Woman's call to end video game misogyny sparks vicious online attacks

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/womans-call-to-end-video-game-misogyny-sparks-vicious-online-attacks/article4405585/

by jellicle • 14 years ago

79 128 14 years ago

theglobeandmail.com

Karunamon3• 14 years ago

Any call to end any kind of specific artistic expression is (rightly) going to be met with resistance and derision. Whether that be sex, swearing, misogyny, what have you.

Attacks are of course going too far, but not expecting some form of legitimate resistance is naive, at best. Combine that with the outrage the internet tends to generate, and this behavior, while reprehensible, shouldn't come as a surprise.

Morals never have, never do, and never will dictate art. The sooner people recognize that the answer to something offending your sensibilities is to move on from that particular thing, rather than writing screeds which will be ignored by the perpetrators at best and heckled at worst, the happier we'll all be.

*edit Guess that's what I get for not reading the link. Site's being websense'd, so I can't actually see it. Thanks for the editorialized, BS headline, submitter > : (

fistofjohnwayne• 14 years ago

It's a poor headline, the goal that's earned her all the hate is this:

"This video project will explore, analyze and deconstruct some of the most common tropes and stereotypes of female characters in games. The series will highlight the larger recurring patterns and conventions used within the gaming industry rather than just focusing on the worst offenders."

Karunamon3• 14 years ago

We already have that. It's called TVTropes.

scott_s2• 14 years ago

I think that you're demonstrating the problem: you're reacting to actions that you think she is demanding, instead of reacting to what she is actually proposing.

delehal• 14 years ago

Has Sarkeesian made a "call to end any kind of specific artistic expression", though? Last I heard, she just wants to make a documentary or two exploring the treatment of women in video games.

If she's trying to highlight a disgusting trend of misogyny in gaming culture, I would say she is doing an excellent job.

ShawnBird2• 14 years ago

It will probably just end up like her last Tropes vs Women series where she banned all movies and television and forcibly castrated every male director and screenwriter. How do we keep letting her get away with this stuff? /s

milesskorpen• 14 years ago

I think the reaction to Anita's Kickstarter campaign has gone WELL beyond resistance and derision, and into scary hostility. I don't get what motivates people to respond in this way—why does the accusation of misogyny in video games kick up a more vicious and hateful response than some many other topics? Is it just a defense mechanism of sorts?

Karunamon3• 14 years ago

If I had to guess, it's part defense mechanism, part exasperation. Defense mechanism because misogyny is a pretty insidious thing, and like racism, it's also percieved as harsh to accuse someone of it.

Exasperation, because, for me at least, you see more and more of the label being thrown around, and the response turns from "Hmm, this is a bad thing, good to know!", to "Jeez, I GET IT ALREADY. Sexism is bad! Enough!"

To use TVTropes terminology, anvils are falling from the sky like raindrops. One of my favorite webcomics, Sinfest (http://sinfest.net) has been beating this drum non stop for the past month or two.

lmkg• 14 years ago

Death threats and rape threats are not responses from being concerned about unfettered artistic expression. They're responses from people who hate women. Freedom of artistic expression is not a major part of the current online discussion being reported on.

Kell2• 14 years ago

You're saying that any form of call to end a specific form of artistic expression is rightly going to be met with resistance and derision. Whether that be sex, swearing, misogyny what have you. Ok. Then let's push it a little further and imagine a video game scene where Blacks are almost always portrayed following certain negative tropes. Or Jews. Or imagine a video game scene where sex is always between adults and children. I'm not saying that when these sort of thing are occasionally present in a game, then we should freak out and ask for a ban of everything. But when a whole genre is dominated by something like that, when someone stand up and ask for change in the way "art" understand people most of times, I don't think it's right to enter in resistance mode being ridiculously outrageous about it, and violent.

Same applies for any form of art who's also a form of massively popular entertainment. Like movies. If women or blacks where always represented like dumbasses with big boobs or big dicks, even if it was art, a call for change would be welcome.

haberman2• 14 years ago

Linked article is scant on details. This all appears to concern this Kickstarter project, which is to create a series of videos that survey common themes to how women are represented in video games: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/566429325/tropes-vs-wome...

