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Tropes vs Women author Sarkeesian vacates home following online threats

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Frolow

Banned
It was worthy in this case. Reading those tweets yesterday made me physically ill for several hours. It had a similar effect on one of my friends.

I'm not saying it's not useful. However, a simple "content warning" serves the exact same purpose without devaluing the meaning behind actual triggers.
 

Kriken

Member
It reminds me of the satirical 'Moms Against Gamin' Twitter account and the amount of hate they receive. They say gamers are awful scum (even as a joke on 'overly concerned parental groups'), but the awful scum respond exactly the way the account predicts. It's sad.

It's really sad how certain people prove those satirical tweets to be true when they respond with "I'm going to kill you" and "Shut your mouth you whore"
 

antigoon

Member
I wish people would just shut up about how this incident can be viewed in a way that is beneficial to her. Just stop. Forever.
 
It's these types of things that make me wonder if we'd all be better off without an open-access internet.

Or at least redesign the internet to remove all anonymity and replace IP addresses with actual names/account holders.
 

Aeana

Member
I'm not saying it's not useful. However, a simple "content warning" serves the exact same purpose without devaluing the meaning behind actual triggers.
So there can't be a trigger for someone who has experienced sexual violence?
 

Frodo

Member
And of course we would have the "she is only seeking attention" kind of posts.

Of course she is! Like every single woman who ever touches a video game or talks about it. All they want is some male attention, right? They can't like video games or have an opinion about them. No. Unthinkable. They just want attention.
 

Krejlooc

Banned
I'm not saying it's not useful. However, a simple "content warning" has the exact same purpose without devaluing the meaning behind actual triggers.

Like not trying to be pedantic here, but what are "actual triggers"? In the context people are describing "trigger warnings," those tweets, to me, seem to warrant it.
 
Honestly feel that way too. Maybe its the wording but... mmm, kinda reads like "See see~! now check out my links." Probably just too jaded about people using stuff like this for their own gain lately.

That said, there is no reason for said reaction on her opinions. No one should feel threatened or scared, especially over something like this. If she honestly felt it was needed to get authorities involved, good. As long as her and her family are safe, that's all that matters at the end of the day.

She's a public figure and an activist who is suffering at the hands of people who disagree with her mission. Honestly, I'm pretty sure her fan base would want to see this kind of stuff to have a more complete understanding of her claims of abuse.

I only just started watching Sarkeesian's game stuff literally yesterday after disagreeing with some stuff she said about movies several years ago, so I don't have much attachment to her at all, but I find the insight to the threats she receives relevant and crucial to the big picture. I do not feel compelled to pledge her money or link to all her videos on social media, you know? I think it's a bad reading of her decision to share this information publicly to assume it's for her own gain because I think you'd have a hard time justifying that she is benefitting from it at all.

And I mean, I totally fell hook, line, and sinker for KONY2012. If I'm not roused up into giving her money or bringing additional traffic to her content, I don't think most people are compelled to do so either.

Of course though this incident is going to get attention. But if she gets extra attention for receiving death threats, why would you blame Sarkeesian? Wouldn't you blame the people being hostile to her?

Edit: I of course don't direct all this at you, I'm just using the bolded text as a point of discussion.
 
It was all fine until this line:



She was telling her friends and supporters that she was safe. Then that happened.

Don't see what's wrong with this. She's saying she won't let this get to her, that's all. Especially since the two issues are directly related.

Also it's fucking disgusting that stuff like this happens, and moreso that assholes try to downplay it. The perpetrator is a sicko who probably has mental health issues. But I almost find the guys trying to downplay this because it goes against their "cause" even more disgusting, because they probably are much more aware of what they're doing
 

Camjo-Z

Member
Not a fan of her videos either, but sending threats is just shameful. Hopefully it was just some trolls trying to be funny and not anything serious.
 

iammeiam

Member
The threats themselves are disgusting but easy to play off as deranged shitbags taking advantage of Internet anonymity.

It's all the "gee isn't this CONVENIENT TIMING!" And similar Sarkeesian-blaming comments that make me sad for humanity. There's just something so depressing about people being so opposed to Sarkeesian that they need to find a way to make her at fault or some degree of guilty in her own harassment that is upsetting, because I'm sure these people think they're being totally reasonable, while the death threat assholes probably at least acknowledge their behavior is not OK.
 
Like not trying to be pedantic here, but what are "actual triggers"? In the context people are describing "trigger warnings," those tweets, to me, seem to warrant it.

Stop arguing semantics

the context and meaning are obvious if you have a brain

Back on topic. This shit is sickening
 

SerRodrik

Member
It was all fine until this line:



She was telling her friends and supporters that she was safe. Then that happened.

Or maybe since she was trying to put a stop to sexism, and then received a barrage of sexist threats that forced her to vacate her home, just maybe that made her feel even more strongly that sexism is a real problem that needs to be dealt with? Just a possibility?

I don't understand people who think "There's no problem with racism/sexism/etc. in video games, and to prove it we'll act like ass sucking shit fiends and lash out at anybody with a differing opinion".
Apparently some people have a crippling lack of self awareness on top of all their other issues.
 
