and make money. Ass sells and women have beautiful asses.
To me, saying that virtual female characters misrepresent women in reality is only belittling all of society, not just women. Let's quit trying to make them more realistic and just agree on the fact that they are not real, will not be real, and that, they should not be real.
Looked up this woman, looks like she makes these arguments to garner sponsors to her show, and she makes hundreds of thousands of dollars if not more for these pseudo controversies.
This entire thing is just a trap to get you to follow her. Well played.
Looked up this woman, looks like she makes these arguments to garner sponsors to her show, and she makes hundreds of thousands of dollars if not more for these pseudo controversies.
This entire thing is just a trap to get you to follow her. Well played.