“What message does it send to the world about the treatment of women in a predominantly male tech sphere?”
Two weeks ago, video game critic King of Pol was sent a kitchen knife in the mail with a note instructing him to “please kill yourself.” Just four days later a fire was reported at his house, sending a team of fire fighters to intimidate the Internet figure. King of Pol had his information previously leaked onto the Internet, allowing for such attacks to occur, frequently and anonymously.
What was great about the gaming community is that it was so inclusive of everyone who wished to join and play
This incident occurred a month after Breitbart journalist, Milo Yiannopolous was sent a syringe filled with a mysterious liquid. As the narrative in the mainstream media currently stands, you might be forgiven for believing these figures stood on the same side of the GamerGate debate, when actually these men were harassed for speaking out in favour of the growing consumer revolt.
While figures such as Anita Sarkeesian (who wishes for critiques such as hers to be taught in school) represent members of the education technology sector and speak of the harassment surrounding the scandal, there is little to be read about the harassment of those who support the boycotting of corrupt journalistic websites. When you bring light to the harassment of Sarkeesian and Wu, don’t leave out the doxxing of GG Feminist, academic feminist, or death threats sent to Boogie, a prominent YouTube celebrity, in the shadows.
So, what does the situation look like at the moment for girls and women in the industry? Well, here is my experience. A feminist, a gamer, and a journalist writing for TechRaptor and Gamesided, and yet a woman who does not agree with Sarkeesian’s critique, I am an outsider. I have been harassed on Twitter and Reddit, I have had my personal e-mails hacked, and it is certainly not by those who support this revolt. It is by trolls and those who believe that as a woman, I am a traitor to my gender for not wishing to quell this debate, for not automatically siding with Anita. I am a woman who wishes to listen to both sides of the debate, and so I must have internalized my misogyny, I must be misguided, and blinded by the ideas of men. I am now excluded from a community that used to include me.
Duly noted.
It is not just me: female developers have claimed that the benevolent sexism that has sparked from the debate has affected them, too. Male developers who once treated them as equals now treat them with kid gloves, scared they might offend them or exclude them from discussion. What was great about the gaming community was that it was so inclusive of everyone who wished to join and play, even those who had been outsiders throughout their lives.
Online harassment is not only something that is not purely targeted towards women, but also something which not only surrounds GamerGate. Online harassment is bred from the anonymity that the Internet provides. It was around long before GamerGate, and will not end when the revolt does. The hidden truth is that people coming from every side of the debate, wish to see more women, minorities, and LGBTQ people involved within the industry, after all, you never know when the next Kim Swift will want to join.
This article was written in response to Audrey Watter’s views on the relationship between #Gamergate, sexism in the tech industry and tech education that appeared here on The Open Standard.
patrik 16 hours ago
gerogina forgot the ethics part D:
Ricardo Lima 14 hours ago
Shes just remenbering that women on both sides have been harassed and the pretense that Anita represents all women in the tech industry is false.
EbolaJesus 10 hours ago
Georgie's not really a Gamergater per se so I don't expect her to report on that aspect of it. As far as I can tell she's mostly interested by the mainstream story (HATE CAMPAIGN TARGETING WOMEN) vs the reality of the situation (reasonable people on both sides, both sides getting shit on by unreasonable people, and many women & minorities being told to go fuck themselves by brave, white defenders of social justice).
MrBones 15 hours ago
Journalists claim to be concerned with how unwelcoming the gaming community is for women. To make those claims, they have to pointedly #NotYourShield. And by incessantly repeating this claim - by breathlessly running pieces on "thousands of death and rape threats" based off a single person's unsourced, unsubstantiated claims - they actively make gaming a less welcoming place for women. The raw irony would be hilarious if it wasn't killing my hobby.
