Being a woman in geek culture

[midwestyankee]

I'll just drop this here because...ugh.


http://www.wired.com/2014/10/trolls-will-always-win/

Not necessarily only related to geek culture but in this case it was.

Damn! That's a despicable story. But it's also a fascinating portrait and analysis of the little boys in Neverland culture on the Internet.

 

[KoPilot]

Fighting entropy is an uphill battle.

Personally I think these people should just be shipped off to the Yukon and left to fend for themselves. Or just composted. Their decomposing bodies would make my tomatoes taste yummy.

 

[Felix_Jones]

Alison Bechdel just won a MacArthur Foundation Genius grant

The award for having received so many awards.

 

[Stella_Omega]

The award for having received so many awards.

She has won one other before this, the Bill Whitehead award.

You would think though-- a LOT more, huh?

 

[satindesire]

So.

The Zoe Post. Gamergate. Brianna Wu, Anita Sarkeesian.

What's your opinions on this?

 

[midwestyankee]

So.

The Zoe Post. Gamergate. Brianna Wu, Anita Sarkeesian.

What's your opinions on this?

I heard an interview with Anita Sarkeesian on NPR yesterday. She's a sturdy person under extraordinary strain.

 

[Bramblethorn]

So.

The Zoe Post. Gamergate. Brianna Wu, Anita Sarkeesian.

What's your opinions on this?

Hoping the Gamergaters realise how asinine they look before they cause serious harm to somebody. And sad to see that Adam Baldwin IRL is basically Jayne Cobb without the cute dialogue and the hat.

 

[Keroin]

So.

The Zoe Post. Gamergate. Brianna Wu, Anita Sarkeesian.

What's your opinions on this?

It's draining. I catch up now and then but mostly it all just makes me angry and wanting to slam the door on humanity.

I was talking with a group of male writer friends today and they're just as horrified and bewildered. On Sarkeesian's stuff we all agreed that the level of hostility is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY out of line with anything she has said. This is a woman presenting facts and pointing out truths, not someone shrieking and tearing her hair out and demanding all men bow to her will.

It's surreal in the worst way.

On the other hand, if this starts to get people to pay attention to the problem...

 

[Netzach]

Part of me is horrified, part of me wonders if it's not the same misogyny as the rest of the world but 2190219092% more tweeting.

 

[Stella_Omega]

Hoping the Gamergaters realise how asinine they look before they cause serious harm to somebody. And sad to see that Adam Baldwin IRL is basically Jayne Cobb without the cute dialogue and the hat.

At least some of the gemergaters are trying to harm another human being. So it's too late for that.

 

[satindesire]

I'm wondering how they can threaten to mass shoot and bomb hundreds of innocent people and then have the nerve to turn right around and claim that Anita is the one overreacting.

Irony.

Y'all might want to take a look at this thread, to see some of the same open misogyny from GamerGate supporters and the same claims that these women are "lying" about their threats and/or "overreacting" to them.

http://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=1097255

 

[Bramblethorn]

I was talking with a group of male writer friends today and they're just as horrified and bewildered. On Sarkeesian's stuff we all agreed that the level of hostility is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY out of line with anything she has said. This is a woman presenting facts and pointing out truths, not someone shrieking and tearing her hair out and demanding all men bow to her will.

For that matter, even in some alternate universe where Sarkeesian really was the sort of liar that GGers are making her out to be, the harassment wouldn't be remotely justifiable. I can think of plenty of public figures whose public record is far worse than anything the GGers have tried to pin on Sarkeesian, but I don't endorse threats of violence against them.

Y'all might want to take a look at this thread, to see some of the same open misogyny from GamerGate supporters and the same claims that these women are "lying" about their threats and/or "overreacting" to them.

Hell no, I'm not looking at the GB on this one!

But I've seen one screencap from a GG forum where one of the GGers was talking about the risk that SJWs might kill one of their own and blame it on GG. Little boys who've lost touch with reality; it would be laughable if it wasn't real people getting harmed.

 

[satindesire]

For that matter, even in some alternate universe where Sarkeesian really was the sort of liar that GGers are making her out to be, the harassment wouldn't be remotely justifiable. I can think of plenty of public figures whose public record is far worse than anything the GGers have tried to pin on Sarkeesian, but I don't endorse threats of violence against them.



Hell no, I'm not looking at the GB on this one!

