Feminist Kickstarter Project gets Harassed/Threatened

[aestu]

Frankly, I don't believe a word of it.

If that sort of thing really happened, there would be sufficient evidence based on IP etc to find those responsible. Law enforcement takes death threats, especially towards women, seriously. Have charges been brought against any individuals? No? Then it's all bunk.

Feminists have been playing the victim card for decades while waging terror campaigns of their own. When womens' advocate Erin Pizzey criticized the feminist movement, she received terrorist threats and now is followed by a police escort everywhere she goes.

This is a publicity stunt and a desire to seek attention and a shield against legitimate criticism for evil words and evil deeds. It's just that simple.

 

[aestu]

No Glenn Beck here.

Are you able to address the facts and reasoning I stated - that charges would surely be filed were it so but this has not come to pass, and that feminists have been playing the victim card while committing violence and threats of their own - or have you nothing but insults and strawman?

 

[Andrew_Waltfeld]

I am well aware of the proof that exists showing the reason we are attracted to certain things. However, for a lot of people, power becomes an end unto itself. There are actually many motivations for seeking power.

Sociopaths provide the starkest example. They seek positions of power because it allows them to get away with more. A position of power gives you greater freedom to abdicate responsibility for your actions.

Or take a look at fame whores. Sure, some of them are hoping to get laid. But a study showed that the desire to be famous has increased in proportion with the number of broken homes in America. What we have is a generation of children growing up believing that the model of love is neglect. So through fame, they turn the table. They become the adored figure of people whose happiness they influence, and they don't have to care about these people.

And of course let's take a peek at the greedy CEOs who got busted for embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars from their companies. What did they do? They bought shit. That's all they did. They kept buying shit to one-up their neighbors. The brain is constantly moving the goalposts so that you don't recognize the assets you have, only the ones you could have. At no point do they ever stop to ask themselves, "Why am I doing this? Why am I buying a BMW made of gold? Why am I buying a giant glass sculpture of Daniel Day-Lewis's Gangs of New York mustache? Why am I buying a giant in-ground swimming pool in the shape of my penis?"

Power takes many forms. And the reasons for wanting to acquire it are just as varied.

I never said there wasn't an variety of reasons to pursue them, but the end result is the same anyway. Even sociopath's have children as well as those greedy CEO's etc. The end result has been the same for humans since the dawn of humans walking this earth. Make sure to provide housing, food and water at the very least for yourself and your gal so you can reproduce. All those reasons for power end up at the same end road, it's simply our instincts to make the conditions for our children better so that they have a better chance of survival. Humans haven't escaped nature itself, it simply hides itself elegantly. That is why the power fantasy for both genders is simply your ideal self at it's full potential to have you attract your partner. That is why I see it as simply the opposite of the same coin.

 

[aestu]

Sociopaths provide the starkest example. They seek positions of power because it allows them to get away with more. A position of power gives you greater freedom to abdicate responsibility for your actions...

...I never said there wasn't an variety of reasons to pursue them, but the end result is the same anyway. Even sociopath's have children as well as those greedy CEO's etc. The end result has been the same for humans since the dawn of humans walking this earth. Make sure to provide housing, food and water at the very least for yourself and your gal so you can reproduce. All those reasons for power end up at the same end road, it's simply our instincts to make the conditions for our children better so that they have a better chance of survival. Humans haven't escaped nature itself, it simply hides itself elegantly. That is why the power fantasy for both genders is simply your ideal self at it's full potential to have you attract your partner. That is why I see it as simply the opposite of the same coin.

Women are attracted to sociopaths because the best way to defend your person and what is important to you from bad guys is to get badder guys.

Not to mention getting other people's stuff so you can pass your genes on.

 

[Ledan]

Don't you love this situation?
If you agree with her, then you are obviously in the right.
If you disagree you are obviously mysogonistic or hate her or dont get it.
Or: you are paranoid and believe all feminists are in some sort of conspiracy together.

I would love to see where I accused you of that. Do tell.

Not accusing you specifically, but some pages here have brought out that general vibe.

 

[DarthSka]

She has a bachelor's in communications as well as a Master's degree in Social and political thought. Her videos have been used in women's studies at Universities as examples when talking about women's representations in our media. I myself used one of her videos 'The Straw Feminist' as part of one of my media assignments.

But this is the thing, that I and others have noticed. Her research is bad. The examples she uses in that episode? The powerpuff girls episode, if you've watched it, goes on to show that femme fatale is an example of "fake" feminism. The other female charactesr of the show band together and tell the girls off, and show that the woman on the coin (forget her name) demanded to go to prison for breaking the law, since she didnt want special treatment.
And her episode about women in refrigerators in comics, the spider-man example was taken out of context. This is the only time a superhero has failed to save "the girl", and she was a supporting character. The death was meaningful, and not crash or an exploitation.

