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Since the launch of Feminist Frequency's Tropes vs Women in Games, creator Anita Sarkeesian has faced a wall of abuse and threats from enraged critics of her detailed research that highlights misogyny in game fiction.

This week, the abusers drove her out of her own home.

"Some very scary threats have just been made against me and my family. Contacting authorities now," she wrote on Twitter last night.

She later tweeted, "I'm safe. Authorities have been notified. Staying with friends tonight. I'm not giving up. But this harassment of women in tech must stop!"

Earlier today, Sarkeesian shared a particularly disturbing series of threats from one abuser, along with a trigger warning. "I usually don't share the really scary stuff. But it's important for folks to know how bad it gets."

This is sad, and I'm not sure if I'd really give a gak if some troll on the web threatened me. Rather than commenting on how scary it is, why not take steps to protect yourself and then keep doing what you're doing?

And honestly? Drove her out of her home? There isn't a person alive that could do that to me without killing me first.

Trying not to sound heartless, but it probably has a lot to do with publicity in terms of the reaction.

Ok, I am definitely against, well.. pretty much everything harassment. I wouldn't even send them an email, let alone death threats, but still hear me out. Just because I have decided I dont like either of them very much doesnt mean it has anything to do with feminism.

Two days ago I didn't know who she, or Zoe Quinn was, thank Dakka for my intro.That is how interested I am in the whole thing.

Anyway, after spending half an hour reading about the pair, I think I have enough evidence to say that I doubt I would like either of them. I'm also left wondering why people spend to much time defending them. I mean seriously that Zoe chick seems like a genuinely disgusting human being. If a man cheated on his missus to that extent while always saying "CHeating is such a terrible thing" who on earth would defend him? It just reeks of hypocrisy. You know.. like the person who goes on and on and on about something being bad, like adultery or tax evasion or being gay, and then they get caught evading taxes and cheating on their wives with a bloke.

I'm pleased that people can make a living doing "social media" type of gak, good luck to them, but I have no interest in either of them and I honestly doubt they are sincere. They are less interested in issues and more interested in CASH, same as everybody else. I think they make a living from this gak because they are women. Smart girls know they can make money by either leaping into hobbys that are male orientated, or leaping onto a bandwagon, like feminism or LGBT rights or something.

For example I am very pro LGBT rights, but I wouldn't make a video and say "I will spread the message for 10 dollars!" because I think it reeks of patronizing snake oil salesmen. People will say and do anything to make a buck nowadays. The LGBT community are working hard themselves, they don't need me to take money off them. Same with that Zoey chick who made some 40k videos, she might be pleasant enough personally, but clearly its all about the money. Its actually damning of men when you think about it. That blokes are such sad bastards they will pay a girl with no qualifications or knowledge to go to a 40k tourney to make a documentary proves that women are smarter than men.

So don't start calling me a misogynist, I think America needs a female president and all of the best British leaders were women too, (Thatcher, Lizzie and Victoria!) but I actually do have a dislike for both of those chicks. not because they are women but because they take money off credulous sad bastards just because they are women/pretend to be all about feminism.

To me its got nothing to do with social justice issues and everything to do with.. you guessed it, making money.

I put them alongside the likes of Joel Osteen and the other televangelists frankly, and I hate people like that.

 Frankenberry wrote:
And honestly? Drove her out of her home? There isn't a person alive that could do that to me without killing me first.

I am pretty sure the cops could. Or really, any skilled arsonist .

@mattrym I wonder just how much cash is generated from her. Is it all donation based?

Can I have more info on the zoey 40k thingy, never heard of it.

I agree though. A while ago, I think I made the mistake of clicking on melissas blog link and the women in the OP was linked in a video there. I pretty much came to the same conclusion as you and moved on.

 Swastakowey wrote:
@mattrym I wonder just how much cash is generated from her. Is it all donation based?

Can I have more info on the zoey 40k thingy, never heard of it.

I agree though. A while ago, I think I made the mistake of clicking on melissas blog link and the women in the OP was linked in a video there. I pretty much came to the same conclusion as you and moved on.

Mate just Google it and make your own mind up, I saw some Zoey Quinn thing on dakka, read about her on google and thought "yeah she sounds fething horrible" but maybe you will come to another conclusion.

Oh gak yeah, you mean the other Zoey one? That was something daft like she got 10,000 dollars via Kickstarter to fly to a con in America or something.. as I said, hats off to her, but why pretend it was about anything other than trying to make some cash?

Basically I don't think 99% of the gak we see on the internet is about what it says it is about. Alex Jones doesn't care about conspiracies, he is after making money. Why should anyone else be any different?

I know im a miserable fether but thats life.. its almost always about money. Its like that Ice Bucket gak. Twenty years ago people just have money to charity, they didn't tell everyone about it. Wrap it up in some thinly veiled narcissism disguised as charity and everyone is fething at it.