And of course we would have the "she is only seeking attention" kind of posts.

Of course she is! Like every single woman who ever touches a video game or talks about it. All they want is some male attention, right? They can't like video games or have an opinion about them. No. Unthinkable. They just want attention.

No one said that, at least in this thread
 

lifesanrpg

Neo Member
I bet most of these are empty threats, but still scary. I don't blame her given how fu*ked up society is these days.

Seriously though, the ones making these threats are just ruining it for the rest of us.
 

Altazor

Member
Some people are absolute scum. I hope authorities can catch this imbecile before something even worse actually happens.

And I can't believe people are playing "she faked the threats herself to gain publicity" card. I assume they're same people saying the Phil Fish/Polytron doxxing incident was fake so Fish could sell the Fez IP?
 

lifesanrpg

Neo Member
This entire thing is so fucked up. I can't even believe it's happening in 2014 America. Or maybe I can. Either way, this seems like an excellent federal launching point for more serious legislation regarding this kind of harassment and handling its perpetrators.

To be fair, the internet isn't only constrained to the United States. Some of these comments can be made by people in other countries too ya know...
 
How did she get forced from her home?

Wouldn't be surprised if she's playing it up to make herself seem like a martyr who has to sacrifice everything in order to expose the evils of sexism.

Don't do this...

While I don't agree with everything she presents in her video series, she's the first to talk about what can be a toxic community (gamers at large) to those who are felt left out.

She doesn't deserve threats of death, rape, or home invasion to complicate her work as well. This is like MLK Jr/Malcolm X level of threats.
 
The man-childs in this very thread, who have never experienced the kind of harassment women can and do get quite often, talking like they know that she's lying about being harassed.

Obviously, such man-children have never really spoken to women in depth beyond catcalls. Because every woman I've talked to has experienced this. Every. Single. Woman. Now, that might be my limited pool of friends and acquaintances, but it has put things into perspective for me, a large male who hasn't really suffered that treatment since puberty.

Ms. Sark may, or may not, be full of it with her one sided videos, but I'd easily and gladly err on the side of caution and respect.

This, so much.

It was all fine until this line:



She was telling her friends and supporters that she was safe. Then that happened.

What "happened"? She is a feminist who is trying to spread awareness of industry-wide sexism and was the victim of disgusting misogyny. Seems like as great a time as any to state the obvious, which she did.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
It's these types of things that make me wonder if we'd all be better off without an open-access internet.

Or at least redesign the internet to remove all anonymity and replace IP addresses with actual names/account holders.

At the very least, social media platforms like Twitter do need some sort of policing in order to stop fuckwits from using them to make terroristic threats against individuals and groups alike.

Its ridiculous to me that these services seemingly allow such blatant abuse to go on with impunity.
 
To be fair, the internet isn't only constrained to the United States. Some of these comments can be made by people in other countries too ya know...

Yes, of course. You're right. I generalized, perhaps inaccurately, that most of the threats she receives and the sub-population of terrorists on /v/ would be Americans.
 

APF

Member
No one proves the arguments of "SJW"s more than the people who rail against them. If anyone wants to know why women are afraid to speak up, participate, or otherwise put themselves out there, assholes on the internet will provide you literally innumerable examples at a moment's notice. This has been an awful last couple of weeks for people who consider themselves gamers.
 
I've been steering clear of the Anita threads, because I know they just devolve into people trying to change the subject away from any potentially valid points she raises to instead talk about the discrimination white men suffer from on a daily basis. It wore me down, I'm sad to admit. Genuinely I think people are on average, pretty decent. Those threads were really shaking that feeling.

I feel guilty about it, too, because everyone of every race and gender should stand together about bigots, and the people who really suffer this shit can't just step away from it when it wears them down, like I can as a straight white male.

I almost jumped back in when the Phil Fish affair happened, and I did get into some pretty heated discussions about it elsewhere... but this is even worse.

Every poster in this thread suggesting that Anita is using this selfishly... You don't even have any shame about what you are. You are happy to openly criticize someone for leaving their apartment after receiving specific threats.

You're bigots. You'll deny it. Whatever. I get that. You'll deny it while only bringing up the talking points of bigots. I only care about the final effect. If your posting provokes more bigotry and doesn't do anything to counteract bigotry... then I'm going to call you a bigot, even if you aren't.

Because you may as well be.

And the least... the very least you could do, is to be ashamed of yourself for it.

A woman has received horrendous threats against her and her family. If you're still siding with her detractors at THAT point...

you're assholes. The lot of you.

And if I have to take a ban for saying that... I will. Some stuff is more important to me than posting on neogaf. Like being a half decent human being.
 

Frumix

Suffering From Success
I don't understand people who think "There's no problem with racism/sexism/etc. in video games, and to prove it we'll act like ass sucking shit fiends and lash out at anybody with a differing opinion".

These two groups of people might not necessarily overlap.
 
I was going to quote a post that implied that this was in some way beneficial to her, but then I realized that was actually your post.