Richard 15 hours ago
I think it's important to repeat here: inherently, GamerGate has NOTHING to do with feminism or women. It has nothing to do with minorities or inclusion. It's the anti-gamergate side that keeps attempting to make it about women and misogyny, minorities and inclusion. This puts us in a pretty bad spot. What do we do about these accusations of misogyny? We don't CARE about misogyny, but if we just ignore the accusations, then that somehow validates the accusation, and our opponents can run away with it, and that would (illogically) invalidate the entire movement. So, we're forced to confront the allegations, but that detracts from the core goals of the movement. It's a lose-lose. Besides, the pro-gamergate side may very well be a bunch of women-hating misogynists. Maybe they're right. Maybe we really REALLY hate women and don't want ANY women involved in gaming. That is irrelevant. We're upset about corruption and ethics in journalism. Even if every single one of us were horrible women-hating, baby-eating neo-nazis, to dismiss arguments about journalism based on that would be a textbook genetic fallacy. The simple fact is, my feminist or anti-feminist leanings have absolutely nothing to do with my belief that game "journalists" are mostly a corrupt bunch of cronies.
Markus 14 hours ago
When you have a movement without a leader, without actual organization, then that movement will be about anything and everything. A poster that commented on the previous article with a "feminazi!" is just as much of the movement as any other member. That is the problem with movements that cannot self-regulate.
Rob 14 hours ago
How is that any different to movements with leaders? Muslim leaders frequently denounce the attacks committed by fringe extremists, but it doesn't stop ISIS from existing and it doesn't stop members of the general public associating all Muslims with terrorists. At the end of the day, perception is entirely down to how an individual chooses to inform themselves on any given subject, and the ONLY reason GamerGate is perceived as a hate campaign is because of the one-sided view the MSM has painted, because if you weighed up all the evidence you would see that we DO self-regulate and we DO police our own, while opponent's to GG like Arthur Chu publicly state that they support the doxxing of GG supporters.
Haegarr 13 hours ago
No, that is a problem no matter what and happens in organizations too. GamerGate has always been about ethics in gaming journalism. The issue you are bringing up is that the group is so diverse that you have a varying opinion on feminism that differs greatly between some people in it. What you fail to realize is that it has nothing to do with ethics in gaming journalism. Let me give you a slightly different analogy that proves that having leaders would not solve the issue you brought up. Political parties. Now, the common sentiment I hear about republicans is that they are racist because some people that identify as republicans are indeed racist (same can be said for some democrats). The difference between political parties and GamerGate? One has leaders and the other is a consumer revolt upset at gaming journalism. Before you throw out the false equiv fallacy to try and discredit me, left leaning media have always been critical of right wing people, not just politicians, and even had a google group (just like Gaming journos...) used to collude on how to report. Pretty much close to exactly what happened that cause GamerGate. So having leaders would not change a thing as it would just allow for people to dismiss our valid criticism by taking someone's personal belief and claiming the leader shares it too.
Lucy 13 hours ago
That's the thing. Gamergate is not a movement, it's a hashtag. Gamergate is an EVENT.
Cole Pram 13 hours ago
This was a really great rebuttal to the article yesterday THAT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH #GAMERGATE!! Thank you for providing an opportunity to clear things up, but it's disappointing that all you had to do was post a tweet, "Hay guys! What's #GamerGate about?" and you would have been given tons of great user created content and pointed to articles and evidence for claims. Letting Georgina clear up that mess was really a nice move, I appreciate it, but I agree with others. Until there's an apology, from the gaming press, for framing the entire gaming community as cis-white-male misogynerds there's going to be no quarter. Until there's an apology from Mozilla and/or Firefox for playing along with the defamation, I'll be sticking to Chromium on my Linux box and Chrome on my work machine. Might try out Palemoon as well. Shame, I really liked Firebug for my web development :(
Fogote 15 hours ago
I don't think KoP sees himself as videogame critic, but ok.
Jack Jones 15 hours ago
Georgina, please, never stop being so based :D
wade 14 hours ago
Which is more believable?- Tens of thousands of people from all over the world with different identities harass one insignificant woman or maybe just maybe there is corruption in the gaming industry. Such corruption that they will do whatever it takes to stay in power including actual crimes.
SBC 14 hours ago
I thought "King of Pol," was a holocaust revisionist and neo-reactionary. When did he become a game reviewer?
