Brianna Wu, a female game developer who was driven out of her home by credible threats leveled against her by GamerGate trolls a couple months ago, posted this series of tweets today:
I just had Gamergate show up in my timeline demanding justification for asking them to stop harassing my Sunday night as my dog was dying.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 2, 2014
This is the absolute truth of that night. My vet was closed, so I was going to two emergency hospitals trying to get emergency care.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 2, 2014
As I'm trying to find an emergency vet, Gamergate is constantly tweeting me and harassing me. I'm a bitch, I'm a liar, I'm this, I'm that.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 2, 2014
My dog, who would be dead in under 12 hours, is shivering and dying in my lap. Imagine how horrible that is.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 2, 2014
Now imagine, that on top of that, you're getting warnings from friends that Gamergate is trying to locate and dox your vet's location.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 2, 2014
I've had dozens of threats to my life. The public does not know all the details. Now I'm worried I will be killed as my dog is dying.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 2, 2014
Anyone that's had an emergency room visit knows there is LOT of waiting. I did reach out to friends on Twitter while I was waiting.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 2, 2014
And, the whole time, Gamergate is harassing the hell out of me. They're making fake accounts with my dog to hurt me. pic.twitter.com/5ALjVDrDju
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 2, 2014
And even today, you're harassing the hell out of me. I had a family member die, and you're trolling me for entertainment.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 2, 2014
The truth is, my dog dying is entertainment to Gamergate. They have no soul, no standard, and ironically - no ethics.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 2, 2014
I have no words for this. It's been brought to my attention that @nero spent today reveling in Crash's death. https://t.co/JMmIgAz4aY
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 2, 2014
She also had to have her dog tested to make sure he wasn’t poisoned:
Since we're talking cause of death, encephalitis can be caused by poisoning. With death threats from Gamergate, this was an obvious worry.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 2, 2014
But, the tests show this wasn't poisoning. Which makes me very happy, as that would be a new level of paranoia in my life.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 2, 2014
And in case you want screen shots of the sort of stuff she was receiving on the night in question:
This is what Gamergate is sending me right now. pic.twitter.com/OtBlUGvdXd
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 1, 2014
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 1, 2014
@Gaming_Sparrow Is a GGer actually suggesting someone try to DOXX HER VET? The FUCK? #StopGamerGate2014 @Spacekatgal pic.twitter.com/7OvUrCHIGY
— Mr. Forks (@MisterForks) December 1, 2014
.@Spacekatgal Seriously though shame on you for using your poor, innocent dog to gain sympathy points.
— ميسون الحرة (@ISIS_CEO) December 1, 2014
These people are not human. “@CentaurianLord: Actual diagram of what is currently happening to @Spacekatgal's dog: pic.twitter.com/odu11Jtexp”
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 1, 2014
GSX had pics of mutilated dogs sent to our corporate email. GamerGate, I am begging to leave me alone, please. You're really hurting me.
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 1, 2014
Jesus f***ing Christ, Gamergate. My dog could die tonight, can you STOP HARASSING ME for an hour so I can take care of him? *****
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) December 1, 2014
But it’s about ethics in gaming journalism, right?
The fiction of Amelia C. Gormley 
Thats sad. I remember when revenge of the nerds was just a movie.
You know, that’s a really sadly accurate parallel. A bunch of straight dudes have made these gamers feel marginalized and inadequate, so they’ve retaliated by going after women (just like in the movie, where they sexually violate an entire sorority by spying on them, publicize nude images to humiliate a woman-revenge porn, anyone?- and one guy uses a costume to rape a woman.)
Wow lots of assumptions made there, not to mention an inaccurate accounting of who marginalized the nerds.
In Revenge of the Nerds, the nerds were humiliated by the sorority women, yes, but it was at the behest of the jocks. The jocks got publicly humiliated eventually and told they’re not all that, but who got actually, literally sexually violated at multiple points in the movie? The jocks were the instigators, and the “revenge” for that was sexually victimizing women. (also, even if the sorority women HAD been the instigators, standing guys up for a frathouse party and setting them up for humiliation doesn’t justify sexual violation.)
Are you implying it was female gamers who marginalized the GamerGaters? Because that’s who they’re attacking.