Here is the author's blog, which has a lot of updates about the harassment she has received as a result of it: http://www.feministfrequency.com/

There are some truly shocking and disturbing things in here, like the screenshots from the "game" someone made where you can beat up a photo of her face: http://www.feministfrequency.com/2012/07/image-based-harassm...

pkulak• 14 years ago

Nice to see that campaign funded. I wish I wasn't late to the party so I could contribute.

saturn• 14 years ago

> the screenshots from the "game" someone made

One person. They're obviously troubled. Are we really going to let the actions of one person change the frame of the whole discussion?

A game allowing you to beat up a woman is, I hope, repulsive to any HN reader. But its existence, especially when it's so easy these days, means nothing in and of itself. You could probably feed in any picture you like, man or woman. It's not a weighty factor in a discussion.

breadbox• 14 years ago

The game was made by one person, yes. But it's a little misleading to emphasize that this was "one person" when they were representative of the massive amounts of anti-feminist sentiment that was sent her way. If you look through the random sampling of comments her video garnered, it's hard to claim that the video game "changed the frame of the discussion" that was already well underway.

haberman2• 14 years ago

> One person.

Did you see the other stuff on that page? There are a lot of violent and nasty things being directed at her, by (very likely) more than just one person.

> A game allowing you to beat up a woman is, I hope, repulsive to any HN reader. But its existence, especially when it's so easy these days, means nothing in and of itself.

I think it means a whole hell of a lot to a person who was targeted by it.

The purpose of the discussion, in my view, is not to pass judgement on whether the gaming community is good or bad, but to highlight the way that women are actually being treated, so that anyone with a sense of decency can be very clear that this behavior is not tolerated and shun/shame anyone who acts in this way. But I think that explaining it away as just the actions of one troubled person runs counter to this goal. Condemning it doesn't mean you're condemning yourself or your community, just the people who act in this way.

tokenizer• 14 years ago

Well personally I'm disappointed at you internet. You should be getting mad at things that make sense, not someone who wants to educate people and make a documentary...

dmix3• 14 years ago

The kids on ebaum and 4chan love exploiting the mainstream worlds extreme sensitivity and political correctness with these "raids".

The fact that it was a post about misogyny that sparked it was probably just incidental. It's the fact that she demonstrated sensitivity to language and had an online presence made her the perfect target for such an attack.

Mainly because the most that these kids can do in a raid is posting offensive things on web sites.

ahelwer6• 14 years ago

I don't really believe this. I've seen too much of the average gamer's opinions on women; this shouldn't be dismissed as a bunch of 4channers being 4channers. There are deep problems in the community and they need to be acknowledged and fought.

If you want to see how pervasive the problem is, there's a subreddit called ShitRedditSays which records horrible (and highly upvoted) submissions and comments. This is a real problem with real attitudes.

Edit: Ah yes, I should have known that mentioning SRS would garner such a reaction... people really don't seem to like being called out on their crappiness.

kmfrk5• 14 years ago

Pretty much. This is an opportunity to recognize a rampant problem, not something endemic to two website communities.

jquery2• 14 years ago

You're proving the parent's point. ShitRedditSays is a troll subreddit created by SomethingAwful forums. It's purpose is to parody the extreme outrage that occurs anytime something un-PC is said. The fact it has attracted some people who are actually serious is like how The Colbert Report has a conservative following.

papsosouid18• 14 years ago

Believe it, they brag about it. The whole thing was just some people using a bot to spam the same couple comments over and over. They did it because it gets a reaction. People who tried posting well thought out arguments as to why Anita is wrong had their comments removed. Any form of abusive crap was highlighted, as a means to extract further sympathy. So the 4chan crowd jumped on it and started spamming shit comments.

/r/SRS is a really bad example to bring up, given that 95%+ of the stuff they post is just hypersensitive whining about politically incorrect jokes or obvious trolling. Normal people don't care about politically incorrect jokes. The 5% that are actual bad posts are almost always in the negatives, not "highly upvoted".

revelation2• 14 years ago

Obviously, 'gamers' is a very inhomogeneous group of people.

You could say much harsher things about people watching horror movies in theaters.

ubernostrum4• 14 years ago

Well, first of all it's frankly impossibly difficult to distinguish between people who genuinely believe in the things they're saying, people who don't but say these things out of a perception that they're acceptable, and people who don't but say them to get a reaction. Attempts at lumping all of those into a single group and one-dimensionally analyzing are doomed to failure.

