Folks, the Anita Sarkeesian drama has been going on since 2012 due to the death threats the woman has been getting for her critical point of view on Video Games. From being forced from her home to having to cancel an appearance at a college, Sarkeesian has been showing up in the news trying to prove her point about video games, and having others prove it right for her(Just in a bad way).
But it seems the Anita Sarkeesian drama has hit its peak when she was recently interviewed by a known media site. No, I'm not talking about IGN, Gamespot or Kotaku.
I'm talking about Stephen Colbert.
That's right folks. The same Stephen Colbert who hosts the Colbert Report every Monday through Thursday night on Comedy Central(Soon to be vacated in January when he becomes the new Late Night host).
Now, due to a situation beyond my control, I cannot directly link the embedded videos here. What I can do is provide to you the link to the videos itself and let you be the judge, plus I have this information from Huffington Post.
The importance of GamerGate -- a cultural firestorm and ostensible
video games consumer revolt fixated on feminism, journalistic ethics and
right-wing politics -- is not necessarily easy for an outsider to
grasp. That's because from the outside it doesn't seem... to make a
whole lot of sense.
As such, it has proven to be a topic best treated in recent days by humour and parody.
US
late night host and satirical firebrand Stephen Colbert produced
perhaps the best 10 minute discussion of the issue so far last night,
when he invited feminist blogger (and focus of serious, equally
inexplicable abuse) Anita Sarkeesian to discuss it with him on The
Colbert Report.
What happened next was probably the best and most incisive piece on GamerGate to yet appear on mainstream TV.
And yes, the fact that's true is incredibly depressing.
Works Cited:
Huffington Post
You can look at the videos at
http://on.cc.com/1tScrPt Part 1
http://on.cc.com/1DB7SZJ Part 2(Stephen interviews Anita Sarkeesian)
Thursday, October 30, 2014
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
I actually did want to talk about the Ubisoft Situation....
But it seems something new has popped up from Anita Sarkeesian. Last we heard of her, she went into hiding due to her information being doxxed and her address was posted online. This time, it seems things got worse.
Utah State University stated it received a threatening email today from someone claiming to be a student; the person directed threats at the Center for Women and Gender Studies ahead of a talk Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency was scheduled to give tomorrow morning. USU stated Sarkeesian has canceled her speech. Classes and business will continue.
A spokesperson for USU's Center for Women and Gender Studies said the email was sent to the director of the center, the Standard Examiner reported. In this article, USU spokesperson Tim Vitale said USU planned to hold the event with extra security at the event. Federal and state agencies advised USU that it was all right to still hold the event. However, the speech has been canceled.
Utah State Today, the campus' online news source, reports Sarkeesian decided to cancel the speech after speaking with police on whether weapons are permitted at the speaking venue. Police confirmed that people are allowed to carry a weapon at the venue if they have a concealed firearm permit in accordance with Utah state law.
Sarkeesian wrote on Twitter, "Forced to cancel my talk at USU after receiving death threats because police wouldn't take steps to prevent concealed firearms at the event." Because of Utah's open carry laws, police cannot do firearm searches, Sarkeesian said. Sarkeesian alleged she has received many threats with intent to kill her and others at USU, and she also alleged "one threat did claim affiliation with #gamergate."
Now I cannot talk detail about this situation, as I consider the tex. The Works Cited below will talk more about this. However, I can bring up the motive, plus the fact that there was a similar situation that went on at a previous convention.
The sender claimed to be a student at the university, writing, "Feminists have ruined my life and I will have my revenge, for my sake and the sake of all the others they've wronged."
This is far from the first time threats have been issued at a venue for hosting Sarkeesian. Last weekend officials confirmed to Polygon threats were directed at GeekGirlCon for Sarkeesian's appearance. Sarkeesian had to leave her home in August when she receiving death threats directed at her and her family and reported the incident to the San Francisco Police Department, who confirmed the existence of the police report. The FBI is now investigating.
I disagree with Anita many times on her own opinions, but resorting to these lows is just...ugh. I dunno what to say about this. This makes her opinion more credible.
But it seems the whole GamerGate situation has somehow hit the Cable News. MSNBC became the first to cover the situation courtesy of Joy-Ann Reid's Reid Report.
