Misogyny and Sexism in the News

Allison W · 10-21-2014, 09:20 AM

Anya and Kobi already posted two articles here about GamerGate, which kind of shames me, because it occurs to me that as someone who's been playing video games for the past 25 years or thereabouts and who is actually in communities where GG and anti-GG factions are clashing, I should have been on the ball about posting GG-related news here. It's just, there's so much that has been written on it, and most of it in the gaming press rather than the mainstream press, that I wasn't sure where I'd start. Still, that's no excuse on my part.

So yeah, I'm someone who's actually part of the subculture where this conflict is raging. That, and as a lifelong gamer whose first memories of the medium are flitting visions from before the onset of childhood amnesia and who was one of the many children who had crazy nightmares about enemies that keep coming even when you pause the game(!!), I also feel that video gaming is fucking well my hobby to "invade" with feminist values. So for those reasons, I'm going to offer not just links and articles but also a bit of commentary, at the risk of meandering somewhat from the original purpose of the thread, and some of the following links will be from small-time bloggers and other non-mainstream sources that those of you who aren't part of the gaming subculture (or, well, who don't follow wehuntedthemammoth) might have missed. I hope this is all right.

Part of the issue is--as was touched upon in Kobi's post--that GamerGate is a dual-layer movement, built upon a core of original agitators whose motive is right-wing anti-feminist backlash, surrounded by a humongous shell of useful idiots who actually think this is about journalism, despite the fact that the movement's biggest "accomplishments" thus far have been driving numerous women out of the industry and making gamers look like psychopaths to outside observers. That core hides behind the nebulousness of this leaderless movement and uses the outer shell as a shield to deflect criticism and disown responsibility for their actual goals and deeds.

Some links related to the last paragraph:
this exposé of the conspiracy at GG's core is comparatively bite-sized, so I'd recommend starting here
What GamerGate's manifesto really means
An example of the deflection of responsibility: one of the "anti-harassment" GGers is actually the same asshole who created the "Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian" flash game a few years back
L. Rhodes writes an open letter to GamerGate's misguided outer shell.
More detailed evidence of the GG conspiracy follows:
Evidence of core GGers using sockpuppets to pad their outer shell and get the ball rolling, and further links to articles that pissed them off
Zoe Quinn posted screenshots providing evidence of the motives of core GGers
Further evidence of the conspiracy at GG's core, from their own IRC logs
Good golly more evidence

This is about more than just video games: video games are a major cultural institution now, bigger even than television, music, or movies, and thus the medium is a major fortress in the cultural war between feminism and patriarchy--and supporters of patriarchy, even outside the gaming press, are absolutely treating it as such and fighting to maintain patriarchy's hold upon it. GamerGate has gotten a fair bit of right-wing--and also specifically MRA--support from outside that gamer press. That right-wing garbage mill Breitbart (to think a movement allegedly about journalistic ethics was happy to receive support from fucking Breitbart) was one of the first non-gaming-press outlets to write in support of GamerGate--the author of the piece even thinks gamers are losers, but supports GamerGate because he and GG share the goal of defending patriarchy. False-flag "feminist" Christina Hoff Summers wrote that GamerGate is a reaction against feminists trying to, allegedly, destroy male culture (if the behaviour of GamerGate is representative of this male culture, maybe it's about fucking time it get destroyed). And even carnival-of-misogyny A Voice For Men has jumped on the bandwagon, apparently defending video games as an alternative to marriage for men (what the christ).