Second, SRS is... well. SRS is actually kind of a good example of that problem: it started out as a bunch of guys parodying (among other things) stereotypes of radical feminism for the lulz, and then picked up some people who went along because they took the posts seriously and as a sign that it was OK, and also picked up some true believers. Now it's impossible to tell those groups apart, and it's mostly just as shitty as everything else these days.

mladenkovacevic• 14 years ago

Another recent incident involving (an apparently well known) comdeian Tosh-something which might point to a larger cultural trend as the culprit rather than a bunch of kids on 4chan:

http://breakfastcookie.tumblr.com/post/26879625651/so-a-girl...

eschulte3• 14 years ago

So because it is just "kids" on the internet it is okay to post threats of violence and death?

Or it is her fault because she "demonstrated sensitivity"?

Sad that someone on HN would post this as honest analysis. No wonder this community has so few women participants. I wonder what percentage of the commenters in this thread are male.

dmix3• 14 years ago

I kind of expected someone to reply saying I was blaming the victim when I wrote that.

But if you read my comment, I'm just analyzing the motives of the raiders. The point being, it takes very little to spark them as we've seen this same type of thing happen a hundred times in the past over petty things.

RickHull• 14 years ago

> The fact that it was a post about misogyny that sparked it was probably just incidental. It's the fact that she demonstrated sensitivity to language and had an online presence made her the perfect target for such an attack.

Yes, I have some insight, I believe, into the responses she received. There is an internet culture which violates taboos and cultural sensitivities in the most shocking way possible. This culture is rooted in centers like 4chan, somethingawful, ebaumsworld, etc. It is very much "trolling".

The goal is to spark the outrage. Mission accomplished. It is a mistake to think that the ideas they express are deeply held. Rather than reflecting the personal beliefs of the troll, they are calculated to attack sensitivities. The exact nature of the sensitivity is a reflection of the victim and not the perpetrators.

This is explicitly not blaming the victim. The point is, it would be misleading to extrapolate a targeted campaign to make one person feel bad, in terms of that to which she is most sensitive, to society at large.

If she were a minority in some other respect, or had a physical disfigurement, or she had expressed some other sensitivity, it is my belief that the internet trolls would choose the most shocking violations of that other sensitivity to send her way. If I am correct, and you want to extrapolate this behavior to a larger society, focus on the aspect of "trolling" and not the specific manner in which this troll was executed. It's my belief that there is no there there.

mkaltenecker5• 14 years ago

So, uhm, are all the misogynists showing up in this thread here also just trolls? Cause there’s tons of them.

krsunny2• 14 years ago

Women are portrayed in video games the same way and for the same reasons they are portrayed on TV and in magazines. This is ridiculous.

Kell2• 14 years ago

So nothing should change ? And when asking to change how women are represented in TV ... what if they say : "Hey, women are portrayed in TV the same way and for the same reasons they are portrayed on video games and in magazines. This is ridiculous."

Your argument, is a fallacy.

krsunny2• 14 years ago

Well, they didn't say that, you did.

philjones• 14 years ago

Yes, it IS ridiculous that women are so poorly portrayed, poorly treated, misrepresented and under-represented in TV, magazines, film, video games. All media. All of society.

The same can be said of people of colour, of LGBTTIQQ2SA people, of all minorities.

Please, do not diminish a problem because it is common (or in this case ubiquitous). That only makes it that much more of a problem.

Women are portrayed the way they are because it makes straight white men happy, but it destroys the agency of women as equal beings.

r7000• 14 years ago

She was interviewed on CBC radio recently: http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/The+Current/ID/2252831223/

The piece has a lot more details plus interviews with women working in the gaming industry.

pdeuchler2• 14 years ago

Off Topic:

It's rather interesting to note that as a society we have advanced enough to the point that we can donate the resources to support roughly 3 average size families for a year to a "pop culture critic" to study video games.

No condemnations or moral objections, just merely stating an interesting observation.

kmfrk5• 14 years ago

I'm pretty sure the contributions were a reaction to the vitriol Anita was met with more than anything else.

The harassment proved her point, before she had any chance to.

ShawnBird2• 14 years ago

Well I heard about it because of an article about harassment but I donated because Tropes vs Women is an awesome and entertaining youtube series.

wickedchicken• 14 years ago

> we can donate the resources to support roughly 3 average size families for a year to a "pop culture critic"

At least she is attempting to advance society. If you want to feel depressed, 209 million USD was spent on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleship_(film).

209 million.

Almaviva• 14 years ago

In another light, society, using pricing as a communication signal, has determined that its value is worth 100 million USD more than its cost. I'm not sure whether that's less or more depressing.