Today's episode of The Reid Report on MSNBC discussed GamerGate and invited journalist Eric Johnson and independent game developer Brianna Wu to speak on the issue.
Hosted by Joy-Ann Reid, The Reid Report examined the culture of games from the consumer side and also the industry side. Johnson, a journalist for Re/Code, explained that people participating in the GamerGate hashtag are calling for a reform of journalism ethics. Johnson then said, "But it has originated as and continued to be about undermining women in the game community."
Reid turned to Wu, who is the head of development at Giant Spacekat and recently released the game Revolution 60, to discuss sexism within the games industry as well as the death threats she has received. Wu had to leave her home Friday night and called the police after a person wrote violent tweets containing her address. A person on the 8chan GamerGate board posted Wu's personal information. Wu told Kotaku that she received the death threats within moments of her personal information being posted.
On The Red Report, Wu explained the games industry is incredibly male-dominated. Statistics show 76% of game development positions are occupied by men while women make up 22% of game developers and people who are transgender make up only 2% of game developers. While women in programming make up approximately 20% of programmers, women are only 3% of programmers within the game industry, Wu said.
Wu is not the only one who has had to leave her home. Independent game developer Zoe Quinn and feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency have both received threats and had to leave their homes. The FBI is now investigating the police report Sarkeesian filed.
"I know almost all the women in the game industry at this point," Wu said on The Reid Report. "All of us are terrified about this. We are terrified about our jobs, we are terrified that we are going to be next, and what we feel is that there is a literal war in this industry on women."
For those of you who want to see the entire GamerGate article, the video is down here. I'll let you be the judge of this
Works Cited:
Escapist Magazine article 1
Escapist Magazine article 2
Utah State University stated it received a threatening email today from someone claiming to be a student; the person directed threats at the Center for Women and Gender Studies ahead of a talk Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency was scheduled to give tomorrow morning. USU stated Sarkeesian has canceled her speech. Classes and business will continue.
A spokesperson for USU's Center for Women and Gender Studies said the email was sent to the director of the center, the Standard Examiner reported. In this article, USU spokesperson Tim Vitale said USU planned to hold the event with extra security at the event. Federal and state agencies advised USU that it was all right to still hold the event. However, the speech has been canceled.
Utah State Today, the campus' online news source, reports Sarkeesian decided to cancel the speech after speaking with police on whether weapons are permitted at the speaking venue. Police confirmed that people are allowed to carry a weapon at the venue if they have a concealed firearm permit in accordance with Utah state law.
Sarkeesian wrote on Twitter, "Forced to cancel my talk at USU after receiving death threats because police wouldn't take steps to prevent concealed firearms at the event." Because of Utah's open carry laws, police cannot do firearm searches, Sarkeesian said. Sarkeesian alleged she has received many threats with intent to kill her and others at USU, and she also alleged "one threat did claim affiliation with #gamergate."
Now I cannot talk detail about this situation, as I consider the tex. The Works Cited below will talk more about this. However, I can bring up the motive, plus the fact that there was a similar situation that went on at a previous convention.
The sender claimed to be a student at the university, writing, "Feminists have ruined my life and I will have my revenge, for my sake and the sake of all the others they've wronged."
This is far from the first time threats have been issued at a venue for hosting Sarkeesian. Last weekend officials confirmed to Polygon threats were directed at GeekGirlCon for Sarkeesian's appearance. Sarkeesian had to leave her home in August when she receiving death threats directed at her and her family and reported the incident to the San Francisco Police Department, who confirmed the existence of the police report. The FBI is now investigating.
I disagree with Anita many times on her own opinions, but resorting to these lows is just...ugh. I dunno what to say about this. This makes her opinion more credible.
But it seems the whole GamerGate situation has somehow hit the Cable News. MSNBC became the first to cover the situation courtesy of Joy-Ann Reid's Reid Report.
Today's episode of The Reid Report on MSNBC discussed GamerGate and invited journalist Eric Johnson and independent game developer Brianna Wu to speak on the issue.
Hosted by Joy-Ann Reid, The Reid Report examined the culture of games from the consumer side and also the industry side. Johnson, a journalist for Re/Code, explained that people participating in the GamerGate hashtag are calling for a reform of journalism ethics. Johnson then said, "But it has originated as and continued to be about undermining women in the game community."
