I’m always a little apprehensive when someone says they’re going to tell this story (I don’t know if Sarkessian et al will). Mainly because too many people turn it into a saga with clear villains and heroes, but the reality is a little more complicated and often speaks to bigger issues in addition to gender dynamics in science at the time as well as now. Unfortunately James Watson is something of an asshole, and it makes it hard to avoid dramatization in part because he inspires it. One of Franklin’s biographers, Sayre, made some grossly inaccurate claims, even erasing the existence of other very capable women at the institution to further a specific narrative about Franklin. However she was a friend of Franklin, and so her account is taken to carry perhaps more weight than it should.
I don’t find @ragingroosevelt’s complaint to be illegitimate. To some extent it’s mostly a stylistic concern and arguments for or against the phrase are defensible on aesthetic appeal (or lack thereof). (C.f. “One small step for man…”) Yes, it’s a common phrase, and no, I still don’t like it. Whether I personally find it to be clunky is not really a matter for debate in a sense. Though I would argue that regardless of what history is, it’s certainly not sufficiently monolithic enough to be defied. I can’t take it literally as a meaningful statement, and I certainly doubt that all of the great women portrayed defied history so much as they made contributions to the shape of historical events that deserved recognition. It’s a fine point, and I think that people understand or take the meaning of the phrase just fine without anyone belaboring it, but I don’t think it’s fair to accuse someone who doesn’t like it of being a jackass.
Overall, I have to be honest, I’ve always viewed Sarkeesian with some skepticism. Not because she’s exposing sexism which I’ve felt is far too obvious to deny in video games (and Gators can all go to hell as far as I’m concerned) or because she’s outspoken. Skepticism is just that, skepticism, not the all-encompassing hatred of the troglodyte mob that has turned hating her into a sick hobby. I’ve found she sometimes contradicts herself and not all of her research is on point. I worry that with the slick production values, maybe something is getting lost compared to her earlier work. Which compared to the bile spewed forth in industrial quantities by the Internet at mere mention of her name probably seems like praise, but I’m not so sure a lot of the work she’s done won’t seem fairly dated ten years from now in large part because of these weaknesses.
