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
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