Reid turned to Wu, who is the head of development at Giant Spacekat and recently released the game Revolution 60, to discuss sexism within the games industry as well as the death threats she has received. Wu had to leave her home Friday night and called the police after a person wrote violent tweets containing her address. A person on the 8chan GamerGate board posted Wu's personal information. Wu told Kotaku that she received the death threats within moments of her personal information being posted.
On The Red Report, Wu explained the games industry is incredibly male-dominated. Statistics show 76% of game development positions are occupied by men while women make up 22% of game developers and people who are transgender make up only 2% of game developers. While women in programming make up approximately 20% of programmers, women are only 3% of programmers within the game industry, Wu said.
Wu is not the only one who has had to leave her home. Independent game developer Zoe Quinn and feminist critic Anita Sarkeesian of Feminist Frequency have both received threats and had to leave their homes. The FBI is now investigating the police report Sarkeesian filed.
"I know almost all the women in the game industry at this point," Wu said on The Reid Report. "All of us are terrified about this. We are terrified about our jobs, we are terrified that we are going to be next, and what we feel is that there is a literal war in this industry on women."
For those of you who want to see the entire GamerGate article, the video is down here. I'll let you be the judge of this
Works Cited:
Escapist Magazine article 1
Escapist Magazine article 2
Sunday, October 12, 2014
*Sigh* I dunno what to say anymore
I'm just jaded right now, seeing something like this happen again. You all know how upset I am over this. The fact that I have to go and post this to prove how bad it's gotten is just...appalling.
Anyway, the newest victim is Brianna Wu, developer of Revolution 60.
Wu, who has written about the harassment against women in gaming, has long been critical of the recently-formed Gamergate movement and what she and others have seen as the targeting of women in the industry. Earlier this week she caught the attention of users of the pro-Gamergate message board 8chan after Tweeting snark about the movement, only to then see users of that board mock her, post details about her husband and ultimately publish her personal information (a screencap of a post with redacted info remained on the thread on Saturday).
While Wu received a lot of sympathy online, she was also charged by
some with making the whole thing up. She bristles at that, of course. "I
am a professional developer," she told Kotaku. "The quickest
way I could think of to end my career and destroy my credibility would
be making something like this up and getting arrested for filing a false
police report."
Right now, I am completely clueless on the Gamergate issue. But to see someone like Wu get harassed by a random stranger and have her address posted on Twitter is just...well...ugh. I really don't know what to say anymore.
Works Cited(Including Twitter postings): Kotaku
Anyway, the newest victim is Brianna Wu, developer of Revolution 60.
Wu, who has written about the harassment against women in gaming, has long been critical of the recently-formed Gamergate movement and what she and others have seen as the targeting of women in the industry. Earlier this week she caught the attention of users of the pro-Gamergate message board 8chan after Tweeting snark about the movement, only to then see users of that board mock her, post details about her husband and ultimately publish her personal information (a screencap of a post with redacted info remained on the thread on Saturday).
"I was literally watching 8chan go after me in their specific chatroom for Gamergate," she told Kotaku today. "They posted my address, and within moments I got that death threat."7
Wu contacted the police and tells Kotaku that they offered to send patrol cars by her home. As she noted on Twitter, she left home last night and has not returned.
Wu's account of her harassment was widely retweeted last night and
viewed, by many, as a distressing new incident to add to the progression
of people in gaming, mainly women, who've born the brunt of intense
harassment largely due to their views on games and the gaming scene. Wu
joins Zoe Quinn, the indie developer who was the original target for
what was then not yet called Gamergate in late August and who said she
had to leave her home
due to threats. There is also Anita Sarkeesian, the critic behind a
video series about the depiction of women in gaming, who chronicled in
late August the most recent threats that had her leaving home and notifying police out of fear for her safety.8
Captain Richard Flynn of the Arlington, Massachusetts police department confirmed to Kotaku
today that the police took a report on the incident last night and that
"the matter is now under investigation by our Criminal Investigation
Bureau."9
Right now, I am completely clueless on the Gamergate issue. But to see someone like Wu get harassed by a random stranger and have her address posted on Twitter is just...well...ugh. I really don't know what to say anymore.
Works Cited(Including Twitter postings): Kotaku
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