Reason.com:GamerGate: Part 1 Sex, Lies, and Gender Games

I found this article to be the more reasonable assessment of the whole GamerGate debacle.

As often happens, reality is more complex than any of these narratives. While the gamers' revolt has very legitimate issues, is also true that it has been linked to some very ugly misogynist harassment of feminists. It also seems clear that the overwhelming majority of GamerGate supporters reject such tactics—and that harassment related to this conflict has been a two-way street. For a supposed misogynist "hate mob," GamerGate includes a lot of vocal women—and they have their own complaints of gender-based abuse, such as being called gender traitors or even "male sockpuppets." Finally, the feminism GamerGate rebels against is not simply about equality or diversity; it is an authoritarian, far-left brand of gender politics that views everything through the lens of patriarchal oppression and tolerates no dissent.

A young female gamergater who wanted to be identified only as Lizzy F.—she says there have been attempts to hack into her email and Twitter account—wrote to me in an email that she has experienced a stream of harassment:


"I have been told to drop dead on multiple occasions, and received a threat of "I hope your windows are secure." The last statement was sent from someone who also threatened to release the home address of another female supporter. I have been called a gender traitor, a "token," all off the female derogatory slurs in the book, and even had my "woman card" revoked, somehow."

Most hurtful, Lizzy says, was the accusation of "internalized misogyny" and tweets dismissing her as a male troll posing as a female. Like many other women involved in GamerGate, Lizzy had to resort to posting a photo as proof of her womanhood.

reason.com...

You could start out with telling us what GamerGate even is..........

Most of us have absolutely no clue, Myself, I have never even heard of such a thing....

I only say this because you are referencing articles that talk about issues within it, but with no context as to what it actually is...

Feminists need some real life issues to deal with. I am sorry but sexism exists equally on both sides and I am sick of women b****** that they have it so hard. My wife hasn't called herself a feminist in years because these petty, whiny little girls ruin all of the meaningful purpose and replace it with senseless whining.

ETA: Anything that garnishes the attention of the masses results in trolls and death threats. Just ask Target kid!!!!

a reply to: ManBehindTheMask
You know how MSM are like big circlejerks, parroting the views of those who cough up the most money to them? Well, gamers recently found out that "gaming journalism" is similar, they are paid by companies who make games in a similar fashion, and of course, those games get good reviews. Also some "game journalists" review games that they should not have, due to personal and sexual relationships with people involved in a games making, if they were ethical that is. Not sure why people were surprised, and took "game journalists" seriously.

Then there is the other side, who think it's all about misogyny. That games should be made more to appeal to everyone's tastes, even though the majority of their money is coming in from their target audience, straight males.

Then of course since it all blew up on twitter and such, trolls are everywhere. It's a giant #fest, and unless you are a serious gamer, or a radical feminist, or love to troll, it would be a giant waste of time to delve into it really. I wasted hours just oogling the #fest, then checked myself, and am ashamed I wasted all that time on the giant trainwreck.

a reply to: theyknowwhoyouare

I'm a feminist and I am neither a girl, petty or whiny, I find it very meaningful to teach my children that they should be valued for who they are not what sex. Shame you are your wife don't share those values.

a reply to: WilsonWilson
Radical feminists don't share the view either, which is why a lot of people decided to dissociate themselves with feminism.

a reply to: TKDRL

Well feminism is a broad spectrum political ideology, I don't agree with radical feminism, but their beliefs doesnt change mine and stop me from being a Feminist. It's just ignorant to assume all feminists ate the same, and to demean them by calling them whiney little girls and sexist to completely ignore the fact that there are men who call themselves feminists.

a reply to: WilsonWilson
Feel free to call yourself a feminist if you like. Some people might associate you with the crazies. Just like some people associate all tea party supporters as racist white guys, or all MRA as mysoginists, etc etc.

a reply to: TKDRL

Well fair enough people can be ignorant but I find it insulting at 37 to be called a petty whiney girl by someone who doesn't know me.

a reply to: TKDRL

Thank you for that lol ok then. So funny I'm an avid gamer and usually am the first to play whatever new is coming out and look at review sites. But I had never even heard of this.

I guess I'm not dedicated enough or don't take it nearly as seriously as basement dwellers

a reply to: HarbingerOfShadows

This is so ridiculous. As a male gamer, I've had many people call me many things. I'm not crying about it.

I've never heard Swatting victims say it was a men's rights issue.

(Online interactions not rated by the ESRB)

originally posted by: WilsonWilson
a reply to: theyknowwhoyouare

I'm a feminist and I am neither a girl, petty or whiny, I find it very meaningful to teach my children that they should be valued for who they are not what sex. Shame you are your wife don't share those values.