I was talking about the 2nd part
Of course she is! Like every single woman who ever touches a video game or talks about it. All they want is some male attention, right? They can't like video games or have an opinion about them. No. Unthinkable. They just want attention.

no one implied that here
 

Gestault

Member
An inherent issue to "remote" socializing like we see on the internet is that the normal range of social signals doesn't get through. People self-select their own little echo chambers without realizing it, to the point where we see situations like this, where the symbol of something (Sarkeesian) is seen as the source of it, and suddenly "attacks" feel justified in its own twisted way. Even people who would normally have their behavior moderated or positively influenced by the rest of a community around them are just as likely to become more extreme and malevolent over time with the way they filter things out to hear what they want to.

This stuff is nightmarish for the people on the receiving end, because it's even harder to discern legitimate bodily threats from harassment. Clearly when people and places are mentioned, things are elevated to the point where authorities must be involved, which they thankfully have been here.

The idea that someone's normal routine of working and creating has to deal with this background radiation of spiteful intent from the dregs of society around them is utterly unacceptable.
 
I find it odd how many GAFers first have to qualify their posts with, "I don't like her videos" or "I am not a fan of her but." The same thing happens in dead celebrity threads. As if showing some form of compassion and empathy is a sign of weakness and you have to start by puffing out your chest.

"I killed a deer with my bare hands this morning and I hate my fucking bitch of an ex-wife, but Frozen was a really enjoyable movie"
 

stephen08

Member
Bringing this stuff to light isn't seeking attention. The people posting this kind of stuff want her to stop what she is doing because she is scared or whatever. Anita is bearing a hell of a burden for her point of view. I used to be in the camp that thought games were fine but the more of her videos I watched and the more arguments I saw posed against them made me realize I was on the wrong side.

I hope she stays strong enough to finish her series and keep doing what she is doing because she is at the very least getting this stuff talked about and that is only beneficial.
 
I don't agree with most of her videos (she does a lot of picking and choosing without taking things into context) but nobody should be subject to those kinds of threats. I'm wishfully thinking that the threats/comments are just "trolls" looking to cause some outrage/reaction and they don't actually think/want what the tweets are saying.
 

Frolow

Banned
So there can't be a trigger for someone who has experienced sexual violence?

Like not trying to be pedantic here, but what are "actual triggers"? In the context people are describing "trigger warnings," those tweets, to me, seem to warrant it.

The content of those tweets are potentially triggering for people who actually suffer from PTSD. But again, 99% of people reading it doesn't actually have PTSD. Not to mention the, unfortunate, modern use of the term sprung up from Tumblr people who swapped the word "offended" for "trigger" in their vocabularies. So seeing the term misused is extremely commonplace now.
 
http://www.slate.com/articles/healt..._machiavellianism_narcissism_psychopathy.html

It's a shame that few utterly crazed people think they can get away with this shit because of pseudo anonymity... but let's be fair here... It's not like this is anywhere NEAR the majority of people nor is it the popular opinion that something should happen to her. I wish her the best and hope the people who are behind this get caught and persecuted, but that doesn't mean I think her opinions are any more right or well reasoned than I did before this happened.
 

Paskil

Member
What a bunch of assholes. "WAH, DON'T TALK ABOUT MAKING CHANGES TO MY HOBBY OR I'LL KILL AND/OR RAPE YOU AND YOUR FAMILY." Fucking misogynists, man. I wish I could crotch punch every single one of them. You want to emasculate someone? Here you go.
 

jon bones

hot hot hanuman-on-man action
I find it odd how many GAFers first have to qualify their posts with, "I don't like her videos" or "I am not a fan of her but." The same thing happens when dead celebrity threads. As if showing some form of compassion and empathy is a sign of weakness and you have to start by puffing out your chest.

"I killed a deer with my bare hands this morning and I hate my fucking bitch of an ex-wife, but Frozen was a really enjoyable movie"

yeah i had a good laugh at those, too

god forbid they are mistaken for a "social justice warrior"
 
D

Deleted member 22576

Unconfirmed Member
No one said that, at least in this thread
If I'm keeping track you implied she's playing all this up promotion. Maybe you didn't mean to but you still did. You called out the last sentence in one of her tweets, right? The sentence saying "this harassment must stop" ...
 

Gestault

Member
I find it odd how many GAFers first have to qualify their posts with, "I don't like her videos" or "I am not a fan of her but." The same thing happens when dead celebrity threads. As if showing some form of compassion and empathy is a sign of weakness and you have to start by puffing out your chest.

I think some people think of like like a "full disclosure" situation. Like, they're communicating that even those who disagree with the merit of her work think this stuff is monstrous. Particularly if there's a concern that normal criticism of her work could be conflated with this category of threats and harassment.
 
I hope the people who did this to her suffer an eternity of grief and loneliness where not even dogs will come to them to provide comfort

What the hell? What great crime has this poor woman done?

You know what? The gaming community totally deserves all the shit we get from the media, government, parents as well as the big corporations leeching our pockets with Day 1 DLC and all the so called anti-consumer practices. We have earned the scorn of the world when we let this happen within the so called "gaming community" and are unable to police it despite all the so called power the internet provides us. We should have been supporting this woman from day 1.
 
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