Speaking recently at the XOXO Festival in Portland over the weekend, Tropes vs. Women in Video Games creator Anita Sarkeesian spoke out about the abuse and threats she has received in recent weeks. Sarkeesian said in her speech at the event (as detailed by the Verge) that many of the people that lob hate and threats at her and others online for their work do so because they believe they are being "noble."
"The perpetrators do not see themselves as perpetrators at all," she said. "They see themselves as noble warriors. We are blamed for the abuse we receive and regularly told that we are either asking for it or inventing it entirely."
Sarkeesian also talked about how "hate campaigns" are often spread through social media, and how facts are often lost in the fervor. By the time these campaigns reach a fever pitch, no one seems to know exactly what the truth is:
"Falsehoods about me are initially pushed by detractors who use them to post to 4Chan and Reddit to rally more people to the cause," she said. "It's bouncing from Twitter to Tumblr to Facebook to YouTube and back again. Once the cascade reaches a critical mass, it no longer matters what the facts are. It becomes a viral meme."
Sarkeesian produces a series of documentaries called Tropes vs. Women in Video Games, which highlights how games often put women in a poor light or generally treat them as objects or "window dressing."
Her latest video was released at about the same time that Depression Quest developer Zoe Quinn was being harassed and threatened via social media. Those taking aim at Quinn decided to take Sarkeesian to task as well. While some in the community simply criticized Sarkeesian for her latest video others took it a step too far by threatening and harassing her.
You can watch the latest video to your left. We don't think it contains anything that would warrant threats of violence or rape against Sarkeesian.
Source: Polygon
Comments
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
Leigh Alexander tweeted about wanting a "violent cultural backlash" against "hood men" - which she later defined as "ghetto," itself being "more polite than" what she means (http://i.imgur.com/eNvSPhE.png). She has written anti-#GamerGate articles for VICE, Gamasutra, TIME, and others. If you've gotten information about #GamerGate from one of those sources, you've got it from the same person - her, someone involved in the story.
What, then, about that statement is humorous?
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
You do realize that Leigh is not white, right? I mean, that is not a secret by any means. Your "proof" that she is a racist is like calling all black people racist because they call each other "nigger".
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
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Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
Are you fucking serious?
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
Only sometimes.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
WHAT?
ARE YOU...
WHAT?
THIS IS A JOKE, RIGHT?
WOW
JUST
WOW
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
Could be.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
"They see themselves as noble warriors." - Sorry, pal, but I do believe we call this projection.
"Falsehoods about me are initially pushed by detractors who use them to post to 4Chan and Reddit to rally more people to the cause," - Or another way of looking at it is that when you're wrong or you misrepresent something you are being called on it and this upsets you.
"...it no longer matters what the facts are." - Since when were you in interested in these things called facts? They didn't matter when you created your video series, but now they're somehow important to you?
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
Okay, let's play this game again.
"...when you're wrong or you misrepresent something you are being called on it..."
"[Facts] didn't matter when you created your video series..."
Identify three things from the Tropes v. Women videos that are wrong, misrepresenting something, or not factual. Please provide the name of the video, a direct quote and a timestamp for each.
Andrew Eisen
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
Are you even trying?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25o0EZiogw0
NEVERMIND the Hitman Absolution fallacy.
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
Yes, that's why I keep asking for specifics. What is the Hitman Absolution fallacy?
Here are the major points of the video you link:
-Damsel trope is used because it's a convenient plot device (something Sarkeesian agrees with), not to send the message that women are weak.
Sarkeesian never claims that's the reason for the trope's use. Further, "weak," in the context of Sarkeesian's videos, is not referring exclusively to physical strength.
-It's usually a damsel because it's usually a guy holding the game controller.
Irrelevant.
-Because violence against women happens in real life it would be unconscionable to specifically avoid depicting violence against women in video games.
Not something Sarkeesian is pushing for.
Andrew Eisen
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
I don't know if I think they think they are "noble;" instead I think they can't separate Sarkeesian's comments about gamer culture from themselves or their personal opinions. For example, she'll say "games (or gamers) treat women as window dressing," and these people hear/read that as a personal attack. And of course they don't think they do that, so they respond with a #NotAllGamers mentality. In doing so, it's not an act of nobility - like they are defending the unspoken for - it's that they are defending themselves as individuals.
When that is ignored or dismissed as missing the point, then the dialog (or lack thereof) takes on a whole other meaning - now their personal opinion is being discarded and the anger takes on a life of its own. Then they resort to being spiteful, horrible children.
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
I don't think the two are mutually exclusive, though. Given the tendency by elements of the media to demonize video games as the new moral panic or yet another example of lazy millenials blah blah blah get off my lawn (among other things, of course), it's easy to see how an individual could conflate attacks on one's hobby with attacks on oneself. From there, it becomes a basic ingroup/outgroup morality problem: they are defending what is, to them, a population under attack by a hostile majority.
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
It's worse than that with Anita. She uses weasel words constantly to imply that those who enjoy specific games that she's "analyzed" (i.e. read the plot synopsis and edited someone's let's plays instead of actually playing it) are somehow deluded and misogynistic individuals. Take the Hitman example, where she clearly states that players were "meant" to derive a perverse pleasure from dragging around the bodies of a couple of incapacitated strippers in a scene that barely constitutes an optional fraction of a percent. So she either demonizes the players for playing the game (and thus reduce the credibility of naysayers who will correctly point out that such gameplay is inefficient and not recommended), or she demonizes the developers for allowing the option to exist in the first place.
It's not an "attack" on a hobby- it's an attack on the players and developers by implying that reflecting the real world in unacceptable where it pertains to women.
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
Please cite three examples from the TvW videos where Sarkeesian implies gamers who enjoy specific games are deluded and misogynistic, demonizes players for playing, demonizes developers for allowing options that exemplify the tropes she's discussing, or implies that including scenarios that reflect things that happen to women in the real world is unacceptable. For each example, provide the video name, direct quote and timestamp.
Take the Hitman example, where she clearly states that players were "meant" to derive a perverse pleasure from dragging around the bodies of a couple of incapacitated strippers in a scene that barely constitutes an optional fraction of a percent.
Here's the quote: "Players are meant to derive a perverse pleasure from desecrating the bodies of unsuspecting virtual female characters."
While she is indeed playing a clip from Hitman as an example of specific aspects of objectification (in this case, violability and disposability), she's not talking about that game specifically as should be clear by the collage of 25 different games at the start of that segment. Also, the fact that the scene she's narrating over is only a small part of the game is completely irrelevant.
Regardless, that section of her video does absolutely nothing to backup any of the things you allege she does.
Andrew Eisen
Re: Anita Sarkeesian: 'Hateful Abuse' Often Comes From ...
It is not an attack on anything. It is the observations of one speaker about the themes and tropes found in games. She never once "attacks" the games, the developers or the players.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower