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Anita Sarkeesian on Nightline about women's harassment in gaming

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EDIT: Here's the ABC News link to the segment. If anyone can point me to a Youtube version I'll be much obliged!
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/video/feels-gamergate-target-28238598

And here's the YouTube link to that same segment for your convenience:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=gAyncf3DBUQ




I was hesitant to post this as a new thread but since I didn't see another thread about this and we have no Gamergate mega thread anymore I thought this was newsworthy.

So according to Anita's latest tweet she's going to be talking about the harassment that women suffer in the gaming community tonight on ABC's Nightline!

My guide says it's on at 12:07am CST so I'm guessing it's at 1:07am EST/PST? I'll definitely be watching.

http://twitter.com/femfreq/status/555543653930651648

EDIT: added Nightline's tweet about tonight's upcoming show

http://twitter.com/Nightline/status/555562230591156225

#CancelColbert me if old.

EDIT: Go to page 7 to start reading when the show started broadcasting.
 
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You think this is even bigger for Anita than getting interviewed on The Colbert Report? After all this is ABC, not basic cable. It doesn't get much more mainstream than this, I think.
 
I wonder if this is referring to the whole idea of stuff like "women characters exist in GTA that are only there to be objectified and shot at" or if it's about the whole #GamerGate stuff.

If it's the former, I'm not sure harassment is quite the right word.

EDIT: Just checked the actual tweet and saw the word "communities". Neat!
 
In terms of mainstream reaction, I almost hope she understates the current pattern more than overstating it. The second you're part of this type of scenario, you simply can't pretend to ignore what happens out there, but it's so easy to reach just far enough that the people who don't have a sense of it can't take you seriously. Her conversation with Colbert went well, so I hope for the same here.

Using harassment to react to other people's concerns is monstrous. I hope that's what people get out of this. Sarkeesian will end up being one of the key voices on this topic as time passes, which will hopefully mean good things for any part of the discussion she has control over.
 
I wonder if this is referring to the whole idea of stuff like "women characters exist in GTA that are only there to be objectified and shot at" or if it's about the whole #GamerGate stuff.

If it's the former, I'm not sure harassment is quite the right word.
It will most definitely be about real women getting harassed for stating their opinions. Often about what they think are bad representations of women in games. It will not be about said fictitious women getting objectified or shot.

It should be an entertaining watch.
 
"Epidemic" ?

We're at the advent of a cultural realization of how much power we have over each other via communication. More and more, people are using everyday channels of communication to exert "force" on other people's ideas. I don't think the term is too out-of-place.

If the idea is so mundane or inane, it'll be dismissed.
 
Drive-by hate posts already here.


I'm glad she is getting a broader media exposure. The issue of sexism in gaming really does need to be exposed, confronted, and addressed.
 
It will most definitely be about real women getting harassed for stating their opinions. Often about what they think are bad representations of women in games. It will not be about said fictitious women getting objectified or shot.

It should be an entertaining watch.
Well there's definitely no shortage of examples to draw from. The SWATtings alone are an interview's worth of material.
 
Anita doesn't feed the trolls and conducts herself in a professional manner. Those two things alone earn my respect.
 
The biased mainstream media won't give a voice to the oppressed gamers (note: possibly not gamers, see Milo and Based Juice Bro) just because of violent threats and abuse of children but they'll let this woman on air? I'm sickened.

Nice work for Anita.
 
I'm not a hater, I just think epidemic is a bad word to use and you can throw a dictionary at me for saying it but the implications of the word used in the media are far more wild than the use of the term in a medical report or an essay. Epidemic seems like a pretty dumb word to use for what has effectively been a Twitter mud slinging contest with tin foil.
 
Good. The best part about this is thinking about how frustrated those poor GG morons are as they become a greater laughingstock every day and she gets to meet famous people and gain extremely valuable exposure that she never would have gotten without them.
 
I keep thinking it won't happen. I mean, how could people still make posts like that after those awful Gamergate threads? And yet, every goddamned time...

Seriously. I grew tired of the conversation in the GG threads between people reporting on every little development or news or tweet related to the situation; Anita is one of a few people who deserve our attention like this.

More power to her.

I'm not a hater, I just think epidemic is a bad word to use and you can throw a dictionary at me for saying it but the implications of the word used in the media are far more wild than the use of the term in a medical report or an essay. Epidemic seems like a pretty dumb word to use for what has effectively been a Twitter mud slinging contest with tin foil.

Yes, we all wear tin-foil when we receive death threats.

The reality is that GamerGate stopped being a social movement the moment it was born from misogyny and hate. It threatened lives, and thousands of people took up the misguided cause. That qualifies pretty easily as an epidemic.
 
If the gaming community is tired of hearing about people getting harassed, the logical solution is for the community as a whole to band together and excise those doing the harassing, for the good of everyone and the industry itself.
 
I'm not a hater, I just think epidemic is a bad word to use and you can throw a dictionary at me for saying it but the implications of the word used in the media are far more wild than the use of the term in a medical report or an essay. Epidemic seems like a pretty dumb word to use for what has effectively been a Twitter mud slinging contest with tin foil.

you're right, it's more endemic than epidemic considering it's only rampant among gamers
 
I'm not a hater, I just think epidemic is a bad word to use and you can throw a dictionary at me for saying it but the implications of the word used in the media are far more wild than the use of the term in a medical report or an essay. Epidemic seems like a pretty dumb word to use for what has effectively been a Twitter mud slinging contest with tin foil.

People have been put in actual, physically life threatening situations (SWATing) as a direct result of some of this.
 
I'm not a hater, I just think epidemic is a bad word to use and you can throw a dictionary at me for saying it but the implications of the word used in the media are far more wild than the use of the term in a medical report or an essay. Epidemic seems like a pretty dumb word to use for what has effectively been a Twitter mud slinging contest with tin foil.

So how many men and women need to receive death/bomb threats before it meets the bar you've set for an epidemic? How many consecutive months of nonstop online harassment constitutes an epidemic?
 
agreed.

i don't even necessarily disagree with ms. sarkeesian.

it's just the massive amount of discussion...it just get a bit tiring after a while.

I third this. I play games to chill and enjoy a hobby I've had since childhood. I don't agree or disagree with whatever all this hubaloo is about, but seeing all the constant discussion has gotten so tedious. When I'm playing a game like Bioshock Infinite I'm not dissecting every section of the game and story consciously or otherwise to figure out if the game has some underlying hatred for females or something. I'm pewpewing the bad guys to propel the story forward.

I guess I am probably not exactly the key demographic for this whole thing. Regardless, it all seems so silly and blown out of proportion.
 
Im really interested in seeing where the epidemic she claims is, i have tbh i don't pay attention to much of these type of online things, i still don't know what exactly gamer gate is lol, so ill definitely watch , hopefully it isn't to embarrassing.
 
I'm not a hater, I just think epidemic is a bad word to use and you can throw a dictionary at me for saying it but the implications of the word used in the media are far more wild than the use of the term in a medical report or an essay. Epidemic seems like a pretty dumb word to use for what has effectively been a Twitter mud slinging contest with tin foil.
She got a bomb threat.

Also, epidemic's hardly a word that's restricted to medical reports or essays. It's often used figuratively in situations completely unrelated to disease. Hell, I've probably used it on GAF to refer to video game design. It's a fun word to say.
 
If the gaming community is tired of hearing about people getting harassed, the logical solution is for the community as a whole to band together and excise those doing the harassing, for the good of everyone and the industry itself.

Assuming people have the freedom to speak, there's no way for people to discretely control the actions of others. When the intent of those actions is malicious, you can't head it off like you're describing. If someone's goal is to create a disturbance, they will be able to carry it out. That's why Sarkeesian's broader cultural appeals are so important.
 
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