The Felicia Day/Destructoid situation

[Owyn_Merrilin]

...Wait, what does Felicia Day have to do with gaming in the first place? Aside from The Guild being a show about a fictional WoW guild? She's an actress, for pete's sake, who cares if she's "done anything" for the medium of gaming? She works in a completely different one, and has done plenty for it.

Edit: I mean, it's like complaining that Nathan Fillion and Neil Patrick Harris have geek cred, despite not doing much for videogames in particular. In fact, it's a lot like it, since the three were the headliners in Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog.

 

[Kahunaburger]

Wait a sec, they fired a guy for asking a question? Has the whole world been P-whipped?

He's (apparently) an intern, man. Pretty much at the bottom of the totem pole. It's very easy [http://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/3/36/Spy_DominationSoldier04.wav] for Destructoid to find a new intern who doesn't generate bad publicity for them.

 

[Scarim Coral]

The only things I know about Felicia is she does the voice for one of the Guild Wars 2 characters and appear in this webseries called Web Zeroes but yeah I don't exactly know why she is so well known.
Also no I'm not defending the guy action as there are ways to be not being a dick when asking a question like that.

 

[AgedGrunt]

Many roles. TV mini-star. The Guild (short series), VA work (New Vegas, Guild Wars 2), 10+ years acting history on Imdb. Lot more talent and brains than spiteful shlub.

Hssst. Nature of opinion debatable but irrelevant when failing basic qualification of profession. Suggest he make hats instead. /Mordin

 

[Smeggs]

Honestly I dislike Felicia Day's acting. When she showed up in Eureka I didn't watch that either. She's not even that good looking, not sure why people are creaming themselves over her.

 

[Fr]anc[is]

Edit: I don't want to be a part of this anymore

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

i think sexism is wrong(and most -isims)
but an extreme response by the employer to sack the offender doesnt help anyone. he'll probably walk away harbouring more ignorance and hate due to the injustice he no doubt sees he was subjected to.

you can not force tolerance, only hope to show/teach/lead by example.

 

[Cheesepower5]

Prove it was sexist.

"Why is this woman visible in this industry? Is it just because people find her attractive?" is pretty textbook, and not just for video games.

How about Nolan North? He's pretty visible as a voice actor & is involved in the promotion of games he's in. People apparently find him attractive. Does he ever get shit being an attractive person of his sex participating in the industry?

It can also be a valid criticism, like it or not. She's not in the industry and yet people worship her and it makes her unassailable. They can always use sexism as a trump card and it's magically invalid. I'm not saying he's right, I reiterate: I don't give a damn about either of them. But it exists in the industry that women are given status and made to look like something she's not. Not all of them mind you, not even close, but it's still something you should approach with caution, sadly. I blame G4 TV. And Nolan North may have not, but it has been used against men too. As said above, even NPH. And this is the one that get's backlash.

He's not in hot water because of his gender, it's because of the gender of the person he's speaking to.

Or, more specifically, for making a specific kind of gendered attack that is pretty much only ever used against women. If he wanted to critique marketing strategies that hinge on participation of celebs people find attractive, that's a critique he could have made in a much better way than going after a specific actress as a "glorified booth babe."

It wasn't targeted at all female journalists. JUST Felicia Day. It's not an open declaration of war against women, don't make it something bigger than it is. There is no illuminati-level conspiratory control group called the Patriarchy.

Wait a sec, they fired a guy for asking a question? Has the whole world been P-whipped?

He's an intern, man. Pretty much at the bottom of the totem pole. It's very easy [http://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/3/36/Spy_DominationSoldier04.wav] for Destructoid to find a new intern who doesn't generate bad publicity for them.

More valid reason to fire the guy, but the whole reason it's exploded like this is questionable. He's a douche yeah. But if we're suddenly deciding to fire all douches, why the fuck is it still hard to get a job? I should at least get a chance to prove to them that I'm one before the next hopefuls come along.

 

[J. Mazarin]

Wait a sec, they fired a guy for asking a question? Has the whole world been P-whipped?

Being a prick or not, he asked a simple question, and because he asked it towards a women everyone got sensitive and Perez became the villain.

I'm sorry, this isn't like when that one sexist and racist DJ called a bunch of women from women's basketball "nappy headed hoes,' this is completely different.

He asked a questions that is honestly on a lot of peoples minds towards a lot of women in gaming. The fact is the industry wants more women involved, but name me a female personality in gaming that isn't "cute" at least and I'll show you the only reason they have their jobs. So the industry is sexist to begin with and firing a man that asked such a simple question is OUTRAGES!