Some links for the last paragraph:
On Milo Yiannopoulos, the guy who wrote the Breitbart piece
On Christina Hoff Sommers's piece on GamerGate
I was serious about A Voice For Men defending video games as an alternative to marriage and oh my god you have to see this image
Because it really is about misogynists trying to keep video games a patriarchal stronghold
MRAs appropriating the concept of "safe space" to declare that entire swaths of culture, like video games, are supposed to be "safe space" for male nerds who are apparently traumatised by women's refusal to give them sex or some stupid shit

A further observation: the "corruption" that was used to justify GG was the allegation that Zoe Quinn had traded sex for positive reviews (check out the very first link in this post for some very gross defenses of this position), and the fact that major games-press sites deleted such accusations, which was supposedly censorship. Thing is, it later came out that no, Zoe never traded sex for reviews, and her game was not actually reviewed by people she'd slept with (one of them mentioned it in passing in some article or another). And moreover, the journalists in question knew she never traded sex for reviews, meaning that they rightly saw these accusations as baseless harassment and not a legitimate indictment of anyone's journalistic integrity, and that the deletion of these accusations was thus a normal response to harassment and in no way censorship or corruption. And yet, despite this original accusation being found false, the GamerGate ball keeps rolling. (Because it was never about corruption.)

Another observation: Anti-"social justice warrior" gamers who line up in defense of GamerGate on the one hand whine and moan about how games aren't taken seriously as art, and on the other hand the moment someone critiques games as cultural artifacts rather than simply meaningless entertainment, they start screaming about how THEY JUST WANT TO PLAY VIDJA GAMES KEEP YOUR SOCIAL JUSTICE BULLSHIT OUT OF IT. hypocrisy much

I'd like to thank Zoe Quinn, Brianna Wu, and Anita Sarkeesian for standing their ground against GamerGate. I'd also like to thank David Futrelle for making wehuntedthemammoth.com and doing such a good job of tracking GamerGate; it made providing sources much easier. I'd also like to thank the headwiz of one of my other Internet hangouts for putting his foot down and telling GamerGate supporters that they can get the fuck out because he wasn't going to be "neutral" about a movement orchestrated as an attack on women. And I'd also like to thank all the journalists who act like grown-ups and accept that it's time for the medium they love to grow up, and don't straddle that hypocritical fence mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Lastly, here's an MSNBC video in which Zoe Quinn herself is interviewed and gets to speak on the subject.

