Lady Bits Kickstarter by Liana Kerzner

[WindKnight]

I don't know who Liana Kerzner is, but that Kickstarter pitch reads like, "Awww, did mean ol' Sarkessian hurt your gamer feelings? Here's a certified female and REAL GAMER to tell you that everything is just fine. There there."

She used to write and make videos for the Escapist, back when it was trying to expand into cosplaying. She was a bit odd.

Oh! was she the one that reacted to microsoft apologising for hiring sexy schoolgirl dancers for a professional party with an article pretending the dancers were cosplayers, and declaring microsoft's apology was slut shaming them? Who said that crticising biig boobs in games was an attack on her for having big boobs?

(edit oops, ninja'd

 

[maninahat]

I don't know who Liana Kerzner is, but that Kickstarter pitch reads like, "Awww, did mean ol' Sarkessian hurt your gamer feelings? Here's a certified female and REAL GAMER to tell you that everything is just fine. There there."

She used to write and make videos for the Escapist, back when it was trying to expand into cosplaying. She was a bit odd.

Oh! was she the one that reacted to microsoft apologising for hiring sexy schoolgirl dancers for a professional party with an article pretending the dancers were cosplayers, and declaring microsoft's apology was slut shaming them? Who said that crticising biig boobs in games was an attack on her for having big boobs?

(edit oops, ninja'd

Why yes, that's the one!

Her pitch video has plenty of boob references too - the woman's obsessed!

 

[Satinavian]

I don't know who Liana Kerzner is, but that Kickstarter pitch reads like, "Awww, did mean ol' Sarkessian hurt your gamer feelings? Here's a certified female and REAL GAMER to tell you that everything is just fine. There there."

She used to write and make videos for the Escapist, back when it was trying to expand into cosplaying. She was a bit odd.

Oh! was she the one that reacted to microsoft apologising for hiring sexy schoolgirl dancers for a professional party with an article pretending the dancers were cosplayers, and declaring microsoft's apology was slut shaming them? Who said that crticising biig boobs in games was an attack on her for having big boobs?

(edit oops, ninja'd

Why yes, that's the one!

Her pitch video has plenty of boob references too - the woman's obsessed!

Kinda disappointing.

I missed most of the Sarkeesian-controversy and actually found her listed as having research videos about gaming, feminism and female representation in games. I watched the videos and was deeply disappointed (and glad i was too late for the kickstarter). Here i thought, maybe i get actually well researched videos aside from am occasional snide remark towards Anita, but now i am pretty sceptical.


Seems like i have to stick to actual peer reviewed papers from the social sciences. Even if those are dry and usually end in "we don't have enough data to prove anything of significance".

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

I don't know who Liana Kerzner is, but that Kickstarter pitch reads like, "Awww, did mean ol' Sarkessian hurt your gamer feelings? Here's a certified female and REAL GAMER to tell you that everything is just fine. There there."

She used to write and make videos for the Escapist, back when it was trying to expand into cosplaying. She was a bit odd.

Oh! was she the one that reacted to microsoft apologising for hiring sexy schoolgirl dancers for a professional party with an article pretending the dancers were cosplayers, and declaring microsoft's apology was slut shaming them? Who said that crticising biig boobs in games was an attack on her for having big boobs?

(edit oops, ninja'd

Why yes, that's the one!

Her pitch video has plenty of boob references too - the woman's obsessed!

Well the series is called lady bits. The double meaning is intended because she even went on to clarify what bits she was talking about.

 

[Avnger]

As Alison Tieman says, feminists can make women the victims of/oppressed by literally anything...

Something, something, glass houses. "Gamers" easily take the cake on that approach mate. All one has to do is look at the responses to Anita's videos to see proof!

edit: And misogynists can do the exact opposite. What's your point?

 

[McMarbles]

We'll know if she does a good job once the videos start to come out. Anything before that are guesses, suppositions and assumptions.

Considering She Who Must Not Be Named actually delivered all her videos and is still commonly referred to around here as a scam artist, I don't think it really matters.

 

[CaitSeith]

We'll know if she does a good job once the videos start to come out. Anything before that are guesses, suppositions and assumptions.