I needed a last name on the zoey thing, didnt pop up on google.

I would say its also 99% of everything we see in media. Just to make money. (especially given how much of what we see is simply advertising )

Cheers

Sounds like Anita and her boyfriend are cashing in on all the riled up SJWs. This reminds me of when tumblr had reports of people with PTSD because of tweets they received.

Remember this is Anita "Im not a fan of gaming" Sarkeesian, who originally posted her project on 4chan, then immediately started a twitter storm over the abuse and threats she got. I could post that I like cupcakes on 4chan and get death threats FFS. After she was deemed a brave heroin all over media and gained $160,000 dollars on a $25,000 project and refuses to share how she uses the funds. She has been proven to steal play throughs and peoples art for her own gain. Refuses to address legitimate criticism, and disables comments on her videos.

Any of you who doubt she is a fraud look up her relationship with Bart Baggert a known fraud that she worked under for 3 years.

Also remember this is polygon, that were just stuck in a gak storm where some of its writers compared gamers to terrorists.

Also remember, her videos have been on the steady decline in viewership.

She is cashing in on Quinnspiracy and the Sarkeesian effect documentary business.

Hey dakka stop being lazy and complaining about GW and go make your own tabletop game or are you all too lazy.

and victim blaming withing the first few posts, not surprised stay classy dakka.

Oh also I can post pictures aswell.

https://twitter.com/femfreq/status/504718160902492160/photo/1

"I'm going to kill your parents too *blacked out* I've seen their house"

I'll wait to see the whole story, it seems too close to the Polygon and Quinn thing not to be connected, especially with the Sarkeesian effect documentary trying to get funding.

That and her views are really down and there are articles questioning her relevance and increased criticism. That and its Polygon reporting it. If the threats are published and traced back to anyone this will be big trouble.

She needs to be extremely transparent with this otherwise we have to trust her word, and it isn't worth much with how she has conducted herself.

I have to say as well, why are people so scared of death threats? I am scared of people in my house with guns, not ten-a-penny internet death threats.

I think people looking for funding online use it to drum up interest, controversy, and ergo, cash.

I have had death threats when I've been arguing with people on political boards on Facebook, I yawn and tell them to feth off.

But then I'm not looking to fleece money off people.

 mattyrm wrote:
I have to say as well, why are people so scared of death threats? I am scared of people in my house with guns, not ten-a-penny internet death threats.

I think people looking for funding online use it to drum up interest, controversy, and ergo, cash.

I have had death threats when I've been arguing with people on political boards on Facebook, I yawn and tell them to feth off.

But then I'm not looking to fleece money off people.

From Purplefood.

Purplefood wrote:Must say I agree with you.
It also seems like people are less harassing women and more just harassing her about this...

 mattyrm wrote:
I have to say as well, why are people so scared of death threats? I am scared of people in my house with guns, not ten-a-penny internet death threats.

I think people looking for funding online use it to drum up interest, controversy, and ergo, cash.

I have had death threats when I've been arguing with people on political boards on Facebook, I yawn and tell them to feth off.

But then I'm not looking to fleece money off people.

Agreed... But then, when you head down range, and get a new job... Then within a week of that new job find out through intel that there's a bounty on you specifically (well, the description that they gave was definitely me/the guy doing my job)... kinda takes the edge off of any internet death threats

I mean, when it comes to things that I'm legitimately scared of, things like EFPs and "deep buried IEDs" tend to top the list. Online death threats don't even make the top 50.

 mattyrm wrote:
I have to say as well, why are people so scared of death threats?

Because some people are crazy enough to actually act on their threat. And because by being pretty prominent on the internet, she is way, way, way lore likely than you to get the interest of one of them. If the black boxes cover personal information that proves the guy making the threats has stalked her, that is a pretty normal reaction.

Those cisgendered heteronormative cryptopatriarchal Twitter users threatened you?

Death threats are bit much for my taste, but I really don't like her. Look up her Last of Us gak and you'll see what I mean. She goes on to say how Ellies, one of the strongest characters physically and emotionally, is a victim of misogynistic tropes and is not an inspiring character. She then proceeded to block all comments on her Youtube videos when people disagreed with her.

The lady is a total martyr and exists only to stir up media frenzy. Yeah, some games are mysoginistic. Guess what? Don't buy em.

 jreilly89 wrote:
Yeah, some games are mysoginistic.

It could be said that some are so over the top mysogynistic that they're "liberating" (see: duke Nuke'm)

I would jut say how stupid and attention whoring she is, how real feminism ideas are very well discussed in papers and journals.....
but im buzzed, talking to the ghost of lincoln and trying to find a way to revive weaponsmith ornifex because i was having war flashbaks from my time in the painted world.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
I would jut say how stupid and attention whoring she is, how real feminism ideas are very well discussed in papers and journals.....
but im buzzed, talking to the ghost of lincoln and trying to find a way to revive weaponsmith ornifex because i was having war flashbaks from my time in the painted world.