> The film has earned $64,372,300 in North America, as of July 9, 2012, and $236,650,220 in other countries, as of June 28, 2012, for a worldwide total of $301,022,520.

slig• 14 years ago

Exactly. For studying stuff that's hardly original research (TVTropes) and recording videos that's a lot of money.

tomkarlo• 14 years ago

Social surplus. To put this in perspective, I believe there's a stat that the total number of man hours spent creating wikipedia is equivalent to a fraction of the time the US spends watching prime time television on an average weekday evening. (I think it's from a Clay Shirky essay.)

spacemanaki• 14 years ago

> merely stating an interesting observation.

You could make this observation about an awful lot of Kickstarter projects, honestly. Here's a random example from a recent campaign I donated to:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/JoshuaACNewman/mobile-fr...

"It's rather interesting to note that as a society we have advanced enough to the point that we can donate the resources to support roughly 2 average size families[1] for a year to a "game designer" to make a tabletop game about Lego robots."

Honestly, your scare quotes and italics kind of hurt your claim of "no condemnations or moral objections" and make your post come off as kind of judgmental.

[1] just guessing that $40k might be enough to support an "average sized" family depending on the part of the country

pdeuchler2• 14 years ago

I was afraid those editorial annotations would get me in trouble with my neutral stance...

"Pop culture critic" is in quotes, as that is how the author describes herself in the kickstarter video. I italicized "video games" to emphasize the triviality of what is being studied, not to trivialize the actual study (Though you could argue that's still what I'm doing).

gergles• 14 years ago

I find it humorous that someone claiming the throne of righteousness and correctness about rising above the evil men dominating the world of video games has reacted to criticism by posting a drawing branding men (and ONLY men) as "trolls" (accompanied with a 'hss' sound effect, even! [1],) yet somehow has the unmitigated temerity to complain about sexism. Plank in your eye and all that.

[1] http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/566429325/tropes-vs-wome...

AlexandrB• 14 years ago

> criticism

There's a line between criticism and what happened to her. Are you seriously comparing a cartoon mocking non-specific trolls* to sustained abusive material (and doxing) aimed directly at an individual target?

*One of the trolls in that picture is most likely male, the others (smaller ones) are really non-descript and genderless. Are you sure this isn't just a case of you using "male" as the default gender for an androgynous picture?

true_religion• 14 years ago

Hey, merely comparing two things does not mean anyone is implying they're equivalent in weight.

scribu• 14 years ago

You're making it sound like she's saying _all_ men are trolls, when in fact it was aimed at the people harassing her, which are probably 100% male.

papsosouid18• 14 years ago

While they are probably mostly male, they are certainly not 100% male, I know a woman who was part of the trolling effort. Also, we should look at the other side of the coin also. 90% of the people supporting her and funding her videos are male also.

hypersoar• 14 years ago

Have you seen any of her work? She hardly preaches the "correctness about rising above evil men". In her existing Youtube videos, which talk about film and TV, she simply calls attention to potentially troubling aspects of the portrayal of women that are often ignored. I certainly don't agree with all of her criticisms, but she's not breathing fire. Her commentary is thoughtful enough to be part of a legitimate conversation.

marijn• 14 years ago

Step back for a second. Your 'criticism' is extremely far fetched -- there's nothing whatsoever to indicate that the three trolls in the picture are supposed to symbolize men in general -- but somehow you did choose to go down that road of thought because you had a need to neutralize and downplay the issue here.

Where does that come from? A knee-jerk reaction to the concept of 'feminism'? A primitive tribal association with a gender?

In any case, it is disconcerting to see.

IsaacSchlueter• 14 years ago

I am shocked and offended that you seem to believe that all men are trolls.

Shame on you, sir. Shame on you.

gee_totes• 14 years ago

I'd like to make a point of clarification with the article.

The woman, Californian blogger Anita Sarkeesian, had her Wikipedia page locked after it was hacked repeatedly with profanity, lies and pornography

You can't "hack" a Wikipedia page. Anyone can edit Wikipedia, and the actions described above are vandalism, not hacking.

revelation2• 14 years ago

Her project is funded at 2600%. Why bother with internet trolls? They certainly won't go away because you appeal to them with facts or pleas. The only response is to ignore them.

papsosouid18• 14 years ago

The trolls are why it was funded to 2600%. She didn't ignore them, she didn't delete their posts. She used them to drum up publicity and sympathy. She doesn't want to ignore them, they are her best ally. That's why the "after 4chan stopped trolling her, she got some people to keep reposting the troll comments anyways" conspiracy theory is so popular.

king_jester2• 14 years ago

Are you seriously suggesting that someone who is the target of a campaign of harassment is "using" the aggressors as a way to boost their visibility? The reason why this project blew up is because other people saw what was happening and decided to donate to the Kickstarter project.