Considering She Who Must Not Be Named actually delivered all her videos and is still commonly referred to around here as a scam artist, I don't think it really matters.

I was talking to people with at least a drop of reason in their brains. Sure, I give to the Internet too much credit; but still...

 

[inmunitas]

Like I keep trying to tell you guys, the only reason Sarkeesian became a thing was the Streisand effect. If angry nerds hadn't raged at her with the fury of a thousand dying stars, she'd have made goal, produced a handful of videos, and largely been ignored by the press. Kerzner, by comparison, is getting mild derision based mostly on her "I'm the cool feminist, not like that other one, *nudgenudgewinkwink*"

Ya'll have yourselves to blame.

Whatcha talkin bout bro, that ain't the 'Streisand Effect'

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Like I keep trying to tell you guys, the only reason Sarkeesian became a thing was the Streisand effect. If angry nerds hadn't raged at her with the fury of a thousand dying stars, she'd have made goal, produced a handful of videos, and largely been ignored by the press. Kerzner, by comparison, is getting mild derision based mostly on her "I'm the cool feminist, not like that other one, *nudgenudgewinkwink*"

Ya'll have yourselves to blame.

Whatcha talkin bout bro, that ain't the 'Streisand Effect'

Insecure nerds going around and telling everybody how this milquetoast feminist is literally Jack Thompson ver. 2.2 wasn't an attempt at suppression that caused the original kickstarter to gain hilarious amounts of attention?

 

[Ogoid]

Insecure nerds going around and telling everybody how this milquetoast feminist is literally Jack Thompson ver. 2.2 wasn't an attempt at suppression that caused the original kickstarter to gain hilarious amounts of attention?

Is that what actually happened?

I mean, has anyone, other than possibly a self-evidently ridiculous strawman like the one in that idiotic comic, ever expressed a sincere belief that "if I call her a ****, she will go away"?

 

[inmunitas]

Like I keep trying to tell you guys, the only reason Sarkeesian became a thing was the Streisand effect. If angry nerds hadn't raged at her with the fury of a thousand dying stars, she'd have made goal, produced a handful of videos, and largely been ignored by the press. Kerzner, by comparison, is getting mild derision based mostly on her "I'm the cool feminist, not like that other one, *nudgenudgewinkwink*"

Ya'll have yourselves to blame.

Whatcha talkin bout bro, that ain't the 'Streisand Effect'

Insecure nerds going around and telling everybody how this milquetoast feminist is literally Jack Thompson ver. 2.2 wasn't an attempt at suppression that caused the original kickstarter to gain hilarious amounts of attention?

Isn't "going around and telling everybody" the opposite of suppression?

edit:

I mean, has anyone, other than possibly a self-evidently ridiculous strawman like the one in that idiotic comic, ever expressed a sincere belief that "if I call her a ****, she will go away"?

To be fair there are people who sincerely believe in chemtrails and that the world is flat, so there probably is.

 

[Ogoid]

To be fair there are people who sincerely believe in chemtrails and that the world is flat, so there probably is.

Yes, statistically speaking I'm sure there's bound to be one or two; but frankly, this (rather common) assumption that anyone saying mean things about Anita on the internet must have been doing so as some incomprehensible attempt to silence her instead of, I don't know, taking exception to having their moral fiber called into question over their entertainment choices and being either unable or unwilling to dress insults in pseudo-academic twaddle, or hell, simply doing it for shits and giggles... it's such a complete non-sequitur, I find it completely puzzling.

As puzzling, I might add, as the notion that they, and not the professional journalists who fought tooth and nail to see who could write her the most embarrassingly sycophantic hagiography instead of applying so much as a smidgen of critical thinking to her work, that raised her profile.

 

[Parrikle]

The real question is if Liana will actually produce the videos outlined or not. Because Anita never did (she produced a shorter series of in several cases shorter videos and still never managed to cover the set of topics she stated she was going to cover in her pitch).

I'm not sure where this myth comes from, or why it is so often uncritically repeated, but this is incorrect. Including stretch goals, she promised 12 videos of 10-20 minutes in length, which averages out to three hours of video. She delivered 16 main videos and five bonus ones, with an overall time of over four hours. Of the 12 topics she initially proposed she covered nine, although two were merged. The remaining three were replaced with six other videos, which seems reasonable - over a long production, you would expect that some topics might prove not to be viable, so replacing a small number seems fair enough.