OUT-FUCKING-RAGES!!

Hope you're kidding (outrages?), but in the event you're not...

Would you care to explain how pulling a "JUSTIFY YOUR EXISTENCE TO ME YOU WORTHLESS BOOTH-BABE!" doesn't carry any sort of sexist undertones to it?

I mean, if this was just one retard on twitter, it wouldn't matter. The point is that he WAS supposed to be a journalist, and journalists are supposed to uphold a certain degree of integrity when communicating with people in the industry they're covering.

He didn't do that, and he was fired because of it.

Saying he was canned for "asking a question" is the same thing as saying the New Orleans Saints are being penalized for "playing football".

EDIT:

And I don't know if any you understand this, but we're in a recession. Getting fired is a very BAD thing, and over a matter like this with this publicity--well, he's probably not going to be able to find a job in the game industry ever again. That is so fucked up in so many ways I don't know how to comment any further.

Now any of you under the age of 18 that would say it was just, if you haven't worked a day in your life or had to deal with unemployment, than you have no right to speak! NONE!

So he gets a free license to act like a fuckwit just because the economy's bad? Sure, that sounds about right. /sarcasm

I do work (at a library, at the moment). You know what would happen to me if I acted like this idiot at my job? I'd get fired, and deservedly so. That's how things work.

Don't want to act like a professional? Well you're not going to BE a fucking professional, then.

 

[SuperNova221]

Could ask him the exact same thing, I mean what HAS he done for gaming? Would the gaming industry seriously be any different if another bloody games journalist, never became a games journalist?

Then ask yourself, would the games industry be any different if a huge internet personality/actress never got involved in doing what she does? Maybe not, but it's far more likely.

Not that I'm a huge fan of her work, it seems "eh" at best. Can't really understand why she is as popular as she is, her acting, and voice acting, always sounded a little stale to me. Not what I'm expect from a professional. But that's sort of true for nearly all American actors.

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

That's kind of dumb.
Why on earth would you single someone out and be like `justify your existance to me!`.
Sounds like a bit of a prick.

Pretty much this.

This thread was the first I've heard of the situation, but it sounds like the guy just decided to be a complete asshole for no reason.

EDIT: If said asshole really wanted to know what Felicia Day has to do with video games, he might have tried this [http://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=off&sclient=psy-ab&q=%22felicia+day%22+%2B+%22video+games%22&oq=%22felicia+day%22+%2B+%22video+games%22&gs_l=hp.3..0i30j0i8i30.738.4944.0.5173.29.29.0.0.0.2.872.5849.0j23j3j1j1j0j1.29.0...0.0.7PP9o3R-4lU&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=21c0595ad86507f8&biw=1600&bih=796]. I knew to try this, and I'm not even a journalist.

 

[DustyDrB]

i think sexism is wrong(and most -isims)
but an extreme response by the employer to sack the offender doesnt help anyone. he'll probably walk away harbouring more ignorance and hate due to the injustice he no doubt sees he was subjected to.

you can not force tolerance, only hope to show/teach/lead by example.

Firing him help's Destructoid's image, or it at least prevents a black mark to their image. They lost next to nothing in firing him, as this guy was an intern and hadn't contributed anything of note other than a sexist question on Twitter.

They're not firing him to teach him a lesson. They're firing him because he publicly made an ass of himself and, by proxy, the company he worked for.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

i think sexism is wrong(and most -isims)
but an extreme response by the employer to sack the offender doesnt help anyone. he'll probably walk away harbouring more ignorance and hate due to the injustice he no doubt sees he was subjected to.

you can not force tolerance, only hope to show/teach/lead by example.

Firing him help's Destructoid's image, or it at least prevents a black mark to their image. They lost next to nothing in firing him, as this guy was an intern and hadn't contributed anything of note other than a sexist question on Twitter.

They're not firing him to teach him a lesson. They're firing him because he publicly made an ass of himself and, by proxy, the company he worked for.

i understand that side of it, good publicity etc etc. but to clarify, i meant this doesnt really help the battle gainst sexism.
CAPCHA: i like you

 

[Smertnik]

Why would she do anything "useful" to gaming? The last time I checked she's an actress and doesn't work in the gaming industry.

 

[Acier]

Wait a sec, they fired a guy for asking a question? Has the whole world been P-whipped?

