Thursday 16 October 2014

Anita Sarkeesian Cancels Speech After Threat Of USU Massacre Over Her Speaking...wait, WHAT?! (WARNING: Strong Language)

...This is the third time in 24 hours that I've nearly lost my temper over different things. The first time, it was finding out that an anime I was watching had a character in the body of a nine year old girl appearing nude in it (although my reaction was more "Why the fuck wasn't this warned about on the back of the DVD case?" than outright fury). The second time, it was getting informed about someone's talking behind my back and not only insulting me, but insulting some of my closest friends in the same breath (word of advice, if you're the person I'm on about and you're reading this: don't talk behind people's backs online, as people can take pictures of their screens to confirm what you've said before you can delete it and then share those pictures). The third time...was this.

Ugh...this is so fucking stupid that I can't even be bothered to even pretend to be polite about it.

OK, so, if you've not heard of Anita Sarkeesian before now, she's basically a VERY controversial figure among the gaming scene. She's essentially examining the potential misogynistic viewpoint of gaming culture (I've not actually seen her series, so I've got that bit of information second hand) and, for quite a few reasons, she is basically a lightning rod for controversy among gamers. I'm not going to cover the behind-the-scenes things which have made her series a lightning rod for controversy, but her series is also noted for a few other things which are arguably shady practices connected to gaming culture (for example, she apparently used footage from LPs by gamers without crediting them, has admitted to not being a gamer herself and also only picked examples which suited the argument she was trying to make...which is what most people do when they have arguments anyway, but I'm not going to go into the ins and outs of the nature of having an argument with someone because most of you probably don't need to have them spelt out to you).

Normally, that wouldn't be a lightning rod for controversy, would it?

Well...ever since Sarkeesian's series debuted, she has had to deal with HUGE amounts of crap from various gamers, including death threats against her AND HER FAMILY, rape threats and all sorts of crap like that. All of whom don't bother to take the time to politely take the time to explain why they dislike her series, but instead just say "you're wrong" and things get very, VERY unpleasant very quickly from there.

Now, I have to be honest, I think that Sarkeesian has a point: due to the way that most gaming culture is built up, it is very much the domain of white middle class males (most of which are young men, but you do get people covering a fairly large range of ages) and most games tend to reflect that. For me, I think that, while Sarkeesian hasn't necessarily done a lot to make her a trustworthy source of information, the basic points she makes are fairly valid, and I do have to give some support to her effectively trying to campaign for equality in gaming, as it would make gaming less of a niche market and more of an acceptable market in the eyes of the mainstream. I don't necessarily watch her series, however: in fact, I don't like her enough to want to watch it, but I'm more than happy to just let her be. What she does with her series is ultimately her choice and I see no reason to go out of my way to waste my time watching her series just because I think she makes some sensible points: her questionable morales in connection to the series, in fact, have made me reluctant to want to watch her series.

Unfortunately, the people who don't like Sarkeesian seem to lose all concept of common sense whenever she is brought up and...well, you get people doing stupid shit like this.

Basically, Anita Sarkeesian was going to make a speech at Utah State University today and one person who claimed to be a student threatened that, if Sarkeesian's speech went ahead, he would commit a massacre in the style of the Montreal Massacre...and escalated the threat to make it that it would be the deadliest school shooting in history. His reason which he provided (and I swear to God, I'm not making this up!) was as follows:
Feminists have ruined my life and I will have my revenge, for my sake and the sake of all the others they've wronged.
Oh, for the love of all that is holy...

Seriously? A person who is a feminist is going to speak at your university and you think that a valid response is to threaten to murder a huge number of people in your university just because you don't like her? People who, I should point out, might not even end up agreeing with her, are only going out of curiosity or aren't even going to the actual talk? AND you fucking DARE to do this less than two months after there was a scare connected to a massacre (this was when an Exodus fan posted the first half of the lyrics of the chorus to their song "Class Dismissed (A Hate Primer)" without context on his Facebook page: if you're curious, the lyrics are "Student bodies lying dead in the halls, a blood splattered treatise of hate. Class dismissed is my hypothesis, gun fire ends in debate")? What a wonderful display of intelligence, clearly your time in your university has not been wasted on the development of your mind and an open mindedness to new ideas has not passed you by...

