A Call for Sanity: The Anita Sarkeesian Incident and Internet Trolls

GameDynamo - Recent events have occurred where two female figures have been actively threatened over the Internet with physical violence. The entire debacle has sparked controversy and calls for greater equality towards women, even more so because one of the figures threatened, Anita Sarkeesian, is known for her video series that analyzes how women are depicted in video games. She puts out this series despite many of her arguments being baseless and founded largely on feminist ideologies that are able to be debunked with a single Google search.

[Godmars290]

Not getting how asking for sanity from both sides accomplishes anything, when one side is dependent on insane action to "legitimize" its side.

[user6540948]

Sarkeesian never called the cops like she daid she did. I think she trolled herself via a fake account to get more attention and funding.

[Godmars290]

To my exact point.

[DeadRabbits]

First off there is pretty much nothing that can be said or done from a male perspective that will satisfy this lady.

If Anita wants to engage with the gaming community she should try to do so in a constructive way rather than her up to now male demeaning and defensive manner!

She seems very zealous to present herself to be abused by the more obnoxious members of the gaming community so then claiming martyrdom for her agenda after the predictable backlash.

The sad thing is I and most people never even heard of this lady until a few weeks but perhaps she may come to her senses and use her intellect and skills to help promote woman rights issues in places that actually exist and not some delusion she is currently suffering from, the middle east is just a flight away for her!

[Godmars290]

We're talking about someone who criticized Lego for not making boy oriented sets for girls, complaining about color and limiting girl sets to cooking and the like, but doesn't see the sensibility of just buying boy sets for girls.

I mean since *she* has issues with the type and color of girl sets, it should only stand to reason that she or anyone who shares her mentality buy a set "meant" for a boy for a girl.

Unless they want a pink astronaut set - but then they have problems with pink!

[Eamon]

In this world, there are sensible feminists and there are rabid feminists.

The sensible feminist strives for equality, respect and dignity for women across the globe. Such examples includes; equal work pay, equal civil rights, right-to-vote etc.

The rabid feminist strives to become the man. The misogyny and chauvinism they abhor in men is what they strive to achieve for themselves. They want to see patriarchy in everything and anything. Even Princess Peach, a harmless cartoonish character in a game, was not allowed by Anita as she was a damsel in distress and should therefore be condemned. If Anita had concentrated on the damsel in distress trope as being overused as a plot device then fine. But her criticism isn't that it's overused but that because the "damsel" is a woman. If the "damsel in distress" was in fact a man in distress, she would look the other way and not speak a single word of criticism.

Another example of Anita is her criticism of violence used against women in videogames. A humongous hypocrisy here as the majority of violence in videogames are used against men.

If the man suffers, the sensible feminist would not tolerate it. But the rabid feminist wouldn't show an eyelid.

[Godmars290]

@Eamon:
Sorry, but no. The rapid feminist does not strive to be a man.

A rapid feminist strives to reduce a man to a slave. Chattel. Castrated chattel good only for berated amusement if not a humiliating death. To see men made into a demonized myth. A rapid feminist is not apathetic to the suffering of men, they applaud it.

And sadly like many such extremist, they drown out moderate, sensible voices.

[Buzz7S]

I would show her respect, but when you completely ignore the fact that Hitman: Absolution punishes the player for killing innocent people, you have issues.

When you also ignore the part of a video where the person does NOT touch a female working in the strip club, but then you yourself go to play the game and you strangle the strippers and claim some BS about violence against women, you have serious issues.

Screw NeoGAF. Screw Gamergate or whatever the hell it's called. And screw this Anita mut for misleading people.

[GodGinrai]

"Screw NeoGAF. Screw Gamergate or whatever the hell it's called. And screw this Anita mut for misleading people."

Agreed. Gamers should not be giving these people attention.

[ShadowWolf712]

Quite the opposite is true. "Gamers" don't NEED to give "these people" attention, they give each other attention. Anita didn't get influence because gamers gave it to her. They didn't have her come in to "advise" them on Mirror's Edge 2 because gamers gave her attention.

She has attention, and it's the attention of developers and media who are hammering them to listen to her, media with that same agenda.

We have a voice now. WE have attention too. And we're getting it not just from blogs, but news outlets. More and more people are seeing what's going on and giving a voice to the other side as a result.

Keeping quiet is literally the worst thing you can do in the face of nepotism and corruption, and it's the worst thing we could do right now.

[SnakeCQC]

I think the whole incident proved that many gamers are still immature little kids

[mep69]

I think it proves that certain people shouldn't be on the internet.
Take things on the internet seriously and you're a pretty dumb individual.

[GodGinrai]

Perhaps, but given all the dishonesty and wolf cries from the "otherside" I would not take up their side against, even those immature gamers who went out of their way to attack these people on twitter. Gamers as a whole could have handled it all better.

But when you have the same devs and journos coming out and attacking gamers..the same people who put them in their positions in the first place..calling them nerds, misogynists and every other stereotypical slur, it makes you wonder if these people were EVER on the side of the gamer...I cant even read kotaku or polygon anymore..the whole thing just left a bad taste in my mouth about people who work in this industry. And I didnt even get involved in #gamergate on twitter.

I just no I dont like games journos. And I am not sure how I feel about devs anymore. Do they just paint us all with the same brush, secretly?

[Spotie]

That's not limited to gaming. That's people all over.

Which, if you've been paying attention, is the most basic defense we gamers have against the attacks people like Anita Sarkeesian levels at us and our hobby. Other points in our favor include the actual points they attempt to make, which are nearly always some rare instance which is, nonetheless, taken out of context.

Besides, when your opponent- in this case, Sarkeesian and her ilk- just sticks their fingers in their ears to every valid point you make, it becomes clear that the only way to reach them is to be similarly immature.

Especially when their methods are getting results, and your more "adult" tactics are getting nothing.

[gigoran]

Unless it's Kotaku, Polygon, Anita, Zoe Quinn, and the rest of them publishing an official apology, admittance of their lies and deception, and strict promises of punishment for those of them that committed corruption, then this and all over stories are invalid. They want a truce because they know they are losing and want it to end in a way where they are not punished for their obvious wrong doings.

So no
Story Quality? WTF
Like the story? NO

[chrissx]

Anita is a joke

[GodGinrai]

More like bad comedy.

[WeAreLegion]

Anita does not represent the majority of women. Equality is the goal, not superiority. I assure you Anita and Zoe are in that vocal minority of women who don't respect men.

Hard working women like Jade Raymond, Amy Hennig, and Corrinne Yu should be getting the attention these clowns get.

[mep69]

Women already have more rights than men in England and America. Equality will never happen.
Feminist should spread their unjust hate and loud points of view to the countries where women's rights are worth less than a grain of sand.

[drizzom]

thoughts on all this from an actual feminist - https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[grifter024]

What a joke. Anita took more than 2k of funds to make a video that took her almost a year to do and it was so low budget.

Zoe defaces and steals from a charity, yet they are considered victims. How laud.

The gaming community has turned to utter crap to actually put up with this and the industry actually coddling them.

[kainslayer]

i dont understand feminist cr@p ,they want equality so swear back or f.off its internet gaming ffs dont mix politics,ideologies and other mk ultra cr@p in gaming f. enjoy them....go eat sh...

[j0ncap125]

Still waiting for her to comment on her lying about submitting a police report to SFPD.