If you believe your children should be valued for who they are and not what sex may I suggest not using a derogatory word such as feminist? It singles one sex out above the other. Maybe humanist would be more accurate? And I am sorry but... You have come across as petty and whiney. As all self confessed feminists do.

The only place crap like this exists is in the media. I only have my own experience to go on but who the hell cares about this crap? Everyone I know, guy or girl, who plays games really doesn't care, I don't. Seems to be a bunch of folk who don't play games bullying the folk who do while at the same time blowing the whole thing out of proportion so that violent games are reduced and crappy soft cutey platform/kinect crap floods the market.

I don't wanna play 'now that's what I call' Just Dance . I want to shoot other people. I don't wanna play MarioKart 87. I just want to shoot people. Guy or gal, it doesn't matter.

More on topic... Who cares what some gamer journo says about a game? Wasn't it obvious they were rating games higher then what they should of when you bought the game and found out it was crap? Didn't you all realise it's what you think of the game? Maan, I learnt this lesson a long time ago...

originally posted by: WilsonWilson
a reply to: theyknowwhoyouare

I'm a feminist and I am neither a girl, petty or whiny, I find it very meaningful to teach my children that they should be valued for who they are not what sex. Shame you are your wife don't share those values.

Well I never said real feminists were did I?

Whether you are a true feminist, or one of these petty little loser "man-haters", I do not know, as I do not know you. My wife and I no longer feel like it has any meaning so we don't label ourselves under the same tag as those whose views are radical. That doesn't mean we are valueless or teach our daughter she must be subservient to men.

The comment was directed at the many modern groups that detract from the true issues. It was not meant to convey an opinion toward all feminists. It seems like every real equality group gets drowned out with the obnoxious "everything is sexist" types. These groups spawn opposing groups of whiny little boys bickering over sexism against men. Non-radical groups are muffled out by all this petty bickering and nothing gets done. True feminists need a different label otherwise they have no voice on the larger stage.

It's a shame you would rather toss your voice in with these types and be a part of mindless bickering.

There's been idiocy and severe wrong doing on ALL sides of this. It's idiotic to say Quinn deserved any of the hate and threats she received. Quinn and anyone staunchly defending her was idiotic in stating that the entire gamer culture was misogynist. It's idiotic to deny there's significant misogyny in gamer culture. It's idiotic to deny there's misandry going on as well.

To men: Gaming does not belong to you, it isn't your playground.
To women: Not all men are evil misogynists.
To gamers: There's enemies and then there's tilting at windmills. Learn the difference.

To be honest with you guys, I still don't even understand the point of Gamer Gate. I mean, I'm female. I consider myself to be more of an equalist, or humanist ( I feel that they are interchangeable.) I don't call myself a feminist because the crazies have made it something that it isn't.

I am also a gamer. I'm 22, and I've been gaming for years. I owe quite a bit to Blizzard, as playing WoW introduced me to people I now call my family, even after quitting the game.

Someone explained to me, that Gamer Gate is a group of people who don't agree with the feminists that say that games objectify women, and the journalism that goes with that. Anita Sarkeesian made a list of games that objectify women and she made a Youtube video from it. I give her credit, because some of the games she listed, yes, objectify women. But other games that she listed, Bioshock, Ms. Pacman, and the like... I really questioned if she even gamed at all. Because there is no objectification of women.

I don't agree with GamerGate, or at least the way they are fighting to fix things. You don't give out peoples personal information, you don't send death threats, and you don't threaten to rape a person because of their views on any subject. Some people within GamerGate have even attacked women that just state an opinion on GamerGate, or just female gamers, because don't understand that all women have different thoughts.

It's made it terrifying to be a female gamer on some platforms (with online play.)

My personal opinion is simple. If you don't like a game for whatever reason, don't play it. I don't like Grand Theft Auto, but you don't see me trying to convince other people not to play it for whatever reason.

a reply to: Lyxdeslic

The thing is, it's idiots on both sides of the divide engaging in that sort of behavior.

a reply to: HarbingerOfShadows

Either way, it isn't right for anyone to do it.

a reply to: WilsonWilson

Well, that is a "No True Scotsman" argument. And then there is the simple fact that you share the same axioms as the loon feminists. You just don't take it the extremes that they do.

Quite simply, I do not understand how anyone can reasonably say feminism is about equality. Well, beyond social programming and etc. It says, let's focus on the issues and voice of just one gender. And bam magically somehow, Equality!

a reply to: Lyxdeslic

Agreed obviously. I was merely pointing out that it isn't confined to one side of the debate.

Also, the article explains what happened.

a reply to: Kali74

The thing is, the issue wasn't originally about misandry or misogyny. And had absolutely nothing to do with men believing games were our playground.