She is on the right side, equalism, but she doesn't do her job very well. She also believes in the patriarchy.

Right, I remember that one. My girlfriend showed me that video of hers to show what a great feminist and analyst she was to me. When I told her that she didn't show how the episode was resolved and what really happened, she got quiet for a bit then proceeded to show me other videos of hers. Overall, sometimes I can see where she's coming from, sometimes I believe she's making a mountain out of a molehill, and sometimes I'm not sure what to believe because I don't know if she's choosing certain aspects of a show, movie, etc. to make a point when there could be something from that same show, movie, etc. to counter it. I'll probably know a bit more to make a judgement from her video games series. And yes, I do think that the amount of money from the beginning was too much, but if people want to donate, more power to them and her I suppose.

 

[Griffolion]

I don't get why there's so much opposition to her making these video's. It's not like the problem doesn't exist or something. And if people are saying "men are stereotyped too", why don't they start a project looking at stereotypes of men in games? It would be interesting looking at both how men and women are portrayed in games. It's beyond me that someone would threaten death and rape to someone who's basically doing an investigation into a relevant matter.

 

[Zer_]

In the end, the idea that characters in games affects a man's perspective on women is as bullshit as the hypothesis that violent video games can cause violence. Games are an escape/outlet and a form of entertainment. It's all about fantasy, and yes men have power fantasies, just like women have their own versions of these fantasies. Violent people will be attracted by violent games. Misogynist, horny men will be attracted by sex sims, or games with "sexy" characters.

The best and only solution is properly educating the young. In doing so you teach these kids to be more critical about the media they consume.

 

[Moromillas]

No... No, no no no. The whole thing, is ridiculous. First of all, it's fantasy land. The women being objectified are, NOT REAL! They, DO NOT constitute REAL PEOPLE. Why the fuck would anyone give two shits. I read in an article the other day (on the escapist) about a man that was charged for drawing pictures of cartoon children in a sexual way, and that he was able to appeal until the high court said that the pictures are "not real" and dropped the charges. And everyone in the discussion thread was like "Fuck yeah! Sanity prevails!" "Of course they're not fucking real, finally some sanity." Yet video games are the exception to this? No, they, are, not! No they don't have human rights or feelings, they're not role models or accurate representations of women, they're entirely fictional. They are a pile of pixels formed by applying a texture to a 3d model in a 3d application. Jesus fucking Christ.

Yes the threats are immature and stupid, but what the fuck did people think was going to happen? There are actual real life problems out there that people can spend money on. Like in some countries there's still legalized stoning, in some countries there are still punishments for women that cheat on their husbands, still cases of women being forced to marry their rapist, still places where women don't have control over their own reproductive organs due to some bullshit dinosaur theocracy, still places where women are criminalized and put in danger for doing whatever they want with their own body, still places where women get scraps or just don't have paid fucking maternity fucking leave... And people want to pay money to have someone ***** about how female characters don't have enough clothing, in video games? WHAT!!? WHAT THE FUCK!!

What really pisses me off is that the mouth breathers that are actually donating to this crap aren't doing this for women's rights. No, no they're not. They're doing it for purely selfish reasons, they're paying money, to make themselves feel good about something. Instead of actually trying to make everything fair and square in the world, they pay some functional psycho to get in front of a camera and spout generous nuggets of shit about things she doesn't like in video games, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. What a fucking waste. Incredibly stupid douchebags that just pay some money, sit back, and feel good about themselves. No, that doesn't make you an "enlightened" person. No, it doesn't make you a supporter of women's rights. No, it isn't a contribution towards a better-and-brighter society. No, it won't let you take control of other peoples intellectual property in order to meddle with the characters. No, you aren't a decent person if you donate money to this shit. Ok, that's enough for today. More and more of this shit seems to surface everywhere and I'm tired of it, I'm fucking tired of it.

 

[Schadrach]

Ugh, it's not just gamers, it's everywhere. Feminists are looked upon as something extreme in all sectors of society. It's such a shame that humanity is still so uncivilized that they can't listen to a woman like Sarkeesian without all the immature reactions. I hope the government gets involved and fines some of these people. There is no excuse for threatening others; the Internet is not an excuse to lower standards of behavior.

Two things, one feminists get vilified because many of them have said things deserving it, and it gets applied across the group. Rather like how one can bait a group of 4chan trolls and declare them proof of the horrors of the gaming community.

I could manage posting theats on YouTube without being tracked down without all that much effort, tools for browsing and thus posting anonymously exist. There are quite literally apps for that, for example TOR (The Onion Router).

