Reel Women: How Misogyny in Gamer Culture Hurts All of Us
One of the biggest issues in the news this week has been the ongoing rampant misogyny and outright terrorism in gamer culture, specifically the attacks on Depression Quest developer Zoe Quinn and feminist media commentator Anita Sarkeesian — both of whom have suffered exceedingly personal attacks and threats on their lives (including the horrible one in the graphic above, which was sent to Sarkeesian via Twitter). The former for merely talking sexual agency as an independent, adult woman, and the latter for criticizing the industry’s treatment of women in its games. What do these issues have to do with the rest of geek culture? Well …. everything. Misogyny in gamer culture is a symptom of a larger, systemic issue. And something needs to be done about it. Now.
I am not steeped in gamer culture, but I can tell you that what I’ve learned over the last week about the treatment of Anita Sarkeesian and Zoe Quinn has horrified me (you can read a great primer here from Andrew Todd at Badass Digest). This isn’t casual sexism — these are women who are being tormented and terrorized because they are women. And the men who are responsible for crusading against them are fighting against people they’ve labeled “Social Justice Warriors” — a derogatory term they’ve coined to insinuate that anyone who supports social justice and equality is limiting them and holding them down. These are men who were born with every right handed to them; the only struggle is the one they’re imposing upon themselves by fighting to repress women.
What Zoe Quinn did or did not do doesn’t matter. That Anita Sarkeesian has opinions that these men do not agree with does not matter. Nothing — nothing — makes the actions of these men and their crusade justifiable. Nothing justifies releasing the personal information of another person on the internet. Nothing justifies making threats to their personal safety and the safety of their loved ones to the point where they have to leave their own home. These men will never know what it feels like to be a woman on this planet, to fear for your safety and your well-being just for having a totally sane opinion and speaking up about it — and the idea that women should be treated equally and with respect shouldn’t even be an opinion; it should be an accepted reality, something we just acknowledge is right, that we do every day without even having to stop and consider whether it’s right.
This misogyny isn’t just endemic to gaming culture — it’s rampant in all geek culture, including movie fanboyism. There’s this sinister notion of ownership, that men have more claim over geek properties than women do, that’s been ingrained from childhood. We have toys for boys and toys for girls. Video games, comic books, and superheroes are all for little boys, while princesses and romance and hearts and flowers are for girls. When I — like many women I know — was growing up, this wasn’t the case. My Ninja Turtles and Ghostbusters were mixed in with my Barbies in one giant toy box, and I played video games with the little boys on my street without them calling me a “dumb bitch” or a “whore.”
http://screencrush.com/reel-women-misogyny-gamer-culture/?trackback=tsmclip
= new reply since forum marked as read
There have been complaints about the lack of a lead characters in the Assassin's Creed series. But when Ubisoft came out with Aveline, she was panned. Was it because she was of mixed-race heritage?
Okay, I'll be honest; I haven't ever actually played the games. But this is honestly a cool character, IMO. Sadly, some gamers are a bit too damn unimaginative or even reactionary for their own good. And this is coming from a guy who's a gamer himself. 
...as I was around for the old BBSs and crappy Mosaic browser (dialup modems and such)! That's when *I* remember it becoming a thing. As you say it didn't become widely popular until the 90s.
What can I say. I'm old! LOL!
(We had these! And real live operators!)
First computer I used at work around 1981:
Although she doesn't really think sexism is a stand-alone issue, she doesn't perceive a boys club where women are ostracized so much as a free-for-all where assholes are emboldened by anonymity and a lack of consequences. She says if you want to play "count the slur" the story might as well be that gaming is wildly homophobic far beyond any issues women might face.
