Awful things happen when you try to express an opinion.

Anita Sarkeesian thought it would be a good idea to make a video series called Tropes vs. Women in Video Games. It would be about, well, the tropes developers resort to when portraying women in video games. Stuff like armour that doesn't actually cover anything. To help market the idea, she set up a Kickstarter page and made a YouTube video. What follows is just sad.

http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/06/harassment-misogyny-and-si...

I thought this would be interesting to discuss since this happened recently.

Might as well leave this here.

are those links safe for work

To be fair, the comments look as if they're written by the typical 4chan, reddit, 9gag whatever self professed "Internet Trolls". It's not so much an attack on feminism just a chance to insult someone over the internet, you can find these comments pretty much anywhere.

Eh, I wouldn't have been interested in the series anyway. I get it, men are pigs and sex sells. Next!

@x_29: So what's your opinion?

I didnt watch the video because im at work, but it looks pretty bad, but I think it is just a small group of people.

i grow bored very quickly of people who complain about how thier religion,race,sexual oreintation or whatever. i get it. you dont get the respect you deserve. move the fuck on. dont let the fact that your gay,black or a buddist define what you are as a person.just do what everybody else does,understand the world is a fucked up and unfair place and move on.

but what do i know?im a white man. apparently my opinion doesnt matter because im white and straight.

that's a pretty savage thing to do on the net. best to ignore them and listen to Kefka's theme with the King.

Ah, another day on the internet!

@x_29: there's been already a thread about this (yesterday?). don't know what it was called though.

@Dagbiker: yes, the link in the OP just goes to her website about the issue.

@JasonR86 said:

Eh, I wouldn't have been interested in the series anyway. I get it, men are pigs and sex sells. Next!

she's better than that, don't be reductive.

Ah Nerds.  
How far you have fallen 

I'd watch that series. Though I get the feeling it wouldn't be handled well and I'd just stop after a video or two. I don't see why she has that one female assassin from that one Heaven and Hell club level in Bloody Money featured so prominently.

Also, from her Kickstarter:

As some of you may be aware, this project has recently been subject to a coordinated online harassment effort waged by various online video game forums vowing to "take me down".

Video game forums? Coordinated? Like Petiew said, it all sounds like standard stuff you'd get from the usual places, let alone that they're also YouTube comments which are probably the utter worst. I get a real sensationalizing vibe from it, but world we live in and all that.

Also, lol @ "MAJOR TRIGGER WARNING"

@Dagbiker said:

I didnt watch the video because im at work, but it looks pretty bad, but I think it is just a small group of people.

The video Video_Game_King posted is just Kefka's theme.

Do you know what other youtube videos get the same type of nasty comments?

All of them.

@Animasta said:

@JasonR86 said:

Eh, I wouldn't have been interested in the series anyway. I get it, men are pigs and sex sells. Next!

she's better than that, don't be reductive.

Reductive is my MO.

@DoctorDanger99 said:

but what do i know?im a white wolfman. apparently my opinion doesnt matter because im white wolf and straight.

FTFY ;)

@Cloudenvy said:

Ah, another day on the internet!

The real tragedy is that this story doesn't involve any donuts.

To be fair, the comments look as if they're written by the typical 4chan, reddit, 9gag whatever self professed "Internet Trolls". It's not so much an attack on feminism just a chance to insult someone over the internet, you can find these comments pretty much anywhere.

@Ravenlight:

you are correct.my bad. now if you excuse me,Lon Chaney and I have to go walking with the queen.

For those interested her kickstarter is still running for the next couple of days if you would like to donate. She has already reached her funding goal and exceeded it by a large margin but it's still a good idea to support an analysis of a problem that, despite what some idiots are saying is still to prevalent in games and entertainment generally.

@Petiew: Yes. The internet haterbase are douchebags, but probably don't actually mean what they say (no, that doesn't make it OK).

It's a matter of Identify what group target is member of>Find hurtful/exploitative things to say about group>hurl remarks

"Oh, you're german? Fucking nazi shit-eating-porn pig" "Oh, you're a female jew? Fucking jewish jew whore".

I think this has more to do with immature gamers being pissed that someone dares to criticize their precious medium than it has to do with genuine misogyny/anti-semitism. Still disgusting though, but not quite as worrying as the alternative.

People are stupid. Anonymity gives people the chance to demonstrate that stupidity. I'm pretty sure that all those assholes that are saying she's a terrorist, telling her to get raped or to "go back to the kitchen" wouldn't have the balls to do it face to face in real life.

So, yeah, people are stupid.

Edit: I just realized I wrote "anonimity". Sometimes my native Spanish gets the best of me :(

@Harkat: EXACTLY. it's the internet. this is how people act when theres no accountaility. her getting angry because of internet douche bags is the same thing as getting angry because water is wet.

@Ravenlight: That is the real tragedy of any story. If it was up to me, everything on this site should be donut related.

People are asshats and the internet gives them the tools to be the most asshattish they can be.

@JoeyRavn said:

People are stupid. Anonimity gives people the chance to demonstrate that stupidity. I'm pretty sure that all those assholes that are saying she's a terrorist, telling her to get raped or to "go back to the kitchen" wouldn't have the balls to do it face to face in real life.