Being a prick or not, he asked a simple question, and because he asked it towards a women everyone got sensitive and Perez became the villain.

I'm sorry, this isn't like when that one sexist and racist DJ called a bunch of women from women's basketball "nappy headed hoes,' this is completely different.

He asked a questions that is honestly on a lot of peoples minds towards a lot of women in gaming. The fact is the industry wants more women involved, but name me a female personality in gaming that isn't "cute" at least and I'll show you the only reason they have their jobs. So the industry is sexist to begin with and firing a man that asked such a simple question is OUTRAGES!

OUT-FUCKING-RAGES!!

Hope you're kidding (outrages?), but in the event you're not...

Would you care to explain how pulling a "JUSTIFY YOUR EXISTENCE TO ME YOU WORTHLESS BOOTH-BABE!" doesn't carry any sort of sexist undertones to it?

I mean, if this was just one retard on twitter, it wouldn't matter. The point is that he WAS supposed to be a journalist, and journalists are supposed to uphold a certain degree of integrity when communicating with people in the industry they're covering.

He didn't do that, and he was fired because of it.

Saying he was canned for "asking a question" is the same thing as saying the New Orleans Saints are being penalized for "playing football".

I'm going to guess that the comment to Day AND the fact he called Wil Wheaton an "opportunistic puddle of miscarriage soup".

Couldn't have helped anyways.

 

[Phasmal]

i think sexism is wrong(and most -isims)
but an extreme response by the employer to sack the offender doesnt help anyone. he'll probably walk away harbouring more ignorance and hate due to the injustice he no doubt sees he was subjected to.

you can not force tolerance, only hope to show/teach/lead by example.

Firing him help's Destructoid's image, or it at least prevents a black mark to their image. They lost next to nothing in firing him, as this guy was an intern and hadn't contributed anything of note other than a sexist question on Twitter.

They're not firing him to teach him a lesson. They're firing him because he publicly made an ass of himself and, by proxy, the company he worked for.

i understand that side of it, good publicity etc etc. but to clarify, i meant this doesnt really help the battle gainst sexism.
CAPCHA: i like you

Sadly, nearly nothing does.
You can't unmake someone sexist.
Perhaps you can make them realise that sexism is wrong (by perhaps punishing them if they are), but they have to decide to not be sexist by themselves.
I used to think being nice would work, but it doesn't. All you get is `you're not like other women WHO ARE ALL TERRIBLE`.

 

[Kahunaburger]

And Nolan North may have not, but it has been used against men too.

Examples, please? When has a video games journalist called a man who does voice acting for video games a "glorified booth babe" or anything remotely analogous?

As said above, even NPH. And this is the one that get's backlash.

Actually, if you re-read Owen's comment it looks like he's saying that these comments are as dumb as if someone had attacked NPH for being an attractive man with geek cred.

Or, more specifically, for making a specific kind of gendered attack that is pretty much only ever used against women. If he wanted to critique marketing strategies that hinge on participation of celebs people find attractive, that's a critique he could have made in a much better way than going after a specific actress as a "glorified booth babe."

It wasn't targeted at all female journalists. JUST Felicia Day. It's not an open declaration of war against women, don't make it something bigger than it is. There is no illuminati-level conspiratory control group called the Patriarchy.

Haha what?

He's a douche yeah. But if we're suddenly deciding to fire all douches, why the fuck is it still hard to get a job?

Because most people are smart enough not to start controversy their workplace doesn't want anything to do with under their real names on social media.

 

[J. Mazarin]

Wait a sec, they fired a guy for asking a question? Has the whole world been P-whipped?

Being a prick or not, he asked a simple question, and because he asked it towards a women everyone got sensitive and Perez became the villain.

I'm sorry, this isn't like when that one sexist and racist DJ called a bunch of women from women's basketball "nappy headed hoes,' this is completely different.

He asked a questions that is honestly on a lot of peoples minds towards a lot of women in gaming. The fact is the industry wants more women involved, but name me a female personality in gaming that isn't "cute" at least and I'll show you the only reason they have their jobs. So the industry is sexist to begin with and firing a man that asked such a simple question is OUTRAGES!

OUT-FUCKING-RAGES!!

"JUSTIFY YOUR EXISTENCE TO ME YOU WORTHLESS BOOTH-BABE!" doesn't carry any sort of sexist undertones to it?

Umm, I've read his question he said:

"could you be considered nothing more than a glorified booth babe? You don't seem to add anything creative to the medium."

