It has come to my attention that some of my posts can be a bit ranty. Usually, though, I try to tone it down for at least part of the post to make a larger, more serious, point. This, however, is nothing but rant (hence the title). The language will get salty. The points won’t necessarily be very fleshed out. It’s a response to something making my blood boil at the moment, nothing more. Maybe I’ll turn it into a series. Anyway, here we go, a rant about A Voice For Men’s Honey Badger Radio* hating on Anita Sarkeesian:
/startrant
The manosphere is still freaking out about Anita Sarkeesian and her Tropes vs. Women in Video Games series? Still?! I mean, for goodness sake people, Sarkeesian’s Kickstarter campaign was over a year ago. She’s since put out three videos and the world hasn’t exploded. Heck, the video game industry as a whole hasn’t even hiccupped! Actually, have any of them even watched any of her videos? Because if they have, I cannot imagine how they’re still pissed off about what she’s saying. It is some of the most chill critique I’ve ever read/watched.
Like, if they think Sarkeesian is harsh, I’d hate to see their reaction to a TotalBiscuit video. Though, okay, he doesn’t really address gender issues. So fine, for some harsh critiques of the use gender in video games, they should go watch some Errant Signal videos, or this Extra Credits video, or this Extra Credits video (which also addresses racism), or Yahtzee Crowshaw’s critique of Tomb Raider, or this Jimquisition video, or this Jimquisition video…
Oh wait, I forgot. All the mouthpieces for the above internet videos are men! They don’t fit into the honey badgers’ preconceived “thesis” that it’s feminist women who are ruining video games by daring to talk about gender representation. I guess the honey badgers will just conveniently pretend the above videos don’t exist. Or maybe they’ll write them off as brainwashed manginas jumping on the Sarkeesian feminist-critique train. Never mind that some of those videos are older than Sarkeesian’s Kickstarter campaign.
And then there’s this bollocks:
We’ve all had experience with this particular girl. You know the one, she has a passing interest in games and when she strides into a scene that’s sprung up around men who have turned a love of games into a vibrant subculture… she says “now I get to make the rules. Because vagina.”
It doesn’t matter if there are already women in the subculture, enjoying it for its own sake, she’s the self-appointed queen bee and all must bow to her pronouncements.
The false divide between women who really love games and are thus totally fine with the status quo, and the intruders who don’t really like games and just want to ruin it for everyone else. To that I say: Look up #1ReasonWhy and #1ReasonToBe, fuckers. The women (and men) who care the most about representation in games and the gaming industry are (surprise, surprise) the women (and men) who’ve been involved in the gaming industry for their entire lives. I mean, that should be freaking obvious. Women like Brenda Romero (who’s been working in the game industry for the past 20+ years), are the ones with the most invested in the gaming industry. They are the ones who offer the most critique of gender representation. Because they’re the ones who care.
And it’s absolute bullshit to claim that “Anita doesn’t even have a passing interest in games.” For crying out loud! Obviously she does, or she’d be offering a gendered critique of some other medium. Plus, Anita’s talked about how much she’s interested in games in the past. How dense do these people have to be to think Anita doesn’t qualify as a gamer? Or maybe they’ll point to the idiotic YouTube video that made the rounds awhile ago claiming to show “proof” Anita wasn’t a real gamer. *headdesk*
And you know, now that we’re on that, what the fuck is with asking women to prove they qualify as a gamer anyway? I don’t see anyone suggesting that the folks at Extra Credits aren’t real gamers, or that the dude on Errant Signal isn’t a real gamer. No one’s demanding Matthew Gallant (the creator of Kotaku) proves he is a real gamer before people read Kotaku reviews. Oh right, they’re all white cis dudes. Every damn time I see someone claim that the only women critiquing sexism in games aren’t actual gamers, I am tempted to list my gaming ‘cred.’ But you know what? Fuck that noise. I don’t have to prove to anyone that I’m a real gamer. I am. And you know how the honey badgers know I am? Because I fucking said so.
Actually, how about this: honey badgers, are you all even gamers? If not, don’t you find it kind of hypocritical to talk about gaming while lambasting Sarkeesian for daring to talk about gaming while (supposedly) not a gamer? And if so, then don’t you find it kind of hypocritical to demand proof of female gamers that they’re ‘real’ gamers, but not provide any for yourselves? Why should I even listen to your little radio program, without you first satisfying my demands to prove to me you’re really a gamer? Exactly.
/endrant
And I haven’t even heard the radio show yet. Phew.
ETA: Have you seen the promo video for the honey badger radio thing? What the actual fuck? Is that meant to be a MaleShep finding an injured FemShep and then not helping because Anita says damsellling is bad? And then what is that bit about “giving women money in real life”? How does that have anything to do with gaming? And they do realise that when Anita critiques games, she’s critiquing the game’s developers and writers, and not the player, right? No one is saying that when playing Mario, the player shouldn’t rescue Peach. We (and Anita) are saying it’d be really great if more games were made where the playable character wasn’t a cis man whose character arc involves saving (or failing to save) some helpless cis woman.
