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Allison W · 11-02-2014, 12:12 PM

More keeps happening on the Gamergate front, but the thought of making a new post about it gets awfully daunting, just because of the sheer volume of shit out there--I'm just up and making myself do it, here. The border skirmishes in the communities I'm in finally started to die down, but before they did, I got to see a whole lot people standing up against Gamergate. Also that fun thing where the folks on my side (myself included) provided evidence and sources and whatnot and the folks on the other side pretty much just whined and frothed, which I think contributed to the die-down. Seriously, though, it was pretty messed up for a while--there were people doing shit like calling me a TERF (is this real life?), and saying that feminists should shut up because if we're in a BDSM community (which was the locale) we must be hypocrites, and actually trying to draw false equivalence between WeHuntedTheMammoth (a site that tracks misogyny in the online "manosphere") to ReturnOfKings (a hyper-patriarchal PUA site from the bowels of the manosphere that does everything from teach men how to commit date rape, to engage in active rape apologism, to advocate for total male dominance of society). It was crazy and stupid, but thankfully it's cooling down. No telling when there might be another flare-up somewhere, but.

Before I continue, that site I mentioned. No, not ROK; don't go there unless you want to be sick with rage. I mean WeHuntedTheMammoth. I want to shill it to you. It's quickly become one of my favourite sites, and I believe it should be one of yours if you want to keep track of the new misogyny movement of the Internet "manosphere." Not only does David Futrelle tirelessly track the movements of these groups (including, more recently, Gamergate), but he breaks the news in a largely supportive environment where you don't have to feel like you're alone behind enemy lines when you're learning about this stuff. Highly recommended.

Now, some good news; you should absolutely check this out, especially if you've been worried about this lately--it'll help. Maybe you heard that Anita Sarkeesian appeared on The Colbert Report, maybe you didn't. This was a glorious development that sowed absolute chaos in the Gamergate ranks. The responses to it ranged from defeatist melancholy to an absolute spiral into delusion in which GGers went so full bullshit that they told themselves that this monumental blow against them somehow meant they were winning. Even better, it's just a milestone in a long list of entities coming out against Gamergate--virtually every non-gaming, non-reactionary media outlet has come out against Gamergate, and even the geek sphere is mostly against them. Geek heroes are coming out against Gamergate. GGers are starting to act like the world is against them because it is. Hell, even Playboy magazine (I won't link that one, but I'm sure you can find the article if you really want) published an article critical of Gamergate.

Let's have some more feel-good. Chris Kluwe ripped Gamergate a new one with some of the most brilliant and colourful profanity the Internet has seen yet. He also went on to summarise the reactions of Gamergate to Anita Sarkeesian's appearance on The Colbert Report, and it was funny. And this is probably the single funniest thing about GG on the Internet.

For about a month or two straight I was sick with anger. My limbic system wouldn't stop screaming about the enemies lurking in my own tribe and cutting off the blood flow to those parts of my brain that actually try to deal with things in rational terms. The fights were ugly, especially when these people were in communities I'm part of, and really laid bare the awful nature of those enemies. I don't want to get into further into the gory details of those clashes than I already have; I do hope that's all right.

But now, after all that's happened, there's a part of me that's hopeful--only part, granted, because Gamergate has been successful at driving far too many women out of the hobby, and I can only hope that they'll come back. But those gamers who stand against Gamergate's ideals really stood up. I got to see non-trans women and trans women (the latter, interestingly, are insanely common in both the hobby and the industry itself), and awesome allies, standing together against GG and doing great things: I can only hope the next is to reach out to those women who were driven out by Gamergate and draw them back in. Gamergate even succeeded at making feminism in games mainstream by catapulting Anita Sarkeesian all the way to The Colbert Report and exemplifying our society's misogyny problem so clearly even the mainstream media can see it. It brightens my day a little every time I hear someone say that before Gamergate they didn't understand why feminism is still important or that misogyny is alive and well, but now they're starting to see it. Even 4chan, the place where the conspiracy against Zoe Quinn that became Gamergate was originally hatched, wised up and banned Gamergate from its midst after years of tolerating all kinds of horrific toxicity, from misogyny to racism to anti-Semitism, on its boards. Gamergate called itself the "sleeping giant" that had finally been awoken by "feminist invasion," and then it provoked the actual sleeping giant.

I suppose I can only hope that something good comes of this in the end, and that it's not just the antidepressants talking.

I could continue in this post, but I want to finish this one off and post it. In the next post, the bad news. I'm not looking forward to this.