Miliardo 14 hours ago
People that can harass, look down on and insult others without the need of anonymity are way scarier than anonymous trolls, especially when they get no repercussions for their actions.
Jim 14 hours ago
"Male developers who once treated them as equals now treat them with kid gloves, scared they might offend them or exclude them from discussion." The problem I have with many so-called feminists (those who take the label but do it a disservice with their behavior). They seem to want to work via fear and not via education and actually changing cultural mindsets. It's backfiring on them. "What was great about the gaming community was that it was so inclusive of everyone who wished to join and play, even those who had been outsiders throughout their lives. This. When I'm cruising around Auraxis in my Vanguard tank, I don't care who the gunner is or which chromosomes they have so long as they can shoot things. It's all about having fun.
Furluge 11 hours ago
@Jim Those are exactly the sort of lies a New Conglomerate terrorist would say! Everyone knows the NC is a hate campaign whose bonus checks are written on solidified hate for women, minorities, and puppies! XD
EbolaJesus 10 hours ago
I generally agree there are things we can do to help women feel more at home in the gaming community. Teaching them to fear for their lives for no good reason, assume that stereotypically masculine games necessarily will have stereotypically masculine communities, and interpret every inept nerd comment as deep-seated chauvinism, are not those things.
A former customer 14 hours ago
Mozilla read this article, said "Oh, hey, we're real sorry about jumping the gun without evidence LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE" and that's supposed to make it better? It does NOT make it better, Mozilla. Why didn't you people do some basic research, first? I'm very disappointed, and I'm currently searching for a new browser that's not going to tell me what scum I am without even bothering to ask me for my side of the story. I'm not alone. Mozilla: if you want us back, we want an actual apology, not some half-hearted "this could mean anything" response.
Ricardo Lima 14 hours ago
The biased and bizzarre witchunt used by #GamerGate opponents on the pretense to figth trolls and ghosts of the internet only made those inside GG realize how big and widespread the problem is.
Vouze 13 hours ago
This is a better article, but the #GamerGate is still not about feminism. It is about jounalist ethic, and the way they discard any critics about themsleves, by saying Gamers ar misoginist cis-male white racists hetoro and homophobic : all this is pure lie as Gamers are 60% of the population with about the half being women. Sarkeesian is clearly a fake gamer as she presents all her "ciritics" out of context.
Jim Hague 9 hours ago
Then maybe you GooberGaters should stop allying yourselves with racists and Holocaust deniers, eh?
Julian 13 hours ago
As a woman in education technology, I feel Georgina hit the nail on the head. I support GamerGate because I've been a gamer for 27+ years. I've seen how the gaming media can sideline promising projects or lesser known games. Now that I've been following both the GamerGate and NotYourShield hashtags I've seen devs and journalists who have been blacklisted and smeared for daring to speak up against the media. Bullying and doxxing have been advocated for by people on the anti-gamergate side - the supposed "good guys" as mainstream media would have you believe. I think we can agree it's been a phenomenal mess for both sides of the debate. This brings me back to education technology. I've gone from actively participating in GamerGate to quietly writing letters and actively censoring myself. Why? I've been ostracized by my peers. I've been blocked and unfollowed for merely disagreeing with points that Anita makes. I've had people I held in the highest regard - people that I truly looked up to in my field suggest that because I feel that the journalists should disclose favors and kickbacks in a multi-billion dollar industry that I've been passionate about my entire life - that I am essentially a terrible person. I've had ever so subtle threats directed at me that maybe I should rethink my stance if I want to continue in this industry. This is my life. This is what I'm passionate about. I'm passionate about gaming too. It's been very hard for me to try to come to terms with this line in the sand. On the one side I have the career I've always dreamed about, and that I've fought hard for, and that I'd like to continue to grow in. On the other side I have not just my hobby but people I care about. People that make games that have brought me so much joy or made me think or reflect. The communities around these games. And more than that, what I know in my heart is right. Call me a sock puppet. Call me a coward. Call me an outright liar. This has been my experience with GamerGate.
fero 13 hours ago
Great article Georgina! Finaly someone writes also about the other side.