I can understand that people want to criticize the content, but this oft-repeated claim that she produced fewer than promised videos is incorrect.

 

[StatusNil]

Ya'll have yourselves to blame.

Oh, I missed this classic earlier, averting my eyes from that obnoxious comic strip.

"We all" are to blame for the hard sell for The Sark & Josh Show, eh? Funny that, I don't recall ever making any threats towards these people, nor in fact contacting them in any manner. So don't you try to "social justice" me into any fictional collective responsible for that excuse.

As I recall it, the promotion was already in full swing when I decided to watch that damsel video via some sorry GamesJourno site I was following at the time. And afterwards, I posted a very reasonably phrased comment on that site, pointing out the obvious dead-end nature of a "critical lens" that had "misogyny" indelibly stamped on it to begin with. Whereupon I and others endowed with such a rudimentary gift for observation were set upon by a flock of SJWs, including the "journo" who was acting as the shill, all shrieking about that not being "the time" for sensible consideration, because "A WOMAN'S LIFE HAS BEEN THREATENED ON THE INTERNET!"

I still find that a bizarre conclusion. Surely, even if someone is receiving authentic threats (and let's face it, the source is not particularly credible), it is not incumbent on everyone to start uncritically promoting whatever nonsense they happen to be spouting. You'd think a professional writer would be able to convey categorical disapproval of such behavior, even while maintaining their critical faculties regarding the work of the perceived victim. Why, even a simple GamerBro like me can at least try: "Death Threats Are Never Acceptable, No Matter How Strenuously You Object To Deliberate Misinterpretation And Manipulative Cant". The games literati could have shown us plain folk a better way, of bringing ideas to bear upon ideas, instead of our boorish taunts!

If your primary concern is truly with stopping someone from receiving hostile and disturbing feedback, it would seem that manufacturing an all-or-nothing choice between wholeheartedly embracing their dubious message and being counted as the most vicious of enemies would not be the most sensible course. If, on the other hand, you're trying to stoke a backlash to exploit in pushing through an unpalatable agenda, it's just the ticket. What we know about the "games journos" and their characteristic insecurities suggests that the push was going to come no matter what. Whatever people with poor impulse control there were to take the bait were just a convenient excuse to go all in with the feministing.

Oh, and enough with calling FF "milquetoast feminism". When you try to abstract some critical principles out of their stuff, it's really quite hysterical in substance, if not presentation. Everything really is "hatred of women": No women in game? Erasure, misogyny. Female NPCs? Denied agency, much misogyny. Playable Female? Male player controlling woman, maximum misogyny! And so on. This is the critic that heard Mariah Carey sing "All I Want For Christmas Is You" and immediately went "Yep, asking for a presumably male person as a present is misogyny, cuz strong woman need no man!" The one element that would appear to alleviate the horrible persecution of women that is a dude playing a game by himself in his dank basement is removing the dude from the equation.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Insecure nerds going around and telling everybody how this milquetoast feminist is literally Jack Thompson ver. 2.2 wasn't an attempt at suppression that caused the original kickstarter to gain hilarious amounts of attention?

Is that what actually happened?

I mean, has anyone, other than possibly a self-evidently ridiculous strawman like the one in that idiotic comic, ever expressed a sincere belief that "if I call her a ****, she will go away"?

Well, they figured loudly complaining about a kickstarter and harassing her personally was going to get the thing to fail, and that's before the dreaded

...having their moral fiber called into question over their entertainment choices and being either unable or unwilling to dress insults in pseudo-academic twaddle, or hell, simply doing it for shits and giggles...

started kicking in.

I mean, you know you can still watch that pitch video, right? Provided you don't fall asleep halfway through, due to all of the no accusations made about gamers at any point.

 

[inmunitas]

Insecure nerds going around and telling everybody how this milquetoast feminist is literally Jack Thompson ver. 2.2 wasn't an attempt at suppression that caused the original kickstarter to gain hilarious amounts of attention?

