There are times when i love the human race. Dearly. Alas, this is not one of those times.
There’s a woman named Anita Sarkeesian who makes some really interesting and insightful videos exploring pop culture portrayals of women from a feminist perspective.
I personally enjoy the videos. Here’s a really good one as an example:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DInYaHVSLr8]
I grew up on comic books. I know what she’s talking about. I enjoy listening to her give her perspective on movies. It makes me think.
So…
This past summer Ms. Sarkeesian decided to do a series of videos looking at the portrayal of women in video games from a feminist perspective. There’s a lot to look at and talk about. You could certainly start with the old aracade games of the 80s (i don’t think there WERE any female protagonists, i’m pretty sure it was all males rescuing the captured female. Oh, wait, Ms. Pac Man) through Super NIntendo and Sega, onto the modern day where video games dominate the cultural landscape. There’s obviously a lot to talk about.
She started a Kickstarter campaign to raise some money to do the vids.
With me so far? Good. Let me pause to repeat, because i need you to be with me here: she started a Kickstarter campaign to raise $6,000 to produce a series of YouTube videos exploring women in video games from a feminist perspective.
You got that, right? Now, tell me, how much harassment does she deserve for having the nerve and audacity to make these YouTube videos? However much you say (you did say “wtf are you talking about no one should be harassed at all for this” i’m sure) what happened was a brutal, and i mean jaw droppingly BRUTAL online campaign of harassment against her by… some legion of male video game fans who… decided this was a horrible thing and she should be….
I have very mixed feelings about how much of this to post. Some images are…. Basically, some gamers caught wind of the Kickstarter campaign and made a pact to harass Anita Sarkeesian in the most over the top ways they could think up, constantly striving to outdo each other. THOUSANDS of emails flooded her inbox, threatening her with violence and rape (rape was a never ending featured subject) and ranting at her. These also flooded comments on her videos.
An avalanche of pictures depicting her being raped or otherwise in intensely pornographic situations were uploaded onto the net. An avalanche of abuse and threats appeared in every corner of the internet where she was. Her wikipedia was vandalised and crude pictures of her placed there along with degrading rewritings of her page.
The kickstarter project was subjected to a massive attempt to bring it down and have it removed and her own wesite was onslaughted by denial of service attacks and attempts to obtain and distribute her personal contact information.
The number of messages she received both in email and comments promising to rape and hurt her, the avalanche of pictures of her engaging in acts of bestiality and every manner of shocking and degrading sex act you can fathom, all constantly increasing in vileness as the cowardly little pieces of shit responsible would cheer each other on… you get the idea right? Because i’m not posting examples of this shit.
I am however going to post this. An interactive game appeared. The game was called “Beat Up Anita Sarkeesian”. It features a photo of Anita. As you click on it the photo becomes more and more… beaten up.
Did i mention her phone number and address were also posted online?
Are you almost shaking with outrage and grief? I do not understand you if you’re not.
The outcome?
Well, along with the flood of harassment (mostly i assume by cowardly little fucks who would pee their pants if they ever tried to confront another person much less a woman in real life, although i’m sure by a few truly dangerous individuals in there too) came a flood of support.
Anita asked for $6,000. She got $160,000. The series is well into development and Ms. Sarkeesian has spent the past few months going around giving talks about what happened during the summer.
Here she is speaking at TED. You really should watch.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZAxwsg9J9Q]
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