Sylph 13 hours ago
Georgina didn't forget the ethics part :P This is a rebuttal, it addresses issues which were raised there, this piece isn't here to explain #GamerGate in full. Georgina did a fine job.
Guy Some 13 hours ago
and yet a women who does not agree
David 13 hours ago
Just to clarify. KingofPol didn't get a fire reported to his residence, it was that he was going to commit suicide and the fire department showed up in response. On the subject of Anita Sarkeesian. Before the USU threats, GamerGate was reporting accounts that were threatening her. I remember seeing one posted on the hashtag and urging everyone to report the account and get it disabled. This was back at the beginning of October I think. Someone within GamerGate even traced the IP address of the account and found out who was sending the threats. It was a games journalist in Brazil. Now the FBI was contacted but they said they could do nothing without Anita making the accusation herself. So several members on the hashtag have contacted Anita only for her to block or ignore them. Ask yourself why she would do this? Why does she continue to go onto the news and claim GamerGate is the cause of the threats she receives? She's a liar plain and simple. This guy in Brazil might be the same guy who sent the threatening emails to USU. I'm sure the students of USU would like to know the guy who threatened them was caught.
David 13 hours ago
Link to thread on subject, scroll down a bit to see OP's first post. Youtube video got taken down for causing harassment somehow. It was just showing chat logs of between the person in GamerGate and the Brazilian games journalist. https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/2ksmw3/gamergate_members_track_major_anita_threatener/
Dave 13 hours ago
I know for a fact Anita targets women specifically. My sister (a college professor who will go nameless) criticized her on twitter only for her bf to butt in and cuss her out.
meri 12 hours ago
Oddly enough, I had a feminist from one of those "female in tech" organization telling me that male colleges discussing video games is an element of hostile environment for me. According to her, women are not supposed to play games and my male colleges are not supposed to discuss them in front of me. That attitude is perfectly mirrored by Anita Sarkezian analysis. It is based on very strict very exclusionary description on how women are supposed to be. If a female does not value what she is supposed to or steps out of predetermined gender role, there is something wrong with her and she does not count. She does not count as valid video game character and she does not count as a women in a real life. Which would be fine as far as opinions go, if that analysis would not be deemed untouchable unless one accepts the label of sexist and misogynist. All this would not even be part of gamergate discussion if exactly the same discussion strategy would not be used against people unhappy with major game journals. Just accuse people of misogynism, why bother with arguments and all that annoying back and forth. I think we should be very careful to accept broad claims about how to get females into the field X and watch surrounding discussion very carefully. If the opposition gets demonized and analysis in question was never really questioned, discussed and defended, then it says more about power structure surrounding the main players then about validity of what their present.
David Flanagan 12 hours ago
Its great for Georgina that her experience of the gaming community "was that it was so inclusive of everyone who wished to join and play". But there seem to be plenty of others who did not have the same experience, and Georgina apparently does not hear or does not believe what they have to say.
Mark 11 hours ago
Except that what you're saying is *all that is currently being said*. Georgina is showing the other, often neglected side. The truth is, there's no concrete numbers for how the *majority* of women in the industry are treated, its simply the negative narrative that the media chooses to go with, because its more dramatically interesting than "everything in industry fine, move along". If there's a sexism issue in the game industry, its in Corporate America, not the game industry *specifically*, and I'd venture further that its present there *less* than elsewhere in corp US, simply because its a newer industry post 60s/70s feminism, and it has such a low threshold of challenge: you can make a million-dollar game in your bedroom, alone (eg. Minecraft). There are no patriarchal gatekeepers for game development.
EbolaJesus 10 hours ago
Perhaps instead of launching blanket condemnations of the entire gaming community these people should address the specific things that made them feel unwelcome, so those things can actually be addressed. And when some people inevitably disagree, they should also perhaps not assume those people disagree because they are evil incarnate.
Anthony Mark 12 hours ago
Outstanding! Especially the end! Duly noted.
not important 12 hours ago
The author and Mozilla corp will now be denounced as siding with hate and sentenced to eternal hellfire for daring to acknowledge that a situation is not black and white.