What you did there was blantantly putting additional words into a person's mouth to villify them.

Haha, yes, that's exactly what I did. You know why? I don't have to hold an image of professionalism on the Escapist because 1) I don't work for them and 2) My job doesn't depend on me holding said degree of professionalism. Because I'm commenting anonymously. Which is the opposite of what this moron did.

Questioning someone's worth and claiming that the only reason they're successful is because "geeks" find them attractive does not hold any standard of professionalism at all, and he deserved to be fired because of it.

Do you not see how FUCKING wrong that is?

No, not really. Do you not see how FUCKING OMG RAWRR wrong his comments were?

Don't comment back! I'm not interested in arguing with you further considering what I've understood from you this far on..>>

"DON'T RESPOND TO THIS POST! I KNOW YOU'LL JUST EMBARRASS ME IN FRONT OF EVERYONE AND I JUST COULDN'T HANDLE THAT OMG! YOU'RE OBVIOUSLY WRONG AND I'M SO SO RIGHT! NOW I'LL STOP TALKING TO YOU BEFORE I HAVE TO ACTUALLY DEFEND MYSELF!"

Haha, hey look, I can do it to you too.

EDIT:

If the sexist comments toward an actress aren't enough reason for you to think this guy should've been fired, you might want to consider the fact that he called Wil Wheaton an "opportunistic puddle of miscarriage soup." So there's that.

 

[Scrustle]

Apparently he was drunk when he started tweeting all these insults out to people. I don't really know much about Felica Day apart from the fact that she was in The Guild (which I've found to be pretty terrible personally), and a lot of people hate her. But I read something about this whole mess which said she's a huge gamer and has done lots of web series and many other game related media. Even if she's the most amazing person on the planet I think firing this guy from Dtoid was a bit harsh. It was his personal account. At no point did he claim to be talking for Dtoid, and others from the site gets away with some pretty mean stuff too (Jim Sterling *cough cough*), so why is one guy who happens to work for them saying some stupid stuff while he's drunk getting fired? People make an arse of themselves like this on Twitter all the time (one of the reasons I don't use it myself), so how is this any different? It just makes Dtoid look at best weirdly over-reactive and at worst complete hypocrites.

 

[DustyDrB]

Umm, I've read his question he said:

"could you be considered nothing more than a glorified booth babe? You don't seem to add anything creative to the medium."

What you did there was blantantly putting additional words into a person's mouth to villify them.

Do you not see how FUCKING wrong that is?

Don't comment back! I'm not interested in arguing with someone that can't even read a simple twitter message correctly..>>

Booth babes are there to be sex objects. He states (though he phrases it as a question, it's not hard to see he doesn't mean it as one) that she doesn't matter, provides nothing, and is just a glorified booth babe.

From all I can gather about Felicia Day, it seems she's worked hard and actually has been directly involved in gaming (voice acting and motion capture work). So there's no validity to the part of his argument where he says she's contributed nothing. So the "glorified booth babe" comment says that he feels she only has been given a place in the industry because she's a sex object, and not because of her work or talent. Not the best message to women who pursue the same path as Felicia Day.

And why did he get fired? Because he very publicly made an ass of himself and, by proxy, of the company he works for. And he's a nobody. Firing him doesn't hurt Destructoid at all. They have more to lose in keeping him than they do in letting him go. I don't feel bad for sexist assholes who don't have the common sense to keep their dumbass comments off of Twitter. Most any company who hires you nowadays will have a social networking policy you have to agree to. I know that's the case with me. Whether you like it or not, companies see you and what you do and say on Twitter and Facebook as at least somewhat a representative of them.

i think sexism is wrong(and most -isims)
but an extreme response by the employer to sack the offender doesnt help anyone. he'll probably walk away harbouring more ignorance and hate due to the injustice he no doubt sees he was subjected to.

you can not force tolerance, only hope to show/teach/lead by example.

Firing him help's Destructoid's image, or it at least prevents a black mark to their image. They lost next to nothing in firing him, as this guy was an intern and hadn't contributed anything of note other than a sexist question on Twitter.

They're not firing him to teach him a lesson. They're firing him because he publicly made an ass of himself and, by proxy, the company he worked for.

i understand that side of it, good publicity etc etc. but to clarify, i meant this doesnt really help the battle gainst sexism.
CAPCHA: i like you

Refusing to endorse their views is a pretty big win in my book. And that's what firing him did.