SJW = "social justice warrior", i.e. someone who thinks that racism, sexism, homophobia, etc, are bad things.

The fact that it is used as a pejorative by some people tells you pretty much everything you need to know about said person. Most of them are content to just be racist, misogynistic assholes, but @shang seems to think that telling people not to be a complete fuck knuckle is somehow on a par with actual terrorism (ya know, murdering people, setting them on fire, that kinda thing).

That takes a special level of stupid.

Oh and as to "Obviously Mercedes Carrera is trolling if Sarkeesian views are so well known"

NO! That's the point.

Just because YOU & Carrera are unfamiliar with Sarkeesian's fraud..

Doesn't mean you can automatically assert that "Well, clearly Sark CAN'T be a con-artist.. otherwise we would all know. And no one would give her the time of day"

That's the whole problem.

Most people are completely uninformed. That's how she gets away with her fraud!

You're defending a fraudster who is damaging gender relations and giving actual misogynists a leg to stand on.

That's why i'm so vested in this Newtboy.

You're enabling a con-artist.

This is where you and she missed the point...as you said, some people have labeled Sarkeesian -"The new face of female empowerment IN THE GAMING WORLD" (I don't think she calls herself that)....This complaint was not in the gaming world, but in real life. If Sarkeesian was a public anti-rape advocate and ignored this case, there might be reason to be upset about it, but she is not, so there's no reason whatsoever to get outraged that she didn't drop her life and the (somewhat related) issues she cares about to take up your cause, no matter how righteous your cause/issue may be.

For the "uninitiated" (those not in the know) like yourself, the reason she ended up disabling the comments on her videos is she was getting serious violent rape and death threats multiple times daily, not just because "she was called out on her bullshit". Claiming she did it to stick her fingers in her ears and scream "lalalalala" is clearly just a shitbag red herring tactic to cover up a bullshit premise.

So, I must assume you have given Cytherea moral and financial support then, or do you not care about the empowerment of women and equality of genders? How much of your time and money have you donated to her cause? None?!? Why, then you must be a self centered, uncaring, misogynistic, pro-rape, victim blamer who's work in any other field/area must be nothing more than self serving BS...right? That's your position on Sarkeesian, and what's good for the goose is good for the gander....so....

It's funny because I've often felt that the attitude I get from Sarkeesian and SJW's is that I'm a misogynist if I'm not publicly voicing my outrage every time someone posts something abusive or threatening to them on the internet.
But, if an educated upper middle class white woman gets threatened over the internet then everyone looses their minds, but some pornstar slut gets raped for real and in the backs of many people's minds you know they're thinking that she obviously had it coming. So yeah, I can see where Mercedes is coming from on this one.

What are these trifling issues with women in islam? Could they be the result of following a cult founded by a habitual rapist and misogynist and his holy book that endorses rape and misogyny, and commands muslims to follow strictly the example of their prophet, the rapist and misogynist?

Choose a better cause to defend. How do you think these animals can go on television to talk such nonsense? Muslims are fundamentally broken; they can't reason. They're not alive in the same way humans are alive.

Does Louis have anything to say about his own misogynistic statements, or is he only offended by homophobes?

@bareboards2

Oh, I totally get what you are saying. You've seen my comments in other threads. You know I think there are definitely social issues with how women are both perceived and treated in real life and portrayed in media. Yeah, absolutely, we can look at this story from the perspective of "men behaving badly" because they have the power and they can. And they certainly did. Totally agree with you that it is misogynistic behavior and that we can use the story as an example highlighting social problems and showcasing how one woman tried to turn the tables.

But that's only one perspective to view the story from. We can also view the story as a cautionary tale about Internet safety in the 21st century and comment on how the victim in this case actively (albeit completely unintentionally) contributed to her own victimization. And that's another valid perspective. Personally, I don't see them in conflict, nor do I see the need to shout down one perspective in favor of the other. I could see someone coming along and trying to use the 2nd perspective to negate the 1st (i.e. something along the lines of "she got what she deserved because she behaved like a slut") but ironically a comment like that would only validate the 1st perspective even further.

Okay, now I'm a bit embarrassed that I started watching because of the thumbnail. She makes great points though.