Nameless 12 hours ago
Remember guys. It's not about SJW or Feminists or Progressives unless you actually look at the goals, most articles, tweets, comments and discussion by gamergaters.
Malonface 11 hours ago
Nameless AND Pointless.
Tempest 11 hours ago
Why are the real women of the industry being ignored? Carol Shaw, Kelly Santiago, Amy Hennig are extremely important in the industry who have done far more for it than these new people demanding attention. Yet SJW talk as if they do not exist. It's insulting!
Mark 11 hours ago
Thanks, Georgina. Need to be said.
Jason Winters 10 hours ago
Sorry Georgina, but this article misses the point. Gamergate has never been about misogyny or harrassment of women - that's the argument used by the Anti-GG who want to preserve their power and draw focus away from actual ethical concerns in gaming media.
Peter 10 hours ago
Great article, and an excellent rebuttal, but while it is important to stress what gamergate is *not* about (excluding women from games) it's also important to remember what originally sparked it and what it *is* about (corruption in the games media and collusion by devs and journalists to push a personal political agenda).
Jim Hague 9 hours ago
Women benefit from being treated like second-class and/or unwelcome? Are you serious? Meanwhile, while there's zero proof that right-wing (and Holocaust-denying) jackholes like King of Pol have been threatened in any way...that's what you lead your article off with? Then you compound the stupidity by blaming people who have been literally driven from their homes by a massive, terroristic campaign of harassment, rape, and death threats? Ridiculous. Utterly, completely ridiculous. You're about as feminist as Rush Limbaugh when you claim that the sexism in the game industry *benefits* women.
GreyTeal 8 hours ago
I am happy to see Mozilla letting the consumers get the chance to speak. As a liberal, bisexual Asian gamer, I want better ethics in gaming journalism. You can't accept bribes, favors, and collude to bully your audience and try to brush off return criticism as conservative straight-white male misogyny. No one in gamergate promotes threats and doxxing, but Arthur Chu and Brianna Wu of anti-gamergate actively do. Sites like Kotaku and Polygon, under criticism for unethical practices say gamergaters are all about threats and harassment. Reality check: Bad apples from both sides are doing this! Only the media is using it as a red herring and gamergate is focused on the issue at hand! No side is about threats or harassment, gamergate is a consumer revolt against corrupted gaming journalism, no matter what those journalists try to delude their audiences into thinking.
Julio Biason 43 mins ago
Well, since we need to discuss this... > those who support the boycotting of corrupt journalistic websites I see two problems with this: One if the "Operation Disrespectful Nod". This was _not_ a "boycott of corrupt journalism". This was harassment, pure and simple. Oh, and this is not "those are the bad people and those are the good people". It's just to point that GG is also, at some point, a harassment campain. The second problem is that GG is going _only_ after journalists. In no point whatsoever there is boycotting of game companies or PR companies that bribe journalists. Corruption requires two actors, a corruptor and a corrupted and the way GG works is to focus in just one of them. As an example, you can watch TotalBiscuit interview in the Dave Pakman Show and he'll point out that he was offered a very nice laptop in case he did a positive review of a game. And nobody is asking him to spill the beans and tell all the bribes he was offered so the companies involved would be boycotted. This raises a single question: Why? > is certainly not by those who support this revolt. One of the things GGers say to everyone saying that the death threads, harassment and death threads of the 3 "LWs" (why they need to hide their names if there is nothing wrong being said is beyond me and a problem to another discussion) cannot be linked to people in the GG and you know what? They are absolutely right. But, at the same point, unless there is a "Anti-GG" tag in the serynge or the knife, you can't say the same thing. If this has to work -- people can't claim the threads to LWs came from GG -- then it has to work both ways. ... unless you want GG to become a "I'm so special" tag like Leigh Alexander described the old "gamer" in her "Gamers are over" article by making it "everybody is against GG, I'm GG, so everyone is against me".
Dan 3 hours ago
Mozilla, have you lost your sanity? GamerGate never concerned itself with journalism ethics, it was a hate movement from the start that wanted to punish a girl for cheating on a man. There's really nothing else there.