Our society is still broken and backwards, because we don’t educate and reinforce a higher standard of behaviour. Even if someone doesn’t care about the individuals in cases like these (the monkeysphere theory says that humans can only really conceive of and care about 250 people at a time), an informed and enlightened self interest leads to treating others better because cooperation works out in everyone’s overall benefit. And shutting down informed, educated and motivated women makes for a poorer and less innovative society. Girls too.
It boggles the mind when I hear that animated shows get cancelled because the fan base is too female and they ‘don’t buy action figures’. If they’d actually done any market research, they’d find that female fans of All ages love merchandise from their favourite shows/movies/comics and will happily fork out large amounts of cash, just like guys do. So I think there’s a huge disconnect between how many (not just young) guys see women and assume things about their internal feelings and motivations.
Thanks for the hint jere7my - I’ll hunt down that video. I love having my assumptions challenged. I find it gives one perspective. It’s so easy in the internet era to filter out informaton that doesn’t fit your world view.
[quote=“japhroaig, post:2, topic:53412”]
As a person if privilege it is difficult to detach yourself from a conversation, especially when it us you who are on the wrong side. It is tempting to make everything about yourself, and coopt the narative (even with good intentions) to your own privileged outlook. [/quote]
Yes! People who haven’t examined their privileged and worked with what it does to them SO often fail to realize that they’re coopting the narrative, and that good intentions aren’t all that matter. So often, such people don’t seem to realize what an impediment they can be, as if they’re thinking, “But I mean to do good and that’s what matters and that’s what I’m all about, so how could I be a problem?”
I don’t think this problem will be solved soon or by a small amount of people. And I do believe a sea change of largely quiet people will make the largest and most effective difference.
Well, I don’t know what you mean by quiet people. I’m sure glad Anita and people like her are loud.
I’ve written and deleted this post six times now, so I think maybe I should just say I agree with you :). More to come if I can find the correct words to use. 
Maybe she should have just called the cops to make them help her? Did she think they are all-knowing, like Santa?
She did, and has, many, many times.
That post you link to? You know how you normally tell people “Don’t read the comments” on posts?
Read the comments. Later there is people posting evidence from the same source that says Sarkeesian DID report it, and was referred to the FBI. The author of the piece you linked said he didn’t need to make an update or correction to the post itself, because, reasons.
(Because it serves his interests when (presumably) innocent dupes find the original story and think that’s actually the status of things and post it on other sites like you just did now on BoingBoing? I can only speculate, since to do that would require him to be a douchenozzle of epic proportions. So, naturally, I’m leaning towards yes.)
Also relevant, Brianna Wu on how she’s been tracking death threats and reporting them:
It’s time for the FBI to prosecute Gamergate trolls
(I’m generally highly critical and distrustful of the police, but I don’t see a viable alternative strategy for responding to such extensive threats. So I believe Brianna Wu is entirely right to do this.)
EDIT: from that article:
A look at the statistics on online harassment is depressing. Legal expert Danielle Citron has documented only 10 cases of law enforcement prosecuting cyber-stalking between 2010 and 2013. That’s out of 2.5 million estimated cases, according to Department of Justice statistics. This isn’t a situation where we need new laws passed. According to Citron, the laws are very clear here. It is a crime “to transmit threats of bodily injury in interstate commerce.” The problem is that law enforcement has no idea how to react to these crimes.
She did, numerous times. Maybe you should learn to type your question into this amazing service called google before you spout ridiculous bullshit. It can do wonders to keep you from sounding like an idiot.
Looks like I didn’t google hard enough.
Sarkeesian is a fucking badass.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
