Hate

Written by

Erin Gloria Ryan:

Obscene images, hate sites and a game where people are invited to beat you up have been inflicted on Anita Sarkeesian.

Just terrible.



  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    Sarkeesian is a brilliant writer and commentator on the treatment of women in popular entertainment. I love her Feminist Frequency video series (http://feministfrequency.com/), which reminds all of us what it’s like to be on the receiving end of careless stupidity, ignorance, and hatred.

    I am in no way surprised that she’s been the recipient of so much despicable adolescent abuse from the lesser intellects in the gaming community.

  • http://twitter.com/torkelh Torkel

    It’s incredibly sad to see such a vocal portion of the “hardcore” gamer community get so mad over the idea that a woman is allowed to have an opinion on their precious hobby that doesn’t involve showing her tits.

    Naturally, anyone who thinks this type of abuse is repulsive is a “white knight” or hypocrite who thinks women are weak and can’t handle criticism.

    And they wonder why people stereotype gamers as nerdy teenage boys with too much aggression…

  • Lukas

    The response to Sarkeesian’s Kickstarter project is one of the most heartbreaking things I’ve ever seen on the Internet. The fact that a lot of women have to deal with this kind of stuff is just horrific.

    And it’s not limited to gaming. About a year ago, blogger Rebecca Watson published a YouTube video where, as a short aside, she recounted how a man followed her into an elevator at night at a skeptical convention, and asked her to come to his room. She explained that this was a bit frightening to her, and asked men not to do that. For this simple statement, she has been exposed to the same kind of harassment as Sarkeesian, and this from a community that prides itself in its ability to think skeptically.

    I’m sure there are similar stories from all kinds of communities. This is clearly a problem that’s much more wide-spread than most men realize.

  • satcomer

    I wonder is Palin would have been in the same situation? Please reference that before you jump to conclusions for this poor woman. Remember i do agree the state of the Internet today is in the toilet.

    Please take as this as just the state of today. It’s cruel world and yes the idiots on the Internet are loud and obnoxious. Beside all this “kick starter” stuff is starting to sound like a scam.

  • lucascott

    While I think that this kind of behavior is deplorable I am equally disgusted at how such behavior towards certain groups is a hot topic and against others is disregarded by the media.

    ALL hate speech like this should bring disgust and media attention not just when it is against a woman. All bullying should get attention not just when it is against women or gays etc. Where are the articles about 14 year old straight boys trying to kill themselves because they are tired of being shoved in lockers etc. Cause if we look I bet it has happened and quite a bit but because he’s not gay there’s no public outcry.

    Where are the sites and the forums banning folks for being assholes regardless of the topic or the parties involved. They are few to non existent and that just promotes this notion of being able to say and do what you want. Youtube has systems and staff to make sure we don’t exercise our fair use rights to put a clip of a movie in a review about it but what about actively stopping hate speech etc. Both in the videos and the comments about them. It’s not there. Same with Facebook, etc. Yeah I know folks will scream about Freedom of Speech but even the US government has said that that doesn’t equal anyone having the right to harm or threaten to harm anyone. Perhaps if we stopped letting folks have a totally open forum they would act like mature respectful folks.

  • tyr

    This is par for the course when you piss off a particularly vocal part of the internet, it happens all the time whether the person is a woman or a man. Particularly funny is that Ms Ryan apparently has never seen “advice dog” type image macro’s or a flash “Punch [X]” game before. It might be terrible, but it’s not hate speech and it’s not misogyny that’s just people around Sarkeesian twisting things to fit into their narrative.

    • Doug

      Nah, it’s still hate speech, even if it’s “par for the course.” It was par for the course in the early part of the 20th century for guys to put on white sheets and hide their faces under hoods and then go lynch other people, and that was pretty hateful.

      And it’s not really that funny, too.