I know most of you are well intentioned, but when you learn that a woman has been violated, I think the first response has always got to be sympathy; not to give her safety tips.

If her purse were stolen because she left it in an unlocked car, that might be an appropriate time to lead with safety tips. But not when a woman is humiliated or sexually assaulted. If you fail to condemn the crime but only criticize her level of caution, it comes off as misogynistic.

It's a demonstration of human nature, really. That's exactly how human men are genetically encoded to treat women.

I'd argue that our genetic encoding would make us treat women as resources and in a much more violent fashion too.

I think the "don't hit a girl" attitude is a construct of our societal/cultural nature and it's an attempt to civilise the animal instinct to "take a mate" without regard to the females wishes at all.

I would imagine that over a long period of time, this was an important first step. Yes, it's still misogynistic, but I'm guessing it's preferable to simply fighting over females and then mating with them.

But you'd hope that we'd have moved past that by now.

Otherwise, you're just an animal that happens to walk upright.

It would be nice if we were animals that had learned how to think as well, but I fear Terry Pratchett got it right with this quote:

The anthropologists got it wrong when they named our species Homo sapiens ('wise man'). In any case it's an arrogant and bigheaded thing to say, wisdom being one of our least evident features. In reality, we are Pan narrans, the storytelling chimpanzee.

It was 100% dead on for my life.

Married wrong person, sucks it took child and nasty divorce, child support I couldn't afford, my job going out of business. Debtors prison for unpaid child support. My plan out was file disability it was approved, medicare pad my child support and I'm free again and a misogynist, my ex a misandrist she disappeared with son, last I saw him he was 2, he would be 16 now and he doesn't know me and I can't find him.

I'm now dying of heart failure and will never see or know my son nor him me and if my ex was in front of me I'd murder her.

This video is definitely spot on.

Your "obvious" solution has been progressing for years... Indeed Sarkeesian cherry picks games that offend her, but ignores that there are quite a few more games where women are protagonists, and /shock horror even dressed appropriately...

It's obviously not good enough for her, or apparently you...

As for your daughter and Mario, no, there's not something wrong with that. There are quite a few games (and more are coming) with female protagonists. Perhaps you should introduce her to Child of Light? Or let her play through the Longest Journey series? Guess what, not every game is going to give you the choice of a male/female protagonist, and I'm not sure why it's required. Honestly, I'd love it if reality TV shows about dumb socialites would disappear from the entertainment spectrum, but sadly I don't get to dictate to the media (or indeed the viewing public) what they should be doing.

In response to your points about the fight, you're right, and it should keep going and we should all try to support it. But Sarkeesian undermines that fight. Not because she dares to speak out, but how she does it. In her attacks, and they are attacks, she tars all male gamers as either deliberately misogynistic or hopelessly naive. That's great, really, you convince people to support you by insulting them continuously?

As for this snide little bit of crap...

"Look, I'm sorry people pointing out to you how fucked up it is how women are sometimes portrayed in games is somehow ruining your ability to enjoy games. But there are serious problems here. Maybe not problems for you, but problems for people like my daughter. "

This is a problem you and Anita share... Presumption. That just because I think she's a hack, that somehow she's ruining my fun (she isn't), that I support a male character domination of the industry (I don't), that there shouldn't be more strong female characters represented (there should) and so on and so forth. You have concocted a scenario in your head and jumped straight to the insults without ever bothering to find out what my opinion on the games (as opposed to the person blasting them) is...

Would it be sexist/misogynist to think that the woman in the article is batshit insane?

http://thelibertydoll.com/2014/08/22/meet-woman-reduce-male-population-90-for-peace/

Not because she's a woman, but because of what she's saying, and how she's saying it. This is why I object to Sarkeesian and think she's a shameful opportunist who's willing to set back feminism in her quest for fame or perhaps relevance..

"You can still have your Damsel/Dude in Distress trope, by the way. I have no doubt lazy developers will continue to use it as a substitute for meaningful story. Just don't expect people not to call out the utter absurdity of it, is all I'm saying."