ETA2: I wonder if this has anything to do with AVfM’s renewed interest in Anita. Naw, probably a coincidence.
* The anti-feminist women over at AVfM apparently call themselves honey badgers, for some reason. The ‘radio’ show is presented by GirlWritesWhat, TyphonBlue and two other women (I think).
“And it’s absolute bullshit to claim that “Anita doesn’t even have a passing interest in games.” For crying out loud! Obviously she does, or she’d be offering a gendered critique of some other medium.”
Anita herself admitted she “isn’t a fan” of games and doesn’t know anything about them. It’s on video. Here’s a link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcPIu3sDkEw This despite claiming to be a life-long gamer when she wanted $150k. I would poke holes in the rest of your post, but you clearly didn’t educate yourself about the subject whatsoever before writing this so I’m just going to assume there’s no point reading further.
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That video’s from 2010. Apparently two years isn’t enough time to qualify as a “real” gamer, for you? Plus, actually that video proves my point, really. Way back in 2010 she had to “educate herself” about games…thus proving that she’s got more than a “passing interest” in games, if she’s still talking about them in 2012 (and now 2013).
Not to mention, that video is taken completely out of context. And then, of course, is the question of what the heck a “gamer” even is. I mean, if she played some video games as a kid and has spent the past few years educating herself about games, why wouldn’t that count as a gamer?
And then on top of all that…why is it that whenever a woman starts talking about games, dude-bro gamers demand she prove she’s also a gamer, but that never happens for a guy? Why does she have to be a gamer at all, in order to critique them? She has to be well enough acquainted with the games she mentions in order to talk about them, obviously…but that’s all. Someone doesn’t have to be a literature-nut or a movie-buff in order to talk about book or movies.
As for “poking holes” in the rest of my post…dude, it’s a rant not a cogent argument. This was not constructed for in depth debate.
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Also, accusing me of not taking the time to “educate” myself about the subject before posting is just…well…hilarious. Let’s see, before the bit you quoted I linked to Anita’s videos, mentioned and linked to TotalBiscuit, Extra Credits, Jimquisition, Errant Signal and Zero Punctuation, and mention #1ReasonWhy and link to the GDC #1ReasonToBe Panel. Like, helloo…clearly I took some time out to find those links.
Though, to be fair, finding all those links wasn’t really “educating” myself, specifically for this rant. Those are all videos I watched awhile back, remembered and decided to link to for this little blurb.
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Someone shows you damning evidence that she’s a fraud and you sure do fall over yourself to try and defend her. Desperate, much?
She didn’t just say she didn’t know much about games, she even said she’s NOT A FAN OF VIDEO GAMES!
Why do men want her to prove she’s a real gamer? Why don’t you ask yourself that question: Go “Hmmm, why *would* someone want verification that she’s an authority to speak on the subject claims to be a expert on?” There are plenty of female gamers who don’t bitch about it like her, for one. My Gf is one of those.
So much research has bee done on her that it would make your head spin:
http://anongamer.tumblr.com/
http://www.giantbomb.com/forums/general-discussion-30/anita-sarkeesian-exposed-for-the-fraud-she-is-1445794/
If this is how jaded you are whe you are shown proof, we can only guess how you do critiquing Peter Wright. Ah-hahahahahha! ;-) Let me know when you do, I’ll bring POPcorn for that one.
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Oh, dear. So you use a Tumblr and a GiantBomb forum post which links to a YouTube video and count that as “research.” Not off to a very good start, mate. And considering how tame her critique is, it’s quite interesting so much hate-filled attention is pointed at her…but not at the various men-led video programs I mentioned in the article. Also, interesting you link to GiantBomb considering some of the things Patrick Klepek has said about women in video games: http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/gamings-women-raise-sexism-awareness-with-1reasonw/1100-4458/
http://www.giantbomb.com/articles/dead-island-riptide-offers-up-bikini-laden-statue-/1100-4518/
Anywho, Sarkeesian doesn’t need to be an expert in video games to comment on them. She does, however, need to be very well educated about representations of gender in the media to comment on gender in games. And she needs to be relatively well versed in video games and familiar with the games she uses, of course. I couldn’t talk about the representation of women in movies without having seen quite a few movies. I could, however, comment on the representation of women in movies without necessarily being a movie buff. Here, allow MovieBob to explain it to you: http://moviebob.blogspot.com/2012/06/big-picture-tropes-vs-moviebob.html
Also, focusing so heavily on whether Anita is (or isn’t) a “real” gamer is really missing the forest for the trees. I mean, most of my rant isn’t even about Anita, really.
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Yeah ok, whatever.
Stopped listening to Movie Bob when he got into the canard about women’s “bodies being used against them.” Uh huh. Like you can crawl into the brain of everyone who every turned someone down for an interview and find out their “true” motivations.
Wasn’t the least bit interested in your other links at all. Just more whining by white middle-class women about how bad they got it in a 1st world country. Wake me up when you get acid thrown in your face.
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*blink* The other links I provided were all videos/articles by men. That’s part of the point.