These people have literally tried to make an identity of being a marginalized, victimized identity. They’ve compared themselves to Jim-Crow era AND Ferguson-era black people, and to Holocaust-era Jews.
They’ve claimed that women are committing cultural appropriation by invading gaming spaces and that women are to blame if and when one of these guys finally escalates from trolling to physical violence, because gaming is their “safe space” to let out all their aggression and women are trying to take it away from them.
These are not assumptions. These are actual claims these people have made and yes I can provide links to them.
Whoa lets back up, I think the nerds doing the harrassing are way out of line, but making a blank statement that straight men have marginalized them into anonymous online sociopathic behavior is quite a leap in logic.
They’re the ones who are claiming the marginalized identity. And I’ve seen enough of geek culture to concede that yes, geeks frequently are bullied. But they’re not being bullied and marginalized by other geeks, particularly female geeks. Yet that is who they are attacking.
Lemme guess, they’re being bullied by straight while males, and so ultimately its our fault that they lash out against women.
Nope. It’s 100% their fault for behaving like cretins. They’re just using the fact that they have been bullied and marginalized as an excuse to get away with it, and we’re the ones paying the price.
Ok well I agree. I have watched the anita sarkeesian videos on female tropes in video games and she’s 100 percent dead on. The issue that I have is the huge assumption she makes that just because a female is portrayed in a video game a certain way men will somehow subconsciously (were really not that dumb) view all women that way.
But that’s not an assumption. There are numerous studies to back it up. After engaging in dialogues or viewing media which is hostile to women, men are more likely to speak and act in ways that are hostile toward women. It’s not an assumption. It’s proven fact.
There are also studies that show violent video games are cathartic and that those who play them are less likely to commit violent acts in the real world.
Also a statistic in a study isnt a proven fact.
We’ve reached the limit of replies the blog will allow on one thread, and also the end of the discussion, since I’ve got to get my kid in bed and get back to work.
The problem here is that you’re trying to use a scant handful of inconclusive studies to counter a mountain of evidence that exposure to hostility toward women in every aspect of our cultural media (including video games) is fostering hostile attitudes and behavior toward women in the real world.
And meanwhile, we have the very real-world example of the GamerGaters, whose threatening behavior toward and focused targeting of women both suggests that the claims of “cathartic” benefits of gaming are over-inflated and demonstrates exactly how real and pervasive hostility toward women is in our culture.
Chris Kluwe lambasted GamerGate in a profanity laden rant. A couple days later, Felicia Day gently and timidly asserted that their behavior was unacceptable. Who got doxxed? The woman, of course. And the point of doxxing is 100% to intimidate the target with the possibility of actual, real, physical assault.
Is that hostility GamerGate is exhibiting amplified by violence toward women in gaming? Maybe, maybe not, but it’s certainly not being MUFFLED by it, is it? Is the violent sexually violent portrayal of women in gaming doing anything to REDUCE the violence against women in our culture? Because THAT is the problem we need to be working on here, and that is the point that Sarkeesian is trying to make.
Look at our culture. We have violence and sexual violence toward women in advertising, in TV, in books, in music, in movies, in pornography, and in games. Women are being harassed on the street and then threatened and even murdered for not taking it as a compliment, or even just ignoring it. Women are being murdered and threatened with rape and murder for not agreeing to dates. And women are being threatened with everything up to and including terrorist attacks for speaking out against these portrayals and attitudes.
Everywhere you turn, there is violence-particularly sexualized violence-against women. Even IF the studies linking violence towards women in media and hostile and violent attitudes in our culture were false (and the sheer number of them that support the connect says strongly that they aren’t) what we NEED is cultural media that will counteract these attitudes, that will make violence and sexualized violence against women seem less commonplace, less acceptable. Because that is how we’re going to reverse this culture of violence against women, by desisting from placing a stamp of approval on that culture in every form of media. Including video games.
@AcG
Very well said.
—-
Wilson, here in this society today, this very moment even, there exists a class of people whose experiences, upbringing and socialization that do not mirror yours.
Society tells you that yours is the default experience and expectations - but in reality it applies only to *you*. Perhaps listening to the people who have differing experiences - really listening - might help you understand what others are saying and why they are saying it.
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