10-21-2014, 09:20 AM	#11
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	Anya and Kobi already posted two articles here about GamerGate, which kind of shames me, because it occurs to me that as someone who's been playing video games for the past 25 years or thereabouts and who is actually in communities where GG and anti-GG factions are clashing, I should have been on the ball about posting GG-related news here. It's just, there's so much that has been written on it, and most of it in the gaming press rather than the mainstream press, that I wasn't sure where I'd start. Still, that's no excuse on my part. So yeah, I'm someone who's actually part of the subculture where this conflict is raging. That, and as a lifelong gamer whose first memories of the medium are flitting visions from before the onset of childhood amnesia and who was one of the many children who had crazy nightmares about enemies that keep coming even when you pause the game(!!), I also feel that video gaming is fucking well my hobby to "invade" with feminist values. So for those reasons, I'm going to offer not just links and articles but also a bit of commentary, at the risk of meandering somewhat from the original purpose of the thread, and some of the following links will be from small-time bloggers and other non-mainstream sources that those of you who aren't part of the gaming subculture (or, well, who don't follow wehuntedthemammoth) might have missed. I hope this is all right. Part of the issue is--as was touched upon in Kobi's post--that GamerGate is a dual-layer movement, built upon a core of original agitators whose motive is right-wing anti-feminist backlash, surrounded by a humongous shell of useful idiots who actually think this is about journalism, despite the fact that the movement's biggest "accomplishments" thus far have been driving numerous women out of the industry and making gamers look like psychopaths to outside observers. That core hides behind the nebulousness of this leaderless movement and uses the outer shell as a shield to deflect criticism and disown responsibility for their actual goals and deeds. Some links related to the last paragraph: this exposé of the conspiracy at GG's core is comparatively bite-sized, so I'd recommend starting here What GamerGate's manifesto really means An example of the deflection of responsibility: one of the "anti-harassment" GGers is actually the same asshole who created the "Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian" flash game a few years back L. Rhodes writes an open letter to GamerGate's misguided outer shell. More detailed evidence of the GG conspiracy follows: Evidence of core GGers using sockpuppets to pad their outer shell and get the ball rolling, and further links to articles that pissed them off Zoe Quinn posted screenshots providing evidence of the motives of core GGers Further evidence of the conspiracy at GG's core, from their own IRC logs Good golly more evidence This is about more than just video games: video games are a major cultural institution now, bigger even than television, music, or movies, and thus the medium is a major fortress in the cultural war between feminism and patriarchy--and supporters of patriarchy, even outside the gaming press, are absolutely treating it as such and fighting to maintain patriarchy's hold upon it. GamerGate has gotten a fair bit of right-wing--and also specifically MRA--support from outside that gamer press. That right-wing garbage mill Breitbart (to think a movement allegedly about journalistic ethics was happy to receive support from fucking Breitbart) was one of the first non-gaming-press outlets to write in support of GamerGate--the author of the piece even thinks gamers are losers, but supports GamerGate because he and GG share the goal of defending patriarchy. False-flag "feminist" Christina Hoff Summers wrote that GamerGate is a reaction against feminists trying to, allegedly, destroy male culture (if the behaviour of GamerGate is representative of this male culture, maybe it's about fucking time it get destroyed). And even carnival-of-misogyny A Voice For Men has jumped on the bandwagon, apparently defending video games as an alternative to marriage for men (what the christ). Some links for the last paragraph: On Milo Yiannopoulos, the guy who wrote the Breitbart piece On Christina Hoff Sommers's piece on GamerGate I was serious about A Voice For Men defending video games as an alternative to marriage and oh my god you have to see this image Because it really is about misogynists trying to keep video games a patriarchal stronghold MRAs appropriating the concept of "safe space" to declare that entire swaths of culture, like video games, are supposed to be "safe space" for male nerds who are apparently traumatised by women's refusal to give them sex or some stupid shit A further observation: the "corruption" that was used to justify GG was the allegation that Zoe Quinn had traded sex for positive reviews (check out the very first link in this post for some very gross defenses of this position), and the fact that major games-press sites deleted such accusations, which was supposedly censorship. Thing is, it later came out that no, Zoe never traded sex for reviews, and her game was not actually reviewed by people she'd slept with (one of them mentioned it in passing in some article or another). And moreover, the journalists in question knew she never traded sex for reviews, meaning that they rightly saw these accusations as baseless harassment and not a legitimate indictment of anyone's journalistic integrity, and that the deletion of these accusations was thus a normal response to harassment and in no way censorship or corruption. And yet, despite this original accusation being found false, the GamerGate ball keeps rolling. (Because it was never about corruption.) Another observation: Anti-"social justice warrior" gamers who line up in defense of GamerGate on the one hand whine and moan about how games aren't taken seriously as art, and on the other hand the moment someone critiques games as cultural artifacts rather than simply meaningless entertainment, they start screaming about how THEY JUST WANT TO PLAY VIDJA GAMES KEEP YOUR SOCIAL JUSTICE BULLSHIT OUT OF IT. hypocrisy much I'd like to thank Zoe Quinn, Brianna Wu, and Anita Sarkeesian for standing their ground against GamerGate. I'd also like to thank David Futrelle for making wehuntedthemammoth.com and doing such a good job of tracking GamerGate; it made providing sources much easier. I'd also like to thank the headwiz of one of my other Internet hangouts for putting his foot down and telling GamerGate supporters that they can get the fuck out because he wasn't going to be "neutral" about a movement orchestrated as an attack on women. And I'd also like to thank all the journalists who act like grown-ups and accept that it's time for the medium they love to grow up, and don't straddle that hypocritical fence mentioned in the previous paragraph. Lastly, here's an MSNBC video in which Zoe Quinn herself is interviewed and gets to speak on the subject.