Wait…do you know what Extra Credits is? Are you at all familiar with Zero Punctuation? OMG ARE YOU EVEN A GAMER?!
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I never claimed to be one. I said my Gf is one.
1st link talks about a gross representation of a woman’s torso with no head, legs or arms.
2nd is titled “Gaming’s Women Raise Sexism Awareness With #1reasonwhy Movement on Twitter”
So? Like I said, buncha whiny women.
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Written by PATRICK KLEPEK of GiantBomb, who is a man on a website run by an overwhelming majority of men. It is a man giving his opinion about #1ReasonWhy and the Dead Rising torso incident. – A man, writing about gender in video games. It happens. A lot.
Anyway…why do you think you have anything valid to say about gaming if you are not a gamer? Hmmm? If Anita Sarkeesian taking the time to learn about games three years ago doesn’t qualify her to comment on gaming (in your eyes), why do you think you having a girlfriend who is a gamer qualifies you?
Surely this is a conversation I should be having with your girlfriend (who is an actual gamer) and not you.
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She doesn’t need to be talking to the likes of you, I assure you.
Btw, AVfM thought your hot air rant on Peter Wright wasn’t worth continuing on, either. You might want to try and go in and show them the error of their ways? They riposted the same article you responded to. Let me know, I’ll pop corn for that one.
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Oh, lol
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It’s right here. Scroll down to where I mentioned you, it’s the 2nd comment I made (I only made 2 comments.)
If you’re feeling froggy, jump. You seem like you’re confident enough to show us all we don’t know what we’re talking about :)
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Okey pokey. That link to the “Come at me bro,” GW2 desktop was a complete joke…a parody of uber-masculine posturing.
A large point of my rant was about how women gamers have nothing they need to prove…so clearly I’m not going to go over to AVfM and then try to prove anything to you all…because, dude, that’d invalidate the point I was making.
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You simply don’t have the balls. You know they’d rip you a new asshole. They’re mocking you as we speak. Peter himself thinks you’re quite amusing.
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You are right. I do not have testicles. *headdesk*
Also…a bunch of MRAs mocking me for more-or-less mocking them isn’t really something I feel the need to respond to. On my own blog in the comments, sure…but not at AVfM. There’s no reason for me to get into an argument with a bunch of angry dude-bros and FeMRAs.
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Ugh, I tried to listen to the “Honey Badger Radio” the day after it aired. It was just too much garbage to sift through to get to their actual content. I still find it funny that MRAs need to single out Anita for “critique.” Her videos don’t really call for much change, and her tone is way friendly and accessible.
Despite this, so many anti-feminists get in a froth over her, and feel it their duty to “take her down a notch.” It’s really not surprising that the vast majority of anti-Anita arguements are based on falsehoods and ignorance. As you’ve seen in these comments, anyone arguing that Anita makes good points or that gaming culture has some serious problems, is met with a barrage of “evidence” of Anita’s wrongdoings or the demonstrations of general contempt of women (run-on sentense batwoman!).
I read the same thing you did when I say the Honey Badger claim to “ligitmate gamer-hood” vs. “gamer girls.” In a reddit comment one of these badgers testifiesabout the “girl interloper.” These Badgers have some serious problems respecting different perspectives, and certainly have learned to generalize their anti-feminism to misogyny; or perhaps the otherway around. Suffice it to say, once again women who speak out about being women face serious challenges, not the least of which is other people (men and women) demanding they sit down and shut up…
I liked your post, even if some others have described it as “ranty.” Thank you for sharing :D
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Thanks. :) And, yeah, my post is definitely is ranty. It’s totally fair to call it that…it was designed that way. :)
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This entire post was kind of pure garbage. Saying information based on facts brought forward by leading proponents of a subjects is like saying, “I didn’t like what the doctor said, what makes them right about it?”, no, i’m sorry, but this entire blog post was all rant and no substance. Leave it to the pigheaded feminazis’ that give all feminists a bad name to try to drag the cause down yet another notch.
Next you’ll be hearing about one of these kinds of people pulling a fire alarm at E3 or Pax East because “booth babes (who signed up on their own knowing what they’de be doing) are being objectified for their bodies! (in costumes they made themselves)”.
If you don’t know anything about the gaming space (which obviously none of the other feminists in this blog do) just don’t talk about it, simple as that.
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Few things:
1. I think it’s kind of hilarious you think that a good criticism of something titled “Nothing but Rant,” is to complain that it’s a rant. Like, dude…that was the point. I mean, note the faux slash commands.
2. Who are the “leading proponents of a subject” which I am disagreeing with in this post? You can’t be referring to the honey badgers? Are you actually suggesting they are “leading proponents” of video games? – Actually, if we’re talking about leading experts in gaming, I’d consider all the people I mentioned (who all work in the games industry) to be authorities on the subject. I mean, how the heck could you not consider Brenda Romero an authority on gaming?
3. Finally, you really think I don’t know anything about gaming? Oh, dear. lol. Frankly, the fact that you seem to be confusing cosplayers with booth babes in your comment makes me wonder if YOU have any knowledge about gaming space. Do you? Are you a gamer?
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