So, yeah, people are stupid.

If they spent enough time doing it behind her back I'm sure eventually they could say it to her face, especially if it's not just them there in real life saying it to her.

@ZeForgotten said:

Ah Nerds. How far you have fallen

That's assuming the nerd status started off at some sort of elevation. :P

GIFT - Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory

(It seems like the Wikipedia entry for this has changed)

@Bisyss said:

The fact is that unless you happen to be a white, cisgender guy, Internet culture is completely toxic and the more people realise this, the better.

I'm pretty sure it's more this- its not just us gamers. :(

@Harkat said:

@Petiew: Yes. The internet haterbase are douchebags, but probably don't actually mean what they say (no, that doesn't make it OK).

@JoeyRavn said:

People are stupid. Anonimity gives people the chance to demonstrate that stupidity. I'm pretty sure that all those assholes that are saying she's a terrorist, telling her to get raped or to "go back to the kitchen" wouldn't have the balls to do it face to face in real life.

So, yeah, people are stupid.

@DoctorDanger99 said:

@Harkat: EXACTLY. it's the internet. this is how people act when theres no accountaility. her getting angry because of internet douche bags is the same thing as getting angry because water is wet.

^All of this- in combination.

As much of a role Anonimity plays though- many of them may still be saying stuff like this just to stick in with the perceived 'majority.' <_>

@ZeForgotten said:

Ah Nerds. How far you have fallen

That's assuming the nerd status started off at some sort of elevation. :P

Didn't we talk about this yesterday?

Video game fans tend to be the worst people so I'm not surprised.

@Cloudenvy said:

Ah, another day on the internet!

Do you have a gif of her for every situation?

Man, people on the internet bum me out.

@ImmortalSaiyan: Hmmm, probably not for EVERY situation. A large majority of the pictures I have of her aren't even gifs.

EDIT: But I do have a lot!

@PeasantAbuse said:

Video game fans tend to be the worst people so I'm not surprised.

Pretty much agreed. It makes the rest of us look awful.

Ignoring the fact that I completely disagree with most everything she says, those commenters are fuckwads.

This whole thing, while also being terrible, is also fucking hilarious; once all the shit 4chan did got reported, she got WAY more money, as seen here

so much irony, so much salt

@DoctorDanger99 said:

@Harkat: EXACTLY. it's the internet. this is how people act when theres no accountaility. her getting angry because of internet douche bags is the same thing as getting angry because water is wet.

This is how it is, therefore no effort should be made to change it. Disturbingly pervasive mentality.

It is not so much an issue of her being angry, it is more an issue of her being harassed on multiple levels well beyond "angry YouTube comments." This kind of immaturity is not OK, whether it is happening in actuality or on the internet.

@cmblasko:

i agree she shouldnt take it lying down (thats what she said) but getting upset because the internet is full of loud and abrasive assholes is stupid. i dont get upset because the sky is blue. i accept that it's blue because thats common fucking knowledge. as is the fact that the internet is FULL of ignorant little shits and live for the sole purpose of pissing other people off.

now she can add youtube sexism to her quest of magical teachings

Oh no, 4chan and co. do something offensive on the internet!

@cmblasko said:

@DoctorDanger99 said:

@Harkat: EXACTLY. it's the internet. this is how people act when theres no accountaility. her getting angry because of internet douche bags is the same thing as getting angry because water is wet.

This is how it is, therefore no effort should be made to change it. Disturbingly pervasive mentality.

It is not so much an issue of her being angry, it is more an issue of her being harassed on multiple levels well beyond "angry YouTube comments." This kind of immaturity is not OK, whether it is happening in actuality or on the internet.

How do you change it though? just like people who are dicks in real life you can't change them, the only thing you can do is ignore them when you pay more attetention to them is when you give whatever they say more power.

@hidys said:

For those interested her kickstarter is still running for the next couple of days if you would like to donate. She has already reached her funding goal and exceeded it by a large margin but it's still a good idea to support an analysis of a problem that, despite what some idiots are saying is still to prevalent in games and entertainment generally.

Wait are you.... are you actually suggesting that we should support this garbage though? What the hell?

Like with all trolls, they should really just be ignored, so whatever. She got her money, and even more with all the attention the trolls got her. I hope she just focuses on her video series and puts that money to good use.

@Vegetable_Side_Dish said:

Oh no, 4chan and co. do something offensive on the internet!

Yo why aren't them women cooking and shit!!!

@AngelN7: EXACTLY.

i had a little expierement with ym girlfriend awile back. we joke around with eachother alot.but me saying the word bitch was off limits. i tried telling her that her getting upset gives the word power. so i told her from now on everytime i said Biscuit i actually ment bitch. after a few months she became super pissed when ever i said the word biscuit.why? because in her mind it had been changed to mean the word bitch.

people put too much power into words. thats all they are. words. if sombody wants to be stupid and run thier mouth,let them. they are the ones who look like an idiot.not you.

You can insult my race, gender, whatever for $100,000+...

@DoctorDanger99: Well that wasn't exaclty what I meant but when you're dealing with people on the internet the best thing you can do is ignore them is not that hard to do , wich I think is better than letting them know how much what they said hurt you.