Feminist ideals can be well talked about/portrayed in video games and the industry, she is just not someone to listen to


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 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 jreilly89 wrote:
Yeah, some games are mysoginistic.

It could be said that some are so over the top mysogynistic that they're "liberating" (see: duke Nuke'm)

Freakin'. Seriously.

On the other side, seriously. Some games I actually prefer playing as a woman, as they give a completely different play style/aesthetic.

Oh boy, is this the weekly dakka sexism/feminism thread?

Seaward wrote:Those cisgendered heteronormative cryptopatriarchal Twitter users threatened you?

Yup, it most certainly is.

For the record, I find it rather interesting how I only learned those buzzwords from the people argueing against feminism, rather than feminists. Gotta beat the dead horsemare, I presume.

mattyrm wrote:Mate just Google it and make your own mind up, I saw some Zoey Quinn thing on dakka, read about her on google and thought "yeah she sounds fething horrible" but maybe you will come to another conclusion.

Careful research might indeed sway one's opinion one way or the other, as apparently there's been a concerted effort by a segment of 4chan to discredit that person - and some blogs/newssites flat out misattributed or falsified quotes on the subject. I've posted examples regarding this in the thread we had on dakka.
I'm not overly interested in that case itself, but from what I've seen it was the boyfriend saying stuff about her and the internet going "lol feminism" again.

jrelly89 wrote:She goes on to say how Ellies, one of the strongest characters physically and emotionally, is a victim of misogynistic tropes and is not an inspiring character. She then proceeded to block all comments on her Youtube videos when people disagreed with her.

To be fair, it seems to be the game's purpose as "the white male character to protect that poor female child". I don't think the designers intentionally chose these gender roles as a statement on society, but it does sound pretty cliché to me.
And then there's the fact that the publisher wanted to push the character to the back of the box art specifically because eww girls. Interestingly and laudably, the studio "fought tooth and nail" and eventually prevailed, but in a roundabout kind of way this is a perfect example of how the industry looks like from the inside, and what kind of currents you have to deal with as a developer.

Has anyone truly questioned the veracity of the original claims made against Quinn (by a jilted ex). Seems a bit 'plastic Thunderhawk' to me.

And loathe or love Sarkeesian, is it really a good thing for idiots to troll anyone with such vitriol and hate? Really? Joss Wheadon supports her and he starts getting flamed for it, no well thought out counters, just frothing at the mouth. Ditto Tim Shaffer and others.

This isn't reasoned debate. Sakessian had a troll post that he would shove a pipe up her c£$%. But its okay and for the lulz cause she is getting attention..........

Jeez.


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 Mechanical Crow wrote:
I'll wait to see the whole story, it seems too close to the Polygon and Quinn thing not to be connected, especially with the Sarkeesian effect documentary trying to get funding.

That and her views are really down and there are articles questioning her relevance and increased criticism. That and its Polygon reporting it. If the threats are published and traced back to anyone this will be big trouble.

She needs to be extremely transparent with this otherwise we have to trust her word, and it isn't worth much with how she has conducted herself.

This really isn't about what she has produced (which is coherent).

This is about the idiots who have suddenly sprung up wanting her and anyone who supports her dead.

Wanting to drink her blood.

Releasing personal details.

Saying they will rape her dead.


She can keep her opacity.

This isn't even against what she was posted, it really is - plain and simply - an excuse to be base, vile, unerringly and chillingly misogynistic behind a wall of anonymity.

Maybe the trolls should offer transparency?

 Mr. Burning wrote:

And loathe or love Sarkeesian, is it really a good thing for idiots to troll anyone with such vitriol and hate?

That's kind of the point.

Is it a good thing for idiots to troll people with vitirol and hate? No, but it happens on the internet all day every day, day in and day out, and yet... nobody cares.

Look at all the publicity this incident has gotten. Contrast it to the gak Warmachine had suffered at the hands of 4Chan and other troll-communities. Anyone know about that? You probably don't, which isn't surprising.

Last year Warmachine (the guy who beat the gak out of Christy Mack last month) had a bunch of his social media accounts and computers hacked by Anonymous, who dug up a whole bunch of personal information about him including the fact that his father had recently passed away from iirc cancer or something. They took all this information and posted it on 4Chan, and 4Chan spent days spreading the info across the internet and bombing Warmachine's e-mail and social media profiles with messages taunting him about the death of his Father and just generally flaming the gak out of him.

