The Warrior, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld

October 18, 2014 Martha Thomases 4 Comments

When I decided to write about the episode known in the media as #GamerGate, I called my son to make sure I wasn’t completely misreading it.  I know relatively little about modern video games, but my kid is part of this new age.

He was concerned.  “These guys will stalk you,” he warned.

“That’s okay,” I said.  “I have a doorman.”

Truly, I’m not very concerned for my own safety.  I’m not a young woman, and I’m not writing this for a video game website supported by advertiser dollars.

Still, why should an opinion about video games be something that requires a security team?

If you are a woman involved in the area of popular culture usually ascribed to nerds (e.g. comic books, science fiction, video games), you are accustomed to being sexually assaulted, at least verbally.  Your commitment is questioned, your personal life is scrutinized and your talents are dismissed.  It’s not something that every single man does, but just about every single woman has experienced it.

This is how it plays out in video games.

In case you didn’t read the link, a bunch of male video game enthusiasts are upset about a woman who designs video games, and another woman who publishes a feminist critique of video games.  To show their displeasure, they not only denounced them on various websites and chat rooms, but also threatened them physically, publishing their home addresses and suggesting various painful, usually sexual acts that might be appropriate.

When questioned about these tactics, they defended themselves as free speech crusaders, and denounced anyone who disagreed as a “social justice warrior.”  In my neighborhood, we consider that particular grouping of words to be a compliment.

I’m not going to go into the minutia of this dispute.  Others have done so more thoroughly and dispassionately and better than I could.

However, I’d like to point out this one thing:  No one is taking away anyone’s video games.  No one is forcing any other person to read criticism, feminist or otherwise, that the person has no interest in reading.

The reason there are so many people writing video game criticism is that there is a lot of money in video games.  Billions and billions of dollars.  It’s a mass media, and people have opinions about mass media.  Similarly, people who are in the video game business want to sell more products, and one of the ways they do this is to sponsor media about video games, including criticism.  The same was true for television, rock and roll, movies and moveable type.

I remember more than 20 years ago, when Addams Family Values was released.  One review complained that the play put on by the campers, which (SPOILERS) turned the story of Thanksgiving on its head to make the Pilgrims the bad guys, was in the movie because the filmmakers felt pressured to be “politically correct.”  The reviewer could not imagine that maybe –– just maybe –– the screenwriter, Paul Rudnick, actually believed what he wrote.  No, the truth must be more diabolical.

What’s different now is the Internet.  Disgruntled little boys who don’t want to share their sandbox can now talk to each other instantly through a global network.  They can use their twisted logic to rile each other up.

And they can make themselves look like a sizable chunk of the market and scare advertisers into shameful acts of cowardice.

It’s most disturbing that these sociopaths are not being denounced by their peers.  As a white person, I feel it is imperative that I use my place of privilege to criticize the racist brutality we’ve witnessed recently (and forever) in this country.  As a Jew, I feel I must point out that bombing homes in Gaza is not only evil but doesn’t make Israel any safer.  Why aren’t men telling these other men that what they’re doing is sick?

Why aren’t you?

Martha Thomases, Media Goddess, thinks the least you could do is check out these cool pins and buy them for yourself and all your friends.