“The Great Debate” by The Escapist’s Cory Rydell and Greg Carter Of all the criticism thrown at Anita Sarkeesian, the bitching about her decision to disable YouTube comments in the face of an an organized campaign of harassment is the most misguided. It’s a dumb position for a couple of reasons. First, it implies that anyone who makes a video is honor-bound to lend their credibility and popularity to the opposing argument, they are not. Second, it implies YouTube comments contain anything that could remotely be called criticism, they do not. “I hope you get raped,” is not criticism. “Feminazi whore,” is not criticism. “Make me a sandwich,” is not criticism, nor is it funny.
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“The Great Debate” by The Escapist’s Cory Rydell and Greg Carter

Of all the criticism thrown at Anita Sarkeesian, the bitching about her decision to disable YouTube comments in the face of an an organized campaign of harassment is the most misguided. It’s a dumb position for a couple of reasons. First, it implies that anyone who makes a video is honor-bound to lend their credibility and popularity to the opposing argument, they are not. Second, it implies YouTube comments contain anything that could remotely be called criticism, they do not. “I hope you get raped,” is not criticism. “Feminazi whore,” is not criticism. “Make me a sandwich,” is not criticism, nor is it funny.

Check out this great article by Helen Lewis at the New Statesman about the harassment I’ve been facing since launching a Kickstarter for Tropes vs Women in Video Games. Sarkeesian decided to leave the comments on her video, as proof that such sexism exists. I think it’s important that she did, because too often the response to stories like this, “Come on, it can’t be that bad”. There are two reasons for this: first, that if you don’t experience this kind of abuse, it’s difficult to believe it exists (particularly if you’re a man and this just isn’t part of your daily experience). Secondly, because news reports don’t print the bad words. We’ve got into a weird situation where you have to get a TV channel controller to sign off a comedian using the word “cunt” after 9pm, but on the internet, people spray it round like confetti. We read almost-daily reports of “trolls” being cautioned or even jailed, but often have no idea what they’ve said.  Read the full article “Dear Internet, This is Why You Can’t Have Anything Nice”
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Check out this great article by Helen Lewis at the New Statesman about the harassment I’ve been facing since launching a Kickstarter for Tropes vs Women in Video Games.

Sarkeesian decided to leave the comments on her video, as proof that such sexism exists. I think it’s important that she did, because too often the response to stories like this, “Come on, it can’t be that bad”. There are two reasons for this: first, that if you don’t experience this kind of abuse, it’s difficult to believe it exists (particularly if you’re a man and this just isn’t part of your daily experience). Secondly, because news reports don’t print the bad words. We’ve got into a weird situation where you have to get a TV channel controller to sign off a comedian using the word “cunt” after 9pm, but on the internet, people spray it round like confetti. We read almost-daily reports of “trolls” being cautioned or even jailed, but often have no idea what they’ve said. 

Read the full article “Dear Internet, This is Why You Can’t Have Anything Nice”

The notion that cyber harassment is trivial is both widespread and damaging. Because so many refuse to recognize cyber harassment as harmful, women suffer in silence, often sacrificing their female identities and their online lives. A cyber civil rights agenda would change this by recognizing and naming cyber harassment as gender discrimination. By changing the social meaning of online harassment and recharacterizing it as a civil rights violation, we may be able to transform online behavior in a manner that permits women to claim the internet as equally their own.
Danielle Keats Citron, “Law’s Expressive Value in Combating Cyber Gender Harassment” in the Michigan Law Review, December 2009.

Source: works.bepress.com

Harassment, Misogyny and Silencing on YouTube

Here is a very small sample of the harassment I deal with for daring to criticize sexism in video games. Keep in mind that all this is in response to my Kickstarter project for a video series called Tropes vs. Women in Video Games (which I have not even made yet). These are the types of silencing tactics often used against women on the internet who dare to speak up. But don’t worry it won’t stop me!

[MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING]

NOTE: These 60 comments were left over the course of just one hour on YouTube. They represent a tiny fraction of the 2000+ similar comments left on my video.Sexist YouTube Harassment

Source: youtube.com