The thing that really pissed me off about this is how they didn't do anything to protect her once the threat came out. That the threat exists is bad enough, but they were allowing people to come to that thing armed. Sorry, but you have to take threats like that seriously. And whether the guy was serious or not, he won. And both she and GG lost.
The one and only blog I'm doing on this topic
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 On 10/16/2014 at 12:58 PM by Ranger1 See More From This User » |
In one way, work taking up so much of my life this summer was a good thing. I managed to remain out of the loop on the whole Gamergate thing until I wandered back to Pixlbit, and even here I managed to avoid most of it, as well. And then my Facebook feed lit up yesterday with the cancellation of Anita Sarkeesian's talk at USU and an article from The Atlantic. That article really hit home, and I'll discuss that further down.
I have mixed feelings about Anita – while I find her methods questionable, her research flawed, and her approach ingenuous, she is also shining a light on an issue that does exist, whether we want to acknowledge it or not. As for the whole Zoe Quinn thing, the original issue seems to have been started by a pissed-off boyfriend who felt the need to air dirty laundry in public, and said public then jumping on various bandwagons while shouting “Rabble! Rabble!” South Park-style. I honestly don't care about the events that precipitated it or the principals in the matter. What I do care about is the actions of the internet rabble.
And before people get their panties in a twist, this blog entry isn't about whether women are objectified in games, it's about internet culture and cyber-bullying, and, to some extent, geek culture. Anything I write about is purely my opinion, frequently colored by events that have happened to me personally. I'm not a feminist, I'm a humanist. All people deserve to be treated with respect regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, etc. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, and vice-versa.
Being a girl who was into comics, science fiction, and games wasn't always easy in the early and mid-80s. It wasn't particularly difficult, either, as long as you had a thick skin and a bunch of guy friends to back you up. Book stores weren't an issue, but comic book stores could get a little weird. The staring, the silence when I walked though the door, the lack of people meeting my eyes, yeah, that all happened. I'd go in, find what I was looking for, make my purchase, and skedaddle if I was alone. Not that I was in any danger, but because I was made to feel uncomfortable and unwelcome in the club house. One guy said to me once “The Archie comics are over there”, implying that I couldn't possibly be in there for anything else. I was usually looking for back issues of Daredevil comics, the occasional X-men comic, and anything Doc Savage-related. Not an Archie comic in my household once I was old enough to pick out my own comics, thank you very much!
I sometimes run into the same issues in game stores. Usually not the mom-and-pop independents, but the EBs and Game Stops. There was one EB at the mall where the sales guys never met my eyes once and were downright hostile to me whenever I was in there. The Game Stops usually amuse me more than anything else, I've been asked more than once if I was sure that my boyfriend would like the game I was buying, or offered accessories in pink. I despise the color pink, by the way.
None of the real life stuff has ever been as creepy and down-right frightening as something I experienced a few years ago on the internet, though. There was an escalating fued between two bloggers on 1up and I called out the mods to do something about it. I named no names, laid the blame equally on both parties, and was actually more pissed at the mods than anything else. One of the feuding bloggers than took it upon himself to make my life as miserable as he could. He got banned from 1up, but would make new accounts at different IP addresses and spam my blogs with his hate-filled vitriol. I was the star in one of his YouTube videos, and he stalked me across multiple websites. It got to the point that I just stopped doing anything social online for several months, because I just never knew when or where this guy would strike next. Eventually, he either got bored or found another target, but those months were pretty horrible. So I thoroughly sympathize with Anita, Zoe, and any other woman who has had to deal with this kind of harassment (and much, much worse; bad as it was for me, I never felt it was to the point where I felt my life to be in danger).
Some of you know about the events I'm talking about, and I'd like to ask you to please refrain from outing the guy in public. As far as I know, he's behaving himself these days, and this isn't a witch hunt or a bid for sympathy. I just need people to understand that these are very real issues facing many, many women and not just the ones who make the headlines, or are even involved in the games industry.
I'll be moderating the comments in this blog entry – while I don't mind discussion, it needs to remain civil. Just know that I may not get drawn in to any discussions this may provoke. I've said my piece and now I'm done with it.
). Some slut shaming began and most games journos have been attacking GG, and every gamer as mysoginsts ever since. From the GG point of view, journos have been shielding themselves with feminism/SJW as a way to draw attention to their sites and articles neglecting to address corruption issues. Thus, Bayonetta2 gets a low score because tits. 
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