Further, these people are not anyone's ally, least of all the person who is being attacked. You are very deliberately saying that she deserves what she gets and that it is her fault that she is being attacked and doxed. This is 100% victim blaming and you yourself are not only siding with the mysoginistic aggressors, but being one.

ThomPete3• 14 years ago

This is one of those situations where one should be very careful with concluding anything.

As I read and understood it the misogyny in effect is for instance female players being sent pictures of mens penises. Not that different from what we know from the chat roulette experiment.

Now that is obviously bad style but it's definitely not something that only exist in games and media and thus treating it as if it's something specific to media or games is probably what created the outcry (not defending it just explaining it). Try and go to a disco and see the hot ladies being hit on from all sides.

In some countries they suppress this behavior by forcing the women to wear vails so no one can see them and stoning them to death for adultery.

Whether receiving "dick shots" is the other side of men and woman having equal rights I am not sure, but calling an end to misogony is like calling and end men.

I wish her luck.

chc• 14 years ago

I'm a man and somehow I manage not to send women photographs of my member. So no, it is not like calling for an end to men. If all the men you know are like that, you need to meet some better men.

ThomPete3• 14 years ago

Do you know this expression?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generalization

king_jester2• 14 years ago

> Now that is obviously bad style but it's definitely not something that only exist in games and media and thus treating it as if it's something specific to media or games is probably what created the outcry (not defending it just explaining it).

Uh, this project has nothing to do with blaming sexism on media and games. The project was designed to be an examination of those areas and how they relate to sexism. If you are suggesting that examining an issue is just cause to harass someone, you are most certainly silencing those you disagree with.

> In some countries they suppress this behavior by forcing the women to wear vails so no one can see them and stoning them to death for adultery.

This is just straight up islamophobia. This whole situation indicates you don't need to look any farther than your own back yard to find people willing to attack, harass, and silence others.

> Whether receiving "dick shots" is the other side of men and woman having equal rights I am not sure, but calling an end to misogony is like calling and end men.

You can be a man and not be a misogynist. Heck, you can be female and be a misogynist. What you are saying is that you consider misogyny to be the norm and that we shouldn't change it nor discuss it. In other words, you yourself are admitting to being a misogynist and you have no problem with that.

ThomPete3• 14 years ago

I don't even know how to respond to those accusations.

Islamophobia? Silencing those who disagree with me. I am a misogynist?

Sure you didn't forget anything?

stfu• 14 years ago

Is her cause any different from those, who want to portrait video games as glorify violence and concluding therefore that they makes grownups more violent?

Sure, she wants to just "research" it, but by the position taking in the proposal the outcome seems already quite "expectable".

kitsune_• 14 years ago

Her cause is different because her documentary wants to explore stereotypes of female characters in popular video games. It's not about how this leads to ... whatever you think she claims this to leads to.

The outcome of her exploration is 'expectable' because it's self-evident. I'm an avid gamer. To put it mildly, in comparison to video games, Isaac Asimov's portrayal of female characters had more depth, grace and truth in them.

Considering how abysmal Asimov was in this matter...

papsosouid18• 14 years ago

Why is this suddenly a big deal now? These "punch random annoying celebrity X" flash games have been around since the 90s. I don't see Justin Bieber desperately trying to drum up more media attention even though a dozen people have made the same game out of his face. But of course, it is a horrible crime to do it to a "feminist", that's totally different right?

Also, it is sad and ironic that losttrap (the guy who made the game) has gotten just as much abuse from the feminists as Anita got in the first place. They thought it was terrible when it happened to Anita, but are perfectly happy to do the same thing themselves. It is especially bad to see how much of their abuse has focused on his sexuality.

yummyfajitas• 14 years ago

Similarly, all the people complaining now were silent when Charles Carreon was the subject of internet hatred.

stephth4• 14 years ago

Why is this suddenly a big deal now?

What do you mean it's a "big deal"? Is it a "big deal" because people are talking about it? Are you not cool with that?

Someone is doing a cultural study and is getting attacked for it. Some of us think that's worthy of our attention.