Bullshit this is the gaming community, this was spammed on 4chan (presumably by the woman herself) who then probably raided the comments. Not that Youtube is a gaming site anyway.

So 4chan is not a big part of the gaming community? I mean, they are used as an excuse by many, the behaviour online is like from people on 4chan and every situation even close related to treating women like actual humans was met with same hostility as this project. I linked you two stories that were prominent, there are sure more than those. In both cases the forum community here and in many other defended this behaviour or tried to excuse that.

Yeah, 4chan is pretty much like the gaming community... because they are part of it.

To continue from my position above:

...and I can post quotes by MacKinnon, Daly, Solanas, Dworkin, or just about anyone on RadicalHub that say terrible, terrible things. Therefore feminists are are evil. I'm going to use the standard feminist response with a single word swapped out as a defense here: Gaming Is Not A Monolith.

She is on the right side, equalism, but she doesn't do her job very well. She also believes in the patriarchy.

Is she really? Any demonstration of this? What I see is someone very internet and media savy who basically tricked 4chan and YouTube trolls in to making her ~130k dollars she wouldn't have otherwise made, by letting her play the victim card.

No comment on her reasearch fails, there are quite a few mistakes like that if you are actually familiar with the works she's discussed.

How exactly are these insults not gender-based:
- Threat of rape

Anyone can be raped, not only women. Thanks for being so sensitive to any male survivors out there as to claim that they don't exist.

- Calling her a '****'
- Telling her to stay in the kitchen
- Telling her she should shut up and make sandvich
- Accusing her of being a lesbian

Have you not met internet trolls before? They will attack any feature of you that is recognizeable, especially if there are convenient slurs and common attack patterns for that trait. I'm a fat, white, long haired, bearded guy, they'd use different choices of insult if they were trolling me, but you can bet that some or all of the things I mentioned would come up. The ones you named there are the "standard" attacks to use on a feminist woman.

- Saying women shouldn't have any opinion or any say

You disregard the fact that many of the insults slung at her were for her BEING A WOMAN. That's what makes it sexist.[/quote]

There's actually a feminist pejorative having an opinion that disagrees with them while male, "mansplaining", as well.

No Glenn Beck here.

Are you able to address the facts and reasoning I stated - that charges would surely be filed were it so but this has not come to pass, and that feminists have been playing the victim card while committing violence and threats of their own - or have you nothing but insults and strawman?

It can be difficult to file charges against YouTube trolls, if said trolls know what they are doing, see bit about anonymous internet, above.

I don't get why there's so much opposition to her making these video's. It's not like the problem doesn't exist or something. And if people are saying "men are stereotyped too", why don't they start a project looking at stereotypes of men in games? It would be interesting looking at both how men and women are portrayed in games. It's beyond me that someone would threaten death and rape to someone who's basically doing an investigation into a relevant matter.

There actually is a group that started a similar project looking at misandry and male roles in video games. With a jab at Anita thrown in there (they're going to donate all unused funding to charity, and anticipate spending exactly none of it because they already have cameras and equipment, much like Anita herself). Jim Sterling did an article attacking the project on GameFront. An array of people have mocked the project in various ways, including statements amounting to "Misandry doesn't exist" and "Misandry exists, but isn't important", and at least one that tagged their tweet #killallnerds and #murdereverygamer, though no actual death threats have been posted. Maybe if there was an attempt to bait trolls, and maybe if it wasn't so close to Anita's campaign (I'm pretty sure there's a refractory period of sorts to extreme trolling) we'd see worse, though it's got a lot fo time left.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Anyone can be raped, not only women. Thanks for being so sensitive to any male survivors out there as to claim that they don't exist.

I'm not sure who is being insensitive...those who claim rape is primarily an issue of male on female violence, or those who choose only to reference male on male or female on male rape as some kind of rebuttal or attack when confronted by the specter of feminism. I'm honestly not sure how it's relevant. It's like addressing a question of starvation in the third world by insisting that it get recognized that people starve in the first world too, as though that were somehow a conversation ending remark.

I don't require that every single discussion regarding women's rights or the treatment of women automatically claw in men's rights or the treatment of men in order to balance the fucking scales. The fact so many guys on this site and out there in the world in general do is just flat out perplexing. It's a profound manifestation of insecurity.

Could it be a coincidence that the same website/forums that spawn a new "How on earth do I get a girlfriend / I've been friend zoned again / Women are an unutterable mystery" thread every 3.6 seconds also contains an unusually prominent demographic of the "BOOGA BOOGA FEMINISM IS TERRIFYING" stripe? Perhaps that is coincidental correlation. I'll let you decide, you seem like a learned chap.

 

[twohundredpercent]

You guys know she isn't sucking your dicks anytime soon, you can stop white knighting.