Is that what actually happened?

I mean, has anyone, other than possibly a self-evidently ridiculous strawman like the one in that idiotic comic, ever expressed a sincere belief that "if I call her a ****, she will go away"?

Well, they figured loudly complaining about a kickstarter and harassing her personally was going to get the thing to fail

No "they" didn't, there was no conspiracy to get the kickstarter to fail or make Sarkeesian go away, that's just nonsense.

 

[Bevin Warren]

Insecure nerds going around and telling everybody how this milquetoast feminist is literally Jack Thompson ver. 2.2 wasn't an attempt at suppression that caused the original kickstarter to gain hilarious amounts of attention?

Is that what actually happened?

I mean, has anyone, other than possibly a self-evidently ridiculous strawman like the one in that idiotic comic, ever expressed a sincere belief that "if I call her a ****, she will go away"?

Well, they figured loudly complaining about a kickstarter and harassing her personally was going to get the thing to fail

No "they" didn't, there was no conspiracy to get the kickstarter to fail or make Sarkeesian go away, that's just nonsense.

There was, however, a lot of people trying to point out how terrible her previous body of work had been. My personal take at the time was that her videos needed to be challenged by the press because in her Kickstarter she stated she wanted the series to be used in classrooms... now at the time, I was studying education (to become a teacher) and I was also studying interactive design and had completed my Inter-media component... At the same time, there was a lot of talk on campus about feminists (by the feminist themselves) invading other fandoms/medias so as to 'smash the patriarchy" and the few I had to deal with daily were ecstatic that FF was doing just that.
*note this was all in Australia.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Insecure nerds going around and telling everybody how this milquetoast feminist is literally Jack Thompson ver. 2.2 wasn't an attempt at suppression that caused the original kickstarter to gain hilarious amounts of attention?

Is that what actually happened?

I mean, has anyone, other than possibly a self-evidently ridiculous strawman like the one in that idiotic comic, ever expressed a sincere belief that "if I call her a ****, she will go away"?

Well, they figured loudly complaining about a kickstarter and harassing her personally was going to get the thing to fail

No "they" didn't, there was no conspiracy to get the kickstarter to fail or make Sarkeesian go away, that's just nonsense.

Never said there was a conspiracy. Just that there was a whole lot of idiots getting worked up over something that turned out to be nothing.

 

[inmunitas]

Insecure nerds going around and telling everybody how this milquetoast feminist is literally Jack Thompson ver. 2.2 wasn't an attempt at suppression that caused the original kickstarter to gain hilarious amounts of attention?

Is that what actually happened?

I mean, has anyone, other than possibly a self-evidently ridiculous strawman like the one in that idiotic comic, ever expressed a sincere belief that "if I call her a ****, she will go away"?

Well, they figured loudly complaining about a kickstarter and harassing her personally was going to get the thing to fail

No "they" didn't, there was no conspiracy to get the kickstarter to fail or make Sarkeesian go away, that's just nonsense.

Never said there was a conspiracy. Just that there was a whole lot of idiots getting worked up over something that turned out to be nothing.

...... you've just been claiming in your previous posts that a group of people were attempting to get a kickstarter to fail by complaining about it and harassing the creator.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Insecure nerds going around and telling everybody how this milquetoast feminist is literally Jack Thompson ver. 2.2 wasn't an attempt at suppression that caused the original kickstarter to gain hilarious amounts of attention?

Is that what actually happened?

I mean, has anyone, other than possibly a self-evidently ridiculous strawman like the one in that idiotic comic, ever expressed a sincere belief that "if I call her a ****, she will go away"?

Well, they figured loudly complaining about a kickstarter and harassing her personally was going to get the thing to fail

No "they" didn't, there was no conspiracy to get the kickstarter to fail or make Sarkeesian go away, that's just nonsense.

Never said there was a conspiracy. Just that there was a whole lot of idiots getting worked up over something that turned out to be nothing.

...... you've just been claiming in your previous posts that a group of people were attempting to get a kickstarter to fail by complaining about it and harassing the creator.

I mean, yeah? Doesn't mean they got together as a group to plan it out. A lot of people can have the same bad idea individually.