But I've seen one screencap from a GG forum where one of the GGers was talking about the risk that SJWs might kill one of their own and blame it on GG. Little boys who've lost touch with reality; it would be laughable if it wasn't real people getting harmed.

If we don't squash GamerGate NOW, SOMEONE is going to get killed.

It's going to be another Elliot Rogers style massacre that NO ONE will blame on misogyny, it'll be "just some crazy guy".

 

[KoPilot]

If we don't squash GamerGate NOW, SOMEONE is going to get killed.

It's going to be another Elliot Rogers style massacre that NO ONE will blame on misogyny, it'll be "just some crazy guy".

No, it'll be "poor guy, this is what happens when crazies don't get dates". Misogyny will be on his side.

 

[Felix_Jones]

No, it'll be "poor guy, this is what happens when crazies don't get dates". Misogyny will be on his side.

Ugh, I dated two women last week. There's people out there who feel sorry for themselves because they DON'T go through that bullshit? I read somewhere that abstinence is a symptom of the crazy, and not the cause.

 

[KoPilot]

Ugh, I dated two women last week. There's people out there who feel sorry for themselves because they DON'T go through that bullshit? I read somewhere that abstinence is a symptom of the crazy, and not the cause.

S'what happened to that poor, poor UC Davis gunman.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Ugh, I dated two women last week. There's people out there who feel sorry for themselves because they DON'T go through that bullshit? I read somewhere that abstinence is a symptom of the crazy, and not the cause.

I suspect for some of them the anger isn't really about whether they want a relationship for its own sake. It's more that they've been taught that a girlfriend is a sort of prize - see about 50% of all movies ever made, where the guy accomplishes something heroic and wins the girl as a result. When they discover that women have free will and aren't just there as good-conduct trophies, they feel cheated. It's not the anger of a guy who's a little bit hungry, it's the anger of a guy who's put a dollar in a vending machine and it's swallowed his money without giving him anything in return.

And, yeah, I suspect a lot of the reason those guys are single is because they're a-holes, not the other way around. But I wish they understood that even if you ARE the nicest guy in the world, you don't get to redeem your good deeds for a girlfriend coupon.

 

[satindesire]

A woman dating a dude JUST BECAUSE HE'S NICE is like eating at a restaurant whose only positive selling point is "This food is not poisonous."

 

[desertslave]

I suspect for some of them the anger isn't really about whether they want a relationship for its own sake. It's more that they've been taught that a girlfriend is a sort of prize - see about 50% of all movies ever made, where the guy accomplishes something heroic and wins the girl as a result. When they discover that women have free will and aren't just there as good-conduct trophies, they feel cheated. It's not the anger of a guy who's a little bit hungry, it's the anger of a guy who's put a dollar in a vending machine and it's swallowed his money without giving him anything in return.

And, yeah, I suspect a lot of the reason those guys are single is because they're a-holes, not the other way around. But I wish they understood that even if you ARE the nicest guy in the world, you don't get to redeem your good deeds for a girlfriend coupon.

My son is 22 and proclaimed asexual (sigh, there go half my hopes for grandchildren), AND an avid gamer. He is completely, utterly disgusted by the actions of these guys, and rants about them to me on an almost-daily basis. The attack on Felicia Day last week (?) just about sent him off the deep end. He makes me very proud, I must say, with his thoughtful observations on the situation, and I know he would agree with your assessment.

 

[Netzach]

Chris Kluwe be still my heart.

 

[Loverskitten]

Just sharing this cuteness
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eitTGYQS2jc&feature=youtu.be

(I would keep the dress-up too)

 

[Stella_Omega]

http://boringoldraphael.tumblr.com/post/107481385794/rewatching-s1-for-like-the-100th-time-at-what

...Here’s an example from my own life: In one of the episodes from the first season (I think it’s 109), our storyboard artists drew a gag where a big droopy dog is standing on a street corner next to a businessman and the wind from a passing car blows the dog’s tongue and slobber onto the man’s face. When Lisa designed the characters she made both the dog and the businessperson women.

My first gut reaction to the designs was, “This feels weird.” I said to Lisa, “I feel like these characters should be guys.” She said, “Why?” I thought about it for a little bit, realized I didn’t have a good reason, and went back to her and said, “You’re right, let’s make them ladies.”

I am embarrassed to admit this conversation has happened between Lisa and me multiple times, about multiple characters.
...

Go Lisa!