That happened last year. How many know about that incident? Even if he hadn't gone apeshit and beaten up Christy Mack, how many people would even care? Not very many I'm sure, because that sort of thing happens on the internet all the time, and has been happening since its inception. And yet incidences such as this one receive so much publicity and outrage. Why is that, one wonders?

 jreilly89 wrote:
Death threats are bit much for my taste, but I really don't like her. Look up her Last of Us gak and you'll see what I mean. She goes on to say how Ellies, one of the strongest characters physically and emotionally, is a victim of misogynistic tropes and is not an inspiring character. She then proceeded to block all comments on her Youtube videos when people disagreed with her.

The lady is a total martyr and exists only to stir up media frenzy. Yeah, some games are mysoginistic. Guess what? Don't buy em.

Yep Anita Sarkeesian has previous for this. She talks complete gak, blocks any legitimate criticism of her work then releases a handful of admittedly very nasty comments and attempts to present them representative of all those against her. Thus all those don't support her must support those making the death threats and any meaningful debate is shut down. It's a standard feminist tactic.

 LuciusAR wrote:
It's a standard feminist tactic.

Was this last part really necessary?

 LuciusAR wrote:
blocks any legitimate criticism of her work

This “legitimate criticism”, I hear about it a lot, but I hardly ever hear it.

 mattyrm wrote:
I mean seriously that Zoe chick seems like a genuinely disgusting human being.

Because she had nasty break-up and her ex accused her of cheating on him, with no one involved EXCEPT the ex agreeing that this was what happened?

 Hybrid Son Of Oxayotl wrote:
This “legitimate criticism”, I hear about it a lot, but I hardly ever hear it.

Likewise. People whine about there supposedly being legitimate criticism, but never really produce any.

Frequently, especially for the 4chan crowd, it's just an excuse for them to attack a woman they don't like in the most misogynistic way they can muster.

Really? She purposefully provoked people, lashed out at others and lies both her fans and others straight into the face...and then claims being unfairly harassed? Give me a break. She certainly isn't as much as a terrible person Zoe Quinn is, but if you can't stand the heat...

Three things though:

a) Is there legimitate proof of her being harassed or it being a PR thing? This coming just after the Quinn-thing is just...strange.

b) If she did indeed receive illegimitate and strongly offensive threats, those aren't, by any means, justified, but inappropriate and, actually, illegal.

c) This immediately being turned into "Men on the internet hate women!" is a pretty bland statement when she uses her example as proof. Not every woman on the internet is an attention w****.

There is this point in life where people go from some other person on the net to a celebrity.

In the case of this topic, it did not happen by accident and Sarkeesian chose to operate at a higher level of visibility.

She was more than willing to throw out some rather controversial opinions and that is good for her, getting some talk on these topics is a good thing.

She has also accepted some public money to fund her "campaign" which does lend some obligation on her to continue.

She is now a public figure and it would be rather unimaginative of her to not accept that some "crazies" will notice her.

She should take steps to see those contrary to the law especially with harassment to be investigated by the police.

I personally do not approve of her methods but agree with the inequity that is pointed out, some less enlightened individuals could take their response to an extreme.

The knuckle dragging man in me thinks:
"You literally asked to take on a leadership role, don't whine now that you got it with the benefits and liabilities that entails."
People will always envy when you have the ear of the public, been happening forever, do battle and show them why you are deserving.

The empathetic more understanding person in me thinks:
"Yeah, you never can quite tell what the next crazy will do and very well could show up at your doorstep: very hard to safeguard against."
Best I can figure is get into a dialogue with your local police ahead of time and see what recommendations and services they can offer.
Then take steps to safeguard yourself and property do not give the appearance of a victim and be prepared for the possible confrontation.

We are part of a civilized society and whatever the controversial viewpoint that is expressed should be only met with another viewpoint not threats or violence.
I have always had the viewpoint that there ARE those who think violence is a valid response and I usually have a few things prepared... just in case: love everyone, trust no-one.

<edit> To also post on Twitter that "scary threats" have been received is just stupid in the extreme: don't give the crazies satisfaction, they will only ramp it up.
Seeing her videos I would think she is smarter than this.
I really am assuming here this is more a publicity stunt on her part than actual concern.
I think she likes the attention and will sensationalize anything she receives or has to say.
It very well could be that the Zoe incident has taken some of the spotlight from her and she needed to create something.

What makes this all so difficult: it is wonderful when women get attention for their skills and ideas rather than the man's knee-jerk reaction of "oh lookee she be hot!!!" BUT women are human too: they can be nasty pieces of work just trying grab the limelight like a crooked politician. I still am undecided if I like the cut of her jib.

 Talizvar wrote:
She should take steps to see those contrary to the law especially with harassment to be investigated by the police.

Yeah, she really should. The donkey-caves will keep harassing and sending death threats and rape threats until someone makes it clear that it's unacceptable and it will be punished.