Oh, it's my trope now... /eyeroll

I can't point out how ridiculous it is to try and kill off a trope that pervades every aspect of human story telling since the dawn of time without it becoming my personal favourite? Pro tip, if you're trying to convince someone of a viewpoint, it usually helps not to be a patronising git... X D

There is misogyny in some mainstream games (from memory, I found GTAV to occasionally veer in that direction) but the examples she gives are so wrong they're either exaggerated, ignorant or purposefully misleading.

Dragon Age? Hitman? Really? Neither of these games can be in any way characterised as misogynistic. Dragon Age has strong main female characters, it displays the mistreatment of women but also racism and genocide. Hitman actively punishes you for killing civilians and gender really has little bearing on the game at all.

Slightly more women play mobile games than men today. Even before that we had the success of the Wii's general appeal and the huge sales of The Sims series before that. AAA titles still veer towards violent themes but that is not misogyny. If her views gain traction it's more on the basis of the preconceived and uninformed views of the general adult public rather than reality.

Yes, she's great at pointing that out.

What's the solution?

Quota's of protagonists sex? Replacing "damsel" with "prince" in distress? Getting rid of chainmail bikinis?

Oh, and how do we propagate that to the entire entertainment industry?

There is nothing wrong with playing a prince and rescuing a princess. There is nothing wrong with the princess being helpless. There is nothing wrong with Femmeshep kicking the shit out of the reapers and saving every being in the known universe, one of the most badass female protagonists around. More female protagonists = great, bring it on, but that's no reason to throw out a trope as old as time (incidentally, a trope enjoyed by a great many women who like to watch sappy romances where the charming fellow rescues the woman from her crappy life...).

Her series predicates on the concept that players are too fucking dumb to understand the difference between real life and the game. That if you play Duke Nukem, you'll walk around slapping girls tits and saying the most inappropriate things you can think of.

It's exactly the same tripe that Jack Thompson was peddling back in the day, games change how you think. And, for most people (ie. the mentally stable...), it was wrong then and it's wrong now. Your upbringing and parental guidance, and the relationship your male role models have with women, are far more likely to determine whether or not a man is likely to be sexist/misogynist than a few games with scantily clad girls needing a big strong man to save them... Society has changed to become more accepting of race, creed, sexual orientation and, of course, women, and it will continue to become so even if the old trope of the princess is in another castle hangs around. It may take generations before inequality dies out, if it ever does. It's not something you can fix by complaining about games.

Her videos don't make the argument that games cause violence against women or anyone else. She analyzed the roles of women in games and found trends in how they were portrayed. These were not flattering portrayals (for example the "Damsel in Distress" portrayal) and male characters were not often treated in the same way in games. She's pointing out how off-putting that can be to potential and actual female gamers and recommending women be portrayed in a more realistic manner. She's also pointing out how games are reinforcing the sexist and misogynistic messages that already exist in society. I don't think she is claiming media is the root cause of either sexism or misogyny.

Games ARE changing and including less "Trope-y" content and more well-rounded characters. And that's partly BECAUSE of her critiques (the creative director on The Last of Us has publicly stated her work heavily influenced the character designs and story of the game).

But I don't see that as a reason to not call out certain games for falling back on tired and occasionally demeaning representations of women.

You're right. It is about context. But this video distorts the context.

Manhattan has a population of almost 1.8 million people. If you don't live in a major metropolitan area, please try to wrap your head around that number first. That's not all of NYC, that's just Manhattan.

When the director of this video said "The biggest ingredients for this to happen is tons of people, passing by and mixing with tons of other people. Its a numbers game. Eventually you run into an asshole..." he wasn't joking.

Higher density population increases the chance of seeing or experiencing things that are unpleasant. If you sat on your porch in bumfuck whogivesashitville long enough, you will eventually see some unpleasant things. It just happens faster where there are more people. And the culture IS different in cities then it is in rural areas. People are more used to being constantly near each other and interacting.

I'm not excusing the behavior of some of the assholes in this video. What I am really saying is that, at worst this video is a bullshit grab for money. At best it's a failed attempt to help women or educate/change the culture to be less misogynistic.

"Did you actually watch the video?" Yes. Did you notice this was two minutes out of 10 hours?

Misogyny exists. Harassment exists. Abuse exists. Domestic violence exists. Rape exists. We should all work to end it. This video just muddies the water on all those issues in what I think is a clear money grab.

/cynical