No, you’re repeating tropes and throwing flaming strawmen out, so it’s not really worth putting the time in, because you then just pull out more. You’re driving trollies by misreading and misstating and then asking us to donate our time to rebut you. That’s not disussion.
For instance, I wrote, “Girls can be bullies” Your reply is, “They’re completely capable of every flaw men are, such as bullying.”
In full, I was discussing the issue of systemic, or society-wide implications of harassment:
So are you trying to say… that websites shouldn’t take down death threats people post in their (moderated) comment sections? Or that death threats and vitriol aren’t important? I understand you were providing context, I’m just still not entirely sure what for.
Speaking of Dragon’s Crown, the male characters there are exaggerated as well, and the dwarf is also almost naked (and do I have to remind you that he’s also a DWARF?).
I’d like more women writing about games mostly because I’m tired of all the line-toeing about which games are good by the increasingly frattish/jockish “gaming community” that forms the mainstream now. I’m not saying that the nerdier players are any less sexist, mind you. I simply don’t know.
Although, any belief that favouring macho FPS games is limited to 13 year-old boys is dispelled by my female friend who writes for a gaming magazine in South Africa. She utterly loves stuff like Call of Duty.
All I ask is a break from the new Internet Style of ALL CAPS=FUNNY, meme regurgitation, “snarky” irony and other such nonsense that forms a large portion of Gawker content.
That’s a lot of issues you’re rolling up in there: voting rights, murder, NSA overreach, the (very real) difference between federal free speech and private websites’ rights to moderate their own content…consider whether any of these addresses the evidence that women in particular are targeted for special harassment should their opinions “step out of line”, with intensity and frequency.
If you can find me an example where a male writer has been singled out en masse and threatened with rape and murder, I’d appreciate it.
I’m saying it’s irrational to take somebody’s mea culpa and promises not to do the same thing again at face value, when they’ve done the exact same thing before and continued to be an arsehole.
Except he’s not promised to not do the same. He’s promised to try and change who he is.
It feels like you’re beating up on the equivalent of a dude saying he has a problem and going to AA because he’ll just start drinking again and that we shouldn’t believe he wants to stop drinking at all.
I think we’re all aware that changing things about yourself, especially things you see as serious flaws, is hard. And that backsliding is possible. But I’ve not seen any evidence that he’s anything but sincere in what he says here - he is who he is, and he’s unhappy with that and he’s trying to change it, but it’s not gonna happen overnight!
I think the issue is not just exaggeration in general, but the specific nature of the exaggeration. Male characters tend to be exaggerated in ways which make them appear more powerful or competent, while female characters tend to be exaggerated in ways which make them appear more sexually appealing to men.
No, sorry. I’m really not the best at expressing myself. Every site has the right to moderate itself, but no one should go to a site that does not do so and get offended when it does not meet their expectations that were never going to be met. And absolutely no one should be given the ability to moderate a website that they’re not a part of, though that idea is a bit tangential.
You mean musclebound guys don’t appeal to women? Well, there’s always the wizard… Same with female characters: one of them is less exaggerated and more modestly clad.
Also, there was a wonderful thread somewhere on Kamitani’s approach to necromancy, which explains the witch’s breasts (I reposted it here: http://mjr-blayne.livejournal.com/341651.html).
But the complaint here is that what’s happening isn’t actually freedom, but it’s complete opposite. Threats, harassment, and abuse aren’t intended to further debate but to silence it. This “caustic freedom” of anonymous abuse you speak of is completely corrosive to free speech. Finding the right ways to minimize it would be a net gain for open discussion on the internet. Certainly there is always the risk of suppressing legitimate dissent, but a forum full of trollies is vastly more effective at doing that already.
That doesn’t work, PandyPants! Because someone can always find one example! (Including a male threatened with rape, with legitimate concern about the state of mind of the threatener.)
Find me 50 examples in the last year, because I can, in a matter of minutes, find dozens of examples of women who have gone so far as to call the authorities because of specific credibly threatening comments via Twitter, instant messaging, a blog, or a forum.
So I’m not disagreeing with you. But the pervasiveness of the problem is the issue. Counterexamples exist, but in very small quantities.