If you think that's all that's happened to Sarkeesian...well, brace yourself, for you might be about to lose your faith in humanity.

On top of this, Sarkeesian's appearance at GeekGirlCon about a week ago received threats...and, on top of that, Sarkeesian had to leave her home in August because she got threats directed directly to her and her family (I think it was via post, but I can't confirm this), to the extent that the FBI are investigating the threats. All of this because she has committed the apparently heinous crime of...pointing out that the gaming industry is basically focused on white middle class males, tends to cater towards that group of people and is trying to encourage change.

...Before I continue, I have a few words I would like to direct to everyone who has made Sarkeesian's life terrible just because she has voiced an opinion you don't like: go fuck yourselves, you cunts! You are not making a crusade that is defending something sacred from an enemy to all that is sensible to society, you are being a bunch of fucking assholes to a person who has done NOTHING to you in person to justify your vile behaviour, is making a campaign for something that, if you had half a fucking brain cell, you'd realise is actually a beneficial thing to gaming as a whole and, if you come to this blog and fucking DARE to try to harass me for calling you out, I will give you the response that a piece of shit like you deserves! Take that as a warning: my patience has been tested enough in the last 24 hours that you would have to be almost completely brainless to think that pushing me would be a smart idea, so do not think that I will be polite if you fuck with me on this issue. I will not, because cunts like you do not deserve politeness or respect from me for pulling this kind of shit and thinking in any fucking way that it is fucking justified for any fucking reason, because it is fucking not!

...Now that I've got that out of my system, let me politely point out exactly why crap like this does nothing to help anyone and only makes the whole situation worse.

See, Sarkeesian's series, had it been ignored when it came out and she'd not become a hot topic for bile and hatred like she has, would have been like that of almost every other small name online content creator: she'd have been doing her own thing and she'd have not gotten any real notice outside of her already established viewers. Her series was meant to encourage discussion, to civilly consider her points and see whether her points had any merit. If her series hadn't gained the level of controversy among the gaming scene, maybe the issues connected to her series might have been enough to sink it without her going anywhere with it.

But, by making her a lightning rod for controversy and continually making a big deal whenever she is brought up, she doesn't go away, no discussion of her points can be made, she becomes a far more important figure in the gaming scene and (as has happened in a few Panorama series on the BBC) she gets mainstream recognition. All of it sending the very ugly message that the gaming scene is, in fact, very misogynistic, refuses to accept that anyone who isn't a white male cannot be a hero in it and cannot tolerate change or dissent.

Now, most gamers know that isn't true and it's only a very vocal (and INCREDIBLY dumb) minority who are making the issue occur. But their refusal to shut up about her and their insistence to make her life terrible has only made her more powerful in the gaming scene. In much the same way that constantly picking at a scab only makes the wound worse, Sarkeesian has gone from something that could have been easily ignored to something that now cannot be ignored.

Congratu-fucking-lations, you morons. You've built your own nemesis, and you've only yourselves to blame.

What is worse is that is that these people are so determined to suppress Sarkeesian's voice that they've completely forgotten that the right to freedom of speech in the US does NOT give you the right to suppress someone else's rights just because you disagree with them. You can surrender your rights through committing acts against society like murder (that's what incarceration is), but freedom of speech gives you the right to say what you think. It doesn't give you the right to be heard, however, and, had everyone ignored Sarkeesian, that would have been the end of it...but, by making Sarkeesian a voice capable of being heard due to refusing to shut up about her, they've only made the situation worse and made her a voice with more authority than they do, capable of creating change in the gaming scene.

So, if you're a gamer who doesn't want Sarkeesian's voice to have any weight, here's a suggestion for you: SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT HER AND LEAVE HER ALONE! Or, even better: take the time to calmly provide actual reasons why she is wrong, examples that prove her wrong and do so without insulting Sarkeesian as a person. A wave of polite explanations disproving Sarkeesian will go far further than the torrent of hatred that has been spewed upon her by a bunch of mindless idiots with the common sense of a lemming and the intelligence of a rabid attack dog! If you do support Sarkeesian, then...well, I'm not going to agree with you, as I think she's a questionable source of information and only think she has her basic points sensibly nailed down, but more power to you for doing so!

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