 

[satindesire]

"To be blunt, Scott’s story is about Scott himself spending a lot of time by himself hating himself. When he eventually stops hating himself and, as an older, more mature nerd, asks women out, no women mace him, slap him or ritually humiliate him — instead he ends up with a girlfriend who ends up becoming a wife. So far, so typical.

Amy’s story is about being harassed and groped by men in the tech world and, eventually, being raped by a shy, nerdy guy she thought she trusted. So far, so also typical.

What’s the biggest difference between Scott’s and Amy’s stories? Scott’s story is about things that happened inside his brain. Amy’s story is about actual things that were done to her by other people against her will, without her control.

And Scott, and his commenters, are treating the two as worthy of equivalent degrees of scrutiny.

This isn’t a new or unique instance of this kind of blind spot going on. We all know about the Gamergate firestorm where a bunch of anonymous guys on the Internet felt harassed and insulted by an article making general criticisms about “gamer culture” as a whole and deciding to react by harassing specific, individual women, including calling a SWAT team to someone’s house, and treating it as though these two things are equivalent."

"But men are the ones who by and large get to deal with this as an internal matter. Women are the ones who have to deal with internal hang-ups and, as Laurie Penny points out in her piece, external threats from other people. Guys deal with Women in the abstract, as a category; women deal with specific men who physically threaten them.

Guys claim to be harassed more often online than women do, but when guys are “harassed” it means being exposed to a generalized atmosphere of nasty comments and rude behavior. By contrast, women are the ones who get singled out, stalked, who become unwilling celebrities with a horde of people dedicated to “taking her down.”

This is what Laurie Penny means — or one of the things she means — when she says that the harm the “patriarchy” causes women is “structural.” Not that all women have it worse than all men. Not that anyone gets away without getting at least a little screwed up by the arbitrary, unreasonable demands our culture makes of us. But that it’s women who disproportionately bear the burden of actual harm, of being directly victimized by other people."

http://www.salon.com/2015/01/10/the...many_awkward_shy_guys_end_up_hating_feminism/

 

[satindesire]

"Feminists do not want you to lose custody of your children. The assumption that women are naturally better caregivers is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not like commercials in which bumbling dads mess up the laundry and competent wives have to bustle in and fix it. The assumption that women are naturally better housekeepers is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want you to have to make alimony payments. Alimony is set up to combat the fact that women have been historically expected to prioritize domestic duties over professional goals, thus minimizing their earning potential if their "traditional" marriages end. The assumption that wives should make babies instead of money is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want anyone to get raped in prison. Permissiveness and jokes about prison rape are part of rape culture, which is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want anyone to be falsely accused of rape. False rape accusations discredit rape victims, which reinforces rape culture, which is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want you to be lonely and we do not hate "nice guys." The idea that certain people are inherently more valuable than other people because of superficial physical attributes is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want you to have to pay for dinner. We want the opportunity to achieve financial success on par with men in any field we choose (and are qualified for), and the fact that we currently don't is part of patriarchy. The idea that men should coddle and provide for women, and/or purchase their affections in romantic contexts, is condescending and damaging and part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want you to be maimed or killed in industrial accidents, or toil in coal mines while we do cushy secretarial work and various yarn-themed activities. The fact that women have long been shut out of dangerous industrial jobs (by men, by the way) is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want you to commit suicide. Any pressures and expectations that lower the quality of life of any gender are part of patriarchy. The fact that depression is characterized as an effeminate weakness, making men less likely to seek treatment, is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want you to be viewed with suspicion when you take your child to the park (men frequently insist that this is a serious issue, so I will take them at their word). The assumption that men are insatiable sexual animals, combined with the idea that it's unnatural for men to care for children, is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want you to be drafted and then die in a war while we stay home and iron stuff. The idea that women are too weak to fight or too delicate to function in a military setting is part of patriarchy.

Feminists do not want women to escape prosecution on legitimate domestic violence charges, nor do we want men to be ridiculed for being raped or abused. The idea that women are naturally gentle and compliant and that victimhood is inherently feminine is part of patriarchy.

Feminists hate patriarchy. We do not hate you.

If you really care about those issues as passionately as you say you do, you should be thanking feminists, because feminism is a social movement actively dedicated to dismantling every single one of them. The fact that you blame feminists—your allies—for problems against which they have been struggling for decades suggests that supporting men isn't nearly as important to you as resenting women. We care about your problems a lot. Could you try caring about ours?" --Rebecca Pashby

 

[Loverskitten]

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/soci...-back-against-rape-threats-contacting-mothers