I was planning on writing a blog on this topic a while back, but was put off just by the general amount of heat surrounding it. Now that the fires have died down a bit I will attempt to give my perspective on the issue. Before we begin allow me to say that this is my opinion. I do not claim fact in any of the claims I am about the issue because...well...it's a fucking opinion. Odds are, my views will not align completely with anyone's reading this. Now that's out of the way, let us begin.
On May 17, 2012, a feminist by the name Anita Sarkeesian began a Kickstarter campaign to fund a new series of short videos that would examine gender tropes in video games. The campaign was featured as a campaign of note on the official Kickstarter blog. After her campaign reached over $6,000 in less than 24 hours she began to get a lot of attention, and not all good either. Following Anita's Kickstarter campaign were mountains of not only verbal abuse, but physical threats generated toward Anita on a systematic basis. The least of this were photos emailed to Anita depicting her being raped by various video game characters, and the worst being threatened with having her personal information (phone number, address, etc) leaked to the public. Pretty much every misogynistic act ever deemed possible by man was displayed over a period of months before the release of her videos.
I'm going to get to her videos later. Don't worry your pretty little heads. Right now I want to focus on something else. Now, this little jewel of human behavior isn't only displayed in scenarios like Anita Sakeesian's, but this is a good reference point. I have seen it multiple times throughout my life, and the method has pretty much remained unchanged. I am speaking, of course, of hysteria. More specifically, hysteria mixed with anger.
I am, in no way, and advocate for feminists, nor do I really oppose them. I have spoken against radical feminists in the past, but that's different. Radical feminists are like the fanatics of feminism. In my opinion, if you have to shout angrily to get a point across then the point wasn't really that valid to begin with, but I digress. In every debate I've had with a "radfem" I've always remained calm, and evaluated their argument. Why? Because if they start acting hysterical then I look like the more rational adult of the conversation.
Anita Sarkeesian is not a radical feminist. She's just a feminist who wanted some capitol for a project she was doing. That's what every person of any group that has ever wanted to do a project on anything does. This isn't anything new. That's why it's hard to wrap my brain around why the multitudes reacted the way they did. She wasn't wanting to advocate any specific developer, and/or publisher to be shut down. She just wanted to get a point across. She wasn't going to attack anyone. She just wanted to point out, and bring to light common tropes in all of entertainment, really. So why all the hostility?
I have been wrapping my mind around this all morning, and have tried to understand it. I think it has to do with two main facets of gaming, and human nature altogether. The first being that, as I've stated before, gamers are very passionate people. Also, we're used to having to defend our hobby on numerous occasions. Many gamers also relate, and fully identify with the games they play. So, anything that challenges our favorite past time is immediately viewed as a threat. Our survival instincts tell us that a threat needs to be eliminated, while the rational side of our brain sees no actual threat present. This creates cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance causes people to say, and do all sorts of crazy shit.
The second thing I've attributed this to is the common misconception that all feminists hate men. Years of this idea has taught us that anything a feminists says, or does is automatically against men; which is not always the case. Just an example; many years ago I worked as a gas station cook. I made pizza, hot wings, just general gas station food. Me, and my manager became friends over the time I worked there. One day we were talking, and she mentioned that at the beginning of me being hired she had to fight tooth, and nail to keep me employed. She explained that some of the locals had been calling, and wanted me fired because they felt a woman should be in the kitchen, and not a man. Many of the causes feminists oppose effect both genders.
Neither of those points, however, explain why this situation escalated so horribly so quickly, but they may provide some clues. Now, it should be noted that there is nothing wrong with immersing yourself with your video games. That's part of the enjoyment a gamer gets from their games. But immersion unchecked can cause one to lose touch with reality. That is a problem.
Threatening someone with physical harm, for any reason, is against the law in most countries; including the US. The risk, and reward for threatening to murder, rape, etc Anita Sarkeesian for wanting to publish an opinion doesn't really equal out. There really was no reward, and the risk was possible jail time. Just ask Justin Carter (whose arrest I do not agree with at all, and may cover it in a future blog). So why do it? The only logical answer I could come to was a complete detachment from reality. Even if momentarily, these people did not contemplate the consequences of threatening someone in the most traceable way possible.
Why am I dwelling on this? Well, the people responsible for those threats represent us gamers as a whole. They are the reason any politician that lobbies against video games ever has an argument. Inadvertently, their behavior is one of the reasons that video games, as a medium, are constantly being attacked, and defended. People like that are the reason that misogyny in the gaming community is still a hot-button issue.
So, I'm sure the readers out there are wondering what I thought of Anita Sarkeesian's videos. Well, I can't say that I did agree with her. She made a few valid points, but it all pretty much revolved around an archaic trope that she generalized to death. I plan on speaking more about them in my next blog. So, keep a look out for that.
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