11-02-2014, 12:12 PM	#549
Allison W Member How Do You Identify?: TG Femme Preferred Pronoun?: She Relationship Status: Loner Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Wisconsin Posts: 366 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,414 Thanked 1,198 Times in 320 Posts Rep Power: 12203814	More keeps happening on the Gamergate front, but the thought of making a new post about it gets awfully daunting, just because of the sheer volume of shit out there--I'm just up and making myself do it, here. The border skirmishes in the communities I'm in finally started to die down, but before they did, I got to see a whole lot people standing up against Gamergate. Also that fun thing where the folks on my side (myself included) provided evidence and sources and whatnot and the folks on the other side pretty much just whined and frothed, which I think contributed to the die-down. Seriously, though, it was pretty messed up for a while--there were people doing shit like calling me a TERF (is this real life?), and saying that feminists should shut up because if we're in a BDSM community (which was the locale) we must be hypocrites, and actually trying to draw false equivalence between WeHuntedTheMammoth (a site that tracks misogyny in the online "manosphere") to ReturnOfKings (a hyper-patriarchal PUA site from the bowels of the manosphere that does everything from teach men how to commit date rape, to engage in active rape apologism, to advocate for total male dominance of society). It was crazy and stupid, but thankfully it's cooling down. No telling when there might be another flare-up somewhere, but. Before I continue, that site I mentioned. No, not ROK; don't go there unless you want to be sick with rage. I mean WeHuntedTheMammoth. I want to shill it to you. It's quickly become one of my favourite sites, and I believe it should be one of yours if you want to keep track of the new misogyny movement of the Internet "manosphere." Not only does David Futrelle tirelessly track the movements of these groups (including, more recently, Gamergate), but he breaks the news in a largely supportive environment where you don't have to feel like you're alone behind enemy lines when you're learning about this stuff. Highly recommended. Now, some good news; you should absolutely check this out, especially if you've been worried about this lately--it'll help. Maybe you heard that Anita Sarkeesian appeared on The Colbert Report, maybe you didn't. This was a glorious development that sowed absolute chaos in the Gamergate ranks. The responses to it ranged from defeatist melancholy to an absolute spiral into delusion in which GGers went so full bullshit that they told themselves that this monumental blow against them somehow meant they were winning. Even better, it's just a milestone in a long list of entities coming out against Gamergate--virtually every non-gaming, non-reactionary media outlet has come out against Gamergate, and even the geek sphere is mostly against them. Geek heroes are coming out against Gamergate. GGers are starting to act like the world is against them because it is. Hell, even Playboy magazine (I won't link that one, but I'm sure you can find the article if you really want) published an article critical of Gamergate. Let's have some more feel-good. Chris Kluwe ripped Gamergate a new one with some of the most brilliant and colourful profanity the Internet has seen yet. He also went on to summarise the reactions of Gamergate to Anita Sarkeesian's appearance on The Colbert Report, and it was funny. And this is probably the single funniest thing about GG on the Internet. For about a month or two straight I was sick with anger. My limbic system wouldn't stop screaming about the enemies lurking in my own tribe and cutting off the blood flow to those parts of my brain that actually try to deal with things in rational terms. The fights were ugly, especially when these people were in communities I'm part of, and really laid bare the awful nature of those enemies. I don't want to get into further into the gory details of those clashes than I already have; I do hope that's all right. But now, after all that's happened, there's a part of me that's hopeful--only part, granted, because Gamergate has been successful at driving far too many women out of the hobby, and I can only hope that they'll come back. But those gamers who stand against Gamergate's ideals really stood up. I got to see non-trans women and trans women (the latter, interestingly, are insanely common in both the hobby and the industry itself), and awesome allies, standing together against GG and doing great things: I can only hope the next is to reach out to those women who were driven out by Gamergate and draw them back in. Gamergate even succeeded at making feminism in games mainstream by catapulting Anita Sarkeesian all the way to The Colbert Report and exemplifying our society's misogyny problem so clearly even the mainstream media can see it. It brightens my day a little every time I hear someone say that before Gamergate they didn't understand why feminism is still important or that misogyny is alive and well, but now they're starting to see it. Even 4chan, the place where the conspiracy against Zoe Quinn that became Gamergate was originally hatched, wised up and banned Gamergate from its midst after years of tolerating all kinds of horrific toxicity, from misogyny to racism to anti-Semitism, on its boards. Gamergate called itself the "sleeping giant" that had finally been awoken by "feminist invasion," and then it provoked the actual sleeping giant. I suppose I can only hope that something good comes of this in the end, and that it's not just the antidepressants talking. I could continue in this post, but I want to finish this one off and post it. In the next post, the bad news. I'm not looking forward to this.