You've written 11% of the comments of this thread (13 comments out of 117), and they are mostly angry/poisonous. If you don't agree that this has importance, why don't you move somewhere else? You'd do a favor to this thread and trust me, yourself.

papsosouid18• 14 years ago

Yes, in this context a "big deal" refers to media coverage of a non-event. Are you not cool with that?

There is no cultural study involved here, someone is making a series of videos where she reads tvtropes pages. You are correct, she was attacked for it, but that's not what this article is about. This is about the "game" that was made of hitting her, which was not in response to her making videos, but rather a response to her (quite successful) attempts to portray everyone critical of her as a lunatic. The "if I am going to get accused of being crazy, I am going to act like" approach. Not a very effective approach I don't think, but characterizing it as an attack on her for doing a study is inaccurate.

None of my comments are angry or poisonous, one is frustrated with the strawman repeating troll. While you are counting and categorizing my comments in this thread, perhaps you noticed how many are responses to people directly asking me questions? If you want me to post less, why did you also directly ask me questions? Do you not want me to answer them?

I'm not sure why you are so upset that I don't share your opinion on something, so much so that you would like me to just go away so you aren't inconvenienced by my presence. But your arrogance and condescension is very impressive, I am pleased to know that you have my best interests at heart and know what is best for me. I will be sure to refrain from sharing my opinion in the future before consulting you on its correctness.

vasco• 14 years ago

I find it interesting that a feminist would rather invest her time studying social phenomenons involving videogames and legos in detriment of issues such as women being forced to marry their rapists or even killed because of them. Additionally, I'm not sure why she needs backing for this project. She clearly has a high quality camera and the means to produce high quality video footage, as presented in the kickstarter page.

ChrisNorstrom• 14 years ago

Don't hold her up to a standard that even you can't live up to. I don't agree with a lot of her bullshit but she's onto something that needs to be talked about and discussed. Rather than asking "why doens't she do X instead of Y, Y is so much more important". Why don't YOU do X or Y? If we stand for internet freedom why aren't we all protesting or campaigning or working on an alliance instead of browing HN all day?

newobj• 14 years ago

As of right now (an hour after the story was submitted), there is not a single top level comment here sympathetic to the woman in question. Interesting.

tikhonj• 14 years ago

I don't think this is necessarily a reflection of HN's biases.

Rather, there is simply little new to be said about this in a vacuum: yes, there is a problem with sexism and yes, the reaction to her project is disgusting (regardless of your stance on the issue) but all that is clear from the article. What more to say about it? I suppose people could offer sympathy--certainly a nice gesture--but not with much substance. Since she probably does not read HN, those types comments would not be very useful at all.

So most of the people agreeing with the article do not really have a good reason to post at the top level. On the other hand, they have plenty of reason to respond to other people. So the sympathetic posts are all framed as responses to others' comments largely because there isn't much to respond to in the article.

kmfrk5• 14 years ago

It follows the trend of other Hacker News threads. Other threads on SRS/reddit have gone the same way.

cpearce• 14 years ago

Since we're in the mood to call an end to unrealistic portrayals of people's fantasies, I think it's about time we demanded an end to romance novels.

stephth4• 14 years ago

How did this story already get buried to the second page of HN, when there are half a dozen of stories with roughly the same age and votes in the first half of the first page? I can even see a 4h older post with the exact same number of votes, still in the first page. I don't like to be cynical but it's hard not to notice the exceptionally angry comments against this topic and the oddly low position of this thread.

jellicle• 14 years ago

If I may be permitted:

If you try to talk about misogyny on a forum that is 98% male, you're going to have a bad time.

stephth4• 14 years ago

I'm male and you don't see me flagging and trolling stories like these. I get your point, but it's a pretty sad thing to read about HN. I thought people here were more evolved than this.

This story is now on page 4. Incredible.

kmfrk5• 14 years ago

It's a Hacker News things. There are forums that fortunately are perfectly able to have a level-headed discussion about this.

You need to narrow it down to more than "a forum that is 98% male" - but I'll grant you that the sample size is really, really small.

arrakeen• 14 years ago

full disclosure: i'm a kickstarter backer of this project, however...

the article title is exaggerated linkbait: Sarkeesian's project is a sociological exploration of the representation of women in video games, NOT a call to end videogame misogyny. while i'm sure that she'd like 'end video game misogyny', that's not the immediate point of this project

Woman's call to end video game misogyny sparks vicious online attacks

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